The British pound versus the US dollar – there is something about that currency pairing that always makes us sit up and take notice. Let’s see whether the same happens for the month of September, as we take a fresh look at what happened between the two.
Sometimes the pound can be on the back foot with the US dollar on the currency converter, but occasionally it turns out to be the other way around. The question is, which one of them will take the better position for September?
When we finished with the month of August the pound was bagging a rate of 1.5373 against the US dollar. There was a time when we can remember being way lower than this, so at least we were doing well to begin with. In fact the pound started strongly and recorded a jump up to 1.5402 on the first day of trading for September. The question now was whether this was a good omen or just a fluke.
Things went up and down a bit before ending with the pound bagging a rate of 1.5403 to close out the first week. But the second week went much the same way, with the pound and the dollar knocking back and forth, both trying to gain the upper hand. Neither one managed to do so for longer than a day at most though, so by the end of the week we were on 1.5454 instead of 1.5403. There wasn’t much difference between the two as yet.
The 13th didn’t turn out to be lucky for the pound though, as it finished off the day on 1.5400. But it was almost as if that lower rate shocked it back into action, because just two days later it soared up to 1.5546. If you’d come back to check the exchange rate in another twenty four hours you would have seen it had got better still – 1.5621. In fact the pound finished the week in an even better position, claiming a great rate of 1.5626 in the process.
The following week was much like the earlier examples, where the pound and dollar knocked each other around a bit and went up and down like a fairground ride. But once again it was the pound that emerged victorious come Friday night, this time with an exchange rate of 1.5715 to show for all its hard work.
We were coming towards the end of the month now and hopefully it would be time to see the pound put in one final flourish to end on. There were still some ups and downs but mostly they were ups for the pound, and by the time all was said and done it finished up on 1.5870.
So all in all, this was a good month for the British pound, as it capitalised on some poor performances by the US dollar. We can only hope the performance continues into October as well.
Does the pound ever have what it takes to really harm the US dollar? I suppose it all depends on what happens and what state the currencies are in at the time. We’ve seen the pound getting a really good exchange rate against the dollar in the past, but I think it will be a while before we see anything like it again to be honest. We can but hope holidays there will be better value!