Now that January is well and truly underway it would be a good time to hope for considerably better results than we saw last week. If you remember, the British pound finished the week down on every single one of the five major currencies we look at each week. From the US dollar right through to the Australian dollar we ended up in a weaker position.
We lost nearly two and a half cents against the US dollar, while the Euro saw us down by just over half a Euro cent. That at least was less than the losses we experienced elsewhere.
The Hong Kong dollar got the better of us as well, forcing the British pound down by a total of 0.188. We lost over two and a half cents against the New Zealand dollar, while the Australian dollar finished up with the worst result of all – the pound lost some five and a half cents against that particular currency.
As you can see, whatever you looked up on the currency converter last week, you weren’t destined to see good figures for the British pound. The question now was whether this pattern would continue or whether the pound could pull back and regain some of its previous losses as the new week got underway.
We are about to find out some of those answers, and we’re hoping they will be positive ones as we cannot afford to keep having whitewash weeks which see the pound worse off overall. Shall we brave the results to see what actually happened last week?
An overview of the currency markets for January 11th – January 17th 2010
So here we are with the first look at how the British pound performed during last week. Would it be able to turn the tables on the US dollar and come out on top this time? Or would the results mirror the ones we had seen last time?
Let’s find out what happened. Our opening exchange rate this time round was 1.5976, after having lost a significant amount during the week. This was despite the fact that we had added on a small amount on the Friday. So could we continue Friday’s efforts and add on some more during this new week?
It’s always good to kick off a fresh week with a positive result, and that is thankfully what we managed to do this time. By the end of some brisk trading on Monday, the British pound had managed to up its game to finish on an exchange rate of 1.6161 in the evening. This meant we had added on a total of 0.0185 in just one day of trading – nearly two cents already and still four days of trading to go.
The question now was how the rest of the week would play out. Would it go in the same direction or was there more to this tussle than initially met the eye? Tuesday certainly put a question mark over things because by the end of the day the British pound had dropped back a tiny amount to 1.6140. This was disappointing but given the small amount it had lost out on we didn’t really feel the need to worry too much about what could be ahead.
Wednesday looked more promising as well, since the pound managed to assert its authority once more. By the time the day was up and everyone headed home, the pound had climbed back to 1.6278 – a new high for the week. With just two more trading days to go, could it carry on in this fashion or was there more disappointment to come? There was certainly all to play for at the moment.
Thursday’s result actually mirrored the result we got on Tuesday. We experienced a small drop in the exchange rate but once again it was only a small one. And it didn’t really threaten the gains we had already made. The final figure we were left with on that day was 1.6267.
So we were down to the last day of the week now, and so far things were looking promising for the pound to finish on a high and get the better of the US dollar. And indeed not only did we manage to keep from decreasing the exchange rate we had achieved from the day before we also managed to increase it to 1.6314. This meant we had added on a total of 0.0338 – a great result to start a fresh week with.
But could we do the same with the Euro? At least here we minimised the losses last time, with a decrease of just over half a Euro cent in total. That left us on an opening exchange rate of 1.1193. So where would we go from there?
The first day did not pan out the same as it had in America. Instead we had a small loss to cope with which left us on 1.1124. Would we continue to experience losses throughout the rest of the week or was there better news in store?
There was a slight upward movement the following day which left us on 1.1145 at the close of play. But this still left us short of the amount we had actually started the week on. And needless to say with three more trading days left to go we had to find some way of getting back to where we started and then surpassing that point as well.
If Wednesday proved anything it was that the pound was determined to do things the hard way. We still kept going in the right direction but it was by degrees rather than any larger increases. Finally on Thursday things started to look up though. By then we had managed to keep on heading towards our goal and we finished up on 1.1229 at the close of play. This meant we were now ahead of our starting rate for the week – but not by much. Could we hold on to that tiny advantage and make it bigger by the end of the week, or would the Euro storm back to take the upper hand?
The answer turned out to be a surprising one. The success went in favour of the British pound – and by quite a margin too. It seemed as if the pound was intent on leaving its biggest and best result until the last minute, when it finally managed to claim a closing exchange rate for the week of 1.1350. This added up to an increase of 0.0157 overall – another good result to add to the one we had already achieved.
Let’s move on to see how the pound coped with the Hong Kong dollar now. Could we replicate our successes so far into another success here?
The closing exchange rate last time was 12.390 after a dismal week which only saw a real improvement on the Friday. Would that last minute turnaround translate into another success here?
The first day of the week certainly kicked things off in the right way – we added on a total of 0.143 to finish on 12.533. This didn’t replace all of the losses we had experienced the week before but it did get us off to a great start. The question now was whether we could keep it up.
The next day saw a slight drop in fortunes and a closing rate of 12.516, but it wasn’t too much of a worry as we had seen this elsewhere as well. The main thing to bear in mind was that we were still heading the right way.
And this was borne out on Wednesday as the pound pushed a little further and managed to claim a closing rate of 12.623 against the Hong Kong dollar. The dollar didn’t seem to have anything much to fight back with thus far, which gave us hope of another good result by the end of the week.
There was a slight hiccup on Thursday as the pound fell back ever so slightly to 12.618, but it wasn’t enough to unduly worry us. And with just one day to go to round off the week we were hoping that we had already done enough to guarantee a higher rate to close out the week than we had started with.
This was true, thankfully, and we even managed to make things even better by pushing onwards to claim a closing rate on Friday night of 12.659. This meant our total gains for the week were 0.269 – more than we had lost the previous week.
We had lost 0.0271 last time against the New Zealand dollar, but since we had already had three good gains against three of the other currencies we always look at, we were hopeful of doing the same again here.&nbs
p; With a starting point of 2.1900 we were looking for a good start to kick things off.
The best laid plans never go as you want them to however, and by Monday night we were left nursing a loss that left us on 2.1797. That equated to just over a cent less than we had started with, so there was clearly some work to do here if we wanted to achieve a good week here too.
Tuesday sent us firmly back in the right direction though and we finished the day on a more impressive 2.1815 – better than the day before if not better than we had started on. But at least we were heading back the right way again.
And it got better on Wednesday as well, since the pound kept on working hard against the Kiwi dollar and it brought home an exchange rate of 2.1945. But could it do better still?
Thursday brought another blip as it claimed a total of 2.1932 Kiwi dollars, but again the blip was a small one. And the pound seemed to be saving the best for last because on Friday when everyone headed home for a two day break, the pound had closed on 2.2129. This last minute surge gave us another great result for the week with an increase of 0.0229 overall.
So with just the Australian dollar to go we were confident that we could actually make it five good results out of five. An increase in the standing of the British pound might not appeal to everyone, but if that is what you are looking for you would be pretty happy so far this week.
The Aussie dollar gave us a starting rate of 1.7472 after the pound lost out on some five and a half cents the previous week. By Monday night we had experienced the same losses that we had seen in New Zealand though, with the pound settling to a lower level of 1.7346.
This could simply be a bad start though and indeed Tuesday gave us a better picture and a closing rate of 1.7463. Could we continue in this vein to give us the five out of five good results we were looking for?
Indeed we could. By Wednesday night we were staring at an exchange rate of 1.7582, and although there was a slight fall back to 1.7508 on Thursday it didn’t seem as if much could dissuade the pound from enjoying a successful week. And finally the last rate of the day on Friday was an astounding 1.7645 – giving us an overall increase for the week of 0.0173.
So we had enjoyed one of the best weeks we had seen in quite a while.
Notable events in the world of currency
British pound does well against the Icelandic currency
It was a great week for the pound as it increased its standing against the Icelandic currency too. It moved from 200.898 on Monday evening to 204.215 on Friday evening.
A midweek dip for the Canadian dollar against the US dollar
The Canadian dollar claimed 0.9732 against the US dollar on Monday night before dipping back to 0.9666 midweek. But by Friday night it had gone back up to 0.9743 again.
US dollar gets the better of the Swiss franc
The Swiss franc didn’t have the best week. It was worth 0.9846 US dollars on Monday night, but by Friday it was down to 0.9741.
It’s always worthwhile keeping up with Forex news if you are so minded, and this report from the Reuters website – is a good example of how useful the news can be.
So there we are for another week – and it was a successful one at that. The question now is whether the pound can continue in this vein and have another successful week next time. Needless to say we will be here to find out, so we will see you then.
Wow this was really a good week wasn’t it? I always like to see the pound doing well but sometimes we end up getting some bad news out of the UK which doesn’t do our currency any favours.
I also want to see the pound stay and not get swallowed up by the Euro, so in that respect it will be good to see a few more strong weeks like this. I know it doesn’t always do us good in some ways to have a stronger pound, but we can certainly make more headway without damaging our interests in any way.
I can’t see why a strong pound could be a bad thing. I suppose it can be to some people but surely everyone in the UK would benefit from it? Maybe it has something to do with whether you are interested in other currencies or not. I mean if you are going on holiday you want your money to go as far as possible. But if you want people to come here then it might not always work the same way.
As far as I am concerned though the more I can get for my money the better.
I’m not sure whether a strong pound is a good thing or not to be honest. I agree with the person who said about a strong exchange rate when you go on holiday though, and really that is the most important thing as far as I am concerned.
I know at the moment the pound is dipping against the US dollar again – in fact it has gone lower than it has for a while now. But it all depends on what you want to get out of it. I suppose if you are investing in currencies it all depends on which ones you have bought.