Every New Year should begin with a feeling of optimism for what will come next. But would this be the case for the British pound, as it started with a rate of 1.5490 against the US dollar on the currency converter? Would we have good news to report for the coming month or would things go very differently indeed?
Things improved marginally by the 3rd of the month as the pound appreciated in value to 1.5583. However this couldn’t be sustained by the end of the month and we finished on the 6th with a rate of 1.5459 instead. Was this a sign of things to come or was there more news on the cards?
Unfortunately Friday 13th January wasn’t as promising as we hoped it might be. Throughout the week that led up to that date we could see that the pound was struggling to do anything worthwhile with the US dollar. The dollar was in charge and it pushed the pound back down to finish the week on 1.5327.
After a couple of days of tussling back and forth the pound did better and achieved a rate of 1.5401 on the 17th. Was this the turning point we were looking for, pointing to the moment when the pound could start to take charge again? It certainly led to a better result when the pound finished the week on 1.5471 – a full 0.0144 better off than it had been just one week earlier.
But the good news would not stop there, and it did seem as if the halfway point of the month marked out the stage where the pound turned things around and started to fight back. The following week saw an even better closing exchange rate, as the pound pummelled the dollar and claimed an impressive exchange rate of 1.5707. With just a couple of days trading left to go, the pound had enjoyed a good month. It dipped a little to 1.5685 on the 30th before achieving a final flourish with 1.5777 to go into February with. There was no better way to round off a month than that. January had seen its challenges but it had ended well.
It’s nice to see the pound hasn’t started the year too badly, but I wonder how long it will last. It always goes up and down against the dollar, so why should this situation be any different? Why should it be good news that it has done well over a short period of time?
I understand where AJ is coming from. I think we get too caught up in what is happening between the pound and the dollar in a short period of time. It’s the overall picture that probably matters more. Having said that, who decides what time period the overall picture applies to? After all, what happens today will affect people who are looking for a good exchange rate today for going on holiday, won’t they? So the time is different for everyone.