Deutsche Telekom launches iCar use in a US

Deutsche Telekom has teamed with telematics provider Un-Blinking Technologies to launch a vendor-independent machine-to-machine (M2M) use for vehicles in a US formed on iCar.

The goal is to “offer value-added services to purchasers of any automobile – un-tethered to a exclusive record of particular automobile manufacturers”.

This will embody programmed reminders for a subsequent oil change, to remote evidence information, and other location-based services.

“To date, automobile dealers have been incompetent to offer a connected automobile resolution directly to customers,” says Thomas Kiessling, Chief Product and Innovation Officer, Deutsche Telekom. “They can now beget additional income streams and offer their business new value-added services.”

Deutsche Telekom provides both a telemetry hardware for a vehicles as good as a SIM-cards and information connections.

Un-Blinking Technologies reserve Android and iPhone apps, along with a Web portal to give business entrance to their vehicle-provided data.

Progressive Seattle area automotive organisation Barrier Motors in Bellevue has already versed 1,500 cars from their Mercedes-Benz, Audi, Porsche, and Volvo brands with a iCar Intelligent Car Technology Package.

After a successful execution of this initial launch Deutsche Telekom and Un-Blinking devise to deliver a product to 300 additional automobile dealerships opposite a US.

The iCar M2M complement means a mobile app or a Web portal can be used to guard a automobile information including expenditure information and a plcae of their cars during all times.

U.S., Spain GDP Contraction

U.S., Spain GDP Contraction

The Commerce Department reported that U.S. fourth-quarter GDPcontracted by 0.1%, way below forecasts of a 1.0% increase. This is a sharp and fast deterioration from the third-quarter which saw GDP expand by 3.1% and marks the first contraction since the second-quarter of 2009.Of course economists brush of the negative figures and stamp them as meaningless, but if the figures would have been positive they would have labeled them as very significant.

The contraction came despite an increase in consumer spending which rose 2.2% which shows that consumers started to borrow again and continue to support the fragile economy with money they do not have. Consumers load up on debt and a consumer debt crisis in the U.S. is imminent. Incomes have stagnated and prices increased which means consumers have less disposable income available. The increase in consumer spending signals a worrisome increase in household debt.

Defense spending saw the biggest cut in almost half a century and companies reduced inventory production in anticipation of weak demand in the future. Exports saw the biggest drop in four years and suggest weakness in manufacturing ahead. The U.S. Dollar should be under pressure over the next few weeks and the EURUSD may approach the 1.3800 level next month.

Adding to consumer problems is Obama’s increase in social security tax which will further slash disposable income and the U.S. may enter a technical recession during the first-quarter. Most Americans never exited the Great Recession and the way the government calculates figures is not in line with real economic developments. Consumer spending should contract starting this quarter and remain weak throughout the year with a small increase in inflation which will further pressure American households.

Due to Obama’s tax increase consumers will have between $1,000 and $4,500 less in disposable income during 2013 which will shave roughly $40 Billion of economic activity alone. The middle-class will carry most of the burden due to Obama’s tax policies and the economic cost will be malicious for the government through 2020.

Spain reported its fourth-quarter GDP came in worse than expect at a contraction of 0.7% only days after the country reported an  rate of above 55% in adults under the age of 25. This was the sixth consecutive GDP contraction and the most recent indicator that austerity measures have put the country deeper into the recession than anticipated. There are rumors of a Spanish exit from the Eurozone which currently join the Greek exit rumors and hint at a slow collapse of the Eurozone which should force positive change to the monetary union.

A complete collapse of the current Eurozone is required before policy makers realize they system was destined for failure and that changes should have been made decades ago. The current approach of the Eurozone in order to handle the issues are counter-productive and cause further monetary bleeding which tax payers have to endure while the overall quality of life is on the brink of collapse.

The UK initiated the latest round of economic contraction when it reported last week that GDP shrank by 0.3% and the country currently flirts with a triple dip recession. The trend is evident that the global economy is not nearly as healthy as economists have predicted which puts recent equity market performance out of line with reality. Market participants should anticipate a sharp contraction in most  in excess of 30% in a bear market which will fully unfold towards the end of 2013 and last through 2014 and possibly beyond due to counter-productive measures taken by governments and central banks.

EU moves closer to banking union

EU moves closer to banking union

The European Union at the very least understands that a Eurozone banking union is a necessity moving forward in order to create a more stable Eurozone. The obvious step to undertake is to give the ECB the sole power to grant banking licenses and supervise the banking system for the 17 member Eurozone. Those exact proposals are swirling around Brussels as I type. September 12th is the date where such a plan may be unveiled.

The European Commission is responsible for the plans and will work overtime during the next two weeks to hammer out a final plan which will at least lay the groundwork and most likely will be amended several times. The ECB will receive powers to step-in and take over day-to-day operations in extreme cases, but national regulators will still be allowed to decide when to close down a bank. The ECB will be allowed to make recommendations to national regulators and have a vote in the process as it will serve as the regulator of national regulators.

The ultimate goal is to give the ECB sole supervisory powers and a monopoly when it comes to regulationas well as oversight and implementation directly related to the financial stability of the Eurozone. Michael Barnier, the Financial Service Chief of the EU, stated that national regulators should be in charge of consumer protection as well as other smaller tasks and take a support role to the ECB.

The ECB needs to be allowed to step in and close banks without limits and consultation with national regulators. Initially the ECB may receive that power only for banks which will be labeled important and whose failure will pose a systemic risk for the stability of the world’s biggest economy. National regulators may be allowed to engage in supervisory roles when it comes to smaller national banks which will not pose a risk to the financial system.

A collaboration between the ECB as well as national regulators and the rumored creation of a third body on a high ranking EU Parliament level makes sense when it comes to the supervision of the Eurozone’s 6,000 plus lenders if implemented and executed with sophistication. We will see if EU politicians will deliver a pleasant surprise on September 12th or if this will be another episode of hyped up talk with the failure to deliver.

The window of opportunity is closing rather fast and tough decisions will need to be undertaken before it will be too late. The Eurozone debt contagion has created a once in a lifetime opportunity to fix the old and dysfunctional system as it pointed out the flaws over the past 30 months. The EU has rare chance to take the current problems, ignore the socialistic, worthless scumbags and create a system which will encourage financial stability, economic growth as well as sustainability.

The next twelve months will be very crucial as decisions will made by politicians will shape the future of the EU. The EU will either suffer from a prolonged recession and several lost decades in the same manner Japan and the U.S. did and will do or the EU will make the right decisions and rediscover the old world. This is a great opportunity to become a growth engine again and create a society which will prosper as it will finally learn from its mistakes.

How to make money with forex trading?

Let’s take a look at an example of how you couldhave made money with forex trading last week.

You could have earned up to 2 490 $ by forex trading in just one week if you had as little as 300$ on your account.

Here is how to do it in just four trades of only one currency pair!

We deposited to our account 300$, and with the leverage 1:100 we can operate with the volume of 30 000 USD or 0.3 Lots as they are called.

The main driver for this week was GBP/USD. Let’s look at the example.

First Forex trading position:

At forex market open time Monday 17 October we sold 0.1 Lot of GBPUSD at 1.5829.

And in our account we have:

Position: Sell 0.1 Lot GBPUSD at 1.5829

Forex Margin: 158.29 = (Lot*lot size*price)/leverage = (0.1*100 00 GBP*1.5829)/100

Forex Free Margin: 141.71 =Equity – Margin = 300-158.29

Let’s imagine that the next evening 18 October at 20:00 GBP fell in valueand we closed Position at 1.5703 and earned 126 pips. Our Profit is 126$ = (Sell Price- buy Price)* trading Volume = (1.5829-1.5703)* 10 000. Our balance on our forex trading account became 426$ =300$+126.

Now we have 426$ USD it is mean that we can operate with volume of 42 600 USD. For our next forex trade we will open 0.2 lots of GBPUSD!

Second Forex trading position:

After we close First position, we bought 0.2 GBPUSD at 1.5703 and sold it next day 16:00 at 1.5830 and earn 127 pip or 254$. Our balance became 680$.

Third Forex trading position:

After we closed our second deal, we can open another 0.3 lots. The margin will be 474.9$ and with our balance of 680$ we can afford it. We sold 0.3 lot GBPUSD at 1.5830 and again closed this position at 1.5703 which is 127 pip and 381$.

At this point our balance is already 1061 USD!

Forth Forex trading position:

Together with closing our sell position we can buy 0.7 lots of GBPUSD at 1.5703 and we held it till the end of the week. The price is 1.5950. Which is 247 pips or +1 729$ and our collective balance now is 2 790! Where 2 490$ is our profit.

We would have made 627 pips and 2 490$ from 300$ for 1 week of forex trading, if we had made all these trades that week.

6 Things You Should Ask Your Forex Broker

6 Things You Should Ask Your Forex Broker

All forex traders need a good forex broker in order to be able to access the markets and trade. There are several hundred forex brokers out there to choose from and as forex trading increases in popularity more and more forex brokers appear which gives forex traders an increasingly growing choice. This also makes it harder to pick the right forex broker and it is important to ask some key questions in order to make the best choice.

Forex trading is the most popular form of trading and the daily turnover is roughly $5 trillion. Entry requirements tend to be lower than other forms of trading which is another reason why more and more flock to forex trading as their primary means to trade financial markets. The more traders enter the forex market the more brokers appear on the horizon in order to offer their services to traders.

Here are 6 questions you should ask your forex broker

1. Spreads – How tight are the spreads? This is very important as you advance in your trading career. You should pick a forex broker who offers tight spreads. One quick way to gauge that is by asking for the spread on the EURUSD currency pair which is the most traded and most liquid currency pair and therefore the spreads should be very minimal. You should get one below 1.0 pip.
2. 
   Liquidity – What access to liquidity does your forex broker provide? A broker who is not liquid
   
   1. struggle filling your orders and you will see plenty of re-quotes as well as very high slippage during market moving events which will have a negative impact on your trading. Make sure you pick a forex broker with deepliquidity. You may not find out how liquid a forex broker is until you trade with them, but ask for their liquidity providers.
   2. Filling of Orders – Are your pending orders filled at the price you enter? This is very important as every successful trader uses pending orders and rarely fills an order at market prices. A good forex broker will be able to fill over 99.9% of your orders at the price you specified. This holds true even during market moving events which cause price spikes. A good broker will still be able to bring your order to market and fill it.
   3. Segregated Accounts – Are clients’ accounts as well as company accounts segregated? Ask them for which bank they use and try to verify if their accounts are truly segregated or not. Ideally the forex broker keeps their own accounts at a totally different bank than clients’ accounts, but that is not a must.
   4. Tradable Assets – How many assets can you trade? Good forex brokers will be able to offer you more assets to trade which gives you a wider choice and allows you to diversify across more currency pairs. It also gives you access to more currency pairs which means that you will be able to realize more trading opportunities.
   5. Withdrawals – How fast are withdrawals processed? Good forex brokers will process your withdrawal request the same day unless it is received after their finance department is closed for the day at which point it will be processed the following business day. A good forex broker never asks why you are withdrawing funds or gives you excuses why it may take longer; those are all red flags.
   It may be very challenging to find a forex broker who will offer all of the above aspects, but Paxforex is one of the few which is able to deliver on all six points. Paxforex provides you with the infrastructure required so you don’t have to worry about it and won’t feel the negative impact of crucial factors. Trading with Paxforex allows you to fully focus on executing your trading strategy while you have access to a fully professional trading environment.

How to trade during Christmas?

How to trade during Christmas?

Today is Christmas Eve which will be followed by Christmas tomorrow while some countries also celebrate a second day of Christmas on Thursday. Since this year the celebrations fall in the middle of the week most traders decided to enjoy a longer break and took vacation days which means their probably enjoyed their last day trading forex last week on Friday.

It is good to take some time off from the joy and stress of trading and Christmas is the preferred time for traders from Europe through Asia and into the American continents to take some of their earned vacation time and spend it with friends and family.

What does this mean for forex traders who want to trade?

The biggest impact forex traders will feel is the lack of volume which is created by the absence of the majority of forex traders. This results in rather flat trading throughout the entire trading sessions around the world. The lack of volume also leads to a lack of volatility and therefore less trading opportunities may be created.

In addition to the absence of many traders there will be an absence of economic reports which usually add volatility as well as trading volume to the trading session. The reason for the slow economic news flow is the same as for the absence of traders; the Christmas holidays and most governments operate on a skeleton staff.

How to trade during Christmas?

There are traders who wish to trade throughout the Christmas holidays and this week so here are a few facts to know and understand:

• Low Volume – The absence of most traders means that volume will be very low.
• Less Economic News – One very important fact to keep in mind that there will be a few reports released and given the low volume-low volatility environment this could lead to much bigger price movements than usual.
• Shortened Trading Day – There are some institutions which operate on a skeleton staff and a few traders will remain active, but on today on Christmas Eve they are likely to end their trading session early.
During Christmas Day there are not traders which should be trading and you may want to take a full day off as well. The last two days of the week as well as the first two trading days of next week which would mark the end of trading for 2013 should be used to make necessary portfolio adjustments and close positions which are not performing in order to start 2014 on a much fresher note.
• Low Volatility – Since volume will be low volatility usually decreases with it which means less trading
  
  

Spanish Cooperative Giant Tries Not to Repeat Lehman Brothers' Story

Spanish Cooperative Giant Tries Not to Repeat Lehman Brothers' Story

The flagship of the European labor and the cooperative movementMondragon Corporation, the seventh largest employer in Spain with revenues of about 14 billion euros, is overcoming a set of complex troubles. Bankruptcy of the Spanish federation of cooperatives can be an analogue of Lehman Brothers collapse.

In February 1941, in the impoverished, devastated by civil war town of Mondragon in the north of Spain appeared a young priest José María Arizmendiarrieta.

He miraculously survived the meat grinder of war: he should have been shot by Francoists for his work in one of the Basque newspapers but he survived. He was not a communist but certainly professed leftism.

In 1943 he created in Mondragon the Polytechnic School, which quickly became the center of attraction of urban youth. In 1956, Arizmendiarrieta and several graduates of his school founded the city's first cooperative UGOR. A few years it turned into a dynamic cooperative corporation Fagor, then to Mondragon Corporation - a worker cooperatives’ federation of Spain.

Cooperatives own by the workers themselves. Many economists believe that it is more efficient company structure than a corporation. Workers combine their resources, sharing losses and profits.

Arizmendiarrieta died in 1976. After 32 years Mondragon Corporation became the largest employer of the Basque Country. The organization became much more complex: Mondragon Corp. has developed its own department for research, banking and financial services, and organized educational courses for workers.

Mondragon employees participate in the system of social protection of corporation, under which they can receive benefits and other payments. If one co-op experience financial problems, the others help it. Mondragon Corporation is the seventh largest employer in Spain. Last year, its revenues amounted to 14 billion euros.

At the last months of this year the impossible happened. In October, one of the largest cooperatives in Spain and member of Mondragon Corporation - Fagor Electrodomésticos, a cooperative engaged in production of goods for the home, closed its factory. Co-op was a major exporter and one of the leaders in the American market of pressure cookers.

It shocked the entire network of Mondragon cooperatives, which now includes 109 companies. Confidence in the weakest of them fell and the employees are now afraid of losing their jobs. Unemployment in Spain is 26%. For Spain it may be an analogue to the collapse of Lehman Brothers - recall that its bankruptcy started the world financial crisis.

In Spain, the 2013 can be called as the year of bankruptcies. Fagor, with its 850 million euros of debt, is one of the largest units in the chain. The Spanish economy is gradually recovering from the crisis but its growth is too slow to save the companies mired in debt.

Cooperatives were, amd still are, considered as one of the best kinds of organization: they took care of their employees and management was based on democratic principles. But the crisis has been identified the weak link of this structure - in difficult periods it’s very difficult to cooperatives to get the money they need. Now their existence was called into question.

However, there is another point of view, which is based on the fact that the Mondragón Corporation, despite the difficult times, will be able to get out of the crisis. Economic statistics confirms this.

DANOBATGROUP, the leading national cooperative in the machine tool sector and part of the Mondragon Corporation Cooperative Group, on December 18 has signed major contracts with two renowned world leaders in the mining industry located in Australia to the total amount of 103 million Euro.

Earlier, Mondragon Corporation has won the first edition of the Business Dragon Award, in recognition of the co-operative group’s track record in China. The aim of these awards is to recognize the work done by companies and institutions to promote trade relations, investment and business co-operation between Spain and China.

Thus, despite the too pessimistic views of those economists who adhere to traditional structures of corporations, Spanish giant is not going to give up and is ready to show that by its opportunities, it in no way inferior to the classic mega business structures.