The euro was declining at this Forex session against the dollar, than surged and now falling again. Values of jobless claims and nonfarm productivity in the US were near forecasts, but pending home sales presented a pleasant surprise for traders, growing significantly. On the other hand, factory orders rose less than expected. EUR/USD trades near 1.2824 now after it reached the daily low of 1.2777 and high of 1.2846.

US initial jobless claims went down from 478k to 472 last week. The actual figure was somewhat better than predicted 476k.

Nonfarm productivity decreased at a 1.8% annual rate during the second quarter of 2010, compared to the previous reading of 0.9%. The actual figure was near forecast (-1.9%).

Pending home sales index rose 5.2% in July after it slipped 2.8% in June. The reading positively surprised the analysts who expected a decline by 1.3%.

Factory orders increased 0.1% in July, following two consecutive monthly decreases, including 0.6% (revised from 1.2%) decrease in June. The actual figure was nevertheless lower that expected 0.4% increase.

The dollar declined versus the euro today after ADP unemployment rate and total construction spending posted readings that were noticeably worse than expected. Manufacturing also showed surprising result, only this time it was positive surprise. EUR/USD trades currently at 1.2818.

ADP unemployment rate posted a decline of 10k jobs in August, compared with the July growth of 37k. Median forecast was a growth by 20k.

ISM PMI Index grew to 56.3 in August, instead of declining to 53.2 as was expected. In July the index was at 55.5.

Total construction spending in the US declined 1.0% from June to July. The actual reading was significantly worse than forecast value (0.4%) and below previous reading of 0.8%.

US crude oil inventories increased by 3.4 million barrels from the previous week. Total motor gasoline inventories decreased by 0.2 million barrels last week. Both are above the upper limit of the average range.

EUR/USD currency pair was rising this trading session but began to decline after reports showed that home prices and consumer confidence increased more than expected. The dollar weakened previously as a report showed that US personal income rose less than analysts estimated. EUR/USD is currently trading near 1.2668.

S&P/Case-Shiller home price index increased at a seasonally adjusted rate of 4.2% in June. In the monthly perspective it rose from from 147.4 to 147.81.

Chicago PMI fell to 56.7 in August from a reading of 62.3 in the previous month. It frustrated analysts, who expected a value of 57.3.

Consumer confidence index improved in August, rising to 53.5 from 51.0 in July. The reading positively surprised traders, who expected a decline to 50.7.

The minutes of the FOMC meeting was released today. Committee members expected the inflation to stabilize, but agreed that “the economic outlook had softened somewhat more than they had anticipated, particularly for the near term”. Some member expressed concerns about “downside risks to the outlook for both growth and inflation” and that “any further adverse shocks could have disproportionate effects, resulting in a significant slowing in growth going forward”.

While no member saw an appreciable risk of deflation, some judged that the risk of further near-term disinflation had increased somewhat. More broadly, members generally saw both employment and inflation as likely to fall short of levels consistent with the dual mandate for longer than had been anticipated.

A report about personal income and spending in the US was released yesterday. Personal income rose 0.2% and personal spending grew 0.4%.

Sometimes a collective mind of Forex traders produce better forecasts than the analysts do. And since EUR/USD is the most popular currency pair nowadays, I’d like to check this hypothesis but asking the readers (you) of where do they see this pair before the end of 2010. The poll will be open until December 1st. EUR/USD is currently trading near 1.2688.

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EUR/USD trend: hold.
GBP/USD trend: hold.
USD/JPY trend: buy.
EUR/JPY trend: buy.
GBP/JPY trend: buy.

EUR/USD declined after trading more-or-less inside some tight range today as the US GDP numbers improved appeal for the US dollar slightly. The drop also fits into the end-of-the-week correction process, following two days of gain on this currency pair. It’s currently trading near 1.2700.

At a second estimate, US GDP increased by 1.6% in the second quarter of 2010 (year-to-year). That’s better than the forecast of 1.4% but is worse than the 2.4% gain reported in the advance estimate.

University of Michigan sentiment index failed to confirm the growth stability and came out worse than expected in its final revision for August — 68.9%, while expected value was at 69.8%. The indicator was reported at 67.8% in July.

Tradenext is the latest Forex broker addition to the list on the site. It’s regulated by both US’ NFA and Germany’s BaFIN. It’s a broker with MetaTrader support and also with their own Tradvec trading platform. It offers micro-Forex trading but the minimum account size is quite high ($1,000), while the leverage is quite flexible. Some other highlights of this broker:

• Trading on futures, gold, oil and indexes is allowed.
• It’s necessary to send some documents over the postal mail to open an account.
• Payments are handled only via traditional means.

The euro rose against the US dollar slightly today as the market participants reacted to the pessimistic macroeconomic reports. The currency pair was going up rather strongly during the day but then retreated on some risk-awareness doubts. EUR/USD is now trading near 1.2657.

Durable goods orders rose by 0.3% in US in July, following a drop by 0.1% a month earlier. The traders expected a much bigger growth of 3.0%.

New home sales fell from 315k to 276k in July, while the expected value was at 330k.

Crude oil inventories increased by 4.1 million barrels last week, while the total motor gasoline inventories gained 2.3 million barrels.

EUR/USD rallied strongly today after the report on the US housing situation in July was released. The Forex market continued with the bullish reaction also after the Richmond Fed index release. The currency pair recovered from its monthly bottom of 1.2588 and is now trading near 1.2710.

Existing home sales fell from 5.26 million to 3.83 million in July (seasonally adjusted annual rate). The average forecast for this housing indicator was at 4.68 million. That’s a huge drop and it’s far below even such a pessimistic consensus forecast. Nevertheless the average home price rose a little during that month.

Richmond Federal Reserve manufacturing index showed a decline from 16 to 11 in August. It was worse than the expected drop to 12–14.

If you’ve read the first article in this series, you’re probably wondering what is with people named “Russell” and Forex scams? How does a former football star with an almost decade-long career in professional football end up in the Forex trading market and bilking millions of dollars from innocent investors? Here’s the entire story:

The Beginning

Erxleben stood out as a kicker right since his days in high school. Owing to this success, he was granted an admission to the University of Texas and was considered a top prospect. He went on to get drafted in the NFL and played ten seasons, although without much of the fame or any of the record-breaking performances he was known for previously.

As his days of playing football came to a close, so did his finances. After a series of failed attempts at business, Erxleben filed for bankruptcy in 1991 and left his debtors poorer by $1.3 million. But he didn’t give up, although we do not say that out of admiration.

Within a couple of years, he was hatching another scheme that would see his investors lose at least 25 times more money than before. The name of this scheme was Austin Forex International.

Austin Forex International

For a few years, the company seemed to do quite well. They owned a number of luxury vehicles and had a luxury box at the Royal-Memorial Stadium. However, the true story was entirely different. The firm, in effect was merely a ponzi scheme where they would take the money from new investors to pay off the old ones and keep the charade going.

The Lawsuit

The State Securities Board filed a lawsuit against the firm in the late nineties accusing them of falsifying their statements. The firm had been losing money all the while they claimed excellent profits and was abruptly shut down in the middle of the investigation that followed the lawsuit.

It was later revealed that over 500 investors had over $35 million they were about to lose in this fiasco. However, there were a number of other firms that had known of the malpractice. In order to avoid litigation, those firms shelled out over $30 million in settlements, which helped most investors get their money back.

Erxleben confessed to committing mail fraud and securities fraud and was sentenced to 84 months in prison along with a $1 million dollar fine and had to pay an additional $28 million approximately as restitution charges.

Release

Erxleben was released from prison in 2005 after which he went back to trying more ventures for making money. This time, it was about buying and selling German bonds that would allegedly return over 100% profit for a long period of time. Despite the lawsuit and the fact that the government unearthed incriminating evidence against the people who got Erxleben into the bond trading business, Erxleben maintains that he was innocent this time and called the investigation into his affairs as a “witch hunt.”

As of now, he seems to have given up on such investments altogether. But can he stay away from it or will we see another scandal in the coming years? Only time will tell.

This concludes our four-part series on the biggest Forex scams, and we hope you’ve enjoyed reading about them as much as we’ve enjoyed bringing them to you. We will continue to bring more such interesting stories from the Forex market for you on a regular basis. Keep visiting for more updates.