Thursday, December 10, 2015

Forex as an investment of the future, What is Forex, what is investing, what is the future?

Origins of Modern Finance - We must reference regulations, because regulations are the framework that the majority of finance operates in.  Theories, strategies, and products, which do not fit into regulatory framework, are only hypothetical.
Financial regulations are based on a series of laws created during and after the Great Depression, such as “The Securities Act of 1933” and “The Federal Reserve Act (of 1913) and others.  In 1933:

  • Technology: The modern day computer did not exist, nor did lasers, the iPod, stealth,  satellites, and most importantly, the internet
  • Society: Roughly 2 Billion people on the planet compared to today’s 6.7 Billion.  Hitler was coming to power.
  • Health: Life expectancy of the average American (male and female) was 59, compared to today’s 76.  Since 1980, there has been a greater than 30% decrease in deaths due to Stroke in Heart Disease , presumably due to advances in medicine.
  • Finance: The derivative didn’t exist, markets were not electronic and real-time, and credit cards didn’t exist, nor did check cashing and instantaneous international payment.
You wouldn’t drive an automobile made in 1933 unless you are an antique collector.  Most people wouldn’t drive a car that’s more than 10 years old.  Most users wouldn’t use a computer that’s more than 5 years old.  Banks are using state of the art supercomputers to run a 75 year old system – with origins over 200 years old.  In fact, the leading banking computer is the mainframe system IBM System Z, originally developed as System/390 in 1964 .  While the Federal Reserve Act was enacted in 1913, its origins of design are much older, as the bankers who designed the Fed were influenced by the European system, dominated by the British Bank of England, originally established in 1694 .
History of Forex
How many people know why Forex exists at all?  They know about the “Nixon Shock” , but why did Nixon float the dollar, who suggested it, and how does that impact modern Forex?  The simplest solution being the most likely would indicate the US Administration was politically stretched out and had few options in response to demands by the French for payment in Gold, and the West German removal from Breton Woods.  According to the Wikipedia entry:
By the early 1970s, as the costs of the Vietnam War and increased domestic spending accelerated inflation, [3] the U.S. was running a balance of payments deficit and a trade deficit, the first in the 20th century. The year 1970 was the crucial turning point, which, because of foreign arbitrage of the U.S. dollar, caused governmental gold coverage of the paper dollar to decline 33%, from 55% to 22%. That, in the view of Neoclassical Economists and the Austrian School, represented the point where holders of the U.S. dollar lost faith in the U.S. government’s ability to cut its budget and trade deficits.
In 1971, the U.S. government again printed more dollars (a 10% increase) [3] and then sent them overseas, to pay for the nation's military spending and private investments. In the first six months of 1971, $22 billion dollars in assets left the U.S.[citation needed] In May 1971, inflation-wary West Germany was the first member country to leave the Bretton Woods system — unwilling to deflate the deutsche mark to prop up the dollar.[3] In order to prevent the dumping of the deutsche mark on the open market, West Germany did not consult with the international monetary community before making the change. In the next three months, West Germany’s move strengthened their economy; simultaneously, the dollar dropped 7.5% against the deutsche mark.[3]
Because of the excess printed dollars, and the negative U.S. trade balance, other nations began demanding fulfilment of America’s “promise to pay” — in the form of gold from the U.S., in exchange for paper dollars, thus, did Switzerland trade $50 million of paper for gold in July. [3] France, in particular, repeatedly made aggressive demands, and acquired large amounts of gold ($191 million), further depleting the gold reserves of the U.S. [3] On 5 August 1971, Congress released a report recommending devaluation of the dollar, in an effort to protect the dollar against foreign price-gougers. [3]Still, on 9 August 1971, as the dollar dropped in value against European currencies, Switzerland withdrew the Swiss franc from the Bretton Woods system.[3]
Arbitrage can be painful if you are on the wrong side of it.  Nixon may have had few options but to float the dollar; the market is a powerful force even with government regulations. 
This implies that it was a reaction, not an action.  In other words, it wasn’t part of a grand master plan, a scheme designed by international bankers to make the world’s financial markets crumble 35 years later.  It seems that it was a random, haphazard solution, as they say “Crisis Management”.   But while waiting for Bonanza to finish, to announce the new global Forex regime, Nixon’s team actually spent more time debating how to announce and when to announce to the public than the plan itself:
To stabilize the economy and combat runaway inflation, on August 15, 1971, President Nixon imposed a 90-day wage and price freeze, a 10 per cent import surcharge, and, most important, “closed the gold window”, making the dollar non-convertible to gold — except on the open market. The President and fifteen advisors took that decision, without consulting the members of the international monetary system, thus, the international community informally named it the Nixon shock. Given the importance of the announcement — and its impact upon foreign currencies — presidential advisors recalled that they spent more time, at Camp David, deciding when to publicly announce the controversial plan, than they spent creating the plan. [4]
As a politician, the President did not want to interrupt television viewers watching the tremendously popular TV series Bonanza, not wishing to potentially alienate those voters who fanatically followed the cowboy series. He was advised that the practical decision was to make an announcement before the stock markets opened on Monday (and just when Asian markets also were opening trading for the day). On 15 August 1971, that speech and the price-control plans proved very popular and raised the public’s spirit. The President was credited with finally rescuing the American public from price-gougers, and from a foreign-caused exchange crisis. [4][5]
This would also hint it was a knee-jerk reaction more than a carefully planned event.  Since then, banks have been creating models ‘on the fly’ based on what seems to be working, with little or no understanding of the underlying forces.  And being as banks are for profit private institutions, any available data or models they have is not public.
No Forex Model
Since the Nixon Shock, economic theories were not redesigned.   Although there are some fresh ideas about what Forex is, there isn’t any unified theory of Forex, a model that describes it for what it is, mathematically.  In fact, several papers have been written with the hypothesis that existing ‘models’ are severely flawed, and provide evidence; here’s one:
Roger D. Huang published a paper in 1981 for the American Finance Association (http://www.afajof.org/ ) with the following abstract:
The variance bounds on exchange rate movements implied by the monetary approach to exchange rate in an efficient foreign exchange market is shown to be violated by sample data. The paper also presents evidence showing that the forecast errors implied by the monetary model can be forecasted using historical data. The results are interpreted to suggest either the incompatibility of the monetary approach with sample data, or an inefficient foreign exchange market or both.
Richard J. Sweeny, in 1986, goes on to claim that there is Alpha in Forex not explainable by risk:
Filter rule profits found in foreign exchange markets in the early days of the current managed float persist in later periods, as shown by statistical tests developed and implemented here. The test is consistent with, but independent of, a wide variety of asset pricing models. The profits found cannot be explained by risk if risk premia are constant over time. Inclusion of the home-foreign interest rate differential in computing profits has little effect on the comparison of filter returns to those of buy-and-hold.
If Forex is truly a reactive solution to a pressured Nixon administration, and still no unified model exists, this indicates that there are large opportunities in trading Forex, like an asset class.  These opportunities will exist, and persist, until the floating currency system is replaced by something else (not likely anytime soon), or there is a unified Forex model that becomes widely proliferated as much as “Modern Portfolio Theory ” is.
Rembrandt: The Moneychanger 1626
Up late, pouring over account statements, under the dim glow of candlelight?  Is this an audit or a daily routine, not enough day-time to do all the calculations?  Or does he do this at night so no one can question the numbers?
UBS Trading floor: modern times.  Who is running the show, the humans, or the computers?  Are the humans telling the computers what to do or are values on the computer screen telling the humans how to behave?

Purpose of Capital Markets

What’s the point of investing?
  • To achieve a return not possible by other activities – (i.e. someone else can do something better than you and achieve a larger profit than if I did myself)
  • To act as a savings account for the future
Investors all have an underlying assumption: someone else can do a better job than me.  Small businesses, and farmers, and other types of businesses, would never think of investing somewhere outside of their family run business.  Corporatism has turned investing into something you outsource to Wall St. 
Those from the Greatest Generation  would rarely invest in stocks, except maybe in the company they worked for.  They bought Government bonds (mostly as a store of value and wealth for the future not to achieve a return), Gold or Silver, and they may have invested in a vacation home or some tools.  They didn’t buy stocks, but they didn’t have electronic access to the markets or a means to freely educate them, such as exists with the internet.
Trading as an investment
Traders are seen by the retail market as gamblers, high frequency spread betters .  Funds, institutions, and some savvy investors know better, but they are the minority.  Can active day trading strategies, and other types of real-time trading strategies such as automated Forex systems, penetrate our commonly accepted views of investing?
DBFX, the FX division of Deutche Bank, stated in an October 2008 press release that this is already happening:
dbFX.com sees sharp increase in managed accounts as individual investors and managers turn to FX to diversify portfolios.
A managed account is one way that an investor can turn a trading strategy into an investment.  There are thousands of managed accounts in the world, each offering a unique strategy and approach to the markets.  Although managed accounts are currently mostly dominated by commodities traders, there is a growing emergence of FX managed accounts.
There are other ways investors can turn trading into investing, such as the active investor who purchases an automated trading system to trade their own account.  There are a growing amount of companies that offer fully automated systems investors can lease or purchase that can be executed on their own account.
Modern day hedge fund is a family farm
What is a farmer?  A farmer is similar to a hedge fund manager.  Farmers are seen as old men with pickup trucks, straw hats and mud on their shirts.  Aside from this stigma, farmers are actually some of the most sophisticated investors; a farmer must decide constantly where to invest and when to hedge.  His family, and possibly the entire town, depends on the farms’ survival.  There isn’t any room for creativity or unnecessary investments (such as purchasing a decorative rug). 
The origins of the futures markets are based on agricultural and eventually industrial demands for hedging ‘organic’ business .  Many family ‘mom and pop’ businesses are run in this style, but farms illustrate the basic needs of knowing when to hedge due to a bad growing season, crop rotation, and investment in farming machinery. 
The future of investing could see a return to family run hedge funds, what Trusts refer to as ‘family offices’ and boutique investment firms offering niche specialized services to a small elite group of clients.  This trend is already taking place, as London based boutique broker Shore Capital revenues are up 12 percent, beating larger rivals .
"I think there's a change in the attitudes of fund managers – they used to give a significant proportion of business to the bigger houses because they thought they were a better counter-party risk.

"I think the institutions no longer think they are a superior counter-party risk, having had the experience of last September and October. Although, the overall volume of business available has reduced, more of it's going to the medium-sized brokers." Shore believes financial services staff disillusioned with life in London following the banking crisis may opt to work in Edinburgh instead.
Who is to blame: regulators or customers?
In 2005 Harry Markopolos sent a letter to the SEC outlining a logical analysis why in his opinion, Madoff was running a ponzi scheme .   The SEC didn’t act on his letter, but many questions are raised by this action, such as:
  • How was a private individual, representing Rampart Investment Management Co. able to obtain and analyze data sufficient  to conclude that Madoff was running a Ponzi scheme, using NO private, confidential information from Madoff Securities (the SEC and other regulators are privy to certain confidential records that are not public)
  • Why didn’t other customers, or at least a few others, take the time to do their own due diligence and come to similar conclusions?  What was so special about Mr. Markopolos?
Clients have unreasonable expectations about many of their investments.  Why is this so?   A survey conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers in Switzerland identified two related problems: clients poorly understand investment reports and 2) they make unrealistic reporting demands 
It goes on to present the obvious solution for global regulation: a standard in documentation and reporting.  Investors are bombarded with reports designed differently according to different standards and yet with the designers own interpretations of their standards.
Would a fair conclusion be, that regulation could simply be a ‘database’ that could be accessed by ‘clients’ (investors) served by ‘servers’ (money managers), administrated by ‘admins’ (regulators). 
Forex Forums a form of Self-Regulation
While Forex trading itself is unregulated, Forex has a means of self-regulation for highly sophisticated investors, for those who are willing to do their homework.  Work is required (in the form of time, reading, and understanding), and there is no vertical subordination, and no official authorities in this space.   Admins monitor the discussion to make sure it’s focused on topic, but they don’t normally intervene in discussions (such as deleting posts they don’t like). 
The forums do not provide any type of identification proofing, so there isn’t stopping anyone from spreading misinformation anonymously.  For all the value they provide, and they do provide a unique critique service untouched by commercial interests, they seem to have an equally devastating counterbalance, the ‘rotten apple that spoils the bunch’.
The significance of the forums is they represent a powerful new force defining how information is exchanged among the investing public.  Some investors may remember ‘investment clubs’ popular in the 80’s and 90’s.  Now, investors can read forum posts without anyone ever knowing – comments, opinions, and some facts, are out there for all to see.  Although much of the content is unsubstantiated babbling, there are many hidden gems.  Sites such as WikiLeaks ( http://wikileaks.org/   ) and Zero Hedge  (http://www.zerohedge.com/ ) have been significant forces in disseminating information that otherwise would have been kept from the public.
At the most recent TED conference, Gordon Brown quipped that:
"Foreign policy can never be the same again." The power of technology - such as blogs - meant that the world could no longer be run by "elites", Mr Brown said.
Policies must instead be formed by listening to the opinions of people "who are blogging and communicating with people around the world", he said .
This implicates a new user-driven de-centralized internet model will lead new paradigms, not the 20th century, centralized model.  The current debate about regulation is all centered on a centralized government authorized regulator.
The problem with the centralized approach, with modern technology including the internet and modern government systems, a company can relocate its offices in a matter of hours in another legal jurisdiction.  For example, after the NFA enacted rules affecting the way trades must be accounted for, such as the hedging rule and the FIFO rule , many Forex FCMs shifted their operations to London due to customer request .  This was not to thumb the NFA for their rules, but in response to angry customer emails demanding they continue to allow hedging or they would simply move their accounts to London based firms who wouldn’t ban hedging anyway.  It’s a conundrum of control, the more they squeeze the more customers will move overseas, or cease to exist (result is the same).
The internet has a downside – unsavory marketing groups can register ‘private’ domains which sell ‘sham’ products, competing with legitimate providers.  For those who don’t know what to look for, the marketing sites can be deceptive and misleading.  But since criminals usually don’t register with the police, there is little regulators can do. 
In some cases, vigilante groups have sprung up with the sole purpose of having the scam sites shut down while providing a review service similar to consumer reports. 
The Forex Metaphor
A metaphor is an appropriate tool to explain something from another dimension, not easily explainable in the first dimension.  George Lakoff states:
"We are neural beings," Lakoff states, "Our brains take their input from the rest of our bodies. What our bodies are like and how they function in the world thus structures the very concepts we can use to think. We cannot think just anything — only what our embodied brains permit."[2]
In his 1980 book “Metaphors we live by” with Mark Johnson, he explains ‘the great metaphor’ known as a conceptual metaphor:
There are two main roles for the conceptual domains posited in conceptual metaphors:
  • Source domain: the conceptual domain from which we draw metaphorical expressions (e.g., love is a journey).
  • Target domain: the conceptual domain that we try to understand (e.g., love is a journey).
mapping is the systematic set of correspondences that exist between constituent elements of the source and the target domain. Many elements of target concepts come from source domains and are not preexisting. To know a conceptual metaphor is to know the set of mappings that applies to a given source-target pairing. The same idea of mapping between source and target is used to describe analogical reasoning and inferences.
A primary tenet of this theory is that metaphors are matter of thought and not merely of language: hence, the term conceptual metaphor. The metaphor may seem to consist of words or other linguistic expressions that come from the terminology of the more concrete conceptual domain, but conceptual metaphors underlie a system of related metaphorical expressions that appear on the linguistic surface. Similarly, the mappings of a conceptual metaphor are themselves motivated by image schemas which are pre-linguistic schemas concerning space, time, moving, controlling, and other core elements of embodied human experience.
Conceptual metaphors typically employ a more abstract concept as target and a more concrete or physical concept as their source. For instance, metaphors such as 'the days [the more abstract or target concept] ahead' or 'giving my time' rely on more concrete concepts, thus expressing time as a path into physical space, or as a substance that can be handled and offered as a gift. Different conceptual metaphors tend to be invoked when the speaker is trying to make a case for a certain point of view or course of action. For instance, one might associate "the days ahead" with leadership, whereas the phrase "giving my time" carries stronger connotations of bargaining. Selection of such metaphors tends to be directed by a subconscious or implicit habit in the mind of the person employing them.
The principle of unidirectionality states that the metaphorical process typically goes from the more concrete to the more abstract, and not the other way around. Accordingly, abstract concepts are understood in terms of prototype concrete processes. The term "concrete," in this theory, has been further specified by Lakoff and Johnson as more closely related to the developmental, physical neural, and interactive body (see embodied philosophy). One manifestation of this view is found in the cognitive science of mathematics, where it is proposed that mathematics itself, the most widely accepted means of abstraction in the human community, is largely metaphorically constructed, and thereby reflects a cognitive bias unique to humans that uses embodied prototypical processes (e.g. counting, moving along a path) that are understood by all human beings through their experiences.
It is difficult to explain philosophy to a dog, because they do not have a means of understanding the language, hence the need for doggie metaphor.  Everything to a dog can be equated to throwing the ball (in the case of Labradors, for other dogs a smelly metaphor can be used).  Dogs and other animals have an intelligence which can be measured, such as the Monkey who outperformed the human memory champ in a memory test .  Modern humans struggle with basic math skills; the understanding of money and finance is 95% numbers and mathematics.  Finance is math, not magic, as many would like you to believe.  It is possibly the last subject yet to be understood by the scientific method. 
Is it ironic that the country with the most money, and the most dynamic capital markets, struggles with basic math skills, and money and finance is understood only by the understanding of math?   Why is it that Americans have the highest per capita GDP and some of the lowest scores in mathematics globally?  Could this be connected to Consumerism, multiple market bubbles, and a growing problem in financial literacy?  Americans nearly flunk financial literacy, says Bankrate.com:
America gets a "D" for the second year in a row in Bankrate.com's Financial Literacy Survey. (See our newest Financial Literacy Survey.)
That's disappointing enough, but the statistically valid survey of 1,000 Americans, conducted for Bankrate by RoperASW, also shows that Americans are in "debt denial." They're unwilling to admit that credit is a problem -- in fact the only thing Americans are more secretive about is their love lives.
Finance is not tree-cutting.  Making an investment portfolio is not like chopping a branch of a tree, while the analogy is a powerful tool to educate, it can’t turn a caterpillar into a butterfly.
Making a cup of coffee is an algorithm:  plug in machine, put filters, put water in tank, put ground coffee in filter, turn on coffee maker, pour coffee into cup, wait to cool down, drink. 
Educators use analogies like this to explain algorithms to those who have never been exposed to them.  An algorithm is a process, a procedure, a series of steps – it must have a beginning and an end .
Just because making coffee is also an algorithm, doesn’t mean if you brew a cup of coffee you can design a good Forex algorithm. 
Forex Systems as an investment of the future
Forex features:
Forex is Shariah compliant
Finding Shariah compliant investments is not easy.  Forex trading is 100% Shariah compliant.  A Shariah compliant portfolio could be created using Forex Automated Systems.  Also, these types of systems offer a diversity in a particular market.  The difference between a “Mean Reversion” Forex system and a “Correlation” Forex system can be as different as investing in emerging markets and Treasuries.
95% of people lose money trading Forex
This would imply that it’s ‘difficult to make money in Forex’ as some claim.  From another perspective, is it easy for the 5% who are winning?  Also consider in Forex a lot of money is lost due to hedgers, commercial requirements, central bank interventions, and other non-investment losses.  That means there are profits that can be obtained by traders in Forex that don’t necessarily need a loser on the other side (such as the case with equities). 
Comparative statistics:  53% of workers aged 16 and older in Los Angeles county were deemed functionally illiterate 
Los Angeles is the home of many famous authors , writing clubs such as The LA writers Group and WritersBloc .
Considering the high illiteracy rate in Los Angeles, why don’t these authors change their profession to something that doesn’t require reading, or relocate to another area where there is a higher literacy rate?
The reason is clear; anyone in the world can read their books, not only LA residents.  Secondly, they are writing for the 47% that can read, which in a city with a population of over 4 Million , is still at least 2 million readers.
Financial Education
Why are people interested in Music, Movies, Gadgets but not Money?  Why does the interest in Finance become less as generations grow? They all want it (money), but they don’t want to bother understanding how it works.  They want to be super-consumers without understanding what consuming is.  That’s not to suggest that every person who wants to eat should study biology, agricultural science, and the Food & Restaurant business, but you do want to understand what you are digesting.  In fact, recent consumer demand has forced food companies and drug companies to display certain information in a standardized format on every box of food sold in the US .  Why doesn’t something like this exist for financial products? 
In the old days, family homes used to be a manufacturing base, a source of entertainment, a vacation spot for other family members, and a large storage and distribution facility.  Now the home is a source of wealth and investment (that you shouldn’t actually ‘live’ in), vacation is done on cruise ships and in casinos, and public storage facilities are used like PODS and Public Storage. 
Forex lacks hard data
Unlike other markets, there is little data available for Forex.  For example, the annual BIS numbers that are commonly referenced when you hear “3 Trillion per day” turnover is conducted by survey .  The institutions that are surveyed have no reason to lie, but they also have no reason to be 100% transparent.  The problem, like the problem with fraud, is not the honest bankers who report, but those who don’t, who have something to hide in off-balance sheet transactions.  Other markets have hard facts, verifiable data.  The NYSE publishes daily end of day data that can be downloaded from their website here: http://www.liffe.com/nyseliffe/ . Other exchanges publish similar data, because they are required, but more importantly, because they have it. 
Only each Forex counterparty has access to his own data, and many of them are reluctant to release it.  For example, Forex brokers could publish statistics:
  • Number of positive accounts for the day, week, month, year
  • Average percent gain or loss for each account
  • How many accounts are profitable after 1 year
The question is why don’t they, why is data like this unavailable anywhere, in stark contract to non-forex rivals where it is possible to obtain overwhelming amounts of data on the performance of mutual funds .
Why is there no central database where traders and customers can log onto and verify authenticity, receive economic data in a standardized format, including performance information?
This is a regulatory question, but in the context of Forex, the answer is that there is no reason for the counterparties to divulge such information without any tangible benefit.  Why should they open their books, when much of their business is based on perception? 
Forex companies growing fast
In 2009, GAIN Capital is ranked #32 in the Financial Services category “Fastest Growing Private Companies List” .  GAIN Capital is a Forex broker, and their revenue is primarily derived from Forex brokerage.  Their growth can be explained by a popularity of Forex as an asset class, and as a new way to trade and invest.  Why else?
Forex Genome Project
Pandora has created a ‘Music Genome Project ’ that tracks what songs you like and creates suggestions, a quasi form of Artificial Intelligence .  Although Pandora does not disclose what it’s algorithm is, Wikipedia states:
The Music Genome Project, created in January 2000, is an effort founded by Will Glaser, Jon Kraft, and Tim Westergren to "capture the essence of music at the fundamental level" using almost 400 attributes to describe songs and a complex mathematical algorithm to organize them. The company Savage Beast Technologies was formed to run the project.
A given song is represented by a vector (a list of attributes) containing approximately 150 "genes" (analogous to trait-determining genes for organisms in the field of genetics). Each gene corresponds to a characteristic of the music, for example, gender of lead vocalist, level of distortion on the electric guitar, type of background vocals, etc. Rock and pop songs have 150 genes, rap songs have 350, and jazz songs have approximately 400. Other genres of music, such as world and classical music, have 300–500 genes. The system depends on a sufficient number of genes to render useful results. Each gene is assigned a number between 1 and 5, in half-integer increments.[1]
Given the vector of one or more songs, a list of other similar songs is constructed using a distance function.
To create a song's genome, it is analyzed by a musician in a process that takes 20 to 30 minutes per song. Ten percent of songs are analyzed by more than one technician to ensure conformity with the standards, i.e., reliability.
The technology is currently used by Pandora to play music for Internet users based on their preferences. Because of licensing restrictions, Pandora is available only to users whose location is reported to be in the USA by Pandora's geolocation software.[2]
While this is compelling, it could be argued that the application in Music is not necessary.  For example, if you choose the wrong CD it’s not a life or death situation; there isn’t any monetary or material punishment (aside from angry listeners possibly throwing things at you).  Make a poor decision in the markets, and entire counties budgets are wiped out. 
For example, in 1994 the County of Orange County declared bankruptcy due to suffering $1.6 Billion in losses on interest rate derivatives .
Would a genome project have a more tangible economic (and thus overall) benefit if used for Forex?  Imagine a system that instead of determining for the user what type of music they like to listen to, it could determine what kind of investment to implement on your account?
Forex Myths
It’s hard to make money in Forex
Could that be said for any market?  Is making money ever easy?  Also, how can that be substantiated?  Hard for who? 
No one’s making money in Forex
Bank of America claims foreign exchange as a major source of income.  Money managers such as FX Concepts, John Henry, and Alex Merk are all making millions.  FX Concepts has roughly 10 Billion assets under management by some measures.  FX Brokers are some of the fastest growing companies in USA according to Inc. 500.  Interbank FX is ranked #8, Gain Capital is ranked #32 .  George Soros made much of his fortune speculating in currencies .
Conclusion
The conclusion of this article is that for the Forex market, there isn’t enough data to make any solid conclusion.  Significant effort should be spent compiling and analyzing data about Forex trading and investing.  In a series of articles, we will attempt to first define the problems, collect data and sources of data, and engage FX experts in a series of interviews and discussions.
With existing tools it is possible to trade and invest in Forex, but without full information sufficient to make any conclusion, we are left with only the path taken by Diogenes , searching for an honest answer.
http://www.investopedia.com/university/futures/futures1.asp Before the North American futures market originated some 150 years ago, farmers would grow their crops and then bring them to market in the hope of selling their inventory. But without any indication of demand, supply often exceeded what was needed and unpurchased crops were left to rot in the streets! Conversely, when a given commodity - wheat, for instance - was out of season, the goods made from it became very expensive because the crop was no longer available. 
http://www.cfainstitute.org/memresources/communications/ipm/2009/august/article_1.html Among existing clients, there is often a lack of understanding of technical reporting concepts, leading to unreasonable expectations that cannot be met. A survey conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers in Switzerland identified two related problems: Clients (1) poorly understand investment reporting matters and (2) make unrealistic reporting demands. Establishing a standard and providing guidance on client reporting will certainly help to educate clients, as well as their asset managers, and reduce the expectations gap between them.
http://dickstaub.com/links_view.php?record_id=4727 In the Los Angeles region, 53 percent of workers ages 16 and older were deemed functionally illiterate, the study said.
http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/2006-04-05-literatcy_x.htm WASHINGTON — U.S. teenagers are making little headway when it comes to financial literacy, a survey out Wednesday shows.
High school seniors on average answered 52.4% of a 30-question financial survey correctly. That was up from 52.3% when the survey was last conducted two years ago but down from 57% in 1997, the first year for the survey, according to the Jump$tart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy.
"Financial literacy is still a very significant problem. It doesn't seem to be getting any better," says Lewis Mandell, a professor at SUNY Buffalo School of Management who oversaw the survey, which was conducted in December and January. It includes topics such as investing and managing personal finances.
Article tracking:
BarChart:
By Joe Gelet
http://eliteeservices.net/ Elite E Services FX Systems   See more articles at www.eliteforexblog.com

Wednesday, December 9, 2015

EES: Short term trade short USDRUB


With the oil price collapse accelerating (Brent just dropped below $40 for the first time since Feb 2009), the currencies of major oil-exporting nations - such as the Canadian dollar and Norwegian crown - are plunging...
USDRUB is an interesting one, as it is playing the "US Role" in Syria, with the unintended consequence of gaining local military bases and access to energy resources (pipelines, oil fields, transportation routes).

And - just look at the following chart:
USD/RUB Top?  

EES is short, with a stop well above 70.  Beware the trading times (USDRUB desk open only during Russian market hours) and the spreads are huge.

Tuesday, December 8, 2015

EES: The American Forex Delusion

Hitler said often that the bigger the lie, the easier it would be [for the masses] to believe.  This is no where more true than Forex.
Russia and America have similar demographics of people involved in Forex markets; both have extremely uneducated populations (even 'financial professionals' often have no clue about the ramifications of Forex), both have extremely polarized "Elite" (the bankers who run Forex) and the 'rest' who are left to have their savings eaten away by inflation.  In fact, central banks have mandated the investing population - it's necessary to acheive above average returns just to break even.  
We'll use Russia here as an example to contrast the US Forex market because they earned it - our new allies in the middle east.  This is Russias first role as world policeman in Syria (as the "New Russia") and anytime a superpower such as Russia or America invades and bombs another country, there will be angry people (i.e. blowback).  But, such situations often bring together unusual allies; the circumstances create allies (in this case, a common enemy Muslims/Islamic state) as did World War 2 and many other similar situations.
Let's quickly look at some of the biggest lies promulgated by the Elite.  Who are "They" ?  Well, you can read about "them" herehere, and here.  Why they do it, should be no question.  It has allowed them to develop a global tech economy nearly for free (on the backs of the worker), and at the same time amass a fortune never before seen in known modern human history.  All of this is possible due to lack of knowledge and education, or in other words, their ability to sell these lies to the population (by the way, Propoganda was invented by an American Edward Bernays; many of the methods used by Hitler, Stalin, and others are now being used by corporate America).
Over a period of more than 75 years, the Elite have invested billions of dollars and have a proven track record for brainwashing the population, in all countries, but most notably in America and in Russia (although with different cultural motives).
Lie #1: Inflation is caused by supply and demand, and other natural economic forces
This is the biggest lie that allows the real owners of the global financial system to fleece the population of their assets.  Slavery is illegal, but working 80 hours a week for just enough money to pay for your housing, food, and health for your family, is not existence.  It's the new slavery.  You see, during the industrial revolution the Elite learned that physical chains were no longer necessary.  By promoting such anti-values as gluttony, ignorance, apathy, and by promoting the Ego (i.e. Facebook "Look at me!) - it would allow the Elite to easily convince workers to run on the mill like lab rats for almost no pellets.  This is most notable in America which mainstream culture (mostly financed by bankers vis a vis CIA domestic ops, including but not limited to cultural socio-engineering; starting with Tim Leary, Kurt Cobain, Beavis and Butthead, "Jackass", and now a plethora of other cultural icons, promoting a culture of stupidity.)  
In plain English, while the youth is stupidifying their life away, the Elite are slowly eroding your equity through inflation - the hidden tax.  
Inflation is caused by oversupply of currency!  The idea that supply and demand drives inflation and deflation is not valid argument in Fiat money system, because the quantity of money in the system M0,M1,M2,M3,MZM, plus currency swaps, derivatives, and countless other financial instruments created in the base currency by the central bank, is an ever increasing base number.  In the event this trend reversed, that supply of currency decreased, it would still be a changing number, as determined by central banks.  Therefore, traditional economics of supply and demand and the price mechanism, is irrelevant.  Monetary policy is the only determination of the value of currency, in a Fiat system.  
How does this impact average people in America, and in Russia?  Every year, you have less money to buy things (whether groceries, property, health care services, etc.)
Lie #2: US Dollars are money
US Dollars and most global major currencies are debt based currencies.  Debt is not money, such as Gold is money.  New US Dollars are created only through LENDING, if all US Dollar debt was paid off, it would mean there would be no more US Dollars!   Even if you believe that US Dollars are money, in any event, because of a constantly expanding money supply, every year you have less and less money, by keeping assets in US Dollars.
Lie #3: Currencies are backed by something
Fiat currencies are backed only by belief, by faith.  
Lie #4: Forex is for international investors, and travelers
All of this propoganda is very effective!  The Elite have convinced even self-proclaimed 'financial professionals' and the general mass population that Forex is irrelevant unless you are traveling or do international business.  Here's why Forex is relevant today:
Each central bank, whether it be The Fed or the CBR can only create as much domestic currency as it pleases (it cannot create foreign currency).  So, if the Fed creates an additional 100 Trillion via QE 4; it can choose to use that currency domestically, or internationally.  If it chooses domestically, it will create hyperinflation.  So if this is to be avoided, it must use these freshly created USD to buy foreign currency.  
How Forex can benefit domestic population of Russia
Russian population is currently being robbed via collapsing Ruble.  Since the 'new ruble' was introduced in 1998 at a rate to USD of 6 Rubles to 1 USD (USD/RUB currently around 70) - this is a loss of about 90% for Ruble denominated assets.  What value the Ruble lost in 20 years, it took the US Dollar 80 years.
But when Russia defaulted in 1998 and Moscow was infested with economic hitmen from western banks, they had not only a template from America and soon the EU, they had computers and soon internet, making a new economic way for the new "Elite" of the new Russia to further rob the people, via hyperinflation of the currency.  As in America, oligarchs are created quickly and benefit greatly from hyperinflation, as they can do a number of things to benefit from this situation (most simply, investing their assets in non-domestic currency, but countless other examples as well).  Possibly, the rapid depreciation of the currency, could have contributed to the wealth of the oligarch class.  In any analysis, since Russia has implemented this system of weakening its domestic currency, the oligarch class has grown in step with America's new superclass.
It is understandable why those in financial services do not understand Forex generally.  Because high priests of capitalism preach about 'making money' (which is actually illegal, strictly translated, unless you are the US Mint or the Fed).  So by participating in Forex, you aren't really growing your portfolio, you are just breaking even, or NOT losing.  This lateral thinking should be understood well by Russian population considering their advanced math skills.  But it is not widely proliferated in mainstream culture (and very ironically, because major Forex companies are based in Russia).  Oh - what the business opportunity!  
In a very basic example, imagine you have 1 Million Rubles in 1998.  You have transferred them to a US bank account bearing a measly 8% interest in USD (we will not count interest in this example) - roughly, $165,000.  2015 comes around and there's a ruble crisis - fortunately your savings are safe and now gaining about 1% at Everbank, and you need money.  You transfer your $165,000 USD back to the motherland, for a whopping 11 Million Rubles!  It's roughly 1100% return on your investment in the US Dollar - but of course, you didn't really 'make' any money, you just didn't lose.  We shouldn't mention that most of this return is tax free due to FASB rules regarding long term forex investments.
If we consider the interest component, the $165,000 would be $399,000 using this basic calculator, in 2015 this would convert to 27 Million rubles!  So, we pose the question; where else in Russia could a single individual get a potential tax free return of 2700%+ by doing basically nothing (a few documents, one bank transfer)? 
So, by common people participating in Forex, instead of losing 90% of the value of their currency and complaining to empty TV screens about corrupt politicians, they could have instead made 2700%+ tax free.
This very basic example is simply to illustrate the benefits of average people (whether financial professionals or not) to participate in the Forex market - and that it really is a necessity, if you live in a country like Russia or America when you have a central bank with a policy to destroy the currency.  Really though, it's only a tax on working people.  If you are very poor - it doesn't matter (you work to live, not live to work).  If you are very rich, probably you have assets in America, London, or France.  This example doesn't count opportunities such as Forex robots, or the ease of investing in a US stock market bubble which could turn the $165,000 USD into much more (although that part wouldn't be tax free).
Of course, the Elite in Russia (via CBR) will try to convince the local sheeple about the evils and risks of Forex, as they fleece the domestic population via the slow death of the hidden tax of hyperinflation.  baa 
Forex is especially necessary where the domestic currency is volatile.  Russia is a great example because it's not Zimbabwe, not the EU, and Russia is a globally significant dynamic economy.  
So what is the American Forex delusion?
A lie can be the withholding of information.  In the case of Forex, it's simply 1% of missing important knowledge that prevents a real understanding of what's going on.  In the case of America vs. Russia - The Fed, currently is a private central bank, owned by private banks.  The CBR, still officially a public institution owned by 'the people.'  But, it was the Americans who invented modern finance.  It was the Americans who created modern Forex.  It was the Americans that pressed Russia to open their markets (most importantly - financial markets!) - which again, is ironic considering how Wall St. banks financed Lenin, without which financing the Bolshevik revolution would not have been successful.   
So who benefits from this system?  The Elite, who strip the common people of their assets (but with style).  But also, educated people who know how this system works and can expolit it, such as older examples herehere, and here.  
The Elite - provide a method for profiting from this situation!  There are no shackles, no chains - only those which are in our mind!  We can set down that bag of bricks handed to us, and free ourselves.  It is the paradox of the modern control paradigm; the tool of control can be used as a means to become a controller!  It's just a question, a decision, which side of the trade you want to be on.  
The good news - it is possible to profit from this situation, and even prosper. This can be acheived only by education followed by action.  It is legal, and possible, for any individual in the world to profit in Forex, and to protect their financial assets.
Welcome to the club! 

EES: Liquidity update and Turkey in focus

Elite E Services Forex system update December 8, 2015

Recently EES released a system designed to create Forex liquidity www.getfxliquidity.com which has been doing well for new clients who purchased it.

We've started a new MAM at GoMarkets and will be publishing the results here at MyFXBook.  As this is a managed account, results will be conservative, and a mix of EES systems and manual trading (not only Liquidity).

Turkey in Focus

With the world on the verge of World War 3, the impact in FX will most notably seen in the Turkish Lira (and other regional currencies, but most extreme in TRY).

Get to know the Turkish Lira!  From wikipedia 

The Turkish lira (TurkishTürk lirası) (sign; code: TRY; usually abbreviated as TL)[2] is the currency of Turkey and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (recognised only by Turkey). The Turkish lira is subdivided into 100 kuruÅŸ.
In December 2003, the Grand National Assembly of Turkey passed a law that allowed for redenomination by the removal of six zeros from the Turkish lira, and the creation of a new currency. It was introduced on 1 January 2005, replacing the previous Turkish lira (which remained valid in circulation until the end of 2005) at a rate of 1 second Turkish lira (ISO 4217 code "TRY") = 1,000,000 first Turkish lira (ISO 4217 code "TRL"). With the revaluation of the Turkish lira, the Romanian leu (also revalued in July 2005) briefly became the world's least valued currency unit. At the same time, the Government introduced two new banknotes called TRY100 and TRY50. One EU diplomat has stated that Turkey will adopt the euro if it joins the European Union.[7]
In the transition period between January 2005 and December 2008, the second Turkish lira was officially called Yeni Türk Lirası (New Turkish lira).[8] It was officially abbreviated "YTL" and subdivided into 100 new kuruÅŸ (yeni kuruÅŸ). Starting in January 2009, the "new" marking was removed from the second Turkish lira, its official name becoming just "Turkish lira" again, abbreviated "TL".
All obverse sides of current banknotes and reverse sides of current coins have portraits of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.



Monday, December 7, 2015

BIS Warns The Fed Rate Hike May Unleash The Biggest Dollar Margin Call In History

Over the past several months, one of the biggest conundrums stumping the financial community has been the record negative swap spread which we profiled first in September,  and which as Goldman most recently concluded, "has been driven by funding and balance sheet strains, especially since August."

Today, in its latest quarterly report, the Bank of International Settlement focused precisely on this latest market dislocation.  According to the central banks' central bank, "recent quarters have witnessed unusual price relationships in fixed income markets. US dollar swap spreads (ie the difference between the rate on the fixed leg of a swap and the corresponding Treasury yield) have turned negative, moving in the opposite direction from euro swap spreads (Graph A, left-hand panel)."
Given that counterparties in derivatives markets, typically banks, are less creditworthy than the government, swap rates are normally higher than Treasury yields because of the additional risk premium. Hence, the negative spreads point to a possible dislocation. One set of factors relates to supply and demand conditions in interest rate swap and Treasury bond markets. In the swap markets, forces that can compress swap rates include credit enhancements in swaps, hedging demand from corporate bond issuers, and investors seeking to lock in longer durations (eg insurers and pension funds) by securing fixed rates via swaps.

In cash markets, in turn, upward pressures on yields stemmed from the recent sales of US Treasury securities by EME reserve managers. The market impact of these Treasury bond sales may have been amplified by a second set of factors that curb arbitrage and impede smooth market functioning. First, the capacity of dealers’ balance sheets to absorb rising inventory may have been overwhelmed by the amount of US Treasury bonds reaching the secondary market in the third quarter (Graph A, centre panel), causing dealers to bid market yields above the corresponding swap rates. Second, balance sheet constraints may have made it more costly for intermediaries to engage in the speculative arbitrage needed to restore a positive swap spread. Such arbitrage is sensitive to balance sheet costs because it requires leverage, with a long Treasury position funded in the repo market.
Meanwhile, while US swap spreads hit record negative levels, in Europe the market tensions have been of a different nature:
Ten-year swap spreads started to widen in early 2015, around the time when the Swiss National Bank abandoned its currency peg, then increased further over subsequent months (Graph A, left-hand panel). While past episodes of widening swap spreads can be attributed to credit risk in the banking sector, the most recent developments may have more to do with hedging by institutional investors. While swap rates also fell (Graph A, right-hand panel), the swap spread widened, indicating that cash market yields fell by even more. One possible explanation is that, as yields fall amid expectations of ECB asset  purchases, institutional investors with long-duration liabilities, such as insurers and pension funds, would have been under pressure to extend their asset portfolio duration by purchasing additional longer-dated bonds, possibly compressing market yields below the swap rates.
And with cash markets rapidly depleting of physical inventory as a result of central bank monetization, investors have had to rely on derivatives markets, especially swaptions.
In addition to extending portfolio duration by purchasing longer-dated bonds or entering a long-term interest rate swap as a fixed rate receiver, investors may also hedge the risk of steeply falling yields by purchasing options to enter a swap contract at a future date (swaptions). Hence, swaptions tend to become more expensive in times of stress and when investors rush to hedge duration risk.

As 10-year swap rates were compressed in early 2015, the cost of such options written on euro swap rates rose by a factor of three by 20 April 2015 (Graph B, left-hand panel). Steeply rising euro rate hedging costs preceded the actual correction in yields, which started rebounding around the weekend of 18 April culminating in the so-called bund tantrum. This suggests that this year’s turbulence in fixed income markets may have had its origins in derivatives and hedging activity, with reduced market depth in cash markets exacerbating the spillover.
Why is there reduced market depth in cash markets? Simple: because of central banks intervention and soaking up of securities. So what the BIS is effectively saying is that as a result of central bank activity, investors have been forced to transact increasingly in the derivative arena as a result of which events like the Bund flash smash from April led to major market losses for those long Bund duration in either cash or derivative markets. Since then, volatility in European government bond markets has persisted culminating with the surge in yields this past Thursday in the aftermath of the ECB's dramatic and extensively discussed here previously "disappointment."
The BIS' conclusion:
Such volatile movements in euro area interest rate derivatives markets raise questions about smooth pricing responses in the face of possibly transient order imbalances. Of question is liquidity in hedging markets and the capacity of traditional options writers, such as banks, to provide adequate counterparty services to institutional hedgers. Looking back at the events of late April, the rise in demand to receive fixed rate payments via swaps by institutional hedgers may have run into a lack of counterparties willing to receive floating (pay fixed) rates amid sharply falling market yields. The emergence of one-sided hedging demand pressures can be gleaned from the skew in swaption pricing (Graph B, centre and right-hand panels). The skew observed for euro rates approaching the bund tantrumresembled the developments in US dollar rates in December 2008, when US pension funds rushed to hedge interest rate risk via swaptions as market yields tumbled.
But while the swap dislocation in the bond market can be attributed to anything from market illiquidity, to a shortage of cash market product, to lack of willing counterparties, to HFTs, and ultimately, to encroaching central bank intervention - something we have been warnings about since 2012 - perhaps an even more important question to emerge when observing broken swap markets are recent development in FX basis swaps.
Recall our coverage of one particular and very prominent dislocation in the space, one which we covered first in March and then again in October when we noted that the "Global Dollar Funding Shortage Intesifies To Worst Level Since 2012".
This is how JPM explained most recently the phenomenon which can simply be ascribed to a global dollar funding shortage:
"continued monetary policy divergence between the US and the rest of the world as well as retrenchment of EM corporates from dollar funding markets are sustaining an imbalance in funding markets making it likely that the current episode of dollar funding shortage will persist."
The BIS also touched on this topic in its quarterly review, when it picked up the "policy divergence" torch from JPM and describing the ongoing USD funding shortage as follows:
The increased likelihood of policy divergence between the US, the euro area and other major currency areas also rippled through global US dollar funding markets.Historically, cross-currency basis swap spreads – a measure of tensions in global funding markets – were virtually zero, consistent with the absence of arbitrage opportunities. Since 2008, the basis has widened repeatedly in favour of the US dollar lender, ie there is a higher cost for borrowing in dollars than in other currencies even after hedging the corresponding foreign exchange risk – conventionally recorded on a negative basis (Graph 5, left-hand panel). As such, negative basis swap spreads indicate the absence of arbitrageurs to meet heightened demand for US dollar liquidity.
Visually:
To be sure, our readers were aware of this implication of diverging monetary policy. However, thanks to the BIS, we now can add a quantitative dimension to what until recently what mostly a qualitative problem: i.e., how much is the dollar shortage as implied by the near record negative USDJPY currency basis swap spreads.
The US dollar premium in FX swap markets widened substantially – in particular vis-à-vis the Japanese yen – after the odds of Fed tightening reached 70%. At the end of November, the basis swap spread of the Japanese yen versus the US dollar was minus 90 basis points, possibly reflecting in part the more than $300 billion US dollar funding gap at Japanese banks.
The BIS does its best not to sound the alarm at this stunning observation:
While funding continued to be available, such a large negative basis indicates potential market dislocations. And this may call into question how smoothly US dollar funding conditions will adjust in the event of an increase in US onshore interest rates. Similar pricing anomalies have also emerged in interest rate swap markets recently, raising related concerns.
Indeed, once the Fed does hike rates as it now seems almost certain it will do in 10 days time, we will find out just how profound the USD funding shortage truly is. Readers may recall that in 2009 we cited a BIS report which said that "were all liabilities to non-banks treated as short-term funding, the upper-bound estimate [of the dollar short] would be $6.5 trillion".

This time around, as a result of the dramatic increase in USD-funded debt around the globe in the past 5 years, it will certainly be far greater.
And, as a further reminder, the last time a global USD margin call was launched with the failure of Lehman, the Fed had to unleash an unprecedented global bailout by way of virtually limitless swap lines opened with every central bank that has a shortfall in USD exposure.

As a result, our only question for the upcoming Fed rate hike is how long it will take before the Fed, shortly after increasing rates by a modest 25 bps to "prove" to itself if not so much anyone else that the US economy is fine, will be forced to mainline trillions of dollars around the globe via swap lines for the second time in a row as the world experiences the biggest USD margin call in history.

Wednesday, December 2, 2015

EES: Get FX Liquidity Forex algorithm for a limited time

EES has been developing algorithms for a long time (longer than there was a Forex industry).  We've seen thousands of EAs flood the retail market.  As well, we've inspected and traded with algorithms implemented and developed by the world's leading FX banks "the usual suspects."

At the behest of a large institutional client we developed an algorithm designed not to profit, but to generate volume.  There's no question about why they would want this.  For a limited time, they have allowed us to offer this system to a select group of professional traders - but the number is limited!

For more information about this system, and to purchase, visit www.getfxliquidity.com




Tuesday, December 1, 2015

New Smoking Gun: U.S. and UK KNEW Saddam Did NOT Possess WMDs

We've reported again and again and again and again and again that everyone knew that Iraq didn’t have weapons of mass destruction (WMDs).
Today, a new smoking gun has  been disclosed.  The Guardian notes:
Tony Blair went to war in Iraq despite a report by South African experts with unique knowledge of the country that showed it did not possess weapons of mass destruction, according to a book published on Sunday.

God, Spies and Lies, by South African journalist John Matisonn, describes how then president Thabo Mbeki tried in vain to convince both Blair and President George W Bush that toppling Saddam Hussein in 2003 would be a terrible mistake.

Mbeki’s predecessor, Nelson Mandela, also tried to convince the American leader, but was left fuming that “President Bush doesn’t know how to think”.

***

The claim was this week supported by Mbeki’s office, which confirmed that he pleaded with both leaders to heed the WMD experts and even offered to become their intermediary with Saddam in a bid to maintain peace.

South Africa had a special insight into Iraq’s potential for WMD because the apartheid government’s own biological, chemical and nuclear weapons programme in the 1980s led the countries to collaborate. The programme was abandoned after the end of white minority rule in 1994 but the expert team, known as Project Coast, was put back together by Mbeki to investigate the US and UK assertion that Saddam had WMD – the central premise for mounting an invasion.

Mbeki, who enjoyed positive relations with both Blair and Saddam, asked for the team to be granted access.
“Saddam agreed, and gave the South African team the freedom to roam unfettered throughout Iraq,” writes Matisonn, who says he drew on sources in Whitehall and the South African cabinet. “They had access to UN intelligence on possible WMD sites. The US, UK and UN were kept informed of the mission and its progress.”

The experts put their prior knowledge of the facilities to good use, Matisonn writes. “They already knew the terrain, because they had travelled there as welcome guests of Saddam when both countries were building WMD.”

On their return, they reported that there were no WMDs in Iraq. “They knew where the sites in Iraq had been, and what they needed to look like. But there were now none in Iraq.”

In January 2003, Mbeki, who succeeded Mandela as president, sent a team to Washington to explain the findings, but with little success. Mbeki himself then met Blair for three hours at Chequers on 1 February, the book relates.

He warned that the wholesale removal of Saddam’s Ba’ath party could lead to a national resistance to the occupying coalition forces. But with huge military deployments already under way, Blair’s mind was clearly made up. When Frank Chikane, director-general in the president’s office, realised that the South Africans would be ignored, it was “one of the greatest shocks of my life”, he later wrote in a memoir.

Matisonn adds: “Mandela, now retired, had tried as well. On Iraq, if not other issues, Mandela and Mbeki were on the same page. Mandela phoned the White House and asked for Bush. Bush fobbed him off to [Condoleezza] Rice. Undeterred, Mandela called former President Bush Sr, and Bush Sr called his son the president to advise him to take Mandela’s call. Mandela had no impact. He was so incensed he gave an uncomfortable comment to the cameras: ‘President Bush doesn’t know how to think,’ he said with visible anger.”

***

Mbeki’s spokesman, Mukoni Ratshitanga, confirmed that Mbeki met Blair at Chequers to advise against the war and the UK’s involvement in it. Blair disagreed, Ratshitanga said, insisting that he would side with Bush.

“President Mbeki informed the prime minister that the South African government was about to send its own experts to assist and encourage the Iraqis to extend full cooperation to the UN weapons inspector, Dr Hans Blix,” Ratshitanga said. “He urged the prime minister to await the report of the SA experts before making any final commitment about going to war against Iraq.

***

Mbeki also had a phone conversation with Bush in 2003 and tried to discourage him from going to war, the spokesman said. “President Bush said he would rather not go to war but needed a clear and convincing signal that the Iraqis did not have WMDs to enable him to avoid the invasion of Iraq.

“President Mbeki informed him about the report of the SA experts which by then had already been sent to the UN secretary general, Dr Hans Blix and the UN security council. He informed President Bush that the report of the SA experts said Iraq had no WMDs. President Bush said he did not know about the report but would obtain a copy from the US ambassador at the UN, New York.”

It is not known whether Bush did obtain a copy of the report.
Mbeki later contacted Blair to ask him to find out from the US president what would constitute a “convincing signal” from Saddam, promising that he would contact Saddam to persuade him to send such a signal, according to Ratshitanga. “President

Mbeki understood from his sources and was convinced that Prime Minister Blair received his message as reported above, but did not convey it to President Bush.”

Blair’s office did not deny the meeting with Mbeki or the specifics of what was said.
But the U.S. and UK wanted war ... not peace.  They even rejected an offer from Saddam Hussein to leave Iraq and allow in weapons inspectors.
Obama and Clinton did the same thing in Libya and Syria.  They also falsely blamed those regimes of using WMDS or the like, and supported Islamic terrorists in both Libya and Syria.