Man, I just realize that it is Friday today! I was extremely busy with my work this week (and, ok, I am following Australian Open as well 🙂 ). All I have is just a couple of hours after London session open. So, no trade at all. I hope to get back to swing next week.
Here we go, another rogue trader who’ve thrown Société Générale into €4.9bn crisis.

SocGen said the “exceptional fraud” resulted from the purchase of huge long positions in “plain vanilla futures hedging on European equity market indices” that were “beyond his limited authority”.

The trader – likely to trigger comparisons with the UK’s Nick Leeson, who caused the collapse of Barings Bank in 1995 – had “deep knowledge” of risk-control procedures from his time at the bank’s middle-office activities, which SocGen said had allowed him to conceal his positions.

Does it really help to have ‘deep knowledge’ of risk-control procedures ? uhm…

My day job is keeping me busy this week. I reached home after 8pm Melbourne Australia time. That’s around 2 hour after European market open. I don’t rush to trade in this kinda condition. I will continue studying the market during my free time, however, I don’t think I have a chance to day trade just yet.

I am always interested in following the property market development here, Australia. One of the latest decorations along the streets of Melbourne suburbs are the House Auction sign boards. Yes, ridiculous. Basically, you can see auctions held every weekend. People are purchasing property desperately. For investment, for speculation, and for the real need.

Here is the news I found this morning.

ADVERTISED prices for houses at auction continue to be an extremely poor guide to what buyers actually end up paying, amid claims that consumers are being duped by real estate agents.

A survey of 378 auction results by The Age found that over the past two weekends, the difference between the advertised and final sale price was, on average, 20.7%, despite laws protecting consumers from underquoting and misleading conduct. The latest survey follows six weeks of surveys by The Age in April and May, which found similar results. Then, the average difference was 21.2%.

Agents can be prosecuted for underquoting through the Fair Trading Act, which prohibits misleading and deceptive conduct. There are also specific three-year-old underquoting laws that require price estimates to be based on what “a willing but not anxious buyer” would pay. The laws forbid agents from advertising properties for less than their own estimates.

Consumer Affairs Victoria last week released new guidelines designed to spell out what agents can or cannot do. Executive director David Cousins said agents had been put “on notice” on how the regulator would enforce the law. But that initiative has been muddied by the REIV, which released its own guidelines six months ago and took the extraordinary step of telling agents to follow their own guidelines rather than those of the regulators.

Uhm..What can be done by the new government, Mr. Rudd? Let’s see. I guess, it is the strong market demand, the desperate home buyers (and dumb investors) creates the naughty animals, real estate agents.

I did not see any good setup today, in fact, I should say, I did not see too many good setup recently in Forex day trade, to be specific, not too many opportunites for trend trade. It is kinda messy. I am staying sideline at the moment.

So you know we have a new government, a new prime minister in Australia now. People are guessing what’s gonna happen to the strong Aussie economy. Is the current economy built by the small giant Mr.Howard’s legacy? or Mr. Kevin Rudd is going to prove that anybody can run the economy? I have no idea. But, I tend to believe, there was a little bit luck for Howard, part of the booming economy here were assisted by the skyrocketing raw material price, and the fierce demand from China.

Here is the comment I read on Dailyfx.com about AUD/USD.

AUDUSD – Election results showed that Australian Prime Minister John Howard was ousted by Kevin Rudd. With Rudd’s priorities said to be focused on improving Australia’s education system, hospitals, and infrastructure, it appears that the RBA’s hawkish bias may face little political pressure and is unlikely to fade anytime soon.

Let’s see.