Transfering Usd Into Thailand

[universe2000]

The USD has shown strength against the Baht since the beginning of the year. I need to transfer some money before the end of the year. Any thoughts on whether I should wait or just transfer the amount now?

With the turmoil in politics this could weaken the Baht. But the USD index has grown over 10% since July so it seems to be approching an overbought situation.

Any thoughts would be helpful.

Thanks

[Soutpeel]

The USD has shown strength against the Baht since the beginning of the year. I need to transfer some money before the end of the year. Any thoughts on whether I should wait or just transfer the amount now?

With the turmoil in politics this could weaken the Baht. But the USD index has grown over 10% since July so it seems to be approching an overbought situation.

Any thoughts would be helpful.

Thanks

Would wait a little while...the THB should drop a bit more

[Wrong Turn]

The USD has shown strength against the Baht since the beginning of the year. I need to transfer some money before the end of the year. Any thoughts on whether I should wait or just transfer the amount now?

With the turmoil in politics this could weaken the Baht. But the USD index has grown over 10% since July so it seems to be approching an overbought situation.

Any thoughts would be helpful.

Thanks

It's hard for anyone to predict the future. Especially with currency exchange rates. One things I've started down is breaking up my transfers into smaller amount over a period of time. It usually averages out.

When it comes to large sums it's just hard to know - perhaps impossible to know - if you gain or lose by waiting.

Always a tough call.

[NotNew2You]

Really...if anyone knew the answer to this they wouldn't be hanging around this Forum...but working for George Soros

Depending on the amount you are talking about...if it's large...do several transfers over whatever period of time you are considering. Then you will get an average rate during that time. If it's a relatively small amount, the transfer costs may eat-up any gains in the conversion rate.

[Mattchu9999]

I seem to remember a study where top financial advisers we're tasked with picking winning stocks and we're in competition against a chimpanzee. The chimp won.

Being a yank, I've been watching the USD gain against the BHT, so unless you NEED to transfer the money I'd just watch it day by day, and if it seems to be heading anywhere but up go ahead and transfer.

Or since the trend has been going up, maybe transferring a portion each day or week to hedge the trend.

Or as the chimp says: "oooh ooohh ahhh ahhh eeeeee eeeeeeeeeee!"

(Yes for Christs sake I know it's an ape)

Edited September 10, 2008 by Mattchu9999

[bob4you]

Put it into a FC (foreign currency account) I did this 6 month ago based on my feeling that the $$$$ would get stronger and it has, I have made 10%+ on my money in that time.

[HYENA]

Put it into a FC (foreign currency account) I did this 6 month ago based on my feeling that the $$ would get stronger and it has, I have made 10%+ on my money in that time.

Now if I could figure out how to do that...

I have an Ikobo card and raised the limits to $3000 a month. I'm going to just stack it up and have the wife put it in her account so it will be there when I return. The predictions are for the Baht to peak around the end of this year then start to creep down. The dollar is strong only because other denominations are comparatively getting weaker. Soon other countries will make corrections and the dollar will yet again reflect our political and economic situation.

I'm moving about $20,000 but not just yet.

I really need to play money. I like watchign it too much!

[Naam]

The predictions are for the Baht to peak around the end of this year then start to creep down.

where can i buy that crystal ball that gives these kind of predictions? i need one badly as dog stole mine and buried it somewhere in the garden

[VegasVic]

The USD has shown strength against the Baht since the beginning of the year. I need to transfer some money before the end of the year. Any thoughts on whether I should wait or just transfer the amount now?

With the turmoil in politics this could weaken the Baht. But the USD index has grown over 10% since July so it seems to be approching an overbought situation.

Any thoughts would be helpful.

Thanks

I think that your premise that the Dollar is "approaching an overbought situation" may be your downfall so to speak. By that reasoning you could say that basically for the past 7 years the dollar has been an oversold situation, so when does the Dollar actually arrive at this "overbought situation" in 2012 or 2013? Just some food for thought

[Naam]

i hate expressions which mean <deleted> nothing, like... "overbought and oversold"

[lannarebirth]

i hate expressions which mean <deleted> nothing, like... "overbought and oversold"

That's not true Herr Naam. It does have various definitions depending on what technical analysis indicator one looks at though. Most financial instruments can have technical analysis indicators applied to them and these usually oscillate in a range as price changes. When trading outside the "normal range" of a given oscillator a stock or currency can be said to be overbought or oversold in a given time frame. That it has tghis definition applied to it does not mean it will have a determined outcome, but only a probabilistic outcome. I wouldn't use these indicators to buy or sell an instrument. but I might use it to tighten up a stop loss in case a reversal is at hand.

[Naam]

i hate expressions which mean <deleted> nothing, like... "overbought and oversold"

That's not true Herr Naam.

it is true that i hate that i hate these expressions Sir LRB and my personal view (to which i am entitled) is that they mean <deleted> nothing

[Kadafi]

The USD deserves to plummet and plummet hard after what the yanks have started, 3 of the 4 biggest mortgage lenders running up such high debts and the knock on effect is being felt around the globe. At the moment the other currencies are taking the hit, but soon the shit will hit the fan and the USD will drop like a brick...

[chiang mai]

The USD deserves to plummet and plummet hard after what the yanks have started, 3 of the 4 biggest mortgage lenders running up such high debts and the knock on effect is being felt around the globe. At the moment the other currencies are taking the hit, but soon the shit will hit the fan and the USD will drop like a brick...

Don't hold your breath.

[Kadafi]

The USD deserves to plummet and plummet hard after what the yanks have started, 3 of the 4 biggest mortgage lenders running up such high debts and the knock on effect is being felt around the globe. At the moment the other currencies are taking the hit, but soon the shit will hit the fan and the USD will drop like a brick...

Don't hold your breath.

I guess i have the magic touch, usd fell hard today just as predicted...hopefully more to come...

[chiang mai]

The USD deserves to plummet and plummet hard after what the yanks have started, 3 of the 4 biggest mortgage lenders running up such high debts and the knock on effect is being felt around the globe. At the moment the other currencies are taking the hit, but soon the shit will hit the fan and the USD will drop like a brick...

Don't hold your breath.

I guess i have the magic touch, usd fell hard today just as predicted...hopefully more to come...

A push by Sterling on the back of the Lehman Brothers news means it recovered 3% of the 17% it has already lost. Expect USD to recover this current loss by mid week.

[Mattchu9999]

The USD deserves to plummet and plummet hard after what the yanks have started, 3 of the 4 biggest mortgage lenders running up such high debts and the knock on effect is being felt around the globe. At the moment the other currencies are taking the hit, but soon the shit will hit the fan and the USD will drop like a brick...

Don't hold your breath.

I guess i have the magic touch, usd fell hard today just as predicted...hopefully more to come...

Hmmmm because Yahoo finance shows the USD at it's highest in months...and still going higher.

[chiang mai]

In all fairness Yahoo Finance is probably not the place to get real numbers from. GBP/USD has been trading in a wide band, broadly from 1.75 to the high 1.76's for a few days hence the jump to 1.79 is not exactly astonishing or indicative of much at all - the pair is looking for a firm base but it's not going to find it around the current level, I'm looking for low 1.70's by end next week although the Lehman business may interfere with that if things drag on - ditto the storm off Texas..

[Naam]

In all fairness Yahoo Finance is...

² as far as currencies are concerned. it offers however a wealth of other financial information.

[ericjt]

"Overbought" means "too high". "Oversold" means "too low". If a currency is too high, it should come down. If a currency is too low, it should go up.

Re moving USD to Thai Baht, the Baht is at about 34.5 to the dollar now. The USD has taken a sharp rise in the last 2 weeks, seemingly despite all the fundamentals which point to a lower USD. So it's anybody's guess whether the rise will continue (which means each USD will buy more Baht), or whether the USD will turn around and keep falling (which means each dollar will buy less Baht).

Anyhow, the USD-THB conversion rate right now is higher than it's been for about a year (in terms of how many Baht you get per dollar). It's around 34.5 Baht/dollar, which is a pretty good rate. Guys who are supposed to know about these kinds of things think the Baht might get to 40 or even 42 to the dollar within the next 6 months. But 34+ per dollar isn't bad.

If it were me, I'd start transferring around $4000 per month for the next 5 months and hope for the best. With an "exotic" and thinly traded currency like the Baht, it's hard to predict what it might do, but the direction right now is more Baht per USD.

Also, check around for the best currency conversion rates. There's a site that specializes in FX transfers and probably offers pretty good rates. I think it has "FX" or "FXTransfer" or something like that in its title. Google it and you should be able to find it. Or someone else here might know it and be kind enough to post its address.

Credit/Debit cards are probably one of the most expensive ways to transer funds. Bank to bank wire transfers are better, but ask them about their rates and then see if the FX transfer web site might be better. Shopping around there can save you some money.

Good luck.

[NightOwl888]

Also, check around for the best currency conversion rates. There's a site that specializes in FX transfers and probably offers pretty good rates. I think it has "FX" or "FXTransfer" or something like that in its title. Google it and you should be able to find it. Or someone else here might know it and be kind enough to post its address.

Credit/Debit cards are probably one of the most expensive ways to transer funds. Bank to bank wire transfers are better, but ask them about their rates and then see if the FX transfer web site might be better. Shopping around there can save you some money.

Good luck.

Could you provide a link to the service? I did a search and all I can seem to find are UK websites that allow you to exchange Pounds Sterling into Baht. I am looking for a better way to transfer USD and unfortunately this post (with a fairly misleading title) is about when to transfer the money, now how.

When I traveled to Thailand last time, I ended up paying in excess of $400 USD in bank transfer fees on top of the rather poor exchange rate by using my ATM card. I would like to find a better alternative now as I am planning to move there for 1 year.

[universe2000]

Thanks for all the comments. I usually use technical analysis for stock trading and use indicators such as the put-call ratio and the volatility indexes which are helpful. I have a much better return since using those indicators. I am not familiar with the exchange rate factors as there are many. In a stock trade, an overbought situation can occur, as mentioned, and a conservative stop can be used to guarantee certain gains or prevent further losses.

I assume there are equivalent indicators in the foreign currency trading marketplace, but I am not too interested in currency trading. My time frame for transferring money is only a few months. I'll break my transfer into two parts. One soon, and the other in a month.

As a response to nightowl888, I transfer money through my broker directly to my bank account in Thailand. My broker charges $35. My bank just gives a competitive exchange rate (kasikorn). You can search the site for other comments or just start your own. I found most of my information on the site when I was deciding how to transfer money.

[thetravellingcat]

from a English dudes perspective:

we were used to a 2 dollar pound for ages, now as mentioned above other currencies have lost value to the dollar because those countries are having problems, not because the dollar is strong! soon these problems will be corrected and the dollar will return to 2 to the pound. when it does, historically the $/TB exchange rate could drop back to 30 to the $. I can't see the Baht going over 35 because there is still 1-2 years left of this credit crunch.

$1 =

£1 =

£1 =

if the trend continues with Big US banks going tits up because they lent money to people with no income the dollar will, once again weaken to other currencies.

Gold is relatively cheap (12,750 for 1baht, saw highs of 16,000 when gold was $1,000/oz) now if buying in Baht exchanged from dollars. ($780/oz at the time of writing)

[thetravellingcat]

no sooner had I posted about the Gold it jumped $80!

Cautious investors are looking for safer places to put their money. The price of gold, regarded as a haven in troubled times, rose to $871.2 an ounce after recording its biggest one-day gain in history on Wednesday.

original article

[Kadafi]

In all fairness Yahoo Finance is probably not the place to get real numbers from. GBP/USD has been trading in a wide band, broadly from 1.75 to the high 1.76's for a few days hence the jump to 1.79 is not exactly astonishing or indicative of much at all - the pair is looking for a firm base but it's not going to find it around the current level, I'm looking for low 1.70's by end next week although the Lehman business may interfere with that if things drag on - ditto the storm off Texas..

Not going to happen, im looking at a rise in sterling and settle around 187-189 mark..