If You Could Choose Just One..

[cloudhopper]

The Swiss Franc (CHF); without a doubt.

Got doubts?

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business...and-964325.html

[unomi]

hmm, what are the arguments against rinminbi?

[Naam]

hmm, what are the arguments against rinminbi?

call your bank and tell them you want to buy CNY. the answer will be "no have, no can do". if your bank is not a building society but a "real" bank the suggestion will be "buy NDFs" (non deliverable forwards, minimum tradeable amount one million dollars).

[Naam]

The Swiss Franc (CHF); without a doubt.

...which lost ~14% vs. the US-Dollar during the last 6 weeks

loss increased to 16% today (without any doubt)

[bkkjames]

In response to the OP, my currency of choice moving forward would be fresh water. The new gold.

[johnnyk]

Rubles

[BEENTHEREDONETHAT]

I'd get a large warehouse and fill it with booze, heavy on the beer. Always a demand for that.

[VegasVic]

Currency = Sterling

Commodity = Cheese

Buzby, I hope you have a good stockpile of cheese, because Sterling just broke down below $1.65 in early asian trading

[VegasVic]

EURO!

Junki, I hope you have some cheese stored as well, the Euro is trading at $1.29 in Asia currently

[VegasVic]

In response to the OP, my currency of choice moving forward would be fresh water. The new gold.

You have the right idea, but you are about 10-15 years too early

[Moonfruit]

If only one currency, it would be SGD to answer the OPs question, however being a Brit i keep half funds in GBP, just in case the poo hits the fan and i need to bail out back to the family farm in England.

[CobraSnakeNecktie]

EURO!

Junki, I hope you have some cheese stored as well, the Euro is trading at $1.29 in Asia currently

The answer is don't own just one currency for a decade. EVERY country has interest rate cycles and understanding interest rate differentials and trend will allow an investor to avoid the periodic revaluations every currency is subject to. If a countries central bank is likely to lower interest rates and has room to lower them then lighten up on that currency because it will tend to drop in value.

Gold sounds good in principle except of course its crashing now($710) when it should be going up on future inflation risk. The inherent problem with Gold is that it's economic value is a far lower price. There is no way to trade it fundamentally because the price is not based on inventories or supply/demand. It went up recently because hedge funds etc had nowhere else to seek returns. Now the big guys are selling and the small investors are buying like suckers. When it gets down into the 600's then it looks better and in the 500's would be a good investment (10% of portfolio) and sell it if it spikes to 900/1000. Going a majority portfolio in Gold is suicidal. No yield and no fundamentals.

[bino]

I'd get a large warehouse and fill it with booze, heavy on the beer. Always a demand for that.

Good plan! I got this amising bit of joke-spam from a fiend recently:

A Financial plan to follow:

If you had purchased $1,000 of shares in Delta Airlines one year ago, you will have $49.00 today.

If you had purchased $1,000 of shares in AIG one year ago, you will have $33.00 today.

If you had purchased $1,000 of shares in Lehman Brothers one year ago, you will have $0.00 today.

But, if you had purchased $1,000 worth of beer one year ago, drank all the beer, then turned in the aluminum cans for recycling refund, you will have received $214.00.

Based on the above, the best current investment plan is to drink heavily & recycle. It is called the 401-Keg.

Edited October 29, 2008 by bino

[CPH]

I would choose USD for the coming 2 - 3 years because the US interest rate is very low (maybe 1 % from today) and can only go up from now, whereas Euro and UK interest rates are very high now and can only go down. That should lead to an increased USD.

[RAZZELL]

I would choose USD for the coming 2 - 3 years because the US interest rate is very low (maybe 1 % from today) and can only go up from now, whereas Euro and UK interest rates are very high now and can only go down. That should lead to an increased USD.

Very high?

UK are 4.5% and are likely to be cut again, possible by even 1% on November 6th.

http://www.fxstreet.com/fundamental/interest-rates-table/

RAZZ

[balo]

I would choose Norwegian Krone , because we have the oil and several billions of kroners in reserve.....

And we're not a member of EU ,that helps if you wanna be rich

[sendbaht]

Currency = US dollar........about to change my Euro (wish I had done it 2 months ago) ....then back to the Euro in 10 years give or take then back to USD...so on and so on. Two wonderful currencies.

Edited October 30, 2008 by sendbaht

[Naam]

I would choose Norwegian Krone , because we have the oil and several billions of kroners in reserve... And we're not a member of EU ,that helps if you wanna be rich

assuming present production level is kept and no new crude deposits are discovered you have no more oil in about 9 (NINE) years but breeding reindeers is supposed to be a good business. Viking raids are not allowed these days!

p.s. the "several" billions you mentioned are actually nearly worth USD 60 billions. not bad for a country which has much less inhabitants than Bangkok. but the loss because of the bankruptcy of Lehman Bros. dwarfs Norway's reserves. "everything is relative" (old Albert said).

[balo]

p.s. the "several" billions you mentioned are actually nearly worth USD 60 billions. not bad for a country which has much less inhabitants than Bangkok. but the loss because of the bankruptcy of Lehman Bros. dwarfs Norway's reserves. "everything is relative" (old Albert said).

Well yes the Norwegian politicians keeps telling me that we are very rich , the funny thing is that that the people living here don't know it.

USD 60 billion , still we have terrible roads and our hospitals are some of the worst in Europe. '

Maybe its time to start spending some of it...

Im still waiting for the big party, until that happens I prefer Thailand

Edited October 30, 2008 by balo

[Wonderboy]

I would choose Norwegian Krone , because we have the oil and several billions of kroners in reserve.....

And we're not a member of EU ,that helps if you wanna be rich

Yeah, like Iceland is really rich.

WB

[gregchambers]

You need to look at charts of the curency you are currenty in and see how it has fared over the past fifty years and then decide on a currency that has some potential use to you in the future. I did quite well on the NZD over about fifteen years, with high interest rates most of the time and a nice appreciation against the UK pound. But not sure where it is going recently, may be a buying opportunity close to their next election.

US dollars will be a disaster as they have no way of paying off their national debt other than a massive devaluation of the currency and huge inflation.

Personally, I would favour the Aussie dollar as the government has actually been generating a budget surplus but not quite yet as I think the region (inc Asia) will go down a lot more than currently, inc hopefully the Thai baht which has been absurdly strong given the political circus and economic climate (a huge increase in personal debt amongst other things).

Someone mentioned that you could not hold Swiss Francs but offshore banks have this facility so not entirely true.

[Naam]

You need to look at charts of the curency you are currenty in and see how it has fared over the past fifty years and then decide on a currency that has some potential use to you in the future. I did quite well on the NZD over about fifteen years, with high interest rates most of the time and a nice appreciation against the UK pound. But not sure where it is going recently, may be a buying opportunity close to their next election.

what appreciation pray tell?