JAN.
As with most things in life, nothing is certain. However, Theresa May’s government still appear to be certain that the UK will leave the EU on the 29th March despite the insistence of many MP’s that there should be an extension to Article 50 or even a second referendum; the UK’s Prime Minister is living up to the description uttered by veteran Conservative MP Ken Clarke that she is indeed ‘a bloody difficult woman’.
This lady’s not for turning. Anything can happen in the next 67 days, yet given the precedent set so far, you would have to conclude that Brexit will be completed by then, whatever the consequences.
People hate uncertainty. The Government have so far resisted the temptation to keep pushing things to the back burner. This determination will probably be viewed kindly in the history books. A clean and quick rip of the band-aid might just be what the doctor ordered. The longer the thing rumbles on, the longer the pain will last.
What does this mean for currency and the money in your pocket?
It would be a fool who gave you any definitive answers to this question. There will no doubt be volatility in the forex markets as the crunch time draws closer and in the immediate aftermath. If you are concentrating hard there may be short windows of opportunity for you to grab a great deal on any currencies that you’re looking to purchase in the coming few months.
Whilst the narrative is skewed towards pessimism and doubt, it could well be the case that Sterling grows stronger after Brexit leaving you wishing you had left it a little later than you had planned to buy holiday money. We’re not in the advice business so all we advise is to lock in a currency when you feel it is at a rate that is good for you. All we can do is concentrate on providing the best currency delivery service focused on the needs of our customers.
Happy Brexiting.
JAN.
Holidaymakers are often caught out with bad deals when they’re getting ready to travel as they usually leave it until the last minute to get their cash. This means that they can get stung as markets shift rapidly in the high summer months due what traders call their “sell in May then go away” strategy of cashing in their portfolios for the year, which then leads to high price swings.
Currency Online Group found that early January is usually calm in the currency markets with political and economic events yet to get back up to their normal pace. This doesn’t mean that January is when currency rates are at their most positive for buyers, but it does mean anyone looking to buy a large amount of foreign currency later in the year won’t be stung by falling rates suddenly as they prepare for their trip .
Some more focused travellers wait for the markets to move more and buy when the Euro rate goes highly in their favour, for example. However, this can be a very high risk strategy as knowing when this will happen is very difficult to predict, especially as Brexit heads towards its conclusion.
The reason that buying currency in the summer months is normally so unpredictable is because most people in North America and Europe are on holiday, this leads to less trading and therefore big price swings.
Currency Online Group CEO, Paul Brewer, said “The currency market can be very volatile but we were intrigued to know what, on average, was the best day of the year for our customers to buy currency. It turns out that January is the best month, with the 7th being the best day to buy historically. Summer is our busy time but travellers shouldn’t necessarily leave it to the last minute as you can never second guess what way the market is going to move so we advise our customers to buy early when they know what their travel plans are”.