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Be Your Own Bank 365 Days a Year
When I was young, probably 9 or 10 years old, I revered my grandfather, Dwight Meeks.A man with an 8th grade education, my grandfather was an extremely successful landlord in our little town of 16,000 people. He used to say…
“If you can learn to spend less than you make and put the difference in something that will go up over time, you’ll become rich over time.”
What was my grandfather doing? He had found a way to become his own bank. He made his money earn interest and work for him.
So after years of saving and living beneath his means, he built up some nice interest. That interest allowed him to eventually buy more than 100 rental houses in our town.
He was so well known in our little town that you would think he was the mayor. But no, this was just a smart man who learned the power of compound interest.
That way, he was working and so was his money. Most people work for money… but never have money work for them. He learned the value of doing both. It made him rich and famous (at least in our little community).
Even as a kid, I was in awe. I wanted to do the exact same thing. It took me a couple decades – but I figured it out.
A Secret My Grandfather Missed in the Currency Markets
In my early 30′s, I discovered a completely unique way to become my own bank. Up until that point in my life, I was a stock trader. So I was used to my stocks paying me quarterly dividends four times a year.
But in my 30′s, I learned about the currency market and how you could earn “daily interest” through your Forex account on currency trades.
I was fascinated. I’d never heard of anyone earning DAILY interest except for my bank.
If fact, after I heard this, I assumed this meant I could earn interest on each business day (5 days a week). But no! It was even better. With currency trading, I could earn interest seven days a week!
It’s a little-known fact in the currency market, but you can earn what’s called “rollover interest” on certain high-yielding currencies. All you have to do is hold these currency pairs overnight. Then your FX dealer pays you for holding these pairs.
I couldn’t believe it. This was simply amazing. How many investment strategies let you earn income every 24 hours that’s paid out five times a week? Not many.
Let me explain how it works…
The Nuts and Bolts of Being Your Own Bank
All you have to do is open up a Forex account with one of the brokers like FXCM, DBFX, Forex, etc. You can do this online through their websites.
Once you’ve funded your account… all you have to do is buy a high interest bearing currency vs. a low interest bearing currency.
For instance, the Australian dollar earns about 4.75% and the U.S. dollar earns less than 0.25%. So buy buying the AUD/USD pair, you’re earning 4.75% but only paying out 0.25% of that. So you’re netting roughly 4.50% on the position just from the interest differential alone.
Even better, you’re earning interest not on the amount you put down on the trade, but on the large position you’re controlling with your trade.
While you may only have a few hundred dollars of your money tied up in a $10,000 trade (by buying 1 mini lot), you’re earning interest on the position as if you owned the entire $10,000 position outright. Yet it only took a few hundred dollars in your account to control that position.
Now that’s exciting… putting up a few hundred dollars to earn interest on $10,000. I’ll do that all day long!
With most of the major economies yielding 1% or lower, the clear leaders in the “yield game” are Australia and New Zealand. They stand out above the rest.
Japan, Switzerland and the U.S. are the lowest yielders to pair against these high yielders. And with the distinct downtrend in the dollar, it’s made it the number one candidate.
When the Cash Register Rings Each Day
Okay, so you open your account online and you fund your account (via wire, credit or debit card, etc.). Then you’ve bought your first interest bearing pair… for instance, AUD/USD.
So when do you starting getting interest delivered to your account? This will happen at the end of each international trading day, which is at 5pm EST.
Your firm takes a snapshot of your account at 5pm EST. If you’re still holding the position at that time, then your account will be credited with that day’s interest on your position usually within the next hour or two.
It’s at that moment that you’ve just become the bank.
Imagine earning interest 365 days a year like a bank. When you sleep, you’re earning interest. When you’re on vacation, you’re earning interest. When you’re working… so is your money, at the same time.
Once you allow the interest to stack up over the course of a year or two, you’ll start to realize why some call “compound interest” the 8th wonder of the world.
Have a Nice Day,
Sean Hyman
Editor, Currency Cross Trader
P.S. This is really just one income opportunity that’s open to currency investors. At this May’s Global Currency Expo, we will introduce at least two other ways that long-term investors can rack up 6%, 7% even 10% interest on your foreign currency holdings. In case you haven’t heard, the Global Currency Expo is our biggest currency event of the year – with 28 international currency experts on site. Seats for this event are already going fast. So please by all means, reserve your seat today while you still can. Click here for more details.
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A bit oversimplified in my opinion.
Yes you receive the intrest. But you also bare the risk of the position losing value. So the real return is the interest received minus or plus the gain/loss unrealised.
This is a carry trade. Depending on the leverage used you can lose your capital overnight if you would let the position open without a stop loss.
Sean,
What is the risk of trading pairs of currencies like you mention above? It sounds like a great idea, I am just wondering what the worst case scenario could be using that amount of leverage. Thanks.
Mike
Hi Mike,
Sean includes the risk within each forex recommendation, which is generally about 2%-5% of your account per trade. The trades are leveraged but the stop-losses ensure you won’t lose more than you have planned to if the trade works against you.
Sarah
The Global Currency Expo likely will teach investors critical timely info; however, not all of us can get away for this event.
Can you make available the meat at a fair price, so that we can get on with currency investing while we’re still working?
Sure hope you’re able to assist in this need!
Thanks!
Ken Roberts
kamr1@hotmail.com