Forex Analysis

Forex analysis is made on many levels of the forex market. Many are familiar with the research that their own brokerage releases, but don’t know of the other sources for great forex research.

Investment banks and brokerages hire currency analysts continuously from the ranks of new MBA’s and students with mathematically oriented other higher level degrees, such as Master’s in Finance.

These people primarily make forex predictions and analyses for their dealing room’s clients, but some of the research material is available to the public. Much of this analysis is based on fundamental analysis (which is normally a very labor intensive approach), but almost all the big investment firms have a technical analyst in their research team.

The situation is reversed for small brokerages that produce, if any, research that takes primarily technical analysis approach. The reason behind this is that technical analysis can be automated to a high extend, while fundamental analysis normally cannot be.

Forex Analysis – Academic Resources

Some let these resources go untouched because many of the research results are not directly applicable to forex trading and market analysis. However, the best hedge funds, brokerages and investors periodically keep on eye on new research results, as these sources sometimes provide the “missing pieces” on developing new trading systems, for example.

Fortunately for all investors, the academic forex analysis has been systematically been transferred to the Internet.

The most popular online source for currency related academic research is Social Science Research Network (ssrn.com). This source combines hundreds of the best research articles that have been published in academic journals, such as Journal of Finance, or are submitted directly to the database as working papers.

Forex Analysis – Brokerages

The brokerage’s research teams work on forex market analysis to provide unique insights for the company’s traders, client dealers, and company’s clients across the board from debt origination to initial public offerings. This reflects the range at which financial products can be denominated in a foreign currency and thus require FX expertise.

Unfortunately, the most valuable research from brokerages is usually reserved for the clientele of the company. However, many brokerages continuously use free research papers as an incentive to keep in touch with the company or to get to know the company better.

Here is an exemplary list of major forex brokerages that offer occasional free forex analysis (sometimes in economic review form) research papers:

• Goldman Sachs (gs.com)
• Bank of America (bankofamerica.com)
• CIBC (research.cibcwm.com)
• BMO Nesbitt Burns (nesbittburns.com)
• Prudential Securities (prudential.com)