Author Archives: Dave

Lesson One – don’t gamble with FX rates

Posted on by

Today I learnt a lesson in FX trading. Don’t try your luck. I’d been holding out to see if the rate will increase over the last few days. It did. But when do you stop holding out? Reading the news suggests one thing, the market does another. I put a nice buy point in at which to book a trade, missed by about 0.001, and then the market has slipped continually since. So I waited and rebooked at a much lower rate, only to miss out by an equally small amount as the GBP USD fell again.

Brilliant.

I ended up simply ringing the broker and booking it, fed up of gambling and guessing. This is a house purchase after all.

Total difference in the rates and the amount I was transferring came to about 1,500 dollars.

Consider this a lesson learnt, Mr FX. Ouch.

 

GBP USD house buying thoughts, oh and some Florida golf

Posted on by

As we move nearer to our closing date at the end of this year, everything heats up. We move our deposit to the wrong account and end up chasing it halfway across the world, the GBP USD rate is volatile due to decisions that the bank of England and the US fiscal cliff looming, but we look to be in a strong position. I’m not a betting man so we’re due to book a trade in the next 24hrs. After which I will never look at the rates again!

We’ve been window shopping for the house; new TV, some furniture, and sheets will help a lot. The rest of the villa is in great condition so we will see how it goes. We’re only really dipping toes at the moment.

I’ll definitely have to take up golf. There are numerous world class courses near us in Florida and it would be a waste not to go for a round or three.

Sunny Tuscan Ridge in Florida – we miss you!

Posted on by

So, the new web site is generally up and running. We’re missing a few Tuscan Ridge villa and pool photos down to me not taking enough when we viewed the house, but other than that I think the site is generally ready to expose our villa to the world wide web and its inhabitants! I would love some feedback, so if you’ve experienced issues or have some comments or thoughts on how to improve it, please let us know. I hear it’s sunny in Florida, again. My wife and I are missing Mickey Mouse and company!

Tuscan Ridge Community

Posted on by

Our villa is tucked away at the bottom of the Tuscan Ridge community. There are two sides to Tuscan Ridge – the Village and Countryside. We’re on the Countryside side, which sounds nice but we never ventured to the other side!

 

The community boasts a scenic entrance; perfect after a long flight to Orlando airport and battling against customs and their strange double bag drop effort. You drop down hill to a roundabout (!) and hang a left into Countryside. A couple of turns past palm trees and the community tennis court gets you on to Barbera Drive (not pronounced like Barbara). Past some more palm trees and other lovely houses brings you to our villa.

It’s a cosy, friendly, neighbourly community. A nice mix of people and houses that are all well maintained. Tucked away, our villa looks out across to some huge old pine trees, with only one other villa to impede the view to the trees. It’s very open and a fantastic wide plot, and the east and south facing pool mean that in the winter months you still get all the sun – especially since there’s no gable end roof to block the light. This makes all the difference.

Book now and you won’t be disappointed!

GBP strong against USD

Posted on by

As we wait for the villa survey to complete, inspecting for pesky woodworm, rogue pests, and various structural problems, I can’t help notice that the GBP is nice and strong against the USD. Of course, now that I have written this it will plummet.  Once the survey says “yes you have bought a wonderful house that will last for years and has an indestructible self cleaning pool” then I can look forward to booking a trade with the FX Firm close to the 1.62 point. Strangely, the cash will fly over all the way to the USA only to come wheeling back a month later. The middle men won’t complain.

At least the banks with their huge markup (FX spread) won’t get their grubby hands on my hard earned (read remortgaged) money. 1.55 is a good rate? That would lose me over 9,000 USD!