Reply #40: Buying foreign currencies??

[MattSh]

1) Well, investing in Euros directly isn't as easy as it should be. Most banks cannot help you here. The only US bank I'm aware of that has accounts that can be held in Euros is Everbank.

http://www.everbank.com/main.asp?affid=eb

2) Another option is the Euro EFT (exchange traded fund), available through brokerages. Symbol FXE.

San Francisco, CA (OPENPRESS) January 12, 2006 -- The world of Exchange Traded Funds continues to expand into uncharted territory. Rydex Investments has launched the first Currency ETF. Each share of the ETF will represent 100 euros plus accrued interest. In this way an investor can gain when the Euro gains in price as well as accruing interest while the fund is held. Of course this would be true if the investor was long the fund. Exchange Traded Funds trade like stocks so if an investor believes the Euro is about to take a drop, the investor could short this fund like a stock is shorted. Each share of the trust represents 100 Euros.

http://www.theopenpress.com/index.php?a=press&id=6843

3) A third option is the PowerShares DB G10 Currency Harvest Fund,” also available through brokerages. Symbol DBV.

DBV buys the three highest-yielding currencies in the world from a list of 10 major currencies, and sells short the three lowest-yielding ones.

The 10 currencies are all from stable countries. They are: U.S. dollars, Japanese yen, Canadian dollars, Swiss francs, British pounds, Australian dollars, New Zealand dollars, Norwegian krone, Swedish krona, and euros.

4) You can also invest in gold, silver, and other precious metals, if you're into that. Either by buying the metals directly, or via an EFT, or even a group like GoldMoney.