Euro - buy now or wait till June

[BAKERS DOZEN]

Now that France's credit rating has been downgraded how will this affect tourist rates. Should we buy now or wait until the summer? Oh for the days when we got 1.46 to the pound. It's about 1.17/1.18 at the moment.

[DTCwordfan]

How many £s are you investing?

[BAKERS DOZEN]

£2500 at least as going away in June and September

[DTCwordfan]

well talking around on this yesterday, don't do a thing for a week - lot of people thinking that it may improve to circa 1.25 quickly and then stabilise around that if the Euro fundamentals can hold, otherwise a gradual slide.

As to your tactics, you may want to go in with half in a week to two weeks time and take advantage of that and keep the rest ofr changing later, being ready to move if the Euro weakens further or shjows sign of a signifcant imporovement. Reading around though, favours sterling and dollars.

[rojash]

Whatever you do, it's a total gamble. If S&P's were to downgrade UK debt (which would be quite logical, given that they've downgraded France, which is actually in a stronger position than the UK), then the pound could fall against the Euro. On the other hand, if Greece were to default (which seems increasing likely, given that talks with private lenders have collapsed) then the Euro would plunge against the pound.

As far as I can see, even the best financial minds in the world can't reliably predict what the situation will be in June.

[rojash]

I'd go with Crossword, and hang fire for a week - possibly a fortnight. But if the pound rises to reasonable extent, I'd bang straight in, because if the Euro falls dramatically, I suspect that the pound will fall to at least some extent, shortly after.

As I've said though - it's all a bit of a gamble.

[Sqad]

I agree with DT.......I cannot the Euro strengthening in the next six months....I would guess £ to euro at something like 1.25 by the summer.

[BAKERS DOZEN]

Many thanks lads. I'm good at spending it but not so good at understanding it! Will watch it carefully over the next week or so.

[Mattk]

It has been slightly creeping up over the last few months and I mean slightly!
Visit xe.com and on there you can see current rates but also history to track its slow path of increase.

[factor-fiction]

For £2500 I don't think it's worth worrying about the timing. Despite all the issues around the Euro the rates have been pretty stable. I doubt it will change more than 2% up or down over the next 6 months- that would represent a profit/loss of no more than £50.
It's very difficult to speculate on these things. If the experts knew what would happen to rates their knowledge would largely have been factored into the price already

[DTCwordfan]

£2500 @1.20 = 3000 Euros

£2500 @1.25 = 3125

£2500 @ 1.30 = 3250

Though Factor is correct, there's a little gain to be had.....the question is whether we can decouple ourselves from the effect of the Euro and the indication in the last 24 hours is that we can't.....also underpinned that we may have to throw more money into the pot.

[d9f1c7]

I wouldn't buy them at any price, they'lll be worthless once this whole sorry edifice comes tumbling down. As for S&P I cannot understant how they get the time of day with their involvement in the financial crisis, complete shower if you ask me, so are the other rating outfits. Clueless.

[spudqueen]

You might not buy them at any price d9f1c7, but personally I am going abroad, to a country in the Euro zone, in a months time, and I would like some spending money whilst I am there! So I will definitely be buying some Euros, but like many people, it's a question of when.