So don't invest in currencies?
I don't know if I trust people's opinions on here but I'll try again. Maybe reiterate the question a little bit better.
Okay so if I go to my local mall, invest 500.00 of American money into a country that is a very low currency level. What if I feel this country's economy is going back up? I could hide the money in a safe in my house. I wouldn't worry about the whole banking foreign money issue.( because I know that's not possible )
Update:What? The mall has a currency exchange.
Answers & Comments
Verified answer
JoeyV's comments are correct even if you don't like his answer. A few additional thoughts:
1) Mall forex kiosks usually have very few choices; euro, pound, yen, CAD, peso.
2) Mall kiosk spreads are likely to be 5% or more both buying and selling, plus a fee for each transaction. That makes it very hard to profit.
3) Bank spreads would be lower, but still pretty bad for an investment.
4) Please avoid Iraqi dinar and Vietnamese dong. These are just promoted by scammers.
5) Don't believe scammer hype about forex robots or expert advisors.
Novices almost always lose in forex and penny stocks. "Get rich quick" investment schemes never work. You need to lose that mentality to have any chance at success.
Invest in real companies or mutual funds and you have a reasonable chance at a long term profit.
OK - you know less about currency investing than you do about equity investing.
1) What's a "very low currency level"?
2) You don't exchange currency at the mall - have you looked to see what the spread is? It's gigantic. You trade currencies on FX trading sites or in futures contracts or interbank forward contracts or currency swaps or...
3) You dont put cash in a safe when you trade currencies - you invest the currency you get so at least you get interest on it. Your chances of picking a currency that will outgain some other currency when you throw away interest is pretty small.
4) Currency doesn't necessarily appreciate because the "country's economy is going up". Japan's currency has been appreciating against just about every currency in the world for 20 years and Japan's economy stinks. Currencies appreciate because of money demand, monetary policy, interest rate parity, and a variety of other effects.
5) I doubt your opinion of a country's future economic growth is worth anything.
Buying other currencies is NOT investing - it is speculating - and if you don't know the difference you should not be doing either.
Currencies are fine to invest in, but you have to know what you are doing and use a reputable place.