Silver dips as path muddled

Silver prices fell today as it engaged in sideways trading on waning demand for the safe haven and as the path forward remained unclear as investors wait for more clues regarding the global economic conditions. 

Silver last traded at $15.14 an ounce, down from the opening price of $15.20, with an intraday low at $15.00, and a high at $15.32, while silver rose yesterday to a session-high at $15.56.

Silver's current losses come as demand weakens for the safe haven in the markets as investors remain undecided, while gold on the other hand rose conversely. 

Silver's woes today come despite the sliding dollar against major rivals, following mixed U.S. data. The dollar's weakness would've have otherwise buoyed the silver according to their inverse relation.

Dollar's current tepidness comes after earlier mixed U.S. data which added to the investors' confusion over the outlook of the American economy. 

The dollar index, which measures the greenback versus a basket of major rivals, fell to a session-low at 97.27 from the opening level of 97.49, with a high at 97.71, while last trading at 97.38, which comes after the index hit a three-week high yesterday at 97.90. 

African hoteliers confident as commodities dip

GLOBAL REPORT—When commodity prices fall, the economies of Africa are expected to suffer 

because those countries have spent the last decade betting on resources to spur their economies.

Hoteliers, however, are confident that a burgeoning middle class, increased growth in manufacturing and services sectors and improved airlift and tourism will help realize their development plans for the continent, according to sources. Countries that do not depend on commodities to shore up the bulk shares of their gross domestic products will do better, though, and might be better candidates for hotel development. 

In a 13 January webinar hosted by business consultancy Deloitte and titled “Global economy: An edgy start to 2016,” its chief economist Ian Stewart underlined that view.

“Particularly in East Africa … in economies like Tanzania or Uganda or Ethiopia, those which are not heavily resource-dependent, actually, growth rates still look pretty good,” Stewart said, “and I think that if you’re looking at the world economy, some of the strongest growth rates are probably going to be seen in those non-resource economies.”

Hoteliers remain positive and believe the dip in commodity prices will not have a disastrous effect on Africa, according to Neil George, SVP of acquisitions and development at Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide.

“You would think that would be the case, as there are a number of economies heavily dependent on commodities and Chinese money,” George said. “There is some shaky ground. Not all is rosy, but if I look at our pipeline, none to date have fallen over because of that.” 

Starwood has 18 African hotels in its pipeline, including five properties in Nigeria, one in Tanzania and one in South Sudan, the world’s newest nation.

Go in now
Some hoteliers see the present as the ideal time to build in Africa, but they admit some countries’ business landscapes have been muddied by political intervention. Dillip Rajakarier, CEO of Thailand-based Minor Hotel Group, cited Mozambique as an example.

“It’s a good time to do development now, I feel, although of course you can see in 20-20 vision in hindsight,” Rajakarier said. “Mozambique’s currency has taken a huge devaluation, some 40%, and the main reason for that is that Mozambique has a huge reserve of gas and oil. What happened there was that the governmet put in restrictions and upset investors, who left, but the government is under pressure to get these investors back, and they will come back. 

“We expect things to get better there and in other African economies by (the second or third quarter of 2016), and we need to ride the wave until then.” 

Rajakarier said his Avani Pemba Beach Hotel & Spa in Pemba, Mozambique, which opened in 2014, opened 80 serviced apartments in 2015.

“We’d seen rooms selling for $7,000 per month,” he said. “We thought, that’s fantastic, so we added 80 serviced apartments, but once they were completed, everyone left, and we’re now trading at approximately 35% occupancy. Still, here, too, we’re confident it will come back.”

Angola is another African country heavily dependent on commodities, according to sources.

“Angola has continued its strategic expansion of hotels driven by partnerships … (and) the demand for hotels is dependent on the political and economic climate,” said Selim El Zein, associate director and head of hotel asset management, hotels and resorts of the Middle East and North Africa for Colliers International.

“However, there has been a concerted effort to diversify into tourism … the government is working towards that aim,” El Zein added.

The cost of building on the continent is another problem, sources said.

Wayne Troughton, CEO of HTI Consulting, said he was being cautious on Africa this year.

“Certain markets are very costly to develop hotels, and these costs will rise,” Troughton said, who added that much development capital was inbound capital.

The main contributor is China, sources said, which is undergoing its own shaky start to the year.

Elie Younes, Carlson Rezidor’s SVP and head of group development for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, said a huge amount of Chinese money has been invested in mining commodities in China. How Chinese money continues to be invested given the country’s economy will be interesting to watch, Younes said.

“I will not be surprised if there is less heavy exposure, but where the Chinese might be a little less involved, emerging players such as Turkey and Arabic Africa are increasing their investment,” Younes said.

Younes said his company is buoyed by the continent’s steady progress in service industries, but the hotel industry needs to look at improving the labor market in Africa.

In 2015, Carlson Rezidor signed properties in Togo and Republic of Congo, among other destinations.

10 binary Options Tips

Trading binary options boils down to simply choosing if an asset will finish higher or lower than when the trade started. You must decide whether to choose PUT or Call. How do you decide? We have included some helpful binary options tips that will help you make that all important decision. While these tips are not a guarantee of instant success they will help you fine tune your trading skills and highlight some of the common pit falls.


There are many ways to succeed as a Binary Options Trader and these 10 binary options Trading Tips will help you make a "good" start to your trading career or point out some bad habits if you already have some Trading experience.


binary options broker -trading binary options -trade binary options -options trading for dummies -binary options advice -binary option tips -binary option trading tips -binary options trading tips -binary trading tips -binary options trading brokers -best binary options broker


1. Understand the binary Options Market and Trading Tools
Don’t just jump in and randomly choose PUT or Call. This is simply gambling and at best you will win some trades by pure chance. Instead learn all you can about how this market works and the products that are available from brokers.


2. Choose a Reputable binary Options Broker
Look for a broker with a wide choice of assets and a high rate of payout. If you have a preference for a particular market check that your chosen broker offers trades on this. Choose a broker with a demo system so that you can fully check out their platform and get comfortable with their interface before making any live trades. There are many new brokers appearing on the market every day, while they may be great brokers they will be largely unproven and will not yet have gained a reputation (good or bad). It is advised to go with the established and proven brokers who have had time to prove themselves.

3. Learn How to Trade
This may seem obvious but many new traders get so caught up in the exciting prospect of earning large amounts of money that they skip this step. They jump in without fully understanding how to trade and lose their funds. It is important to take advantage of the broker’s demo system and practice trading and check out any strategies that you may consider using when live trading. In fact many experienced traders use demo systems to check new strategies and techniques.

4. Research the Markets and Implement a Strategy
Successful traders research their assets well, keeping up to date with any news that is likely to affect their asset price and keep an eye on an Economic Calendar, checking what events are coming up that may cause the asset price to rise or fall. In addition, they use proven strategies that work for them. Trading without research or reliable binary options trading strategy is a sure way to lose more trades than you win and your broker will love you!


5. Choose Assets Wisely
Pick one of the more common assets available to trade. There will be much analysis and news available for the more common assets and they tend to be discussed in-depth in forums and other online sources. Avoid the less common assets unless it is one that you already are familiar with and comfortable making predictions on its movements.


6. Practice on a Demo System
As already stated ask for access to the brokers demo system and check that it is a fully interactive system and not just a series of slides and graphics. Most brokers will insist that you make a deposit before allowing access to their demo systems but if you are serious about trading you will be making a deposit when you get started so this should not be an issue for you. Give yourself time to get to know the system fully and to practice trading and using your strategy.


7. Manage Your Money and Your Risks
There is a saying “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket” and this is true for traders too. You should never risk too much of your capital on one trade, many traders never risk more than 5% of their capital on a single trade. If it goes wrong they will still have a sizable portion of their capital available to continue and can recover quickly.


8. Consider trading One-Hour binary Options
Avoid very long-term Binary Options until you are more experienced. It is difficult to accurately predict where an asset price will be in one month. Instead trade One-Hour Options where you can more accurately predict the closing asset price from analysis, research, upcoming economic events and news stories. In addition, this can be a quick way to profit. If the market is trending in a particular direction you may consider using 60-Second Options to take advantage of the trend and maximise your profits.


9. Sign Up for binary Options Signals
Signal providers will issue you with their predictions on a regular basis. If the signal provider has a high winning ratio this makes sense as they will have carried out expensive research and analysis prior to releasing the signal. However, they do not always predict correctly but good ones win more than lose.


10. Don’t Expect to get Rich Quick
Some traders just want to earn some extra cash from a couple of hours work per week while others make a great living by putting in a lot of hard work and extra effort. Be realistic


trading online -online stock trading -online trading -online options trading -options trading online -online binary options trading -binary options trading online -trade binary online

Binary Options Demo Accounts

Binary Options Demo Accounts Whether you are new to Binary Options trading or an experienced investor a Binary Options demo account is a valuable resource. Don’t be tempted to just jump in and start live trading immediately. Take the time to have a good look around the demo system and practice your strategies. This approach will help to increase your success rate and lessen the chances of making costly mistakes. binary trading -binary options demo account -binary option demo account -binary options demo account free -free binary options demo account -demo account binary options -binary demo account New traders and especially people trading for the first time should ask for access to their chosen brokers’ demo system once they have signed up. Most brokers will require an initial deposit before giving access to a demo account but usually this is refundable should you decide not to continue with this broker. Check the terms and conditions to see their policy on demo accounts. Make sure that the broker has a tradable demo account and not just a flash or video overview of how their system works. You want to be able to simulate a real live trade to firstly get comfortable with their platform and to check how your strategy for your chosen asset works. 



Experienced traders should make use of demo facilities when available to get familiar with a new platform and to test out new strategies. Some experienced traders use demo systems when working with assets that they haven’t traded before just to see if they can get a positive result before investing their own capital. Some brokers place a time restriction on the availability to the demo system which is of little use if your requirement is to test out a new strategy. Having access to a demo system for one day is not what you need if you want to test a strategy thoroughly. If you cannot get longer access then you need to have an alternative means of testing out strategies such as using METATrader4, choosing an asset and setting your own expiry time. You can then test your strategies multiple times at your own convenience and see if they work for you. binary trading demo account -binary options practice account -binary options trading demo account -binary options account When starting to trade Binary Options or changing broker don’t just jump in and start live trading. Use the demo if one is available. Otherwise you may make mistakes being unfamiliar with the trading platform or unfamiliar with how Binary Options trades work. Not using a demo and not checking your strategies is akin to gambling and rather than rely on luck it is far better to rely on your own judgement and skill to predict which way an asset will move. options demo account -free demo binary options -binary options demo account without deposit -practice binary options trading Use the Binary Options demo as you would a live system, checking the technical and fundamental analysis of the asset you want to trade, see if there are any events on an economic calendar that will have an effect on your chosen asset while you wait for the trade to expire. This will also allow you to evaluate any strengths and weaknesses of the platform and see if it is right for you. At least if you make mistakes they will not cost you.