February 21, 2024 • 28 mins
Welcome to episode #9 of RealtyCast Global – a global connection to all things real estate, hosted by Hugh Gilliam, president of Global Property Pros.
Discover the secrets to unlocking the potential of your international property investments with the help of currency exchange maestro, Christian Assal from Currencies Direct. Together, we peel back the layers of how exchange rates could be the silent arbiter of your real estate success or setback. Learn how steering clear of conventional banking routes for your currency conversions could mean pocketing more profits, and get Christian's invaluable tips on navigating the unpredictable tides of the foreign exchange market, especially in the wake of impactful economic events.
Venture ahead with us into the labyrinth of Bitcoin's volatile valuation. We'll also share our bold predictions on the evolution of online trading platforms, mobile app innovations, and how blockchain technology is setting the stage for a financial revolution. Christian's foresight into the regulatory future of cryptocurrencies and our discussion on state-of-the-art trading tools will arm you with the knowledge to thrive in the era of digital investment. Tune in for an episode that offers a comprehensive guide through the complex world of currencies, commodities, and the future of investing.
Visit blog.realtyhive.com for more details on this episode.
About the guest - Christian Assal:
Christian Assal is the Business Development Exec with Currencies Direct, a premier option for clients to exchange their currency securely and effortlessly. We offer better rates of exchange compared to bank transfers and have multiple routes for clients to choose from, with one of the top foreign exchange firms in the industry to ensure risk mitigation. This service allows you and your clients to keep focus on the excitement of buying a beautiful property, all while knowing Currencies Direct has the transfers handled from first contact to closing.
We also have a free affiliate program designed specifically for agents and their teams, enabling your clients to take advantage of our exchange rates saving them large amounts of money when transferring funds internationally. We also provide updates to you and title companies of transfer confirma
About the host - Hugh Gilliam:
Hugh Gilliam co-owned a national transportation company, created a land development business, and worked as a general contractor in residential and commercial construction for over two decades. Hugh also co-founded an international distribution company and successfully negotiated and contracted with 135 sales representatives in the United States, Canada, France, Brazil, Japan, and the Netherlands.
Today, Mr. Gilliam is affiliated with RealtyHive, LLC where he serves as Director of International Real Estate and President of Global Property Pros. His duties include involvement in commercial and residential transactions, plus promoting marketing systems and lead generation platforms.
For real estate professionals looking to take their business to the next level, check out Global Property Pros!
He is also co-founder of the luxury digital magazine, DOORWAYS INTERNATIONAL, powered by RealtyHive, which serves as a platform for Brokers and Buyers throughout 70 countries.
Hugh's Designations Include:
- Certified Luxury Home Marketing Specialist
- Certified Distressed Property Export
- Certified International Property Specialist
- Certified International Investment & Immigration Specialist
- Transnational Referral Cer
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Hugh Gilliam (00:01):
Welcome to Realtycast Global, where we
bring insights and advice fromtop professionals in the global
market.
Join us for a journey ofculture and real estate from
countries across the globe.
I'd like to introduce my guesttoday, Christian Assal, with
Currencies Direct, and ourprogram is going to be about
(00:23):
purchasing properties in foreigncountries and the exchange rate
between the country's currencyand your own currency and how
that can greatly impact theentire amount of money that
you're spending.
And, Christian, it's good tohave you today and I hope we can
clear up some of these thingsabout the exchange rates and how
(00:46):
that affects the individualinvestor.
And I know that you're with agreat company and if you would
first tell us a little bit aboutyour company and then we'll get
into some of the issues that wemay be facing when we do make
those investments overseas, yeah, absolutely.
Christian Assal (01:05):
It's a pleasure , thank you for having me.
So Currencies Direct we're aforeign exchange and
international transfer company.
Our whole spiel is we undercutbanks, provide far better rates
of exchange for clients just tomake sure their dollars, or
whatever their end currency isgoing to be if they're buying
abroad, is going to be maximized, as the banks typically have
(01:27):
rather high margins that theytake on currencies as well as
transfer fees, wire fees, allthese different fees included
with the margin.
It's not your friend.
So companies like ours thatstray away from the brick and
mortar style banks platform.
We were brought out of need ofthe industry just because
(01:49):
there's so much money not beingcounted for.
We can save clients tens ofthousands of dollars in some
cases on just the transfer withno additional steps or anything
of the sort and faster deliverytimes.
So we'll definitely be able totalk more about it.
Get in detail with some ofthese questions going on.
Hugh Gilliam (02:08):
Okay, thank you, thank you, and I think it's
going to be very insightful tounderstand that element of a
transaction, because it's trulya major part of the transaction,
christian today.
How does the current globaleconomic climate impact foreign
exchange markets and whatfactors should the investor
(02:31):
consider when making currencytrades?
Christian Assal (02:34):
Absolutely, Very good question.
So I mean there's multiplefactors that are going on.
We have the changes in interestrates, banks, policies, certain
economic data that can reallygo ahead and change what's going
on in the market.
With some countries havingstrengthening dollars, pounds,
euros, some other countriescould be really weakening.
(02:58):
So it's important to find theresistance lines and support
lines, just kind of know whatyou're looking at for the future
, where your trade is going togo.
Economic growth is a majorcontributor to the global
economic climate.
Geopolitical events there's anumber of these things that can
really determine where therate's going to be moving in the
(03:20):
short term, as well as the longterm.
The factors that investorsshould use when considering
currency trades.
It's going to be your economicindicators, such as GDP,
inflation, employment data, justname a few.
We have political developments,such as geopolitical risk, some
(03:40):
big words that once you Googlethem, you could really kind of
get a look into what they meanas well as how they can affect
it, because there is someresearch that would be good to
be involved with, as well ashaving people just kind of to
advise you on what's going on aswell, if you're busy, if it's
(04:01):
not your market, having afriendly hand just to help you
with the decisions and timing.
It's a very crucial role.
Yeah, I hope that kind ofcovers it.
Hugh Gilliam (04:14):
Well, it does, and what it tells me is it's a
critical situation there to havean expert involved in that
transaction so that you knowmoment by moment what's
happening, because I mean Idon't think I could do all the
research necessary to figure itout, so we need a professional
(04:34):
there helping pushes in theright direction and save the
money, because I heard you saytens of thousands of dollars
could be spent.
Christian Assal (04:46):
Absolutely.
It's a very realisticpossibility.
We could really with some banksthey all have different kind of
margins that they're looking toplace on transfers because
they're just so well known asthe first place you'd think to
make these transfers that whenwe can save a client three, four
, maybe even five percent ontheir overall transfer when
(05:07):
you're looking at property, it'snot hard to believe.
On the transfer of about amillion dollars for a property,
it's a very realistic thing.
It happens every day,especially internationally, that
if we're able to save you fivepercent on a million dollar
transfer, you're looking atsaving about fifty thousand
dollars.
So it can really stack up to bequite a massive amount.
(05:30):
My easy way of kind of talkingabout it is we can end up
getting you the property, yourdream home, your property, as
well as the jet ski at the sametime, maybe even a couple.
So it adds quite the excitement.
Hugh Gilliam (05:45):
That's great.
I like the way you put that.
You can have a little pleasureleft over at the end of this
transaction money to buypleasurable items with.
Okay, with the rise of thecryptocurrency and blockchain
technology, how do you see thefuture of the foreign exchange
market evolving and what impactdo you think this will have on
(06:09):
the traditional currencies?
Christian Assal (06:12):
Yeah, so that's definitely a two-parter.
I'll try and answer both ofthem the best I can.
I mean, with the rise ofcryptocurrency and blockchain
technology, it's creating newopportunities every day for
investors, for people lookingfor cross-border solutions that
really can provide someprecision, some clarity, take
(06:35):
away some of the costs that areincurred with doing these
transfers as well, as it iscreating challenges in the
market as well, especially theFX market.
It's definitely coming to becompetition Cryptocurrency I'm
not an expert in that.
We typically our company.
We specialize in fiat currency.
(06:55):
I don't see any appetite for usto start moving towards crypto,
but I do have a little bit ofknowledge towards it.
Cryptocurrency it's a very goodtool.
If you can make a work, if youhave the research and the
knowledge on it, you can getfaster and cheaper cross-border
payments, which is massive.
It is a massive benefit toclients.
(07:15):
There is greater transparencyand security in transactions.
Blockchain technology is a verygood technology, whereas,
rather than have a ledger ofdifferent transactions going
through, it's about the same,but these transactions tend to
stack on one another.
(07:36):
Once your transaction has gonethrough, then it stays cemented
because everything layers on topof it.
There's no way to really adjustanything.
Once it's done, everything isvery crystal clear.
I believe blockchain technologyhas a lot of integration that
will be done in the next 10years, especially just because
(07:57):
it is such a transparent, a good, very well-rounded system that
one I think there would be moreintegration.
As opposed to cryptocurrency asa whole, it'll be a lot quicker
.
There's just the rise of cryptoas well as blockchain technology
.
It's increasing access toglobal markets for individuals
(08:18):
and businesses, companies likeours.
We're very good at what we cando.
We specialize in about 42different currencies all over
the world.
We've got some of the safehaven currencies, we've got some
exotic, but really there aregoing to be some countries we
can't help.
That's due to financialregulations.
We do have regulators that wehave to appease at all times and
(08:39):
we can't go outside of our role.
There are countries that aretypically a little more
difficult, such as some of theSouth American ones I don't want
to name any but it really givesthem access to move their money
at a reasonable price withefficiency.
It doesn't take forever either.
It's a very good tool for thefuture.
(09:01):
The impact I think it'll have ontraditional currencies there's
going to be some volatility inprice fluctuations coming in the
crypto markets.
I'm sure we've all seen that inthe past year or two years with
the rise and fall of Bitcoin.
At the moment it looks likeit's starting to gain some
traction again, but the FTXcollapse it didn't do any help
towards it.
(09:22):
Regulatory uncertainties excuseme, potential government
intervention there's going toneed to be some regulations
placed on these.
You can't just have peoplemoving millions of dollars with
the idea of cryptocurrency.
There's no way to really trackit.
(09:42):
There's no proof of funds.
There's nothing to reallyestablish why this money is
moved and where it's going.
It's really just up to thesender and receiver that are in
the know-how of that.
It does present a major risk,such as security and fraud risk.
It's a decentralized system, sothere's going to be some kind
(10:05):
of move towards regulation, I'msure, before it really starts
getting brought mainstream bylarge corporations, companies,
governments.
They need to be able to seewhat's going on, just for
safety's sake, just to make surethere's no uncertain activity
(10:26):
and fraudulent activity thatcould present a danger to the
everyday consumer and citizensof their country, as well as the
people that hold the store oftheir currency and whatever fiat
currency they're looking to do.
That's great I appreciate youranswer.
Hugh Gilliam (10:42):
It seems like even though you said you didn't know
that much about the cryptomarket, but you definitely have
a very conservative approachthere at your company.
I appreciate that.
Let's jump on to another topic.
I think you mentioned at thevery beginning maybe politics or
geopolitical events such aselections.
(11:06):
What about trade deals andother international agreements
impacting the foreign exchangemarket?
Excuse me, what strategies doyou use to manage the risk of
that type of environment?
Christian Assal (11:24):
Yeah, absolutely so.
I mean there's like everything.
There's always multipledifferent aspects that are
affecting what's going on in theFX market.
Especially, Elections are a bigone.
Trade deals, internationalagreements they all take their
turn in affecting the rise andfall of different currencies and
(11:44):
the strength they have againsteach other.
So these types of events reallycreate uncertainty and
volatility.
It leads to fluctuations in thecurrency exchange rate.
It's really case by case to seewhich way it's going to go.
Who's benefiting out of it.
What's getting stronger, what'sgetting weaker?
One strategy I would suggestreally just to manage risk in
(12:07):
this kind of situation is keepyour portfolios diversified.
That's going to be massive.
You definitely want to makesure that your portfolios really
branched out that way.
You have it in property, youhave it in fiat currency, you
have it in stocks, you have iteverywhere, Just to keep
yourself buoyant if there aresome uncertain times leading to
(12:31):
issues.
You don't want all your in asense, all your eggs in one
basket.
So one thing you can do isreally stay informed about
global news and developmentsthat could affect the market.
This is very easy to do.
If you watch financial news,they're very good at keeping you
up to date on really everythingthat's going on.
They really cover a lot ofworld markets because,
(12:54):
especially nowadays, the US bigbusinesses they tend to have
hands in these different marketsas well, so it really brings
the American consumer eyetowards them.
You always want to keepadjusting your trading
strategies in response tochanging market conditions and
trends.
That's going to be very big forclients.
(13:17):
Yeah, I mean, if you run in thesame strategy constantly, the
market's not staying the same.
So why would your strategy staythe same, Right?
So if you're up to date onwhat's going on.
Hugh Gilliam (13:31):
pardon me, yeah, I was going to say it's
constantly evolving, but I thinkstrategically it's paying
attention.
It's paying attention to what'shappening in that world market
and understanding that you haveto evolve with it as things
change.
I was going to ask you we camethrough this pandemic with
COVID-19 and it had an impact onglobal trade and economics and
(13:58):
during that time, what were wefaced with with the foreign
exchange market at that time?
Christian Assal (14:04):
Yeah.
So that was a very uncertaintime.
I mean I still think we'redealing with the repercussions
of it to this day.
I mean, the inflation outlookis just.
We've seen the Fed hike up theinterest rates quite a bit just
to try and battle it.
But changes in the interestrates and central bank policies,
those were kind of some of thebiggest things we've seen out of
(14:26):
there.
Fluctuations in commodityprices, of course I'm sure we
all saw the price of lumber acouple of years ago when it
started skyrocketing and madereally building kind of.
It made a lot of builders justkind of reevaluate their cost
ratio.
It's a very big expense changewhere it kind of went up 5-10
(14:48):
fold of where it should havebeen on the price of wood.
So I mean increased investorrisk inversion is definitely
going to be the move wheneverthere's something like a
pandemic or any major worldevent.
People that tend to have largestores of money they're going to
be moving to the safe havencurrencies it's going to be
(15:10):
considered kind of the US dollar, pounds of good, one euro, the
Japanese yen.
These are all going to be thekind of big ones that people
like to move their money to.
There's definitely going to bemore, but these are just kind of
the most common that we've seenthrough trends.
And then the foreign exchangemarket.
(15:30):
I see it evolving in the future.
It's going to rely largely ongovernment fiscal and monetary
policies to the pandemic andtheir impact on the global
economy.
Governments play a massive,massive role in what's going on
with the currency market, astheir currency is vital to a
(15:53):
country.
If a country's currency tanksand it creates so many problems,
it devalues so many assets, itreally can turn a country on its
head if they're not careful.
So it always comes down togovernment intervention, just
really making sure that none ofthese issues create too drastic
(16:14):
of a fall.
But regardless of one currencydropping and another one rising,
if you're paying attention towhat's going on globally and
you're really kind of monitoringthe markets, there's always
room to improve your financialstatus.
All things like these justbeing in the know-how.
Hugh Gilliam (16:35):
I see One question that comes to mind how do you
manage currency exposure wheninvesting in the international
markets?
I mean, like, what strategieswould you use to mitigate a risk
?
Christian Assal (16:49):
Yeah, I mean, like we were mentioning before,
strategy is going to beeverything.
It's constantly evolving.
One really good thing you cando is, in a sense, hedging your
money.
So you don't want, if you havea large amount of money, if you
have your life savings, youdon't want to move it all in one
lump sum.
That's going to be a goodstrategy if you're moving a good
(17:13):
lump of money but not your lifesaving.
If you're moving a large amountof money you're really trying to
move say, you're moving fromPortugal to the United States a
hedging strategy is going toallow you to really pinpoint
multiple high points in yourcurrency valuation and just make
sure that you're kind ofgetting the average of them.
So you pick maybe four or fivedifferent time periods where
(17:36):
you're going to invest, maybeonce a month, maybe once a week
or whatever your time frame islooking like, and really just
make sure you hit the highs onall of those, and that's going
to really allow you to kind ofget the average and make sure
you're moving your money in theright direction.
Yeah, I mean back to what I wassaying earlier as well.
(17:56):
It's going to be a diversifiedportfolio.
That's going to be your biggestfriend.
Having all your eggs in onebasket is the same as doing all
of your life savings over onespot transfer.
It could look good that day,but the economic outlook in the
short term or the long term youcould be missing kind of the.
(18:17):
You might think you have thebest time to transfer your
currencies or invest, but reallyit could be a week later, you
never know.
Until it happens.
So keep your portfoliodiversified.
Never move everything at once.
Hugh Gilliam (18:31):
Christian, you may have answered the question that
I was going to ask next aboutcommon mistakes.
I mean, I heard you say we needto diversify and I keep hearing
diversify the portfolio, butwhat are some common mistakes
that investors make when tradingforeign currencies?
Christian Assal (18:49):
That's a very good question.
One of the biggest mistakesthat we see is just people
taking on too much risk fortheir risk appetite.
One has their own individualrisk appetite and you want to
make sure that the levels ofrisk that you're taking on in
investments and currency tradesand anything is going to be up
to par with what you're willingto gain or willing to lose.
(19:12):
So you really have to have aone-on-one with yourself and
know what you're personallycomfortable with.
You should never, ever, beinfluenced by emotions.
If you have a good plan and youknow what you want to get out
of it, it's never going to be astraight line.
(19:32):
There's always going to be upsand downs, but you can't change
your outlook based on the hills.
You've got to conquer themountains.
So just being very adamant onwhat you want to do is going to
be crucially.
You should never go into anysort of strategy without looking
at your risk appetite on it andseeing what you're willing to
gain and what you're willing tolose in doing so.
Hugh Gilliam (19:55):
You brought up a good point earlier about
cryptocurrency and so manypeople jumped on that wave of
investing and I'm not sure whatit topped out at.
What was the top number for aBitcoin?
Christian Assal (20:12):
For Bitcoin.
I believe it got rather, if itdidn't reach 70,000, it was
definitely right there.
It might have gone a little bitover from what I've seen.
I don't typically play too muchin the crypto markets.
It's very volatile.
There's not, in my opinion.
I could be very wrong here, butI just don't see a lot of rhyme
or reason to why the ups anddowns are performing.
(20:36):
There's no way to kind ofindicate the future.
It's really just based onpeople's interest in it.
So I mean, you're riding thewave in an instance, but there
have been a couple of good yearsin the past where a lot of
people have made a lot of moneyout of it.
But some people that held on toit past that they thought it
(20:56):
was going to go to the moon fora say.
They're really suffering nowand they had it at 68,000 or so
and now we're down to mid-20s.
It's vastly different.
Hugh Gilliam (21:07):
Well, I think the reason I brought that up because
you mentioned, don't get caughtup in emotions when you're
making these investments.
I think that was an emotionalpart when it came to
cryptocurrency and Bitcoin,because it was everywhere, all
over the news and people got onthat train.
A lot of people made money, alot of people lost.
But again, it goes back tobeing diversified not basing
(21:34):
opinions on emotion, but datathat you can seek out.
I mean, you're talking aboutgeopolitical trading with other
countries, things like that thatwe talked about earlier.
But, as we look a little bitfurther into this, how important
(21:54):
is it to stay up on currentevents?
I mean, that's key to beingpart of your strategy, because
you have to know what's going onso that you don't make a
mistake in this market.
Christian Assal (22:05):
Absolutely.
First, I do want to correctmyself.
I pulled it up.
Bitcoin is a little over thanthe mid-20s at the moment, but
it just furthers the point.
You need to have exitstrategies.
It's going to be very crucial totrading in any currency is not
just know where you're going topull out if things go well, but
where your stop loss is going tobe, regardless of if it's
(22:26):
currency trading, fx trading,crypto trading or even just
property.
I'm sure you know as well asanyone.
You have to have your bottomline.
I did just want to add that onthe previous question.
But when it comes to staying uptoday with current events, you
(22:47):
really want to make sure thatyou have an idea of what's going
on in the neighborhood, of whatyou're looking to do.
You can reference this towardsproperty.
You're going to look at theneighborhood before you buy the
house.
You really want to know what'ssurrounding your investment.
This is no small amount ofmoney that people like to play
in and to not know what's goingon in the world that you're
(23:09):
dealing with, it's like runningwith blinders on.
You want to make sure that youare watching central bank policy
decisions, interest ratechanges, economic data releases,
political developments,geopolitical tensions.
You just need to know what'sgoing on in the world before you
start playing in the world'scurrencies and the world's
(23:29):
investment.
You just need to know.
Hugh Gilliam (23:35):
We are getting close to the end of our time but
excuse me with this episode,but I wanted to ask you how do
you see and I know you don'thave a crystal ball, but how do
you see the future of foreignexchange involving and
opportunities for investors inthe coming years?
Christian Assal (23:57):
I see very good things.
Honestly, I have a very bullishoutlook on what's going to be
happening in the next 5, 10years.
I mean, I think obviously weall know we're going to see
continued growth in onlinetrading platforms with
technology coming out the way itis, such as chat, gbt, all
these different developmentsthat are coming out.
It's only going to give theindividual more insight into
(24:20):
what's going on in the market.
We're going to see more mobileapps.
It's going to improve theconvenience and it's going to
push people away from typicalbrick and mortar institutions.
It's going to be very cool tosee that the individual has a
lot more transparency, a lotmore guidance on what's going on
and the ease of access in doingit, because you can really do
(24:44):
anything from your mobile phonenowadays.
It makes life very easy.
I think in the future, like Isaid at the beginning, we're
going to see more integration ofblockchain technology.
I don't get why anyone wouldeven think to disagree with that
.
It's such a sound system thatto me, that's one of the biggest
(25:06):
takeaways from crypto at themoment was the innovation of
blockchain technology.
I know they were a bigsupporter of it.
A lot of these currencies arebacked on it.
I think that was a massiveshort term win from the
currencies.
I don't see myself exactly howthey're going to start playing
into the everyday consumer'slife.
(25:27):
I know they're trying to findways, but I just don't think
we've found its real niche yet.
I'm sure it does have a purpose.
You're going to get theemergence of new trading
instruments and securitymeasures.
Like I said, it's going to keepbringing individuals more
knowledge, more advisement, morecredible ways to enter markets
(25:50):
really creates the emergence ofthat.
Security measures.
Of course security is going tobe very big in the future With
technology growing.
Of course security needs to dothe same because, like I
previously said, everything canbe done from your phone.
No matter what you're talkingabout, whether it's trying to
(26:10):
make investments or peopletrying to piggyback off what
you're doing it's all throughthe phone.
Security is going to be a techsecurity.
I mean it's going to be a verybig aspect in the future.
For crypto specifically, I see agreater importance is going to
be placed on regulatorycompliance.
(26:32):
It's the same with our industryRegulation.
It takes the volatility out ofthe market.
A lot of individuals like tostay away from a regulation, in
a sense, because it allows them.
Bigger gains, bigger losses.
Some people like to play thehigh stakes, but for it to
really be adopted into themainstream, you're really going
(26:57):
to need some more compliance onit.
You're going to need peoplewatching and making sure that
the top half aren't outweighingthe bottom half right.
You don't want the few gettingmasses and the many getting the
wrong end of the stick on thatone, so you need people looking
out for the everyday individual.
Hugh Gilliam (27:18):
Christian, thanks so much for being with us today.
We appreciate all the knowledgethat you gave us, and your name
and direct information will beat the bottom in the episode
description of this podcast.
We appreciate you being hereand thank you so much for
everything that you broughtforth this morning Valuable
information that we need to know.
(27:38):
Thank you, Absolutely.
Christian Assal (27:40):
It's a pleasure .
If you have any questions inthe future, anyone watching the
podcast, my information I'm veryeasy to reach.
I'd love to answer anyquestions solve any issues or
anything of the sort.
Hugh Gilliam (27:54):
That's great.
Thank you so much.
Thanks for joining in ontoday's episode of RealtyCast
Global.
Make sure to subscribe to thepodcast to be notified when new
episodes air.
You, you, you, you, you, you,you, you, you, you.
Welcome to Realtycast Global, where we
bring insights and advice fromtop professionals in the global
market.
Join us for a journey ofculture and real estate from
countries across the globe.
I'd like to introduce my guesttoday, Christian Assal, with
Currencies Direct, and ourprogram is going to be about
(00:23):
purchasing properties in foreigncountries and the exchange rate
between the country's currencyand your own currency and how
that can greatly impact theentire amount of money that
you're spending.
And, Christian, it's good tohave you today and I hope we can
clear up some of these thingsabout the exchange rates and how
(00:46):
that affects the individualinvestor.
And I know that you're with agreat company and if you would
first tell us a little bit aboutyour company and then we'll get
into some of the issues that wemay be facing when we do make
those investments overseas, yeah, absolutely.
Christian Assal (01:05):
It's a pleasure , thank you for having me.
So Currencies Direct we're aforeign exchange and
international transfer company.
Our whole spiel is we undercutbanks, provide far better rates
of exchange for clients just tomake sure their dollars, or
whatever their end currency isgoing to be if they're buying
abroad, is going to be maximized, as the banks typically have
(01:27):
rather high margins that theytake on currencies as well as
transfer fees, wire fees, allthese different fees included
with the margin.
It's not your friend.
So companies like ours thatstray away from the brick and
mortar style banks platform.
We were brought out of need ofthe industry just because
(01:49):
there's so much money not beingcounted for.
We can save clients tens ofthousands of dollars in some
cases on just the transfer withno additional steps or anything
of the sort and faster deliverytimes.
So we'll definitely be able totalk more about it.
Get in detail with some ofthese questions going on.
Hugh Gilliam (02:08):
Okay, thank you, thank you, and I think it's
going to be very insightful tounderstand that element of a
transaction, because it's trulya major part of the transaction,
christian today.
How does the current globaleconomic climate impact foreign
exchange markets and whatfactors should the investor
(02:31):
consider when making currencytrades?
Christian Assal (02:34):
Absolutely, Very good question.
So I mean there's multiplefactors that are going on.
We have the changes in interestrates, banks, policies, certain
economic data that can reallygo ahead and change what's going
on in the market.
With some countries havingstrengthening dollars, pounds,
euros, some other countriescould be really weakening.
(02:58):
So it's important to find theresistance lines and support
lines, just kind of know whatyou're looking at for the future
, where your trade is going togo.
Economic growth is a majorcontributor to the global
economic climate.
Geopolitical events there's anumber of these things that can
really determine where therate's going to be moving in the
(03:20):
short term, as well as the longterm.
The factors that investorsshould use when considering
currency trades.
It's going to be your economicindicators, such as GDP,
inflation, employment data, justname a few.
We have political developments,such as geopolitical risk, some
(03:40):
big words that once you Googlethem, you could really kind of
get a look into what they meanas well as how they can affect
it, because there is someresearch that would be good to
be involved with, as well ashaving people just kind of to
advise you on what's going on aswell, if you're busy, if it's
(04:01):
not your market, having afriendly hand just to help you
with the decisions and timing.
It's a very crucial role.
Yeah, I hope that kind ofcovers it.
Hugh Gilliam (04:14):
Well, it does, and what it tells me is it's a
critical situation there to havean expert involved in that
transaction so that you knowmoment by moment what's
happening, because I mean Idon't think I could do all the
research necessary to figure itout, so we need a professional
(04:34):
there helping pushes in theright direction and save the
money, because I heard you saytens of thousands of dollars
could be spent.
Christian Assal (04:46):
Absolutely.
It's a very realisticpossibility.
We could really with some banksthey all have different kind of
margins that they're looking toplace on transfers because
they're just so well known asthe first place you'd think to
make these transfers that whenwe can save a client three, four
, maybe even five percent ontheir overall transfer when
(05:07):
you're looking at property, it'snot hard to believe.
On the transfer of about amillion dollars for a property,
it's a very realistic thing.
It happens every day,especially internationally, that
if we're able to save you fivepercent on a million dollar
transfer, you're looking atsaving about fifty thousand
dollars.
So it can really stack up to bequite a massive amount.
(05:30):
My easy way of kind of talkingabout it is we can end up
getting you the property, yourdream home, your property, as
well as the jet ski at the sametime, maybe even a couple.
So it adds quite the excitement.
Hugh Gilliam (05:45):
That's great.
I like the way you put that.
You can have a little pleasureleft over at the end of this
transaction money to buypleasurable items with.
Okay, with the rise of thecryptocurrency and blockchain
technology, how do you see thefuture of the foreign exchange
market evolving and what impactdo you think this will have on
(06:09):
the traditional currencies?
Christian Assal (06:12):
Yeah, so that's definitely a two-parter.
I'll try and answer both ofthem the best I can.
I mean, with the rise ofcryptocurrency and blockchain
technology, it's creating newopportunities every day for
investors, for people lookingfor cross-border solutions that
really can provide someprecision, some clarity, take
(06:35):
away some of the costs that areincurred with doing these
transfers as well, as it iscreating challenges in the
market as well, especially theFX market.
It's definitely coming to becompetition Cryptocurrency I'm
not an expert in that.
We typically our company.
We specialize in fiat currency.
(06:55):
I don't see any appetite for usto start moving towards crypto,
but I do have a little bit ofknowledge towards it.
Cryptocurrency it's a very goodtool.
If you can make a work, if youhave the research and the
knowledge on it, you can getfaster and cheaper cross-border
payments, which is massive.
It is a massive benefit toclients.
(07:15):
There is greater transparencyand security in transactions.
Blockchain technology is a verygood technology, whereas,
rather than have a ledger ofdifferent transactions going
through, it's about the same,but these transactions tend to
stack on one another.
(07:36):
Once your transaction has gonethrough, then it stays cemented
because everything layers on topof it.
There's no way to really adjustanything.
Once it's done, everything isvery crystal clear.
I believe blockchain technologyhas a lot of integration that
will be done in the next 10years, especially just because
(07:57):
it is such a transparent, a good, very well-rounded system that
one I think there would be moreintegration.
As opposed to cryptocurrency asa whole, it'll be a lot quicker
.
There's just the rise of cryptoas well as blockchain technology
.
It's increasing access toglobal markets for individuals
(08:18):
and businesses, companies likeours.
We're very good at what we cando.
We specialize in about 42different currencies all over
the world.
We've got some of the safehaven currencies, we've got some
exotic, but really there aregoing to be some countries we
can't help.
That's due to financialregulations.
We do have regulators that wehave to appease at all times and
(08:39):
we can't go outside of our role.
There are countries that aretypically a little more
difficult, such as some of theSouth American ones I don't want
to name any but it really givesthem access to move their money
at a reasonable price withefficiency.
It doesn't take forever either.
It's a very good tool for thefuture.
(09:01):
The impact I think it'll have ontraditional currencies there's
going to be some volatility inprice fluctuations coming in the
crypto markets.
I'm sure we've all seen that inthe past year or two years with
the rise and fall of Bitcoin.
At the moment it looks likeit's starting to gain some
traction again, but the FTXcollapse it didn't do any help
towards it.
(09:22):
Regulatory uncertainties excuseme, potential government
intervention there's going toneed to be some regulations
placed on these.
You can't just have peoplemoving millions of dollars with
the idea of cryptocurrency.
There's no way to really trackit.
(09:42):
There's no proof of funds.
There's nothing to reallyestablish why this money is
moved and where it's going.
It's really just up to thesender and receiver that are in
the know-how of that.
It does present a major risk,such as security and fraud risk.
It's a decentralized system, sothere's going to be some kind
(10:05):
of move towards regulation, I'msure, before it really starts
getting brought mainstream bylarge corporations, companies,
governments.
They need to be able to seewhat's going on, just for
safety's sake, just to make surethere's no uncertain activity
(10:26):
and fraudulent activity thatcould present a danger to the
everyday consumer and citizensof their country, as well as the
people that hold the store oftheir currency and whatever fiat
currency they're looking to do.
That's great I appreciate youranswer.
Hugh Gilliam (10:42):
It seems like even though you said you didn't know
that much about the cryptomarket, but you definitely have
a very conservative approachthere at your company.
I appreciate that.
Let's jump on to another topic.
I think you mentioned at thevery beginning maybe politics or
geopolitical events such aselections.
(11:06):
What about trade deals andother international agreements
impacting the foreign exchangemarket?
Excuse me, what strategies doyou use to manage the risk of
that type of environment?
Christian Assal (11:24):
Yeah, absolutely so.
I mean there's like everything.
There's always multipledifferent aspects that are
affecting what's going on in theFX market.
Especially, Elections are a bigone.
Trade deals, internationalagreements they all take their
turn in affecting the rise andfall of different currencies and
(11:44):
the strength they have againsteach other.
So these types of events reallycreate uncertainty and
volatility.
It leads to fluctuations in thecurrency exchange rate.
It's really case by case to seewhich way it's going to go.
Who's benefiting out of it.
What's getting stronger, what'sgetting weaker?
One strategy I would suggestreally just to manage risk in
(12:07):
this kind of situation is keepyour portfolios diversified.
That's going to be massive.
You definitely want to makesure that your portfolios really
branched out that way.
You have it in property, youhave it in fiat currency, you
have it in stocks, you have iteverywhere, Just to keep
yourself buoyant if there aresome uncertain times leading to
(12:31):
issues.
You don't want all your in asense, all your eggs in one
basket.
So one thing you can do isreally stay informed about
global news and developmentsthat could affect the market.
This is very easy to do.
If you watch financial news,they're very good at keeping you
up to date on really everythingthat's going on.
They really cover a lot ofworld markets because,
(12:54):
especially nowadays, the US bigbusinesses they tend to have
hands in these different marketsas well, so it really brings
the American consumer eyetowards them.
You always want to keepadjusting your trading
strategies in response tochanging market conditions and
trends.
That's going to be very big forclients.
(13:17):
Yeah, I mean, if you run in thesame strategy constantly, the
market's not staying the same.
So why would your strategy staythe same, Right?
So if you're up to date onwhat's going on.
Hugh Gilliam (13:31):
pardon me, yeah, I was going to say it's
constantly evolving, but I thinkstrategically it's paying
attention.
It's paying attention to what'shappening in that world market
and understanding that you haveto evolve with it as things
change.
I was going to ask you we camethrough this pandemic with
COVID-19 and it had an impact onglobal trade and economics and
(13:58):
during that time, what were wefaced with with the foreign
exchange market at that time?
Christian Assal (14:04):
Yeah.
So that was a very uncertaintime.
I mean I still think we'redealing with the repercussions
of it to this day.
I mean, the inflation outlookis just.
We've seen the Fed hike up theinterest rates quite a bit just
to try and battle it.
But changes in the interestrates and central bank policies,
those were kind of some of thebiggest things we've seen out of
(14:26):
there.
Fluctuations in commodityprices, of course I'm sure we
all saw the price of lumber acouple of years ago when it
started skyrocketing and madereally building kind of.
It made a lot of builders justkind of reevaluate their cost
ratio.
It's a very big expense changewhere it kind of went up 5-10
(14:48):
fold of where it should havebeen on the price of wood.
So I mean increased investorrisk inversion is definitely
going to be the move wheneverthere's something like a
pandemic or any major worldevent.
People that tend to have largestores of money they're going to
be moving to the safe havencurrencies it's going to be
(15:10):
considered kind of the US dollar, pounds of good, one euro, the
Japanese yen.
These are all going to be thekind of big ones that people
like to move their money to.
There's definitely going to bemore, but these are just kind of
the most common that we've seenthrough trends.
And then the foreign exchangemarket.
(15:30):
I see it evolving in the future.
It's going to rely largely ongovernment fiscal and monetary
policies to the pandemic andtheir impact on the global
economy.
Governments play a massive,massive role in what's going on
with the currency market, astheir currency is vital to a
(15:53):
country.
If a country's currency tanksand it creates so many problems,
it devalues so many assets, itreally can turn a country on its
head if they're not careful.
So it always comes down togovernment intervention, just
really making sure that none ofthese issues create too drastic
(16:14):
of a fall.
But regardless of one currencydropping and another one rising,
if you're paying attention towhat's going on globally and
you're really kind of monitoringthe markets, there's always
room to improve your financialstatus.
All things like these justbeing in the know-how.
Hugh Gilliam (16:35):
I see One question that comes to mind how do you
manage currency exposure wheninvesting in the international
markets?
I mean, like, what strategieswould you use to mitigate a risk
?
Christian Assal (16:49):
Yeah, I mean, like we were mentioning before,
strategy is going to beeverything.
It's constantly evolving.
One really good thing you cando is, in a sense, hedging your
money.
So you don't want, if you havea large amount of money, if you
have your life savings, youdon't want to move it all in one
lump sum.
That's going to be a goodstrategy if you're moving a good
(17:13):
lump of money but not your lifesaving.
If you're moving a large amountof money you're really trying to
move say, you're moving fromPortugal to the United States a
hedging strategy is going toallow you to really pinpoint
multiple high points in yourcurrency valuation and just make
sure that you're kind ofgetting the average of them.
So you pick maybe four or fivedifferent time periods where
(17:36):
you're going to invest, maybeonce a month, maybe once a week
or whatever your time frame islooking like, and really just
make sure you hit the highs onall of those, and that's going
to really allow you to kind ofget the average and make sure
you're moving your money in theright direction.
Yeah, I mean back to what I wassaying earlier as well.
(17:56):
It's going to be a diversifiedportfolio.
That's going to be your biggestfriend.
Having all your eggs in onebasket is the same as doing all
of your life savings over onespot transfer.
It could look good that day,but the economic outlook in the
short term or the long term youcould be missing kind of the.
(18:17):
You might think you have thebest time to transfer your
currencies or invest, but reallyit could be a week later, you
never know.
Until it happens.
So keep your portfoliodiversified.
Never move everything at once.
Hugh Gilliam (18:31):
Christian, you may have answered the question that
I was going to ask next aboutcommon mistakes.
I mean, I heard you say we needto diversify and I keep hearing
diversify the portfolio, butwhat are some common mistakes
that investors make when tradingforeign currencies?
Christian Assal (18:49):
That's a very good question.
One of the biggest mistakesthat we see is just people
taking on too much risk fortheir risk appetite.
One has their own individualrisk appetite and you want to
make sure that the levels ofrisk that you're taking on in
investments and currency tradesand anything is going to be up
to par with what you're willingto gain or willing to lose.
(19:12):
So you really have to have aone-on-one with yourself and
know what you're personallycomfortable with.
You should never, ever, beinfluenced by emotions.
If you have a good plan and youknow what you want to get out
of it, it's never going to be astraight line.
(19:32):
There's always going to be upsand downs, but you can't change
your outlook based on the hills.
You've got to conquer themountains.
So just being very adamant onwhat you want to do is going to
be crucially.
You should never go into anysort of strategy without looking
at your risk appetite on it andseeing what you're willing to
gain and what you're willing tolose in doing so.
Hugh Gilliam (19:55):
You brought up a good point earlier about
cryptocurrency and so manypeople jumped on that wave of
investing and I'm not sure whatit topped out at.
What was the top number for aBitcoin?
Christian Assal (20:12):
For Bitcoin.
I believe it got rather, if itdidn't reach 70,000, it was
definitely right there.
It might have gone a little bitover from what I've seen.
I don't typically play too muchin the crypto markets.
It's very volatile.
There's not, in my opinion.
I could be very wrong here, butI just don't see a lot of rhyme
or reason to why the ups anddowns are performing.
(20:36):
There's no way to kind ofindicate the future.
It's really just based onpeople's interest in it.
So I mean, you're riding thewave in an instance, but there
have been a couple of good yearsin the past where a lot of
people have made a lot of moneyout of it.
But some people that held on toit past that they thought it
(20:56):
was going to go to the moon fora say.
They're really suffering nowand they had it at 68,000 or so
and now we're down to mid-20s.
It's vastly different.
Hugh Gilliam (21:07):
Well, I think the reason I brought that up because
you mentioned, don't get caughtup in emotions when you're
making these investments.
I think that was an emotionalpart when it came to
cryptocurrency and Bitcoin,because it was everywhere, all
over the news and people got onthat train.
A lot of people made money, alot of people lost.
But again, it goes back tobeing diversified not basing
(21:34):
opinions on emotion, but datathat you can seek out.
I mean, you're talking aboutgeopolitical trading with other
countries, things like that thatwe talked about earlier.
But, as we look a little bitfurther into this, how important
(21:54):
is it to stay up on currentevents?
I mean, that's key to beingpart of your strategy, because
you have to know what's going onso that you don't make a
mistake in this market.
Christian Assal (22:05):
Absolutely.
First, I do want to correctmyself.
I pulled it up.
Bitcoin is a little over thanthe mid-20s at the moment, but
it just furthers the point.
You need to have exitstrategies.
It's going to be very crucial totrading in any currency is not
just know where you're going topull out if things go well, but
where your stop loss is going tobe, regardless of if it's
(22:26):
currency trading, fx trading,crypto trading or even just
property.
I'm sure you know as well asanyone.
You have to have your bottomline.
I did just want to add that onthe previous question.
But when it comes to staying uptoday with current events, you
(22:47):
really want to make sure thatyou have an idea of what's going
on in the neighborhood, of whatyou're looking to do.
You can reference this towardsproperty.
You're going to look at theneighborhood before you buy the
house.
You really want to know what'ssurrounding your investment.
This is no small amount ofmoney that people like to play
in and to not know what's goingon in the world that you're
(23:09):
dealing with, it's like runningwith blinders on.
You want to make sure that youare watching central bank policy
decisions, interest ratechanges, economic data releases,
political developments,geopolitical tensions.
You just need to know what'sgoing on in the world before you
start playing in the world'scurrencies and the world's
(23:29):
investment.
You just need to know.
Hugh Gilliam (23:35):
We are getting close to the end of our time but
excuse me with this episode,but I wanted to ask you how do
you see and I know you don'thave a crystal ball, but how do
you see the future of foreignexchange involving and
opportunities for investors inthe coming years?
Christian Assal (23:57):
I see very good things.
Honestly, I have a very bullishoutlook on what's going to be
happening in the next 5, 10years.
I mean, I think obviously weall know we're going to see
continued growth in onlinetrading platforms with
technology coming out the way itis, such as chat, gbt, all
these different developmentsthat are coming out.
It's only going to give theindividual more insight into
(24:20):
what's going on in the market.
We're going to see more mobileapps.
It's going to improve theconvenience and it's going to
push people away from typicalbrick and mortar institutions.
It's going to be very cool tosee that the individual has a
lot more transparency, a lotmore guidance on what's going on
and the ease of access in doingit, because you can really do
(24:44):
anything from your mobile phonenowadays.
It makes life very easy.
I think in the future, like Isaid at the beginning, we're
going to see more integration ofblockchain technology.
I don't get why anyone wouldeven think to disagree with that
.
It's such a sound system thatto me, that's one of the biggest
(25:06):
takeaways from crypto at themoment was the innovation of
blockchain technology.
I know they were a bigsupporter of it.
A lot of these currencies arebacked on it.
I think that was a massiveshort term win from the
currencies.
I don't see myself exactly howthey're going to start playing
into the everyday consumer'slife.
(25:27):
I know they're trying to findways, but I just don't think
we've found its real niche yet.
I'm sure it does have a purpose.
You're going to get theemergence of new trading
instruments and securitymeasures.
Like I said, it's going to keepbringing individuals more
knowledge, more advisement, morecredible ways to enter markets
(25:50):
really creates the emergence ofthat.
Security measures.
Of course security is going tobe very big in the future With
technology growing.
Of course security needs to dothe same because, like I
previously said, everything canbe done from your phone.
No matter what you're talkingabout, whether it's trying to
(26:10):
make investments or peopletrying to piggyback off what
you're doing it's all throughthe phone.
Security is going to be a techsecurity.
I mean it's going to be a verybig aspect in the future.
For crypto specifically, I see agreater importance is going to
be placed on regulatorycompliance.
(26:32):
It's the same with our industryRegulation.
It takes the volatility out ofthe market.
A lot of individuals like tostay away from a regulation, in
a sense, because it allows them.
Bigger gains, bigger losses.
Some people like to play thehigh stakes, but for it to
really be adopted into themainstream, you're really going
(26:57):
to need some more compliance onit.
You're going to need peoplewatching and making sure that
the top half aren't outweighingthe bottom half right.
You don't want the few gettingmasses and the many getting the
wrong end of the stick on thatone, so you need people looking
out for the everyday individual.
Hugh Gilliam (27:18):
Christian, thanks so much for being with us today.
We appreciate all the knowledgethat you gave us, and your name
and direct information will beat the bottom in the episode
description of this podcast.
We appreciate you being hereand thank you so much for
everything that you broughtforth this morning Valuable
information that we need to know.
(27:38):
Thank you, Absolutely.
Christian Assal (27:40):
It's a pleasure .
If you have any questions inthe future, anyone watching the
podcast, my information I'm veryeasy to reach.
I'd love to answer anyquestions solve any issues or
anything of the sort.
Hugh Gilliam (27:54):
That's great.
Thank you so much.
Thanks for joining in ontoday's episode of RealtyCast
Global.
Make sure to subscribe to thepodcast to be notified when new
episodes air.
You, you, you, you, you, you,you, you, you, you.
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