Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Join Me]

Lately the won has been bouncing back and fourth as much as 10%. Right now it is at 1340 something. Some news out of the US or some intervention on the part of the Korean government will push it back to 1200 again. A week or two later it will be back at 1400. It is going to be like this until the US market stabilizes.

I would wait a bit longer to send any dollars to Korea. The won is going to hit 1400 and probably above that in the next week or so. The Korean government is getting desperate to change this and is going to make their move in the next month I would bet. When this happens, the won should head back in the direction of 1,000 (probably wont hit it...but will take a big bounce). If you are a gambler, I would wait for this bounce.

[monger]

What do you guys think will happen on Tues when they auction off some $$ to the banks?

[bassexpander]

Monger, I think it'll be a see-saw through most of the rest of the year. Play it right, and you can make some money off of it.

This, by the way, REALLY pisses the banks and the Korean gov't off. I am enjoying it a lot.

If you have dollars back home, and want to make some money, buy won when it goes above 1400. Send a couple thousand here. In 5 or 6 months to a year (assuming you're staying here that long) you can sell it back and make a profit off of it.

[monger]

Yh, I'm here for at least a couple of years. Btw, I'm British

It's a risk whenever you change currency. I'm not sure whether it will go above 1400 as it's peak has been in the mid 1300's. If Japan does go into a recession, then it certainly will as we saw what happened with their 10% drop the other day.

I feel like we are a group of economists discussing this!

[marlow]

Well, they are going to announce a relief package tomorrow. I have my sending of a lump of money tied to it hitting 1000 won to a CAD. I wonder if I'll be able to do that next week, or will I have to take the pain month by month as I send money home.

[The_Source]

[hari seldon]

I'm surprised people earning teachers salaries would engage in currency speculation. I guess this is money they can afford to lose.

From my vantage point, the only conservative choices available are negotiating a higher salary or switching to a job that doesn't pay won. For example, I recently negotiated a new contract and rest assured the issue of the tanking won was front and center.

[monger]

might get stronger from tomorrow as government has announced to guarantee $100bn of loans

[Tommy]

Fingers crossed for Monday morning... also looking for that 1:1 ratio

[marlow]

[DCJames]

[Tobias]

[Big Pun Lives]

Well, this move buys the Won a little time...but there are some problems still outstanding. The short term debt is going to come due soon, hopefully the credit markets will have started sloshing around all that bailout money when they come due.
It seems that they shot their one bullet, the government pretty much used its reserves to pull this move off, so if things take a turn for the worse....the government can't do a thing about it. Let's hope it works out for the best.

[JFuller317]

Monday didn't seem to make a whole lot of difference.

XE is showing me a rate of 1301 won to the dollar at this point. Certainly not the sub-1200 rate I was hoping for.

I'm thinking that my strategy will be to just save up all my won for several months, checking the exchange rate every day, and if there comes a time when it starts to get better, I'll just send it over all in one shot.

[marlow]

The package definitely didn't do anything for the won, unless the currency trading crowd is a real afternoon group.

We'll see what the week does.