So ever since the 2016 referendum the
pound has been really sensitive to Brexit
developments the last week has really
proven that point. Back on Tuesday last
week the pound was trading at about 109
against the euro and 119 against the
dollar but since then it's risen about
two cents against the euro to 111 and
about four cents on the dollar to 123. Much of that is down to the prospect of
a no deal brexit becoming less likely. No
deal is really something that the pound
doesn't like the prospect of.
I think the key thing to bear in mind
for investors is that the falling
pound isn't necessarily bad news the
biggest example of that would be UK
companies, large UK companies, who are
making a lot of their revenue in
international spaces. Because in
sterling terms that means that those
those revenues, once they're converted
back into pounds, have actually risen on
that basis.The other good news to that
side of the story is that these
companies tend to be things like big oil
and gas majors and these tend to be, you
know, the bigger companies in say the
FTSE 100 / FTSE 250 and that means that
when they're doing well they actually
prop up the rest of the of the index
which is why even though sterling has
fallen we're actually seeing a rise in
the UK stock market.
So there's no getting away from the fact
that companies that are relying on the
UK for their revenues and profits are
finding things a little bit more
difficult. The best way to think about
that is it's more of an import problem
so thinking specifically about say
supermarkets who have had to go
internationally to buy a lot of those
products if they're then coming back and
having to put those products on UK
shelves at a weaker UK price, you know,
that can really squeeze revenues and 
therefore margins if they're choosing
not to put their prices up to match
Well as developments come thick and fast a lot could happen between now and the
31st of October it's really tough to
make a call on where the pounds going to
go from now. It will largely depend on
further political developments and any
comments that come as a result of it. So, for example, if we do get a general
election what are the policies of the
main parties are going to be campaigning on
 
Exchange rates are going to move around
even when Brexit's said and done, you know,
that's not going to be a solid thing. The key message for investors and
what we would say is to make sure that
they diversify their portfolio that
means not being under or over exposed to
different types of companies and that
means still owning some UK companies. We're not saying to turn your back on UK-centric
businesses the most important
thing is that investors are diversified
Well if you're looking to transfer money
abroad there are a couple of options you
could consider. If you worry about
currency volatility many currency
specialists will actually let you fix an
exchange rate for up to two years ahead
and so regardless of what happens in
the currency markets it will help you to
fix your costs. On the other hand if
you're looking to capture exchange rates
as they move you could consider a rate
alert or a market order
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