It's funny you should mention this, a friend and I were just talking about currency exchange over the weekend. Many, many years ago he came into my office and bought a large amount of traveler cheques in pounds sterling, the exchange rate was as low as I can remember it ever being. He held on to them until the dollar regained strength and then cashed them in.....he doubled his money.

Which bank is your largest? Td Bank bought out the US bank where my son works - Commerce Bank which is maily in the Northeast US and Florida. He was on the transition team which integrated the online banking systems. So he was fying to Toronto every month for meetings.

I hope the exchange is good for the Canadians. We see alot here which is good for us. Except they are a tad bit fast on 83 going home, but coming from Los Angeles am use to it. Stay safe all do come.

One needs to be careful where one exchanges currency.

Some time ago a young person who'd spent time in western Canada and then lived in the southwestern U.S. (TX, OK, etc. I think) had an aunt die in Canada, leaving her 20 - 30 thousand dollars from her estate. When the lawyer sent the cheque, in Candian dollars (which was what the bequest had been), when she took it to a bank in her area, they wanted something over $1,000. as an exchange fee, I think ... she came on here asking what to do. I think that many smaller banks, unfamiliar with such activities, are unfamiliar with how to do it efficiently.

I told her to send it back to the major Canadian city where she'd lived, where they do that all the time and where they knew her (for ease of dealing with the cheque, not related to the exchange aspect of the situation), that they'd give her appropriate exchange, usually about 1% (or less for larger amounts).

She did, and paid a low fee.

(I told her that she owed me a dinner, some time when we got together).

Her husband had been U.S. military, I think.

The more that one knows about money, the more effectively that one can use it.

During a number of years as a personal finacial advisor, I've said to a great number of people that learning how money works is an interesting hobby ... and it pays well.

A local guy, authour of a book, "Financial Freedom without Sacrifice", has said for years that they should teach kids in school how to manage money.

I agree: I heartily dislike seeing people get scammed, especially financially.

ole joyful

So, ole joyful, did you follow your own advice as you spelled out in your OP? Are you raking in big coin?

This was a plan for folks holding U.S. Dollars who wanted to shift some assets into other currencies, whether for short term or for an extended period.

I didn't have U.S. Dollars.

To buy some, it would have taken Cdn$1.00 to have bought the US$0.79, which would have made the whole operation valueless to me.

While I referred to what number of U.S. dollars that some U.S. investor would get were s/he to turn the Cdn dollars back into U.S. dollars now, that might not be the wisest course to follow.

Were I such a U.S. person, I think that I'd like to leave some of my assets based in other currencies ...

... but the Canadian might not be the wisest currency to hold, for our economy is so closely tied to yours: if your money's value shrinks, ours will almost certainly shrink along with it. Probably better to buy Euros, Swiss Francs, etc.

Or a currency of a developing country: China's growth rate is crowding 10% - neither yours nor mine is at anywhere near that rate. I think that I prefer the Indian ... for political reasons, largely.

Can you feature the United States being willing to have Castro as their major banker? Is Communist China a better choice?

Actually, I had a few US dollars left over from a trip down there early this year, and neglected to exchange them on my return, when about 79 of those cents would have bought Cdn$1.00, which was more or less the exchange rate that I'd paid, a couple of weeks earlier.

Now it'd take about 94 of them to buy Cdn$1.00.

Wrong way to fly!

ole joyful