Freeex

To kick off our latest blog series, The Detail, I’ll be showing you how to impress a client with a clean car. One of the worst things you can do is tarnish your reputation because your car is a pigsty. Cleaner is always better, and luckily we’re on your side. These tips are quick, easy improvements that don’t require much heavy lifting. Continue reading and you’ll be sure to make a good impression in no time.
Exterior

The outside of your car is the first thing a client (or potential client) is going to see. Make sure it’s not filthy. This means either go get a car wash or do it yourself, no one wants to be seen in a dirty car – especially when it’s for business. I recommend washing by hand a day or two before and protecting the car with a car wax so it stays glistening for more than just a few days. You could go to a corner car wash, but chances are they’ll miss a few spots and you’ll end up grabbing a wash the day of. Trust me, a sparkling exterior is something they’ll notice… don’t leave it up to chance.

Tip: Keep a detail spray and microfiber towel handy incase a bird decides to ruin your day.
Interior

The biggest impact on your client is going to be inside of your car. There are a lot of factors at play such as fragrance, cleanliness, garbage, stains… all real things that if not addressed can turn off a visitor. First things first, clean the interior. This means vacuum, wipe the seats down, and make sure there’s not junk all over the car. Secondly, make sure you pick a non offensive fragrance that’s light and fresh. Get rid of that green tree or those yankee candle gel things and get something natural. Floral is always good, citrus is overplayed, but what I really recommend is fresh laundry – it’s a subtle yet intriguing scent that will surely spark conversation. Give it a try. Last and certainly not least, make sure all of your personal things are either in the trunk or taken out of the car. No client is going to want to see a receipt from your acupuncturist or grab a whiff your smelly gym socks.

Tip: Condition any leather, clean the glass for smudges, and keep an interior cleaner handy.

In reality preparing your car for a client isn’t tough. It’s about keeping it simple and making sure there’s nothing unnecessarily in view. Books, magazines, old McDonald’s wrappers… they have no place in your car in the first place, but even so. Clean the interior, clean the exterior and just make sure they’re comfortable. If it helps try to imagine your car as a rental car and not your vehicle – it should be spotless, fresh, and minimal. So next time you’re looking to impress a client follow this simple guide and get it done. I guarantee you it will pay off.

For the chico car wash list lovers out there here’s a more straightforward list of what you should do:
Exterior

Wash & wax
Tire conditioner
Clean wheels

Interior

Remove junk & vacuum
Clean seats
Subtle Fragrance

Be Ready For…

Bird droppings
Spills
Baggage

Anything special you do to your car to prepare for clients? Let us know in the comments!

Last week, the Wall Street Journal published an article entitled, “Currency Correlations Lose Their Way for Now.” My response: It depends on which currencies you’re looking at. I, too, recently posted about the break-down of multi-year correlations, specifically involving the Australian Dollar and the New Zealand Dollar. However, one has to look no further than the Swiss Franc to see that in fact currency correlations are not only extant, but flourishing!

I stumbled upon this correlation inadvertently, with the intention (call it a twisted hobby…) of refuting the crux of the WSJ article, which is that “Standard relationships between risk appetite and safe havens, and yields and risky assets, are lost as investors appear to scramble in their efforts to adapt to a new direction.” Basically, the author asserted that forex mega robot are searching for guidance amidst conflicting signals, but this has caused the three traditional safe haven currencies to behave erratically: apparently, the Franc has soared, the Yen has crashed, and the US Dollar has stagnated.

I pulled up a one-year chart of the CHFUSD and the CHFJPY in order to confirm that this was indeed the case. As you can see from the chart above, it most certainly is not. With scant exception, the Swiss Franc’s rise against both the US Dollar and the Japanese Yen has been both consistent and dependable. The only reason that there is any gap between the two pairs is because the Yen has outperformed the dollar over the same time period. If you shorten the time frame to six months or less, the two pairs come very close to complete convergence.

In order to provide more support for this observation, I turned to the currency correlations page of Mataf.net (the founder of which I interviewed only last month). Sure enough, there is a current weekly correlation of 93% [it is displayed as negative below because of the way the currencies are ordered] between the CHFUSD and the CHFJPY, which is to say that the two are almost perfectly correlated. (Incidentally, the correlation coefficient between the USDCHF and the USDJPY is a solid 81%, which shows that relative to the Dollar, the Yen and Franc are highly correlated). Moreover, if Mataf.net offered correlation data based on monthly fluctuations, my guess it that the correlations would be even tighter. In any event, you can see from the chart that even the weekly correlation has been quite strong for most of the weeks over the last year.

The first question most traders will invariably ask is, “Why is this the case?” What is causing this correlation? In a nutshell, the answer is that the WSJ is wrong. As I wrote last month, the safe haven trade is alive and well. Otherwise, why would two currencies as disparate as the Franc and the Yen (whose economic, fiscal, and monetary situations couldn’t be more different) be moving in tandem? The fact that they are highly correlated shows that regardless of whether they are rising or falling is less noteworthy than the fact that they tend to rise and fall together. Generally speaking, when there is aversion to risk, both rise. When there is appetite for risk, they both fall.

The superseding question is, “What should I do with this information?” Here’s an idea: how about using this correlation for diversification purposes? In other words, if you were to make a bet on risk aversion, for example, why not sell both the USDJPY as well as the USDCHF? In this way, you can trade this idea without putting all of your eggs in one basket. If risk aversion picks up, but Japan defaults on its debt (an extreme possibility, but you see my point), you would certainly do better than if you had only sold the USDJPY. The same goes for making a bet on the Franc. Whether you believe it will continue rising or instead suffer a correction, you can limit your exposure to counter currency (i.e. the dollar and yen) risk by trading two (or more) correlated pairs simultaneously.

In the end, just knowing that the correlation exists is often enough because of what it tells you about the mindset of investors. In this case, it is just more proof that they remain heavily fixated on the idea of risk.