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Six Feet Under Dead And Buried

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To borrow a cliché from The Cranberries "Ode to my family," Does anyone care?

I remember the 1980s - the era of the mopeds. To most people in the 1980s, the moped was representative of two-wheeled freedom - once they were more popular than scooters and miles ahead of motorcycles. Now they are just a small fraction of overall motorcycle sales.

What went wrong?

I feel the obsession with mileage got the better of people. The mopeds claimed some outrageous numbers for their stamina - the Hero Puch's 91kpl, the Atlas Powerking's 93kpl and someone's 108kpl were figures that adorned newspaper advertisements.

What went wrong?

The Puch sold well - not because of its claims of 91 kilometers to a liter, but because it was trendy and cool and a school / college going youngster could be seen in public atop it and still have his reputation intact.

The Mofa didn't - it was too rudimentary, uncool and had no oomph value.

No one noticed that it claimed 122kilometres to a litre.

And when the time came when people could get a Hero Honda CD 100 - that looked generations ahead of any moped (and was) - they promptly switched loyalties.

Life for mopeds has been downhill since.

Motorcycles have been luckier, the people behind them wiser and the market more evolved. So while a Star Sports mentions the 102kpl, it is more of a passing mention. Not shouting over the roof-tops with a loudspeaker. The Platina too does nothing more than a passing mention of its fuel efficiency.

The marketing buzzwords now are looks, lifestyle and desirability.

Bajaj Platina adverts go ga-ga over the looks - the looks of a bike which is essentially bottom rung of the desirability ladder!

How cool is that!

Or the TVS Star Sports adverts which show a girl finally consenting to ride pillion with a guy, just because he now owns a Star Sports. Again, the Star Sports rubs shoulders with the Platina in the market.

No wonder the TVS girl wears specs!

Surprisingly, the top-of-the-rung bikes like the Karizma, Pulsar and Apache do not hark on the desirability. Look at the recent adverts - the Pulsar is about being wild and free, the Apache is about being....ummm....wild and free and the Karizma is about being ahead of the pack.

Coming back to the reason why I started writing this post - fuel efficiency as a marketing weapon seems to be dead. Maybe, because the manufacturers realized that launching a new variant or product every second month and shouting about its fuel efficiency, just so that the rival can better it in a month's time, wasn't a very good idea. Remember it was only some time back that we had the Hero Honda Joy, Bajaj Caliber, Boxer (and its 100 variants), Caliber 115 and TVS Centra all romping around in the market. Some of them are dead, some on ventilator support.

Brands are now being built, stronger, and around numerous other virtues, apart from fuel efficiency. And manufacturers now want long-lasting brands.

Bajaj, which must be holding an unenviable record of most "dead" two-wheeler brands in India, is now focusing on its current crop. So the Pulsar (flagship, in four engine sizes 150cc-220cc) stays till Rahul Bajaj's grandsons start running BAL. The Discover will be built on and will have three engines to choose from (110cc - 135cc) and the Platina will be around till Bajaj can extract the maximum out of its existing 100cc platform.

Hero Honda too wants to build upon its strong brands. The Karizma will stay (more likely becoming Charismas Xtreme), the CBZ Xtreme will continue, the Achiever will die (is it currently alive?), the Glamour may live (will need hard work), the Splendor will live (obviously!), the Dawn will die and the entry level battle will be fought with the CD 100 Deluxe.

Six Feet Under Dead And Buried

Fundamental analysis is in essence a case of examining the economic and political events that might affect currency prices and these events filter through into things like a country's published economic policy, growth rates, inflation and unemployment rates. So, by looking at the historic effects of economic and political events on the value of a country's currency traders are able to predict the effect that current events will have upon the currency today.

As with any other market the forex market is affected by both supply and demand which are in themselves influenced by general economic conditions. Above all, both supply and demand will be affected by the strength of the economy (reflected in its gross domestic product, foreign investment and trade balance) and also by interest rates.

For currency traders fundamental analysis means looking at current economic conditions which are reflected in the many indicators like consumer price indexes, producer price indexes, retail sales and durable goods orders which governments publish periodically.

One main indicator for forex traders are interest rates as changes in interest rates can both strengthening and weakening currencies. For instance, while high interest rates can cause stock market investors to sell in the belief that increasing interest rates will also lead to higher borrowing costs for companies hitting the price of their shares, these same high interest rates might also strengthen the currency making it an attractive currency to trade in.

Yet another main set of indicators for the forex trader are international trade indicators. Whenever a country is showing a deficit on its trade balance it is generally seen as an bad sign as money flowing out of the country to pay for imported goods and services may well devalue the currency. For the forex trader however fundamental market analysis might well show that market expectations mean that a trade deficit in certain circumstances is not at all bad. For instance, some countries often operate with a trade deficit and so unless there is an unusual rise in this deficit then the currency already reflects this fact.

In the United States there are presently about twenty-eight major economic indicators that foreign currency traders use to make their trading decisions because these indicators have a significant influence on the behavior of the financial markets. At the same time other countries around the globe with well traded currencies also produce a similar set of indicators that once again have a major influence on their own markets. Foreign currency traders must therefore be familiar with these indicators and have at least a basic understanding of just how they influence currencies.

Fundamental analysis is far from simple and requires traders to deal with huge amounts of data which often require some quite extensive analysis. These days however the arrival of high-powered personal computers and broadband Internet access mean that currency traders can now not only easily access the data that they need to perform fundamental analysis but also have access to some very powerful programs which will analyze that data for them at the click of a mouse.

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Both Deepesh Rathore & Donald Saunders are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.

Deepesh Rathore has sinced written about articles on various topics from Cars, Ford and Internet Marketing. Deepesh RathoreResearch EditorFor more details. Deepesh Rathore's top article generates over 74000 views. to your Favourites.

Donald Saunders has sinced written about articles on various topics from Health Insurance, Forex Training and Diabetes Treatment. LearningForexTradingOnline.com is the ideal place to and even includes its own in-house. Donald Saunders's top article generates over 165000 views. to your Favourites.

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