Teaching Piano Lessons for 80 years. At 95-years old, Elba Ruilova still teaches piano lessons four afternoons a week from her west Tampa home. She began teaching when she was 15.
Chuck Butler’s EverBank offerings have gained appeal.
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There seems to be an inverse relationship between the value of the dollar and Chuck Butler's popularity.
"In 2002, I could go to a Money Show and I might have my family and a few other people in the room," he said. "Nobody wanted to hear that the dollar was going to fall. Now wherever I go, the rooms are overflowing."
Butler is president of world markets for Jacksonville-based EverBank, which reinvented traditional bank CDs as a way to speculate on foreign currency. In addition to earning interest, EverBank customers can make or lose money on the rise or fall of the euro, the Japanese yen, the Chinese renminbi or whichever of the more than a dozen other currencies they've chosen as investments. Some products offer exposure to a basket of currencies.
If that isn't enough to make Butler popular at investment conferences, the bank also offers investment vehicles designed to cash in on surging gold prices.
Butler, 53, was at the Renaissance Vinoy Resort in St. Petersburg recently to speak to people attending "Investment U," an investment conference put on by the Oxford Club of Baltimore. Energy, gold, estate planning and investing strategies were other hot topics for the newsletter writers, money managers and other speakers courting the 300 or so attendees.
EverBank's offering stood out because it combines trendy investments with low minimum investments and bank security. The CDs carry FDIC insurance, although investors are not protected against currency losses. And EverBank periodically offers principal-protected products, sold as "MarketSafe CDs," which offer some of the upside of a hot investment of the moment (gold and silver, currently) without the risk of loss. The bank also offers traditional bank products, including mortgages and high-yield checking accounts, and uninsured investments in gold bullion.
It has been a winning formula for EverBank, which saw its total deposits increase by nearly a third last year, from $3-billion to $3.9-billion. A big chunk of that growth was in foreign currency deposits, which grew from about $700-million to $1-billion. The newer gold investments are now up to about $135-million, Butler said.
Investors who put their money on the euro have been particularly well rewarded. Introduced in 1999 and falling to as low as 82 cents shortly thereafter, the euro is now worth about $1.58.
Butler's view is that the dollar still has room to fall, thanks to fundamental economic problems and low interest rates in the United States that make investments in other countries more attractive to foreigners.
"The dollar rises and falls in cycles," he said. "But at no time before when the dollar was weak did we ever have these low interest rates, a credit crunch and major financial institutions failing. That could cause the dollar weakness to continue longer."
Butler and many economists agree that the dollar isn't likely to gain strength as long as the Federal Reserve is cutting interest rates. But once that easing cycle ends — which could happen this year — the dollar could stage a rally. Butler says he doesn't think the dollar is coming back soon, but "I don't believe in the collapse of the U.S. dollar. We're still the strongest economic engine in the world."
And if it happens, EverBank is ready. It already offers "Dollar Bull" CDs, which allow investors to benefit from appreciation in the dollar against any of 15 currencies.
Other bets against the dollar
• Rydex Investments' CurrencyShares funds (currencyshares.com) are among more than a dozen exchange-traded funds investing in currencies.
• All major mutual fund companies offer funds that invest in foreign markets. Part of your return comes from interest and dividends, part from gain or loss in stock and bond prices, and part from changes in currency value.
[Last modified: Apr 25, 2008 09:59 AM]
Comments on this article
by Bill
Apr 23, 2008 11:01 AM
Is that classmate John Mauldin? Who turned many of us on to Chuck. Both publish a newsletter gratis that has made, or saved, its readers a great deal of money.
by chinlan
Apr 23, 2008 10:39 AM
I truly anjoy and am educated by Chuck's humourous and insightful commentaries in the Daily Pfenig (my late night show due to the 12 hours time difference). Then I feel ready to decide my moves when morning breaks here.
by Rodolfo
Apr 23, 2008 10:39 AM
Chuck Butler and a few others from the old Mark Twain bank have reassembled in St. Louis at Everbank to make the world's currencies available to investors in an honest, affordable way that defies the doubts of the flintiest cynic. He's a ph
by Marilyn
Apr 23, 2008 10:39 AM
Reading the Daily Pfennig has really broadened my global horizon. It is a lesson in politics, federal reserve and finance. We need to to know how to take care of ourselves. Uncle Sam won't because it's broke and broken politically.
by Thomas
Apr 23, 2008 10:38 AM
Chuck Butler not only has talked good economic -- especially monetary -- sense for years, but he is also a thoroughly decent guy with whom I am proud to be associated as an "average Joe" EverBank World Markets customer.
by Valerie
Apr 22, 2008 8:09 PM
I am a depositor with Everbank and find
Chuck right on the money.
by Dean
Apr 22, 2008 5:23 PM
I've been an Everbank customer for five years, and not only have I learned much from Chuck's Pfenig, my entire family has profited from the products offered at Everbank! Broaden your investing horizons, check out EB!
by Mary
Apr 22, 2008 5:06 PM
Chuck's online Daily Pfennig is my ongoing economics lesson. I just love him and his sense of reality and his optimism. At times he even entertains with music lyrics and antedotes, which make learning fun!
by Dave
Apr 22, 2008 1:38 PM
Chuck Butlers' Pfennig brightens my every morning. Not only does his shared introspection on the financial markets broaden my knowldege on the subject,but his general affability and good humor lasts the whole day.
by pierolupo
Apr 22, 2008 1:38 PM
I think Chuck is one of the best, or maybe he's gotta a cystal ball!
by Dixon
Apr 22, 2008 12:57 PM
Very informative!
by Tim
Apr 22, 2008 12:52 PM
Chuck's only problem is that he loves the St Louis Cardinals!
by pierolupo
Apr 22, 2008 12:52 PM
chuck's got the crystal ball!
he's one of the best, really.
by Tim
Apr 22, 2008 11:30 AM
These foreign currency products are also available within an IRA. EverBank's conversion spreads are also the lowest around that I have found.
by john
Apr 22, 2008 11:28 AM
Beautifull as Chuck is one of my best friends. We went to school together in Dallas, Tx.
by Henry
Apr 22, 2008 9:10 AM
You neglected to mention the daily blog Chuck Butler writes: The Daily Pfennig - Under the Everbank site. Excellent advice for investors or all stripes.
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