Prepping for the Great Euro Unloading

There's a myth in the financial market about how one should avoid getting on the wrong side of a central bank. Most people believe that, when a big government institution like a central bank wants to move asset prices, their deep pockets assure this is possible. While it is certainly true that central banks have the power to sway the markets in the very short term (think one to two days), in the medium term this type of intervention has been met with more failure than success. That's because there's usually a good reason why the currency was moving in the undesired direction.

One exception, however, is the Swiss National Bank. When the European sovereign-debt crisis first started, investors in Europe were looking to dump eurozone assets and park their money in a safer, more stable economy. With a strong AAA rating, geographic proximity, low unemployment, a relatively healthy economy and tight management of their fiscal finances, Switzerland was on the top of everyone's list. Demand for Swiss francs was so strong in 2011 that the currency's value rose 25% against the euro in a matter of months....324 more words left in this article. To read them, just click below and try Real Money FREE for 14 days.

Read the full story and get access to the Real Money Pro trading floor.

There’s no substitute for a trading floor to get great ideas, so Jim Cramer created a better one at Real Money and blogs there exclusively. We then added legendary hedge fund manager, Doug Kass, with his exclusive Daily Diary and best investing ideas. Staffed with more than 4 dozen investing pros, money managers, journalists and analysts, Real Money Pro gives you a flood of opinions, analysis and actionable trading advice found nowhere else, and allows you to interact directly with each expert.

Already a Subscriber? Please login.

Except as otherwise indicated, quotes are delayed. Quotes delayed at least 20 minutes for all exchanges. Market Data provided by Interactive Data. Company fundamental data provided by Morningstar. Earnings and ratings provided by Zacks. Mutual fund data provided by Valueline. ETF data provided by Lipper. Powered and implemented by Interactive Data Managed Solutions.

TheStreet Ratings updates stock ratings daily. However, if no rating change occurs, the data on this page does not update. The data does update after 90 days if no rating change occurs within that time period.

IDC calculates the Market Cap for the basic symbol to include common shares only. Year-to-date mutual fund returns are calculated on a monthly basis by Value Line and posted mid-month.