#five euro commissions

[serpentgoat]

Dear Supporter,

I hope this message finds you and your family in good health and well being. My name is Dr.Eman Zaqout from Gaza. I am reaching you out to seek your urgent help in spreading the word about our fundraiser. I lost both my home and my job due to the ongoing genocide in Gaza and we are facing catastrophic living conditions. 💔

I kindly ask you to visit my campaign. Your support, whether through donating or sharing, will help us reach more people who can make a difference. Thank you for your continued support for the Palestinian cause. Your dedication brings us closer to freedom. 🙏🕊

Note: Verified by several people as 90-ghost and aces-and-angels. ☑

FREE MINI COMMISSIONS IN EXCHANGE FOR DONATION TO PALESTINIANS IN NEED

I am officially opening small sketch commissions in exchange for a 5 euro/dollar (the equivalent to that in your currency) donation to Palestinians in need.

How does it work?

-you find a legitimate go-fund-me/ donation campaign of your choice, and donate five euros/dollars.

-you send me the receipt/ evidence of your payment. If I find the evidence to be insufficient, you will NOT be receiving a commission. Lives are on the line, and scamming is unacceptable and unforgivable.

-I start working on your sketch commission, which you will recieve in two day's time. :]

Additional info: donations for Sudan will also be accepted.

[morb1dcan1d]

Honestly don't wanna do this, but it's come to a point where I will have to rely on saving up for top-surgery myself if I want it done sooner than later :,> So here is a sheet with all my commissions!

You can grab one via my carrd, or grab a PWYW on on Kofi! I still have four slots for the PWYW, and these normal ones have no slot limit.

Shares are genuinely very appreciated, and below the cut you can find both my carrd and kofi links

Carrd with order form, ToS and queue:

KoFi with remaining PWYW(pay what you want) slots and donation option:

[dostoyevsky-official]

this a view of someone who's ignored european developments since 2007, opting for a rosy, outdated view of european politics, i.e. the exact type of american committing the exact type of mistake i'm warning about.

to address this point by point: not only has inflation been a global issue, but the US has consistently enjoyed the lowest inflation of any developed economy. american CPI has remained below the british, polish, and eurozone average numbers. european economies have to deal with fallout from the russian invasion of ukraine that the us can ignore: notably, in energy prices, as the US became self-sufficient in energy (and never imported any from russia to begin with, something squeezing the german economy). america is also not hosting millions of ukrainian refugees.

when discussing european instutions—and "europe" in general—one has to be more specific. do you mean the overarching institutions of the EU, criticized for a democratic deficit that many have pinpointed as one source for euro-skepticism and the rise of the far right? the EU Council, widely ignored and headed by charles michel, an incompetent, blatant nepobaby appointment whom everyone grinds their teeth over? the EU parliament, recently filled with a fresh batch of far-right hooligans, which functions more or less as a rubber stamp for the commission? the EU commission itself, headed by VdL, the latest in a string of failed local politician commissioners (who remembers the alcoholic swindler juncker?) masquerading as technocrats? the ECB, which smothers the monetary (and through the maastricht criteria, the fiscal) policy of eurozone members, thereby fueling resentment, far-right movements, and economic disparity? and all of this held hostage by the veto of one orban or fico, —or the german supreme court, when it decides it's had enough with public investment. those institutions, which remain so opaque that even educated americans—and europeans—aren't entirely aware of their function?

or do we mean the institutions of individual countries, ranging from undemocratic autocracies like hungary to the fief of the jupiter king, who called elections in june, lost them, refused to nominate a prime minister from the winning coalition, didn't name any for over a month, and then appointed a rightwing politician from a party that scored dead last, sidestepping his own centrist party? the UK, where sir keir is handing out five years in jail time to climate protesters, raising tuition fees, relying on private investment companies, and through rachel reeves' plan to fix the alleged budget hole left by hunt before further investment, again enacting austerity? this is all front-page headline news from the last half year.

european countries indeed have cheaper healthcare costs, better pensions, and other public goods that the united states does not. when considering "quality of life," remember, however, that most european countries have unemployment rates considered astronomic in america, especially for under-35s:

to focus again and again on european social democracy is to ignore that it has been steadily eroded since the end of the cold war and especially since the great recession by neoliberal political forces that crush the left and open the door for the far right. in the most blatant example, beside's macron's legislative politricks, the IMF-ECB-EC troika cut off euro cash liquidity flow to greece when syriza was trying to undo austerity under varoufakis. the greek collapse consigned a generation to economic failure, killed seniors, and curtailed possibilities for the youth. this erosion happened even in the nordic model, long imagined by americans as nothing short of a utopia:

In part due to the scrapping of wealth and inheritance taxes and a lower corporate tax than both the U.S. and European averages, Sweden has one of the most unequal distributions of wealth in the world today: on a level with Bahrain and Oman, and worse than the United States. Perhaps most dispiriting for Sanders, Sweden also now hosts the highest proportion of billionaires per capita in the world. Many of the country���s trademark social services are now provided by private firms. Its private schools even benefit from the same level of state subsidy as public schools—a voucher system far more radical than anything in the United States and that Democratic politicians would be crucified for advocating. Both here and there, right-leaning commentators in 2020 decried Sanders’s portrait as little more than what Johan Norberg, Swedish author of The Capitalist Manifesto, has called a 1970s “pipedream.” On this, Swedish observers on the left gloomily agree: despite official rhetoric, the “Nordic welfare model” is now more nostalgic myth than reality. (x)

to problematize further, there's an unadressed first world perspective: who's getting the good quality of life, why are the main economies of the EU so wealthy, and how does the EU continue to enrich itself? there are certainly many living outdoors today, drowning in the mediterranean, or dying of exposure in białowieża. fortress europe is a crime against humanity—and it doesn't beat back the far right. it weakens civic and human rights, undermines legal oversight, and criminalizes humanitarian engagement, allowing an authoritarian creep.

you shouldn't understand the political and the historical as a snapshot in time, but as a moving train. this is the state of europe today. all of the above is necessarily a simplification and an abbreviation, but there's a trajectory you can begin to trace out: given all of the above, where do you think europe is headed?

[tulinentuherrus]

a vet visit left my bank account in two digits (plus a dentist bill that's yet to arrive) so i'm doing pay what you want commissions! the way it works is you tell me what you'd like me to draw, you pay what you want upfront and i'll draw it within reason (which just means i'm not about to draw ten characters for five euros unless you want them to be stick figures)

obviously doesn't have to be related to my current brainrot, these were just examples i had quickest on hand!

[tobivos]

PLEASE HELP ME PAY MEDICAL BILLS (and groceries)

hi hello i dont have a very big platform here but i am an art student going through medical transition and because of a bunch of insurance bullshit i am forced to cough up a lot of money that i do not have! i aim to set up a proper commissions post in the near future when i am not travelling back and forth across the country but for now heres an EMERGENCY COMMISSIONS POST:

for a limited time only you too can enjoy drawings of YOUR OCS, YOUR BLORBOS, YOUR FURSONAS, ANYTHING YOUR HEART DESIRES for the low price of 15 EUROS!!!

some choice examples include:

WHAT YOU GET:

a COLOURED FULL-BODY SKETCH of your CHARACTER OF CHOICE

AND if you so fancy, for an extra FIVE EUROS i will SHIP THE DRAWING TO YOU

if you wish to commission me, please either DM me or hit me up on email @ tobiahspringer@gmail.com

payment will be exclusively through paypal for international payments, and through tikkie for dutch payments

SLOTS OPEN: 2/5

sharing is hugely appreciated please and thank you ❤️

[tervaneula]

MY SPECIAL BATCH OF DIGITAL COMMISSIONS IS HERE!!*

Platonic or romantic, here comes the iconic duo of YOUR choice! I'm only opening five slots so that I can, for my part, guarantee delivery straight into your electronic mail box before Christmas.

Please make sure you have existing reference pictures of your characters and contact me via Tumblr dm or the email I've listed under the cut (where you can also find the open slots and a description for the text in the image) ✨

My Ko-fi: (my tips are open! please check out my goal if you'd like to help with my dental expenses) https://ko-fi.com/tervaneula

Email: tervaneula at outlook dot com

Slots: 1. In progress 2. In progress 3. Reserved 4. Reserved 5. Reserved

If you'd like a regular SFW, not-on-sale one (1) character commission, eg. for D&D purposes, please ask me for details!

*My rrp for a coloured commission like this is 77€ or 81USD (the discounted price in US dollars is $63)

Image description

Tervaneula's Limited Edition Commission Sale: Duos and couples

The fixed price includes: Two characters and flat colours, highlights and effects. Payment upfront via Ko-fi, PayPal invoice (and bank transfer for Finns). I reserve the right to decline the commission if I can't do it or if it makes me uncomfortable.

60 euros

More info + open slots in description!

Contact email: tervaneula at outlook dot com

End image description

[dogboyklug]

heyhey! here are my main commissions!! if you're interested, you can also commission a refsheet or two over here! [link]

additionally, for more information, as well as significantly more examples of my work, please check out this! [link]

you can pay me through ko-fi [link], though i'll also be researching other payment options later

didnt really mention this very well, but the doodles will be made in mspaint OR firealpaca! if you have a preference, just tell me :] firealpaca doodles are likely to be fancier with more colors, while mspaint doodles might have more detail.

there's a transcript under the cut for those who need it!

[mspaint] doodle

3 euros

[pt: doodle. 3 euros. end pt.]

Little to no color (outside of outlines)

EXTREMELY low-effort but very comfortable for me :]

First extra character is free, then it's +1 for every character

Designs may be simplified, but not so they become completely unrecognizable!

Simple drawing (lined/lineless)

15 euros

[pt: simple drawing (lined or lineless), fifteen euros. end pt.]

Each extra character is +5 euros.

Additional, slightly different versions of the same drawing (such as one with or without glasses, with a different pride flag, etc.) are free

As with every other commission tier, please make sure to check with me about pricing differences for fullbody/halfbody/etc.!

Heavy shaded (or) fully rendered

35/40 euros

[pt: heavily shaded (or) fully rendered. 35 or forty euros. end pt.]

Full rendering is very taxing, so fully rendered drawings are 40

Each extra character is five euros

More complex designs are an additional 3 euros

Full shading is only 35, as it isn't as hard for me to draw.

Extra characters are still five euros

More complex designs are free, as it's easier for me to shade them than render them.

[beardedmrbean]

One of the leading daily Helsingin Sanomat's most widely read stories on Monday examined the problem of Finland's plummeting birth rate and shrinking pension funds.

Trade unions are currently negotiating pension reforms at the behest of Prime Minister Petteri Orpo (NCP). Simultaneously, a working group led by the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health and the Ministry of Finance is also mulling pension reform. The report is due by the end of January 2025.

The reform is driven by Finland's low birth rate, which has fallen from 1.9 to below 1.3. Without immigration, a rate of 2.1 is needed to maintain the population. With the current birth rate, the reform is necessary to keep the pension system functional for younger generations, according to the HS report.

Negotiations aim to achieve an annual adjustment of around one billion euros and to ensure the stability of the agreed contribution level through some automatic mechanism. Options include raising contributions, cutting benefits or boosting birth rates and immigration.

Experts from the Finnish Centre for Pensions (ETK) have calculated that a shortfall caused by declining birth rates could be offset by increasing pension contributions by about one percentage point.

But if the decline in birth rates is not addressed in time, pension contributions would need to be increased by 2–3 percentage points in the future.

"Alternatively, the scale of the issue could be addressed by reducing pension benefits by about three percent," the CEO of ETK, Mikko Kautto, told HS.

Last spring, Kautto told business daily Kauppalehti that the pension system's financing situation could be balanced if annual net immigration were 30,000 people or the total fertility rate rose to 1.5–1.6.

Finland addressed rising life expectancy in its 2017 pension reform. The system links retirement age to life expectancy, with the minimum age currently at 64 years and 9 months, rising to 68–69 years for those born in 2000.

Criticism for plans to cut household tax credit

The government aims to save 100 million euros by tightening the conditions to receive tax credits for household expenses starting next year. The proposed changes have been opposed by multiple organisations, according to a report by Aamulehti.

The plan includes reducing the maximum deduction amount from 2,250 euros to 1,600 euros and lowering reimbursement rates from 40 percent to 35 percent. The out-of-pocket share would increase from 100 euros to 150 euros.

Finland's tax credit for household expenses provides deductions that allow individuals to claim a percentage of costs for services such as cleaning, childcare, nursing care and renovations performed in their homes.

Several organisations, including the Taxpayers' Association of Finland, the Federation of Finnish Enterprises, the Finnish Homeowners' Association and the Finnish Commerce Federation among others have opposed the move.

They argue that the cutbacks could drive the growth of the black market, negatively impact employment in the construction sector, lead people to delay necessary home repairs and make it harder for the elderly to manage in their homes.

However, the VATT Institute for Economic Research said household tax credit mostly benefits high-income households, costing around half a billion euros annually. They view the proposed reduction as a suitable measure for budget adjustments and suggest further cuts could be considered.

Study: Newspapers most trusted media

Tabloid Ilta-Sanomat reported on a recent study commissioned by the trade association News Media Finland (Uutismedian Liitto) that found newspapers to be the most trusted media across all age groups.

Nearly four out of five respondents considered printed or digital newspapers reliable. Television channels and their online services were trusted by three out of five respondents, while just over two out of five found radio channels and their websites trustworthy.

Social media, YouTubers, and blogs were trusted by only 1–5 percent of respondents.

The study also revealed that nearly 90 percent of respondents prioritise reliability as the most valued quality for news and current affairs media, followed by expertise and independence. Newspapers ranked high in all categories.

The survey, conducted in August by IRO Research, included 1,000 Finnish adults and has a margin of error of over three percentage points.

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this EcoWatch story:

The five biggest countries in the European Union spend 42 billion euros each year on subsidizing fossil-fuel-powered company cars, a new study commissioned by Transport & Environment (T&E) says.

The report by Environmental Resources Management (ERM), “Company car fossil fuel subsidies in Europe,” called for increased subsidies for electric vehicles (EVs).

“This is completely illogical and completely unacceptable, that we’re still pouring billions of taxpayer money into a technology that’s completely contradictory to the European Commission’s green transition agenda,” Stef Cornelis, T&E’s fleet director, told Reuters.

About 60 percent of new cars sold in Europe are company cars.

“Company cars are seen as perks provided to employees as a part of their salary. While they are partially intended for work travel, they are also used privately – such as for commuting – to the benefit of the driver,” a press release from T&E said. “This is the first study of its kind that calculates these subsidies for every car model registered in Europe’s six biggest car markets, rather than relying on archetypal averages or example models.”

According to the study, Italy gives 16 billion euros annually in fossil fuel company vehicle subsidies, followed by Germany’s 13.7 billion euros.

France provides 6.4 billion euros in dirty fuel company car subsidies each year, with Poland close behind with 6.1 billion.

“Very high fossil fuel subsidies are found in Italy, Germany, France and Poland. This is mainly due to significant benefit-in-kind (BiK) tax breaks for petrol and diesel company car drivers. This tax break overwhelmingly benefits the most affluent consumers, with company car drivers earning nearly double as much as the average European consumer,” T&E said in the press release.

[follow-up-news]

Google won a court challenge on Wednesday against a 1.49 billion euro ($1.66 billion) European Union antitrust fine imposed five years ago that targeted its online advertising business. The EU’s General Court said it was throwing out the 2019 penalty imposed by the European Commission, which is the 27-nation bloc’s top antitrust enforcer. “The General Court annuls the Commission’s decision in its entirety,” the court said in a press release. The commission’s ruling applied to a narrow portion of Google’s ad business: ads that the U.S. tech giant sold next to Google search results on third-party websites. Regulators had accused Google of inserting exclusivity clauses in its contracts that barred these websites from running similarly placed ads sold by Google’s rivals. The commission said when it issued the penalty that Google’s behavior resulted in advertisers and website owners having less choice and likely facing higher prices that would be passed on to consumers. But the General Court said the commission “committed errors” when it assessed those clauses. The commission failed to demonstrate that Google’s contracts deterred innovation, harmed consumers or helped the company hold on to and strengthen its dominant position in national online search advertising markets, it said.

[mariacallous]

Revisiting the evidence that Russian officials are still covering up their role in the Beslan school siege’s death toll

Novaya Gazeta journalist Elena Milashina recently published an update to her ongoing investigation into the Beslan school siege, which killed 333 people, including 186 children. For the tragedy’s 20th anniversary earlier this month, President Putin visited the area and met for the first time in 19 years with a support and advocacy group of parents whose children were among the siege’s victims. During that meeting, Putin expressed surprise that the government’s official investigation into the terrorist attack is still unfinished. The president dodged responsibility for the delay and suggested appealing to Investigative Committee head Alexander Bastrykin instead. According to Elena Milashina, federal investigators have deliberately dragged their feet and classified evidence to prevent the public from learning that the authorities didn’t prioritize saving hostages when they raided the school to end the siege.

Where does Milashina get her information?

After dozens of unsuccessful lawsuits challenging the lack of progress in Russia’s Beslan investigation, the terrorist attack’s victims and their relatives turned to the European Court of Human Rights, which ruled partially in the plaintiffs’ favor, finding that Russian special forces used “excessive deadly force” and ordering the government to pay 3 million euros in compensation. The verdict had no impact on the official Beslan investigation, but it did publicly release some case documents that the Russian government provided to the European Court in its own defense. 

Elena Milashina studied these records and republished testimony excerpts from soldiers, rescuers, and firefighters who participated in emergency services after special forces stormed the Beslan school. She also compared these accounts to former hostages’ eyewitness statements collected by State Duma deputy Yuri Savelyev, who wrote a minority report in 2006 on the school siege, challenging the findings of a special parliamentary commission.

Where the witness testimony clashes with Russia’s official narrative

Russian officials insist that special forces didn’t storm the Beslan school until after two explosions rocked the gymnasium building and a fire broke out. The authorities say all the hostages who died in the terrorist attack were killed in these explosions and the gym fire. When the military supposedly learned that no living hostages remained in the school, commanders authorized the use of flamethrowers, tanks, and explosives to destroy the ceilings in the school’s southern wing, where the last remaining terrorists were hiding in the basement.

However, former hostages told Yuri Savelyev that the gym was attacked from outside with grenade launchers, not bombed by the terrorists. Additionally, the case materials shared with the ECHR include testimony from FSB officers who admitted that Russian forces used grenade launchers, flamethrowers, tanks, and other indiscriminate weapons during their initial assault on the school. 

The Russian authorities assert that hostages were never moved to other parts of the school, but surviving eyewitnesses told Savelyev that the terrorists moved roughly 300 captives to the cafeteria and classrooms in the school’s southern wing, where they forced people to stand in front of windows as human shields, waving torn curtains at soldiers. In the case records she reviewed, Milashina found testimony from two tank commanders who said the FSB’s operational headquarters ordered them to fire on the school. “But we refused to shoot at the school because the hostages were standing in the windows and waving little white cloths,” one of the tank commanders testified. 

Milashina found that investigators collected “carbon copy” testimonies from emergency workers who said in virtually identical statements that they found only five bodies in the school’s southern wing, claiming that the bodies couldn’t have been moved beforehand because investigators had already inspected the scene. (However, the case records show that investigators didn’t arrive until after emergency workers finished inside the school, meaning that the officials who collected these testimonies knew they were false.) Milashina also discovered that the Russian government’s evidence shared with the ECHR inexplicably included an account from one emergency worker that contradicts everyone else’s testimony, claiming that first responders removed roughly 60 bodies from the school’s workshops, cafeteria, and first-floor classrooms.

On September 4, 2004, emergency workers laid the bodies of 237 hostages in the Beslan school’s courtyard. Of the victims, 116 had been removed from the gym building, their remains burned almost beyond recognition. To this day, the authorities remain silent about where the bodies with gunshot and shrapnel wounds were evacuated from. Officials conducted no autopsies to determine the actual causes of death for those killed in the school.

Milashina’s conclusions

The Novaya Gazeta journalist argues that FSB forensic explosives experts reached the school before state investigators could cross the military’s concentric barricades and access the site. The FSB agents seized the terrorists’ weapons and removed the bodies of hostages killed in the southern wing. Milashina argues that the authorities concealed these deaths to evade responsibility for storming the school without regard for the hostages’ safety. State investigators say independent researchers can’t find anyone who saw hostages killed outside the gym because no hostages were killed in the school’s southern wing. “But in reality, it proves the opposite: No one survived in the southern wing,” writes Elena Milashina.

[maxellminidisc]

Hello

Im Fatma from northern Gaza, mother of five children, the oldest being 12 years old. I am living in very difficult conditions due to the war and struggling to provide basic necessities😔. I have been displaced with my children 17 times in search of a safe place🥺... there is no safe place. We suffer from a lack of water, food, medicine, and milk for my little girl, whom I had to wean due to the unavailability of milk 😔 because of the war of starvation we have been enduring for the past 10 months. I need your support so we can survive, even a little support helps my family a lot🙏.

Fatma is a mother of 5 children, all 12 years and under, the youngest being a baby of a year and half old. Her kids are having to walk great distances displacement after displacement and had to carry water to help the family along side her and her husband Bilal. Like shes said here, their baby has unfortunately been forced to wean due to a lack of milk. Their fund is currently at 1K euros out of a 20k goal:

I do art commissions for any and all donations to Palestinian families in need like Fatima's. If this entices or motivates you to donate, please check my pinned for how to secure a commission for your donation.

[fandomele]

update!

I'm also offering a folder of EDITED (sharpened, colored, brightened) icons of Lucy McLean/Ella Purnell in Fallout + the second folder of the same unedited icons I sell in my ko-fi shop. (so if you don't like my coloring in some scenes you always have the unedited ones to change to your liking)

570 icons, 100x100, both folders at 15 euros: send me an ask if you are interested. I accept paypal only for this. Scenes are from episode 1 and part of the 2. Unedited:

Edited:

Credit for the screencaps goes to capseroo, the money I ask is only for the effort/time of cropping and editing them. I tried to crop all the possible caps (and given that on average you pay at least 50 euros for 500 icons, I felt that I'd just let it be and you can sort what you need), but if you ever commission me I'll be more selective and give you more variety (at a different price, obviously! This was mostly for fun!)

If you only want only the unedited cropped ones (at 10 euros), check my Lucy McLean Icons tag to find the link to the ko-fi post. If you buy them and decide you want the edited ones, contact me and you'll give me the remaining five euros.

if you ask for all three EDITED (and unedited) packs, instead of 45 I'l ask for 40 euros!

[angryducktimemachine]

Pride Icon Commissions

Hello!!! Decided to yes, open my Commissions specifically for this kinda style of pride icons! :3

Do you want to see your OC, a blorbo or even yourself in one of these? Good news! Now you can!

I'll ask for 15 Euro per Icon, payment will happen over PayPal.

Interested? Send my a DM and we can work on what you want!

I'll open five slots for now and depending on how fast I get through them I'll accept more!

[f1]

British F1 driver Lando Norris is victim of an 'expensive' robbery at Marbella villa

British F1 driver Lando Norris is victim of an 'expensive' robbery at Marbella villa he was sharing with TikTok model Jennie Dimova, just two years after he had £144,000 watch stolen at Wembley Euro 2020 final By Jonathan McEvoy for the Daily Mail Published: 11:40 EDT, 29 June 2023 | Updated: 13:34 EDT, 29 June 2023 Lando Norris has revealed he was robbed while on holiday in Marbella – two years after he had his £144,000 watch stolen at Wembley. The British F1 star was spending downtime in a luxury villa when the robbers struck, though he was not in the building at the time. Social media influencer Jennie Dimova was with the 23-year-old on the holiday, and has since spoken about the incident online. And speaking ahead of Sunday's Austrian Grand Prix, Norris disclosed: 'We were out for dinner and our place got robbed. 'A mixture of many things were stolen. Some were expensive and some were not so expensive. It is still an ongoing investigation so I cannot say too much.' Norris was left 'shocked' after having his Richard Mille watch stolen while leaving the hooligan-hit 2020 European Championship final between Italy and England in 2021. Lando Norris (seen left) was the victim of a robbery in Marbella, where he was holidaying with friends including TikTok model Jennie Dimova (right) Norris was previously targeted when robbers stole his Richard Mille watch back in July 2021 In a video shared to TikTok on Sunday evening, Dimova - who is believed to be dating Norris' close friend and fellow driver Max Fewtrell - looked visibly distraught by the turn of events.  'If you're wondering why I look like that, it's because our villa got robbed,' Dimova said to camera. 'And everything I've ever owned: my bags, my clothes, my shoes, my jewellery, everything is f****** taken.  'I'm left with literally nothing after collecting this stuff for f******* years. So, you know what? I mean, I cried for like two hours but, what can I f****** do?' Two years earlier, Norris was the victim of a violent mugging perpetuated by two thieves after the driver watched England lose to Italy on penalties in the European Championship final.  Norris was held in a heldlock by an unknown man whilst another robber wrenched the timepiece - one of just five in the world - from his wrist as the driver made his way to his car in the yellow VIP car park at Wembley Stadium.  One man accused of being involved in the theft, Liam Williams, 25, of Bootle, Merseyside was cleared of the robbery after a week-long trial at Harrow Crown Court in March 2023.  Williams - whose DNA was found on the racing driver's left wrist - denied the charge and was found not guilty by a jury after two hours of deliberation.  He shared during the trial that he had been shown the stolen watch in a pub, where he had watched the final after failing to secure a ticket, but had no idea where those who showed it to him had found it.  Norris was one of only five owners of the specially commissioned time piece by Richard Mille McLaren currently sit fifth in the constructors' standings, more than 20 points behind Alpine Williams later claimed he received threatening calls warning him to keep his mouth shut about the watch.  The driver would have hoped the weekend break might have been a respite from a trying season.     He has endured a disapointing year for McLaren, scoring just 12 points from eight races, but is due an upgrade in Spielberg. Norris finished outside the points last race weekend in Montreal, hot on the heels of a lacklustre 17th-place finish in Barcelona at the start of June.  Share or comment on this article: British F1 driver Lando Norris is victim of an 'expensive' robbery at Marbella villa via Formula One | Mail Online https://www.dailymail.co.uk?ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490&ito=1490

[ingridolsentrades]

Forex For Dummies: A Hobbyist’s Guide to Currency Trading

Hello there, fellow traders and aspiring enthusiasts! I’ve been navigating the fascinating world of Forex trading as a hobby for a good few years now. If you’re considering diving into this exhilarating pastime, you’ve come to the right place. This article will serve as your introduction to Forex trading, breaking down the key terms, concepts, and processes you’ll need to know.

Quick Plug: Hey, I’m Ingrid Olsen, dabbling in Forex trading whenever I get a chance. I’ve been using decodefx.com (by Decode Global) for my trades and seriously, it’s a game-changer. User-friendly, secure, and filled with useful features — it’s got everything you need for a smooth trading experience. Give it a go, and you’ll see what I mean!

The ABCs of Forex

Forex — short for foreign exchange — is all about trading one currency for another. It’s the world’s most liquid financial market, with daily trading volumes exceeding a staggering $5 trillion. What’s unique about Forex is that it’s decentralized — there’s no central exchange, and trades happen directly between two parties, round the clock, five days a week.

Let’s Talk Pairs

In the Forex market, currencies are traded in pairs, like EUR/USD (Euro/US Dollar). The first currency listed (EUR) is known as the ‘base’ currency, and the second one (USD) is the ‘quote’ or ‘counter’ currency. The value of a currency pair indicates how much of the quote currency it takes to buy one unit of the base currency. So, if EUR/USD is trading at 1.20, it means you need 1.20 US dollars to buy 1 Euro.

Interpreting Forex Quotes

When you see a Forex quote, you’ll notice two prices: the ‘bid’ and ‘ask’ price. The ‘bid’ is the price you can sell the base currency for, while the ‘ask’ is the price you can buy it. The difference between these two prices is the ‘spread’ — which is essentially your broker’s commission for the trade.

Going Long or Short

In Forex trading, you can ‘go long’ or ‘go short’. Going long means you’re buying the base currency because you believe it will increase in value against the quote currency. Conversely, going short means you’re selling the base currency as you think its value will decrease.

The Power of Leverage

One distinctive aspect of Forex trading is the use of ‘leverage’. Leverage is like a loan from your broker, allowing you to control a much larger amount than your actual investment. For instance, with 100:1 leverage, you can control $100,000 with just a $1,000 investment. But be careful — while leverage can amplify your gains, it can also magnify your losses.

The Art of Analysis

Successful Forex trading involves market analysis. This usually involves:

Fundamental Analysis: Examining economic data, political events, and social factors that could affect currency values. These can range from policy changes to economic reports and global events.

Technical Analysis: Using charts and statistical indicators to predict future price movements. Techniques might include analyzing trend lines, support and resistance levels, and using mathematical indicators.

Minimizing Risk

Forex trading, like any investment, carries risk. It’s crucial to manage this risk by setting stop-loss orders to limit potential losses, never risking more than a small percentage of your trading capital on a single trade, and keeping emotions out of trading decisions.

Finding a Broker

To start trading Forex, you’ll need to open an account with a Forex broker. Look for a regulated broker with a user-friendly platform, competitive spreads, good customer service, and hassle-free deposit and withdrawal options.

Final Thoughts

Forex trading can be a thrilling hobby, but it’s important to understand the basics before jumping in. Take the time to learn and practice (many brokers offer demo accounts), and don’t be afraid to ask for advice. Remember, the aim is not just to make profits, but also to enjoy the journey of becoming a savvy Forex trader. Happy trading!

Ingrid Olsen