About Online Currency Conversion and Currency Converters

There are many options on the web for currency conversion. Here are some available currency converters for reference.

Search Engines e.g. Google

Most search engines comes with its own currency converters, however, you will need to buffer 10% discrepancy or shortfall should you exchange money from money changer in your country. The reason being whatever it is reported on search engines are real-time figures, and normally there is lapse period between reported figures online and the money changer. The money changer would have gotten the currency at much earlier timing in different rate than reported.

Yahoo! Finance provides currency converter. It is easily accessible as you can see from Yahoo! Finance homepage. It is user friendly as it allows you to invert currency as and when needed and it provides a chart of currency fluctuations over a period of time for reference.

MSN Money has currency converter under Investing. However, you need to click on several pages before you get to currency converter tool. You would need to select Money, followed by Investing and finally Currency rate to access currency converter page. The quotes are delayed for 60 minutes. It is not real-time.

Banking Institutions

All banks provide online currency rates for your own conversion. It is a hassle as you will need to do your own calculations based on the amount that you need. However, it is the most accurate, especially if you want to do online fund transfers such as telegraphic transfer or inter-banks debit.

The rates reported at all bank websites are the rates that you will be buying or paying, excluding administrative fees. One disadvantage is not all currencies found in the world is available in bank websites. Only major trading currencies such as United States dollars, Euro, British Pounds, your home currency, and some other commonly traded currencies will be available.

XE-Universal Currency Converter

This is the commonly used currency converter to obtain exchange rate or to convert currencies that are unavailable in bank websites by many corporate companies and multi-national companies based on my working experiences. This is the most sought for currency converter for exchange rates and most relied for in reporting your expenses in local currency. The difference is normally 3-5% between reported and actual spent. i.e. when you receive your monthly credit bill for your overseas expenditures.

Watch "The Cove" for free online

The film story behind 2009's "The Cove" starts off in Taiji, Japan, where former dolphin trainer Ric O’Barry has come to set things right after a 40-year long search for redemption.

In the 1960's, it was Ric O’Barry who captured and trained the 5 dolphins who played the title character in the international television sensation “Flipper.”

But his close relationship with those dolphins – the very dolphins who sparked a global fascination with trained sea mammals that continues to this day – led O’Barry to a radical change of heart.

One fateful day, a heartbroken Barry came to realize that these deeply sensitive, highly intelligent and self-aware creatures so beautifully adapted to life in the open ocean must never be subjected to human captivity again.

This mission has brought him to Taiji, a town that appears to be devoted to the wonders and mysteries of the sleek, playful dolphins and whales that swim off their coast.

But in a remote, glistening cove, surrounded by barbed wire and “Keep Out” signs, lies a dark reality.

It is here, under cover of night, that the fishermen of Taiji, driven by a multi-billion dollar dolphin entertainment industry and an underhanded market for mercury-tainted dolphin meat, engage in an unseen hunt.

The nature of what they do is so chilling — and the consequences are so dangerous to human health — they will go to great lengths to halt anyone from seeing it.

Undeterred, O’Barry joins forces with filmmaker Louis Psihoyos and the Oceanic Preservation Society to get to the truth of what’s really going on in the cove and why it matters to everyone in the world.

With the local Chief of Police hot on their trail and strong-arm fishermen keeping tabs on them, they will recruit an “Ocean’s Eleven”-style team of underwater sound and camera experts, special effects artists, marine explorers, adrenaline junkies and world-class free divers who will carry out an undercover operation to photograph the off-limits cove, while playing a cloak-and-dagger game with those who would have them jailed and deported.

The result is a provocative mix of investigative journalism, eco-adventure and arresting imagery that adds up to an urgent plea for hope.

The Cove is directed by Louie Psihoyos and produced by Paula DuPre Pesman and Fisher Stevens. The film is written by Mark Monroe. The executive producer is Jim Clark and the co-producer is Olivia Ahnemann.

Watch the full documentary film "The Cove" for free now