Wednesday, August 22, 2018
How Will Ethereum Scale? / Currencies / BlockChain
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Tuesday, August 21, 2018
US Treasury Bonds $TNX Curveball Update / Interest-Rates / US Bonds
Over the last several months or so I’ve been writing about the bond market throwing us a possible curveball. Instead of continuing rising interest rate we may see falling rates. Today the $TNX, 10 year treasury yield finally broke below the neckline we’ve been following that started to developing back in January of this year. I’ve labeled the H&S top as an unbalanced H&S top as the price action formed a second right shoulder that was a small H&S top. A backtest to the neckline would now come into play around the 28.65 area.
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Tuesday, August 21, 2018
Historical Repetition in Gold and Silver Precious Metals Arena / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2018
Sector expert Michael Ballanger muses on the potential for a historical reprise of market events of 2015-2016, as well as on how algobots and bankers affect the precious metals markets.
History doesn't repeat itself but it often rhymes. – Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain)
I decided that before I sat down to write the weekly recap and outlook for the gold and silver markets that I would go to a few of the great commentary sites such as Streetwise, 321Gold, Goldseek and Gold-Eagle and read what the other "experts" are saying about the precious metals markets before I attack the keyboard. Earlier in the week, I had been working on a Western Uranium Corp. story and was astounded how stress-free it was writing about an energy deal as opposed to a sound money deal. After perusing perhaps two hundred paragraphs from some pretty smart guys and gals, it occurred to me that we are all looking at the same data and the same charts and reading the same headlines in an effort to sound original in our assessment of the metals
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Tuesday, August 21, 2018
The Sunbelt is Dominating the US Housing Market / Housing-Market / US Housing
I’ve never read so many good articles and rankings on cities by growth, affordability, and desirability. Especially during a time when the real estate market is crazy!This is the last one I’ll bring you for now…
This study rates on three measures, population and housing, workforce and earnings, and business growth.
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Tuesday, August 21, 2018
Where to Trade Cryptocurrencies? / Currencies / BlockChain
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Tuesday, August 21, 2018
Rent Your House: The Ultimate US Real Estate Strategy / Housing-Market / US Housing
I enjoyed two recent articles by Andrea Riquier at MarketWatch.The first was “The new housing play: helping priced-out renters become long-distance landlords.”
It was a strategy aimed at people living in unaffordable areas – like San Francisco, Los Angeles, Miami, or New York…
By renting there to avoid both high purchase costs and a major bubble burst (when it inevitably comes), you free up your borrowing power to buy a house in an affordable area where renting for income is more lucrative, and far less risky.
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Tuesday, August 21, 2018
When the Constitution Hurts the US / Politics / US Politics
I’m not a fan of small spaces, and MRIs give me the willies.I understand that there’s no way the giant machine could collapse, and no possibility that I’ll run low on air, but that doesn’t make me feel any better.
Maybe President Trump has a similar issue, although not with small spaces.
Instead, the smell of new car leather might make him sweat.
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Tuesday, August 21, 2018
US Economy Beholden to Fed Interest Rate Policy; Here's One Way Gold Could Reach $14,000+ / Economics / Gold and Silver 2018
Welcome to this week’s Market Wrap Podcast, I’m Mike Gleason. Coming up we’ll hear from Dr. Lucas Engelhardt, associate professor of economics at Kent State University and well-known Austrian economist and regular guest lecturer at the Mises Institute. Dr. Engelhardt enlightens us on some of the major flaws in our current monetary policy and the dangers and economic trouble it will eventually produce. He also discusses a couple of different ways we could reintroduce a gold standard to save us from what appears to be an inevitable economic catastrophe. Don’t miss a fascinating interview with Dr. Lucas Engelhardt, coming up after this week’s market update.
Well, there’s no way to soft-pedal it. Precious metals markets got smashed this week.
A currency crisis in Turkey sent a wave of fear through other emerging markets and hard assets at large. That emboldened short sellers who had already piled onto gold and silver futures with historically large positions.
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Tuesday, August 21, 2018
The Shape of Trump to Come / Politics / US Politics
I thought I’d make list of things we can expect to emanate from the White House over the coming year or so. I’m sure you will agree, wherever you stand on the political roller coaster, that there’s little chance things are going to be boring going forward. Here goes:
Trump will end the ‘monopolies’ of Facebook, Google, Twitter et al. The intelligence community will hate this, but they already hate him anyway, so why bother? And besides, it’s the only thing to do that makes any sense. The AT&T model might be useful, essentially creating Baby Bells, though the international reach of the companies may add a layer or two of complications.
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Monday, August 20, 2018
Turkey Debt Crisis is Not Contained / Interest-Rates / Turkey
During my last appearance on CNBC, before I was banned several years ago, I warned that the removal of massive and unprecedented monetary stimuli from global central banks would have to be done in a coordinated fashion. Otherwise, there would be the very real risk of currency and debt crises around the world.However, coordination among central banks is not what is happening. The Fed is miles ahead in its reversal of monetary stimulus, as it has already raised rates seven times; with two more 25bps rate hikes in the pipeline scheduled for later this year. It has also avowed to sell off two trillion dollars’ worth of debt off its balance sheet--while the rest of the world’s central banks are far behind in this monetary tightening course. This has led to a significant increase in the value of the US dollar.
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Monday, August 20, 2018
Why Silver Could Replace The US Dollar / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2018
Silver used to be a significant part of the monetary base in many countries. You could find it as part of monetary reserves together with gold, as well as coinage in circulation.
Over the years that silver was demonetized (at least from the 1870s to roughly the 1960s), significant amounts of silver coins (official currency coins) were melted down and sold on the markets, together with silver bars (used as reserves). This brought us to today, where the amount of silver that is part of the monetary base is basically immaterial.
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Monday, August 20, 2018
Surviving a Trade War in the Age of Trump and Brexit / Stock-Markets / Protectionism
President Donald Trump keeps surprising the world about this policies. The stance that the US took for years is now changing under his administration. Countries that used to be allies of the United States are now seemingly considered enemies. He has launched trade wars against Canada, China, and even the EU.
Brexit is another problem that has a global impact. There is no final decision yet on how Brexit will happen, and what terms the EU and the UK will agree. These significant global changes have impacted a lot of business owners, especially those who are just starting out.
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Monday, August 20, 2018
Stocks Get Closer to January's Record High, What's Next? / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2018
Stocks were little changed on Friday, as investors hesitated following Wednesday-Thursday's S&P 500's advance off support level of 2,800. Will the S&P 500 index continue towards its late January's record high? Or is this just an upward correction before another leg down?
The U.S. stock market indexes gained 0.1-0.4% on Friday, extending their short-term consolidation on Friday, as investors hesitated following the recent advance. The S&P 500 index closed at 2,850 mark and it is currently just 0.8% below the January's 26th record high of 2,872.87. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.4% and the technology Nasdaq Composite gained just 0.1% on Friday.
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Monday, August 20, 2018
All Average Savings Rates Rise for the First Time in Over Seven Years / Personal_Finance / Savings Accounts
Moneyfacts UK Savings Trends Treasury Report data (not yet published) highlights the savings market’s continued recovery, with all average rates increasing for the first time since February 2011.
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Monday, August 20, 2018
London Eye Best Times to Visit for Shortest Queues - Tourist Tips / Personal_Finance / Holidays
The London Eye is at the top of every Tourists London must do list, the consequences of which is that it tends to get very, very busy, and despite the number of capsules you can end up waiting for over an hour as the queue snakes across the Westminster walkway all the way to the Merlin ticket office. So we tracked the Eye queue length over a couple of days to see which are the best and worst times to visit the London eye, as picking the right time could get you on in less than 1/3rd the time. So watch the video and to find out what the queues are like at various times of day during a busy summers day.
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Monday, August 20, 2018
What the Copper and Gold Crash Means for Commodities and Stocks / Commodities / Commodities Trading
As you probably know, commodity prices have been falling significantly over the past few months on Trump’s trade war, which has caused the U.S. Dollar to rise.
This has some bearish investors afraid of a few things:
- “Contagion” from commodities and emerging markets to the U.S. stock market
- An economic slowdown, because commodity prices are “supposed to” reflect economic data. Conventional thinking states that falling commodity prices = falling demand, which signals a slowdown in the economy.
Monday, August 20, 2018
TASI - Saudi Arabia Stock Index Outlook / Stock-Markets / Saudi Arabia
Further weakness will confirm bearish outlook for the Tadawul All Share Index (TASI)
TASI (Saudi Arabia stock market) poised to breakdown from large bearish Ascending Wedge pattern.
Weakness apparent over past couple of months and follows a prior advance.
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Sunday, August 19, 2018
Stock Market Challenging Recent High / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2018
Current Position of the Market
SPX: Long-term trend – The bull market is continuing with a top expected in the low 3000s.
Intermediate trend – A new correction has started. More time is needed to determine its extent and duration.
Analysis of the short-term trend is done on a daily basis with the help of hourly charts. It is an important adjunct to the analysis of daily and weekly charts which discusses the course of longer market trends.
Sunday, August 19, 2018
Bitcoin: Landing Gear Engaged. Bottom Is Still a Process / Currencies / Bitcoin
If you have tracked me at all since January, I had stated that if bitcoin (BTC-USD) is in a wave iv of the degree that I believed, support for this corrective wave, that started in January is in the $3000-$4700 zone. $4700 is an ideal landing spot for this wave iv as it is the .382 retrace of the third wave that began in July 2016.
Further, if you tracked my writing, I saw many setups that can bring us to that level, and likewise many bullish setups that could have taken us out of this long correction prematurely. All failed.
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Sunday, August 19, 2018
Venezuela's Great Bolivar Scam, Nothing but a Face Lift / Currencies / HyperInflation
In the days leading up to Venezuela’s currency reform, which is set for August 20th, the bolivar has taken yet another deep dive. The chart below shows the bolivar’s free fall and the massive gap between the official exchange rate of 248,521 VEF/USD and the black-market (read: free-market) exchange rate of 6,670,079 VEF/USD. That gap results in a whopping black market premium of 2,584%. It also produces huge profits for Maduro’s cronies who have access to the official rate. They can purchase greenbacks for peanuts and sell them on the black market for an instantaneous profit of 2,584%.
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