Opinions, Page 4

Look at this image I created using Bloomberg for the data. It shows the Dow and the Spanish IBEX indices over a 5 year period. It begs the question: will we see a closing of this gap now in performance? And does that mean better performance from Spain?Dow Jones/IBEXLet us

The simple viewpoint has been that rising rates are bad for gold because gold is not an interest-bearing asset. Why would you own gold if interest rates are rising and gold doesn’t pay you anything? There are typically two sides to the debate on the impact of gold from the

At the heart of the election is the issue of immigration, while other areas of focus include social reform and taxation and there is always the issue of national identity and membership to the EU.The Leading FourIn the final week, there are four major parties that will be garnering the

Its location, nestled between Germany, France, Austria, and Italy; coupled with its rugged, mountainous terrain, have, for millennia, made it a perfect place to hide. Many of the world’s richest citizens count themselves amongst the 8 million inhabitants of Switzerland. Indeed, the country is the wealthiest in the world in

In 2009, a mysterious individual named ‘Satoshi Nakamoto’ propelled cryptocurrencies into the mainstream with the introduction of bitcoin and shook the world of finance to its core. Bitcoin was only the beginning of the world’s love affair with this novel form of currency. Now we have more than 1400 cryptocurrencies,

There’s been much debate over whether the funds raised through the ICO are in fact to purely cover the costs of Telegram, which continues to grow and eat into CEO Pavel Durov’s pocket. With the public ICO expected to raise at least an additional $600m, Telegram looks to be covered

By way of a change this week, we are going to look at the technical analysis and charts we usually show, to see what lies behind cryptocurrencies, and explain why we think that not only are they here to stay, but why they will become an essential part of all

I write to you from India, before hitting my trading desk at the start of a new week. Here in India, the annual budget by the Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley, has been interpreted by some as yet another death knell for Cryptocurrencies. They’re wrong. It’s the opposite.PioneersIndia is one of

The summer of ’16 EU Referendum not only had the UK population divided but also the global financial markets.For the UK population, the outcome of the referendum was arguably more about social status and national pride than any real understanding of the implications if Britain voted to go it alone.While

A lot of professional economists now live their lives to bash and criticize cryptocurrencies and their place in the modern world. Evidence of this abounds through a cursory look on Twitter, Linkedin or Facebook. It’s more divisive than the Brexit and the American President – or at least feels it.I

Cryptocurrency is here to stay and there’s not much that skeptics and pessimists can do about it. Bitcoin, the poster boy of cryptocurrencies delivered 1,420% gain in 2017 to obliterate gains traditional assets such as gold, stocks, and bonds on Wall Street. Bitcoin has since retracted its steps from its

These had grown exponentially, with the technology-dominated NASDAQ index leading the way, rising from under 1,000 to more than 5,000 in the space of 5 years.Not only was it full of speculative investing, with no real evidence, but the overabundance of venture capital funding for startups was rife, turning a

Last year provided cryptocurrency investors with exponential returns, with the talk of bubbles doing little to deter the inflow of investor money through the year. The cryptomarket’s total market cap crossed the $800bn mark in the first week of January before the talk about a correction saw the market cap

Five years ago, cryptocurrency was only known by tech geeks and cyberpunks. Little wonder when trading exploded the Exchanges cannot cope – their infrastructure was not built for this level of demand. The demand which even sees accounts on sale on eBay because it takes so long for an Exchange

The cryptocurrency market was on the ropes on Crypto Black Friday, with Bitcoin and the clan tanking through the morning session before stabilizing. The crypto world was perhaps sitting on the edge of their seats pondering whether fundraising was about to go old school once more and whether there would

This trend is likely to continue next year as growth in the rest of world moves lock-step with growth in the U.S.The global economy is expected to be driven by higher commodity prices which should support commodity currencies such as the Australian, New Zealand and Canadian Dollars. Additionally, an expected

The activation of Segwit and the Lightning Network wasn’t sufficient to cope with the CBOE’s launch of Bitcoin futures, leading to approximately 200K incomplete transactions on the Bitcoin network.In addition, Bitcoin payment fees have increased approximately 100 times, from 20 cents to $20, and companies have started to react to

Why is Bitcoin so volatile?How Can you Short Bitcoin?If Bitcoin Crashes, Sell!Bitcoin has continued to grab the headlines throughout the year and with good reason. Year-to-date, Bitcoin has surged 1,053% to $11138 at the time of writing. That’s quite an impressive return for any investor, particularly when considering the fact

The world of cryptocurrencies continues to evolve and with it comes news of the launch of Bitcoin futures.The CME Group announced last month that it will be launching Bitcoin futures based on the CME CF Bitcoin Reference Rate (“BRR”). It is anticipated that the launch date will be on 10th

For me, 2013 has long stayed in my memory as a year that affected me personally – a year where one key event impacted me directly. Looking back on it now though, it seems that there are several things that occurred that year, which is now repeating.Firstly, Obama was sworn