Today's Highlights
FinTech Shrugs off Wall Street
All Set for Brexit
Big Day Tomorrow
Please Note: All data, figures & graphs are valid as of March 14th. All trading carries risk. Only risk capital you can afford to lose.
Market Overview
Who really wants to buy a stock that's at it's all time record highs?
Sure this rally could continue, but seasoned traders are still looking at this market with a healthy dose of skepticism.
The U.S. dollar is getting very strong this morning ahead of what is now an almost certain outcome of tomorrow's Fed meeting tomorrow. Rates are going up fast.
Usually, tightening money is not good for the stock markets though. A lot of what we've been seeing for the past decade is that financial institutions will borrow money from the bank in order to invest it in the stock market.
If the interest you're paying is less than 1% and you're pulling in 5% or more in returns, well that's just good business. But when interest payments start to go up, well those margins start to get squashed.
According to the Fed's current plan, the rate at the Fed will be as high as 1.5% by the end of the year.
It's a Crypto World
Despite the SEC rejecting Bitcoin, the price remains resilient.
The following picture was posted on the eToro network by one of our new Bitcoin enthusiasts.
To me, this reaction represents the entire FinTech community saying 'forget Wall Sreet, we don't need your dirty money'
Even more incredible than Bitcoin was the move in Ethereum yesterday, which reached as high as $30 a coin for the first time ever.
Here we can see the move since the beginning of February when it was trading at $10 a coin.
Feel free to join the discussions of this new breed of crypto-traders on the BTC & ETH walls.
Second Brexit
As expected, the House of Commons passed the Brexit Bill without a fuss and May is now cleared to trigger Article 50, starting a 2-year process of negotiating the exit from the European Union.
In tandem, the good people of Scotland are preparing their own exit. We don't know how, or when, but be prepared for another Scottish Referendum.
The GBP/USD is once again under pressure.
HUGE DAY Tomorrow
I'm not even talking about the Fed interest rates now. Tomorrow is the national elections in The Netherlands.
At this point, it looks very likely that we could see an anti-EU party take power in the next 48 hours.
This would mean a hostile country within the EU. Even if Marine La Pen does not take France, which is looking increasingly likely that she will, having Geert Wilders as the Prime Minister of the Netherlands would at least spell trouble for the single market, if not its end.
This content is for information and educational purposes only and should not be considered investment advice or an investment recommendation.
Past performance is not an indication of future results. All trading carries risk. Only risk capital you're prepared to lose.