While investors focus on the losses that are piling up in the stock market, the cryptocurrency space has suffered far more. The bears say it has further to go, but that may depend on what happens to stocks. Bitcoin, the grand daddy of crypto currencies, is trading around $38,400 per coin as of January 25, 2022. It has suffered a 50% decline since its record high in November 2021. Ethereum, the second most popular coin, has dropped from almost $5,000 to $2,400. In total, the combined crypto market has lost $1.4 trillion over the past week. At one time, crypto…
Insights & Advice
Tag: cryptocurrency
Non-fungible tokens come of age
NFTs are digital assets. For those like me, who are old enough to be grandparents, and may still read the newspapers, the concept of a digital asset may not be all that intuitive. “Non-fungible” means that it is a unique asset that can’t be replaced with something else. NFTs are bought and sold online (usually with a cryptocurrency), and stored and encoded in the same way. The difference is that cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, are fungible and can be traded, or replaced, with another bitcoin. These digital assets can include everything from original art, videos, and music, as well as…
Market rotation continues
One day, it’s all about technology. The next day, back to commodities. And on the third, defensive plays like healthcare shine. Next week, we could see a new player lead the markets higher. The Russell 2000 Index, which is chock full of small cap stocks, has been trading back and forth, but basically going nowhere over the last month. I detected a stirring of upside momentum this week and will be watching that index closely after the Memorial Day weekend for additional follow-through. The small cap universe, (one of my picks to outperform this year) has done “okay” so far…
Sit here in your Bitcoin chair
Bitcoin crashed. Again. It got cut down by more than half the high it made on April 13, 2021. Though, let’s be honest about it. By the time this column goes to print, it could have restored its losses. I don’t own Bitcoin. Or any cryptocurrencies, for that matter. I know lots of people who do, including at my workplace. I’m not against it. I tell everyone who has the aptitude to do so, “Go ahead and trade it. So long as you know the risks and have an exit plan, trade it.” I know — I’m an old man…
Fed puts markets on notice while crypto crashes
It had to happen at some point with economic growth spiking as high as it has, and inflation beginning to creep up. Investors should have expected the Fed to think about a change in policy. This week, we had our first mention of the dreaded “T” word. T is for taper and in the minutes of the Fed’s April FOMC meeting released on Wednesday, the entire financial community jumped on just one phrase: “it might be appropriate at some point” to consider tapering asset purchases if the economy shows “rapid progress.” In other words, the Fed is signaling that they…
Bitcoin is back
After a three-year hiatus, cryptocurrencies have returned and are attracting the attention of investors. Will this time be any different? Readers may recall the Bitcoin craze that sent the largest digital currency to an all-time high of $20,000 in 2017 and spawned numerous copy-cat cryptos like Ethereum and Litecoin. You may also remember that all of them came crashing back to earth and ignominy where they have languished, unloved, until this year. This week, Bitcoin hit a new, three-year record of $19,857. If that is news to you, there is a reason for that. After the last buying frenzy and…