Thought For A Day
Archives of “December 2020” month
rssLitecoin is now the 3rd biggest cryptocurrency by market cap!
12 Reasons Why Traders Fail
Reasons from David Hightower, a principal of Hartfield Management Inc.
- They have inadequate capitalization.
- They are using someone else’s system.
- They lack knowledge of the system’s performance.
- They are unable to sit through flat periods or drawdowns.
- They are unable to handle stress.
- They lack commitment.
- They experience drawdowns that are greater than their hypothetical testing.
- They override the system’s signals.
- Their ego prevails.
- Their system is overoptimized; they make additional rules to take out losing trades.
- They lack parameters for spike performance in markets.
- They lack diversification between systems and/or markets.
At the end of the 19th century, the North American stock market represented only 15% of the world capitalization. At present it represents almost 55%.
I’ve waited 5 years to see institutions come to recognize Bitcoin as digital gold.
US Speaker Pelosi says House will pass bill increasing stimulus checks to $2,000 on Monday
The lower House of US Congress will pass the bill on 28 December 2020 confirms Pelosi.
Pelosi’s Democrat Party holds the majority in the House so it’ll pass.
The bill will face a test in the Senate though where Republicans have the majority and so far have given little indication they are in favour of the extra support payment.
Major indices close at record levels
S&P leads the charge today
The major indices are all closing at record levels with the S&P index leading the charge today.
- S&P index rose 32.3 points or 0.87% had 3735.36
- Nasdaq rose 94.688 points or 0.74% at 12899.42
- Dow rose 204.1 points or 0.68% at 30403.93.
The gains were spurred by the signing of the near $900 billion aid package finally by Pres. Trump over the weekend and potential for more direct stimulus in 2021.
Thought For A Day
Brexit negotiations over? Not quite just yet..
A trade deal was agreed but negotiations won’t stop there
Although both sides have come to some agreement on trade, Brexit isn’t quite over just yet as we look towards the new year.
While there is an agreement for zero tariffs on trade of goods, just be reminded that there is no agreement whatsoever on services – and that includes financial services.
As things stand, the Commons will vote on the Brexit deal on 30 December with the EU set to also ratify the deal some time in early January (presumably next week).
All that is a formality but thereafter, we are likely to see further negotiations to try and broker a deal on financial services. That said, expectations are low for anything substantial.
UK’s Gove: If AstraZeneca vaccine rollout goes well, we’ll be in a place to lift restrictions quickly
Gove building up further optimism going into the new year
The UK is widely expected to approve the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine in the coming days, with the rollout then set to begin in the first week of January. The announcement is expected some time this week, as early as tomorrow so watch out for that.
While I wouldn’t doubt the optimism as more vaccines are rolled out, I would take Gove’s remarks with a pinch of salt. Up until Christmas eve, there has been just over 600,000 people that have been vaccinated in the UK.
While the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine may be easier to store/transport and is cheaper, it doesn’t take away the fact that it is still going to take a long while before we see the impact of the vaccines on the health crisis in general.
In the meantime, the UK still has to deal with a staggering amount of cases and it is tough to see how the government can change things up despite such remarks by Gove.
