The US Department of Defense has officially canceled a contract to provide cloud storage services. Microsoft had an agreement with the Department and it won. The company was made official as the winner of the $10 billion deal for the JEDI Cloud project, promoted by the Pentagon, in October 2019, but there were some setbacks.
In recent days, the Pentagon has restarted procedures and transformed the plan into a new multi-buyer contract and will seek joint proposals from Microsoft and Amazon, and is also willing to analyze possible proposals from other interested companies that manage to meet the necessary requirements. The idea is for the new decision to be final, especially given the current delay in proceeding with the project.
Although some Microsoft workers objected to the decision to make a proposal, JEDI would have seen Microsoft supply cloud services for data storage, artificial intelligence activities, and other computer needs. JEDI was put on hold as a result of the lawsuit, but a judge permitted the matter to go to trial this spring.
In 2018, there was a third party interested in the business, but Google withdrew from competing for the JEDI Cloud project and was deemed unable to provide the necessary structure. On the other hand, Amazon, which was defeated, accused then US President Donald Trump of favoring its rival in the choice.
In court, the process went ahead in April this year with a favorable opinion to Amazon’s prosecution — which probably influenced the recent move by the government.
Amazon celebrated the Pentagon’s new decision in a statement, while Microsoft said it respects the decision and that the country’s security is more important than contracts.
There is scientific evidence that PowerPoint – not the software, but the concept – is not very productive. And it is shown by the fact that great communicators don’t use PowerPoint. The problem is that displaying words on a screen while speaking (regardless of whether you’re reading or showing the pictures) doesn’t increase audience understanding and retention. Therefore, time spent building a PowerPoint presentation is wasted.
In any case, the world’s truly great communicators have long since abandoned PowerPoint (and its clones) in favor of non-slide approaches. Here are four alternative methods:
1. Go totally without slides (Sir Ken Robinson)
One of the most watched (62 million views) and most loved TED Talks of all time features educational reformer Sir Ken Robinson. Rather than clogging up his message with slides, he presents his ideas in a way so engaging and clear that his words go to the heart and stay in the brain.
While this oratory approach requires effort to create and rehearse, it is effort that really increases audience understanding and retention. As an added benefit, a speech without slides focuses on the speaker rather than the screen, creating a deeper emotional connection between speaker and audience.
Another advantage is that when people don’t know they’re going to receive a slide handout, they’re much more likely to take notes, an activity that greatly increases retention, especially when done with a pen or pencil.
2. Start with a briefing document (Jeff Bezos)
Instead of giving presentations at his meetings, Jeff Bezos requires the caller to prepare a 1-3 page briefing document containing the relevant ideas and requested decisions. Participants spend the first five minutes silently reading the document and then lead a brief discussion of its content.
Creating a fully formed, readable, self-contained document requires you to carefully consider your ideas and then express yourself clearly. This is more work than creating an outline of bullets, but it ensures that you communicate more accurately, which is beneficial for everyone. That shows us great communicators don’t use PowerPoint.
Also, a summary document is more useful to take with you than a set of slides (or a video of your presentation) because it contains fully formed thoughts that can be read and absorbed quickly. The hard copy also provides a place where participants can take notes.
3. Provide workbooks to fill in the blanks (Tony Robbins)
One of the most memorable performances I’ve ever experienced was at a Tony Robbins event a few years ago. Robbins, who has recently been controversial but remains a phenomenally effective communicator, distributed bound books containing the points he planned to make, but with blank areas for the audience to fill in the missing parts.
Creating this type of workbook takes about the same effort as creating a slideshow, but it makes the presentation more memorable rather than harder to understand. In fact, I still remember many of the points that Robbins made … more than two decades later.
4. Avoid meetings altogether (Mark Cuban)
Finally, there’s the Gordian solution: just stop holding meetings altogether. It is notorious that Mark Cuban only goes to meetings when he is on the TV show Shark Tank. Otherwise, he conducts business entirely via email.
I’m not sure this approach is practical for everyone, but it’s worth it, it’s been over a year since I’ve been submitted to a PowerPoint presentation. (Although I gave it another day, which in retrospect was a method of communication I should have avoided.)
Yes, great communicators don’t use PowerPoint. But let’s face it: 90 percent of the time you can ask a would-be presenter “what’s the gist, in three sentences” and you’ll get more conversational results than if you watched an entire PowerPoint presentation. Rule of thumb: Instead of PowerPoint, get to the point.
By 2050, one-fifth of the world’s population will be 60 years old or older — that’s more than 2 billion people. In 2030, the number of elderly people will exceed the total number of children between zero and 14 years old.
“The Silver Economy”, a study carried out in 2018 for the European Commission by the Technopolis Group and Oxford Economics, notes that in 2015 in Europe, 39% of the population – 199 million people – was over 50 years old and spending on products and private services amounting to approximately € 3,300 billion. An estimate that in 2025 it is expected to reach 222 million people, equal to 42.9% of the European population, with a spending capacity of approximately 5,000 billion euros.
In this scenario, the so-called silver economy, the set of products, services and solutions aimed at individuals over 60 years of age, has gained prominence. To give you an idea, according to the Harvard Business Review, this market moved US$ 15 trillion in the world in 2020.
In many countries we still have a movement of opening companies for this discovery. Many have not yet managed to perceive opportunities. The numbers we have are already relevant, but they will still grow much more. The future perspective is of a growing market both from the point of view of entrepreneurship and large companies that end up creating new products, services and solutions for this audience.
So this shows us the great potential that this sector of the economy has for new investors. Maybe it’s the opportunity to check if this is not the way to start a new business
Windows 11 was unveiled by Microsoft. Not a simple update and at a time that is anything but casual: for the most popular operating system in the world, with over 1.3 billion users, it is time for a new generation, designed for a new phase of the world. The pandemic has put the personal computer back at the center of our lives, after years in which the rise of the smartphone seemed irresistible. And Microsoft is ready to seize the opportunity, as CEO Satya Nadella himself admitted: “With Windows 11 we give a new meaning to the role of Windows in the world.” And he cited three aspects around which the idea of the Redmond company revolves: “Windows now recognizes us, there cannot be a ‘personal computer’ without a personal ‘digital agent’; Windows is a stage to create, to free the ingenuity that is in each of us; Windows is not an operating system but it is a platform to create your own platforms, communities and businesses, “said the man who led the company to new triumphs, up to the very recent milestone of $ 2 trillion in capitalization on Wall Street.
Android apps on Windows
In Nadella’s words, there is the turning point that the Indian-born manager has given the company: an “open” Microsoft, based above all on the cloud and on interoperability with other platforms and other systems. And here, one of the most surprising announcements, Windows 11 will be able to run Android apps (through a partnership with Amazon and its Amazon Appstore). The apps of Android can be opened alongside other software.
Something new was needed
With Windows 11 Microsoft wants to propose the Windows “of the next decade and beyond” as Nadella said again. It must be able to manage the changes that have been going on for some time in the world of PCs, with the many new two-in-one devices (just like Microsoft’s own Surface), equipped with digital pens, touchscreens and also controllable with the voice. This is why Windows 11 arrives, despite Microsoft having presented Windows 10 in 2015 stating that that would be the definitive name, that “there would be no Windows 10.5 or Windows 11” and that the necessary updates would simply arrive, as and when there it was needed. Something new was needed, which in Windows 11 is immediately grasped, right from the first installation.
The news, from the Start button to more streamlined updates
The Start button, a cornerstone of Windows since the fundamental Windows 95 version, in the eleventh version of the system is no longer on the left but in the middle, with a style more similar to the Mac Dock. forgettable Windows 8. According to Microsoft, the new User Interface is used to find the documents and applications we need earlier and better. New transparencies arrive, animations on transitions, the possibility of having “dark mode” or “light mode” (dark or light interface), faster web browsing on Edge but also on other browsers, Windows Update updates up to 40% more lightweight also to make the servers and the network work less (or to consume less and therefore be more “green”).
Microsoft showed a short video introducing the new system via Youtube:
Designed for smart working
Windows 11 is meant for times when you work on multiple devices and in multiple environments and situations. The search works on your pc, on Onedrive and on the web. Office 365 is integrated and offers the latest files no matter which device you are using. Snap Layouts is coming: it manages windows for multitasking, offering a full-window layout, divided into two or 4 windows (or more) depending on the size of the monitor in use. Resuming work becomes easier: if you set up windows in a certain way on an external, large monitor connected to the notebook, then unplug the laptop and work elsewhere, when you reconnect the computer to the secondary display the windows revert to their arrangement more suitable for a large screen.
Windows Widgets are back
Virtual desks now have their own background and their own aesthetic settings to understand where you are at a glance (you can set a desktop for work, one for home, one for gaming, etc). Windows Widgets are coming, a personalized and updated feed by artificial intelligence that offers the most useful tasks chosen by the user at a glance: calendar, weather, news and so on. The Windows Store is up to date, not only with Android apps but also with video content from external providers (Disney Plus was shown).
In a month marked by high volatility due to increased uncertainties regarding its mining in China, bitcoin experienced on Tuesday, 22, a drop of almost 10%, trading below $ 29,000, a level not seen since January. And this makes many investors wonder if Bitcoin in a downtrend. Even with a quick recovery during the day, the cryptocurrency became one of the main subjects among economists and crypto-active experts, who, despite the fall, highlight the long-term value of bitcoin.
The drop in the price of bitcoin in recent months is a response to a number of factors in the current market moment, with emphasis on the Chinese government’s contrary stance on cryptocurrency mining and, to comments from big names in the financial market. The hunt for bitcoin miners in China and statements by Michael Burry, the investor who inspired the movie The Big Bet, about excessive leverage in the crypto market are negatively impacting prices.
These factors, such as bans in China and pessimistic comments a possible market crash, are nothing new for cryptoactive investors, who should keep their focus on the long term.
If the price had not risen so sharply since the end of last year, there would be less concern about this fall.
From a more technical perspective, Ki Young Ju, CEO of data analysis firm CryptoQuant, has shown that the market’s current momentum is indeed uncertain and, because of this, deserves increased attention until its direction becomes clearer.
“The market is very uncertain at the moment. We are in a neutral range now. Stop the trades, be patient and wait for the next volatility,” CryptoQuant’s CEO posted on Twitter. Despite this, Ki Young Ju commented that its duration should not be long, pointing out that “the market is still positive in terms of supply and demand in the long term.” So we see it’s too early to say Bitcoin in a downtrend.
According to experts, a drop of this magnitude is not likely to happen again, mainly because of the entry of large investors into the market, who may see the current moment as a buying opportunity for the long term.
Every bank is working on its own crypto-active related project and how to offer bitcoin to its wealthy customers.
Glimpsing the opportunity to increase their position in bitcoin by paying less for the cryptoactive, several companies have made large bitcoin purchases during the downturn, such as MicroStrategy. Headed by Michael Saylor, the company focused on enterprise software development, announced on Monday, 21, the purchase of an additional 13,005 bitcoins for $489 million, which brought the company to over 100,000 bitcoins in its possession.
Joe Biden Considers Exempting US Refineries from Biofuels Target. The issue confronts two important supporters of the current administration: refinery executives and farmers who depend on biofuels mandates to sustain a huge market for corn.
The impasse could cause a turnaround in the government, which had been reversing the expansion of exemptions to the Standard for Renewable Fuels (RFS) program, created by the previous president, Donald Trump.
In principle, the law requires refineries to mix billions of liters of ethanol and other renewable options into their fuel each year or to buy credits from those who do.
The credits, known as Renewables Identification Numbers (RINs), are currently at their highest price in the program’s 13-year history. Consequently, refiners argue that the RFS threatens to bankrupt fuel manufacturers already hit by the drop in demand seen during the pandemic.
The value of renewable fuel credits fell 15% on Friday morning after the news broke. They traded at $1.70 each, down from $2.00 on Thursday, traders said. Later, the papers were sold at US$ 1.85.
Democratic senators Chris Coons and Tom Carper of Delaware — Biden state — have had at least two meetings in recent weeks with US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) head Michael Regan to discuss measures to help the refiners, according to the three sources.
Coons and Carper were trying to help the only refinery in the state, a plant with a production capacity of about 28,600 liters a day. These requests were added to a chorus of appeals from other states that own refineries, including Pennsylvania, Texas and Louisiana. It means means Joe Biden considers exempting US refineries from biofuels target
At the meetings, according to two of the sources consulted, Regan and the senators discussed options such as: a general national exemption from some obligations; reducing the number of renewable fuel plants in the future; the creation of a price cap for credits; and issuing a declaration of emergency.
EPA spokesman Nick Conger confirmed that Regan had met with senators but did not comment on the discussions or confirm whether the agency is looking for ways to provide relief to refiners.
Coons did not respond to requests for comment. A Carper spokesman said the senator spoke with Regan several times about the high costs of RINs. It help us to understand that Joe Biden considers exempting US refineries from biofuels target
Refineries like PBF Energy, which operates the plant in Delaware, said biofuel laws could close factories and wipe out thousands of unionized jobs.
The company recently closed most of its refinery in New Jersey after the latest in a series of shutdowns along the east coast of the United States.
The region, which faces higher refining costs because of its distance from oil fields, has seen fuel production capacity drop by about 40% since 2000.
Federal data show that only eight of the 17 refineries operating on the US East Coast in 2000 are still operating.
In addition, at least one company is already betting that the government will end up helping the refineries. Reuters previously reported that Delta Air Lines Inc stopped purchasing RINs, leaving its refinery in Pennsylvania with a liability of $346 million at the end of the first quarter of 2021. So this situation show us Joe Biden considers exempting US refineries from biofuels target
The Congress of El Salvador approved, early this Wednesday, the 9th of the law that classifies bitcoin as a legal tender in the country.The decision makes El Salvador is the first country to adopt bitcoin as its official currency.
Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele announced the plan last weekend and is expected to enact the law this Wednesday morning. The idea, according to him, is to increase the dynamism of the economy and make the country more attractive to investors.
“The ‘Bitcoin Law’ was recently passed by the Legislative Assembly with a qualified majority. 62 out of 84 people voted! It’s all in the past! “, the president exulted. “This is a legislation that will place El Salvador on the map, and we’ll be more appealing to global business,” said Congressman Romeo Auerbach, a Bukele supporter.
Anabel Belloso, from the opposition, who voted against the project, lamented that the law “has not been discussed with specialists, nor with patience”: “The law has many implications in the economic sphere and not everyone knows how this will work, leading to considering that cryptocurrencies are volatile in the market, they are unstable,” he said.
With the new law, bitcoin must be accepted as a form of payment by “any economic agent” in the country, excluding those who “It is a well-known truth that they do not have access to the tools that allow them to conduct bitcoin transactions.” Part of country’s population is excited for El Salvador is the first country to adopt bitcoin as its official currency .
For accounting purposes, the US dollar, the official currency of El Salvador, will be used as a reference, but the text states that the bitcoin exchange rate “will be freely established by the market” and that the State will provide alternatives for “automatic and instantaneous conversion between the bitcoin and the dollar” for those who prefer it that way.
According to Bukele, giving bitcoin the status of legal tender in the country aims to generate jobs and increase “financial inclusion for thousands of people outside the formal economy” – according to the president, 70% of the population of El Salvador is currently unbanked.
In addition, the Salvadoran president also said that bitcoin could make it easier for Salvadorans living abroad to send money to friends and family in the country.
Currently, El Salvador’s economy is heavily dependent on remittances sent from other parts of the world, which represent more than 20% of GDP. Data show that more than two million Salvadorans living abroad send around 5 billion dollars each year to their home country, that is the first country to adopt bitcoin as its official currency.
Providers of this type of service charge high fees and operations take days to be carried out. With bitcoin, the cost and timeframe for these transactions would be reduced considerably: “This will improve the lives and futures of millions,” predicts Bukele.
When Bitcoin price is rising, gaining over 40 per cent in value in just over three weeks our cryptocurrency expert Bob Loukas, has provided a key trading tips. As the founder of Bitcoin.Live, the educational cryptocurrency platform for traders, Bob believes that this might be the end crypto distrust, and invites traders to utilize this spike and give trading a go.
1. Trade the Trend
“The trend is your friend” may be the most widely used truism in investing…and it’s directly applicable to the study of Cycles. With Cycles, we attempt to identify significant Lows that mark the start of new trends. If you always trade with the trend and never trade against it, you’ll significantly increase your odds of trading success. The most important of all trading tips.
Trading a trend with Cycles is fairly straightforward in concept – if a longer-term Cycle is moving up, buy the troughs of a shorter Cycle; if a longer-term Cycle is moving down; sell the tops of a shorter Cycle.
2. Work for Optimal Trade Entries
Optimal trade entries are those that occur when the underlying asset is finding its Investor Cycle Low. These lows occur 2-3 times per year, generally after frightening drops, and most often in concert with major, trend-changing events. Trade entries at these lows typically have strong risk/reward profiles.
3. Stop Losses
Another trading tip: each position must have a stop loss. Know when to cut your losses and never be afraid of missing a rally. If the position is going against you, get out and regroup. Leaving a trade with a small loss is easy but allowing a small loss to balloon into a large one is inexcusable and sets the scene for a catastrophic loss in a portfolio. Too many investors stubbornly hold onto losing positions rather than admit that price did not move as they thought it would.
4. Protect Capital First…Then Worry about Winning Trades
A natural extension of #3, protecting capital is the single most important step in wealth management. All the winning trades and associated gains are worthless if you give them all back through a few lousy portfolio-busting trades.
Avoiding losses is about letting go of the idea that each trade must be a winner. Once you understand that you won’t, can’t and don’t need to win every trade – and that missing a rally is just fine – you’ll be able to exit trades without regret while losses are still small. And if you ensure that your losses are small, you can be successful with only modest winning trades.
5. Position Sizing
Keep your positions in check relative to your overall portfolio size. Learn to fully understand each trade, especially its setup and probability of success. Since no two trades are alike, you should adjust your position size according to the risk/reward profile of each trade. Also, be sure to track your trading results – when you’re doing well you can be more aggressive and when results have been mixed, you should trade more modestly.
6. Leverage and Options
Unless you’re a true expert, avoid significant leverage. The only times you should consider leverage or options are at the beginning of new Secular or Investor Cycles. This is because the odds of success are the greatest at these key Cycle Lows. Plus, a nearby Cycle low offers a tight stop.
7. Investing with a Plan
Trading without a plan is a proven losing strategy. Whether you follow the Market Cycles via The Financial Tap or some other system, you must always have a plan in place which includes trade size, conditions for entering a trade, and reasons for exiting a trade. Think through them all in advance so that, no matter the market conditions, you’ll know how to respond. Also make sure to ask yourself some key questions: “Why am I buying/selling here? Does this fit my plan/strategy? Am I likely to question the trade (for non-plan compliance) in the future?”
Trades go against investors all the time, even when the trades were entered via a well-defined strategy and according to a preset plan. Losing trades are normal – they are the price of trading. Losses provide you with the opportunity to tweak your strategy and improve your plan.
8. Treat Investing Like a Business
One of the most important trading tips is that. In order to be successful, one must approach trading and investing as a business and not as a hobby. Investing should be one of the most important aspects of your life, right after spirituality, family, relationships, and personal healthcare. You’ve likely spent years working to earn your wealth; you need to treat your wealth with the respect it deserves.
Understand what you’re investing in, why you’re investing, and what your expectations should be. Never solely rely on an online service, advisor, index fund, or wealth manager. Take control of your personal financial future, get educated, and understand where every dollar of your wealth is invested.
9.Don’t Force a Trade – Wait For an Optimal Trade Setup
Even the most experienced investors have to fight the urge to trade unnecessarily. For a variety of reasons, investors generally overtrade…and thereby greatly diminish their overall returns. That’s why this trading tip is so important.
It’s better to wait for an optimal trade setup – one that fits your trading plan; These trades have much greater probability of success than trades taken impulsively. Over time, taking higher probability trades will provide a much higher winning percentage and far greater portfolio returns.
10. Trade within Your Means
Trading is as much about avoiding significant losses as it is making gains. Significant losses are difficult to overcome and can directly affect your quality of life. There are NO shortcuts to financial success and the freedom it affords. Success in the markets must be earned. Only trade with money that you can comfortably lose. Never trade with borrowed money (credit cards/line of equity/margin), have patience, and be realistic with your expectations. Hope you have enjoyed those trading tips.
Despite China’s ban on digital asset investment, a news report that crypto trading remains active across the country. Chinese investors have found access to cryptocurrency products through its neighbour Hong Kong and off-shore exchanges, according to specialized site 8btc.com.
Mainland investors, those whom the ban policy affected the most, have relied on their trading enterprises through and “have been able to circumvent a ban on crypto trading through the utilization of VPNs and stable coins such as Tether (USDT), to trade cryptocurrencies on global exchanges,” said Joseph Young reporting a Hong Kong-based publication South China Morning Post released on September 8.
Another source, this time from Shanghai-based cryptocurrency startup InVault CEO Kenneth Xu, confirmed what was published by the SCM and has settled that chinese investors from inland remain active while relying on offshore exchanges and operators, most of them based in Hong Kong, to purchase cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and Ethereum.
Chinese government has been very strict on what can be traded or not within their frontiers and have passed through some severe regulations to stop the growing crypto-trading. In July, the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) appeared buoyant about its ban policy reducing China’s cryptocurrency trading to less than one percent of global volume.
After that, the government started to chase and close exchanges operating within Chinese territories, they even went after those who were settled off-shore. In an interview with SCMP, Hong Kong and Taiwan-based digital asset exchange executive Terence Tsang said that the tightening of regulations by the government was targeted at exchanges that pretended to be based outside of China but were actually operating inside the country, which is very important for chinese investors.
“The latest warning and potentially increased monitoring of foreign platforms is targeted at a batch of smaller exchanges that had claimed to be foreign entities, but are in fact operating in China claiming they have outsourced their operations to a Chinese company,” Tsang said.
To eliminate the possibility of exchanges operating in mainland, the government requested Alipay, the largest fintech network in the world valued at more than $60 billion, to suspend or block accounts suspected to be connected to cryptocurrency exchanges. After that, on August 23, the government reported to have blocked 124 offshore exchanges
The move came the same week as Beijing forbade venues including hotels, shopping malls, and offices from promoting or hosting events supporting cryptocurrency. A separate ban governing eight crypto media outlets has also come into effect, Bitcoinistreported.
According to Shanghai Securities News, central authorities “will also continue to monitor and shut down domestic websites related to cryptocurrency trades and initial coin offerings (ICOs), and ban payment services from accepting cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin.”
Still, the government is struggling to completely ban out trading in offshore markets, especially in Hong Kong. In theory, local financial authorities could engage with commercial banks and evaluate every suspicious wire transfer made from China to neighbouring countries.
The government has made it as uncomfortable and uneasy as possible for investors to allocate their holdings in yuan and other assets into cryptocurrencies. But, it has proven to be difficult to outright ban cryptocurrency trading.
Bitcoin will lose 50 per cent of its cryptocurrency market share to Ethereum within five years, states an influential tech expert and business analyst. For his opinion Ethereum will end up overtaking Bitcoin.
The comments from Ian Mcloed, from Thomas Crown Art, the world’s leading art-tech agency that he established with renowned art dealer, Stephen Howes, comes as Ethereum, the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, began a price recovery on Friday after being hit hard with a major sell-off in recent weeks.
Indeed, Ethereum had crashed 85 per cent overall this year.
However, Ethereum is regained ground late last week, jumping almost 14 per cent after its most recent plunge, only find itself trading again 10 per cent lower once more in the past 24 hours.
What is happening? And what does the future hold for Ethereum?
Mr Mcloed observes: “Turbulence is a regular, and sometimes welcome, feature of the crypto sector. Therefore, the Ethereum rebound was, and is, inevitable.
“But not only do we think it will rebound considerably before the end of 2018, I believe that over the longer time it will significantly dent Bitcoin’s dominance.
“In fact, I think we can expect Bitcoin to lose 50 per cent of its cryptocurrency market share to Ethereum, its nearest rival, within five years.”
Why is he so confident?
“Simply, Ethereum offers more uses and solutions than Bitcoin, and it’s backed with superior blockchain technology” says Mr Mcloed.
“This is why we use Ethereum’s blockchain in our art business. It has allowed us to create a system to use artworks as a literal store of value; it becomes a cryptocurrency wallet.
“It also solves authenticity and provenance issues – essential in the world of art. All our works of art are logged on the Ethereum’s blockchain with a unique ‘smart’ contract.”
Last month, Stephen Howes explained: “Using this cutting-edge technology, the art world can eradicate one of its biggest and most expensive problems – forgery – and can protect artists, galleries, and private owners and collectors.”
Ian Mcloed concludes: “Whilst there will continue to be peaks and troughs in the wider cryptocurrency market, due to its inherent strong core values, Ethereum will steadily increase in value in the next few years and beyond.
“Unless Bitcoin does more now to tackle scalability issues, and improves the technology it runs on, we cannot see how it can catch up with Ethereum over the next five years or so, when the crypto market will be even more mainstream.
Again, is means Ethereum will end up overtaking Bitcoin: “Ethereum is already light years ahead of Bitcoin in everything but price – and this gap will become increasingly apparent as more and more investors jump into crypto. ”
We have seen inflation rising in the UK in the past few months. The expectation is that the UK’s inflation will continue.
Market prices are growing at their highest pace since March 2020, when the pandemic began, when they jumped to 1.5 percent from 0.7 percent in March.
According to the Office for National Statistics, the dramatic rise was largely due to a surge in prices from low levels at the onset of the pandemic a year ago.
Higher oil prices have forced up gasoline prices, according to the study.
When oil prices rise, you should expect the price of gas to rise as well. Over time, a $10 raise in oil prices leads to a $0.25 increase in petrol prices. Three forces influence gas and underlying oil prices: supply and demand, commodity brokers, and the valuation of the dollar.
The ONS reports that UK’s inflation increased after lockout controls were lifted and stores reopened on April 12th. Clothing and footwear costs increased in March, after an unexpected drop in February.
Meanwhile, gas and energy rates have risen sharply after a raise in the default tariff ceiling, relative to a cut a year ago.
As lockdown controls relaxed and the economy reopened, PwC economist Hannah Audino predicted that inflation would increase further, enabling customers to “unleash some of their excess savings.”
“New survey data shows that, as the vaccine rollout raises optimism, the share of households planning to invest some of their savings has risen in recent months,” she said.
Economists have expected an increase in UK’s inflation in April, but there are fears that high inflation this year as the global economy recovers from the pandemic would force central banks to lift interest rates.
As the pandemic is affecting most economic sectors, we must wait for the global health situation to stabilize to see how inflation rates will be affected.
After managing to recover part of the losses from Wednesday’s downfall, Bitcoin falls sharply again early Friday afternoon (21) after the State Council of China issued a note on a discussion to crack down on mining and cryptocurrency trading in the country.
At 16:30 (London time), Bitcoin was down 9.8% in the accumulated 24-hour period, quoted at US$ 37,706. The cryptocurrency lost more than US$ 4,000 in value in about half an hour after the news.
In a statement by Chinese Vice Premier Liu He and the State Council, officials said stricter regulation is needed to protect the financial system. This was the first time that a high government body discussed the matter.
The statement, released on Friday night in China time, said it was necessary to “crack down on mining and bitcoin trading and prevent the transmission of individual risks to the social field”.
Bitcoin falls a day after American authorities promised to be tough on those who use Bitcoin to carry out “illegal activities, including tax evasion”. The Treasury Department has said it will require reports on crypto trades in excess of US$ 10,000, just as it does with cash.
China, on the other hand, shows a concern with several other issues. “It is necessary to keep the stock, debt and foreign exchange markets going smoothly, to severely repress illegal securities activities and to severely punish illegal financial activities,” the statement said.
Chinese officials said stricter regulation is needed to protect the country’s financial system in the face of the fall of Bitcoin
China’s stocks rise and closed higher on Tuesday, led by gains in energy and transportation companies, although Chinese-American tensions have limited further gains.
The CSI300 index, which includes the largest companies listed in Shanghai and Shenzhen, had a positive change of 0.05%, while the Shanghai index increased by 0.32%.
The energy sub-index and the transportation sub-index closed up 2.0% and 2.8%, respectively.
The United States Senate voted 86-11 on Monday to open debate on a measure that would allocate more than $ 110 billion for basic and advanced technology research over five years in the face of increasing competitive pressure from China economy.
In TOKYO, the Nikkei index advanced 2.09% to 28,406 points.
In HONG KONG, the HANG SENG index rose 1.42% to 28,593 points.
In SHANGHAI, the SSEC index gained 0.32% to 3,529 points.
The CSI300 index, which includes the largest companies listed in SHANGHAI and SHENZHEN, increased 0.05%, to 5,187 points.
In Seoul, the KOSPI index appreciated by 1.23%, to 3,173 points.
In TAIWAN, the TAIEX index increased by 5.16%, to 16,145 points.
In SINGAPORE, the STRAITS TIMES index appreciated 2.04%, to 3,142 points.
In SYDNEY, the S&P/ASX 200 index advanced 0.60%, to 7,066 points.
As the Chinese retail sector recovers from COVID-19-induced market caution, China said it will begin a series of promotional events in May, including a new consumer goods expo in southern Hainan province.
The scenario may still be changing during the week and affect the Asian economy which may have an effect on China’s stocks rise
Mark Ward, head of trading at Sanlam UK, said: “What a Bitcoin (and its rivals) is, can be thought of just as virtual money, used to buy and sell items, as you would in a shop with a five pound note – they are simply a means of exchange – it allows barter to occur online, in a virtually fraud-proof way. Whereas a central bank stands behind and stabilises traditional currencies (in the past one could exchange notes for gold should you ask the Bank of England, and UK bank notes still contain a “promise to pay the bearer” from the UK government itself), there is no bank, corporation or government acting as a backbone to Bitcoin. This is why the value of cryptocurrencies are so volatile – its value derives from the confidence in the market that tomorrow, the Bitcoin will not be worthless, and it help us to understand why Bitcoin is a commodity.
“Bitcoin is not truly a currency, at least not yet, and is best thought of perhaps as a commodity. The Dutch Tulip Mania in the 1600’s saw the price of a special type of tulip bulb rise to more than the cost of a house with an acre of land in the Netherlands, yet the intrinsic value and usefulness remained essentially nothing. But, as with cryptocurrencies, if people decide something has value, then it has value, and only time will tell if Bitcoin is another tulip-mania in the digital world, or will deliver on its promise to displace central banks and hard cash as the primary means of exchange in the future.
“One question that we often get asked at Sanlam is – “I don’t know how to mine Bitcoin, I don’t actually want to use it as currency, but I want exposure to it”. The easiest way to gain exposure to Bitcoin would be via an Exchange Traded Fund (ETF). That said we do not recommend Bitcoin as part of an investment strategy, as it has many characteristics of a bubble and something that we view as purely speculative.
“As for the future of crypto-currency, it largely comes down to three factors: whether or not Central Banks and governments release their own versions and make them the only legal tender, on indeed officially endorse a crypto-currency like Bitcoin, whether or not transaction processing speeds up from the current average of four days, and if the price volatility can be stabilised.
“Whether Bitcoin falls to near-zero like the aforementioned tulip, continues to rise like diamonds have over the past century, or simply holds steady once the market finds the level it can tolerate, is anyone’s guess at the moment, but it is certainly one to watch as it becomes better understood by the mainstream.” That opinion show us that Bitcoin is a commodity
Trading quotes to help tu understand this world. Trading requires a strong, clear mind to be able to see the opportunities and also the threats. For that, a good trader not only relies on his trading knowledge, but on his ability to foresee how a market is going to react to any given external stimulus. If he isn’t able to control his impulses, he might end up losing everything or making decisions that will drive him to that point. Skill and mental state have to go hand in hand to be successful in trading.
These trading quotes will surely help a trader to become profitable and understand that hidden mental game that underlies behind any trading endeavour:
1. “The financial markets generally are unpredictable. So that one has to have different scenarios… The idea that you can actually predict what’s going to happen contradicts my way of looking at the market.”
― George Soros, billionaire, trader and investor
2. “The markets are always on the side of exuberance or fear. It’s fear and greed. Right now greed has the better of it, which is rather nice (for investors) as long as it doesn’t get out of hand”
― George Soros, billionaire, trader and investor
3. “It’s not whether you’re right or wrong that’s important, but how much money you make when you’re right and how much you lose when you’re wrong.”
― George Soros, billionaire, trader and investor
4. “Once we realize that imperfect understanding is the human condition there is no shame in being wrong, only in failing to correct our mistakes.”
― George Soros, billionaire, trader and investor
5. “The worse a situation becomes, the less it takes to turn it around, and the bigger the upside.”
― George Soros, billionaire, trader and investor
6. “If investing is entertaining, if you’re having fun, you’re probably not making any money. Good investing is boring.”
― George Soros, billionaire, trader and investor
7. “I’m only rich because I know when I’m wrong…I basically have survived by recognizing my mistakes.”
― George Soros, billionaire, trader and investor
8. “My approach works not by making valid predictions but by allowing me to correct false ones.”
― George Soros, billionaire, trader and investor
9. “Trading doesn’t just reveal your character, it also builds it if you stay in the game long enough.”
― Yvan Byeajee, Paradigm Shift: How to cultivate equanimity in the face of market uncertainty
10. “Money is just something you need in case you do not die tomorrow. Let this is a reminder for you not to obsess over profits and losses. In whatever you do, strive for enjoyment, focus, contentment, humility, openness… Paradoxically (and as an unintended consequence) your trading performance will improve significantly.”
― Yvan Byeajee, The essence of trading psychology in one skill
11. “The expectation that you bring with you in trading is often the greatest obstacle you will encounter.”
― Yvan Byeajee, Paradigm Shift: How to cultivate equanimity in the face of market uncertainty
12. “Confidence is not “I will profit on this trade.” Confidence is “I will be fine if I don’t profit from this trade.”
― Yvan Byeajee, The essence of trading psychology in one skill
13.“The goal of a successful trader is to make the best trades. Money is secondary.”
– Alexander Elder, professional trader and teacher of traders
14. “Events, circumstances, and experiences arise and pass away. Winning trades, losing trades, fear, greed, sadness, happiness, and eventually your own life. Everything is in a constant flux. Learn to go through it with stability of mind. A meditation practice helps a lot.”
― Yvan Byeajee, Zero to Hero: How I went from being a losing trader to a consistently profitable one – a true story!
15. “Losers average losers.”
― Paul Tudor Jones, one of the greatest traders in history
16. “Where you want to be is always in control, never wishing, always trading, and always, first and foremost protecting your butt.”
― Paul Tudor Jones, one of the greatest traders in history
17. “A quiet mind is able to hear intuition over fear.”
― Yvan Byeajee, Zero to Hero: How I Went from Being a Losing Trader to a Consistently Profitable One
18. “All statistics have outliers. Money management, therefore, is key to the process of good trading.”
― Yvan Byeajee, Paradigm Shift: How to cultivate equanimity in the face of market uncertainty
19. “Trading mastery is a state of complete acceptance of probability, not a state of fight it.”
― Yvan Byeajee, Paradigm Shift: How to cultivate equanimity in the face of market uncertainty
20. “Don’t ever make the mistake of believing that market success has to come to you fast. Trade small, stay in the game, persist, and eventually, you’ll reach a satisfying level of proficiency.”
― Yvan Byeajee, Paradigm Shift: How to cultivate equanimity in the face of market uncertainty
21. “Freedom from blind reactivity begins with self-awareness.”
― Yvan Byeajee, The essence of trading psychology in one skill
22. “Money matters, but not as much as you probably think.”
― Yvan Byeajee, The essence of trading psychology in one skill
23. “Win, loss whatever emerges in the short-term, place and manage your next trades untouched, unattached… always keeping your eyes on the long-term picture.”
― Yvan Byeajee, The essence of trading psychology in one skill
24. “When you learn to let go of the need to be right, being wrong gradually lose its power to disturb you.”
― Yvan Byeajee, Paradigm Shift: How to cultivate equanimity in the face of market uncertainty
25. “Focus, patience, wise discernment, non-attachment —the skills you acquire in meditation and the skills you need to thrive in trading are one and the same.”
― Yvan Byeajee, Zero to Hero: How I went from being a losing trader to a consistently profitable one – a true story!
26. “Reaching any goal in trading requires specific domain knowledge and technical skills. But then, after that, it’s all mindset management. Yet most people ignore that —they automatically think they have that last part all figured out, and it’s a mistake.”
― Yvan Byeajee, Paradigm Shift: How to cultivate equanimity in the face of market uncertainty
27. “The process by which one accumulates money is so simple, yet so hard to implement for most.”
― Yvan Byeajee, The essence of trading psychology in one skill
28. “Genuine acceptance that there will be losses on your way to market success will greatly decrease the hurt when they eventually come.”
― yvan Byeajee, The essence of trading psychology in one skill
29. “Ultimately, consistent profitability comes down to choosing between the discomforts you feel when you follow your plan and the urge to let yourself be captures ( and ruled) by your emotions.”
― Yvan Byeajee, The essence of trading psychology in one skill
30. “There are no guarantees in trading. The sooner you accept that you sooner you can release your expectations and focus unconditionally on a proven process.”
― Yvan Byeajee, The essence of trading psychology in one skill
31 “Trading the markets is a totally self-centered activity. Nobody’s life gets better because you trade. Except your broker’s life.”
― Robert Rolih, The Million Dollar Decision: Get Out of the Rigged Game of Investing and Add a Million to Your Net Worth
32. “Always make confident that you are wise with choosing the services for your trading activities. Ensure that you will get the most reliable predictions available today.”
― Pam Sotiropoulos, a professional forex trader
Those are inspiring trading quotes for help us to trading day by day. But consider the following one.
Bonus Trading Quote
One of the most important trading quotes:
“The biggest risk is not taking a risk. In a world that’s changing really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks.”
– Mark Zuckerberg, Founder of Facebook
We’ll come with more trading quotes on future articles. Keep following us.
Emerging as a new online currency and a most suitable option for trading, Bitcoin is an anonymous, peer-to-peer, electronic payments system, and it is important to see it in a currency converter. Created in 2009, the Bitcoin network was originally intended to offer a means of payment through a peer-to-peer version of electronic cash. The idea was to enable online payments to be sent directly from one party to another thus bypassing financial institutions altogether. Bitcoin today is a currency trading platform in which digitally signed bitcoins are sold and purchased at a variable price of the currency. Generally 1 BTC is traded between $100 and $260.
Now highly regarded as mainstream due to recent economic woes, even major forex players are getting in on the act. Forex broker OANDA announced yesterday that it has added bitcoin into its currency converter, via a blog posting by VP of Trading, Courtney Gibson. Gibson states “We recently added Bitcoin to the OANDA Currency Converter. We admire it as an interesting experiment in financial innovation and, because we’re financial innovators too, we share the excitement such disruptive technologies can bring to mature industries and markets.”
Oanda states that Bitcoin appealed to their sense of great customer service. ‘Now, anyone who wants to calculate the conversion of currencies (or gold and silver) into Bitcoin can use OANDA’s popular converter as their tool of choice’ So thats the good news. The blog posting was quick to point out that “Despite the increased awareness around the cyber currency, OANDA has no plans at this time to introduce Bitcoin as a tradeable currency to OANDA’s fxTrade platform, or to accept Bitcoin as a method for funding fxTrade accounts. By adding Bitcoin to our Currency Converter, we are acknowledging – in a very real way – the wide-ranging interest Bitcoin has generated as a virtual payment system.”
Thus far, with the exception of of IG’s bitcoin binary product launched last week, major forex brokers have yet to offer major bitcoin offerings due perhaps to uncertainty or monitoring for stability which will only come when trade volume (on the USD/other fiat side) increases, and network infrastructure improvements can be addressed.
QuantConnect – where cloud computing meets open data for Algorithm Trading.
QuantConnect, a radical FinTech open data trading startup was established In 2011 with an ambitious goal: offer open trading data algorithm technology to mainstream audiences. QuantConnect follows the concept of open data philosophies that data should be freely available to use and republish as necessary, without restrictions from copyright, patents or other mechanisms of control. The founders aim to empower the general public with powerful tools to make trading and investment accessible through advanced technology to general audiences.
Jared Broad, QuantConnect co-founder and CEO won a Start Up Chile grant In 2011 and since that was invited to the TEDx Wall Street event and Battle of the Quants in New York (April 2012). In this last conference founded focusing exclusively on the growing quantitative hedge fund community and industry, by the hedge fund visionary Bartt C. Kellerman’s Global Capital Acquisition in 2006, Jared has been displaying his vision of a further advanced trading platform that can push the boundaries of algorithm trading, using the most advanced technologies to offer open data.
QuantConnect, offering: Equity, FX tick, Earning predictions, and Twitter Sentiment Analysis
Offering US equities tick data going back to January 1998, and updated daily with latest market data QuantConnect displays over 16,000 stocks, in an open library of data provided by QuantQuote. Besides this it offers an impressive FX tick data on 13 major currency pairs going back to April 2007, and updated daily with most recent market provided by FXCM.
With another deal with Estimize QuantConnect provides quarterly earnings predictions generated by a community of 13,000 traders and investors. Through the data from Estimize that goes back early 2011 and covers most stocks QuantConnect manages an impressive better than most of Wall Street’s predictions, such as 69% of the time better performance!
Last but not least through a partnership with StockPulse QuantConnect provides Twitter Sentiment Analysis to identify the most relevant capital market moods, rumors, and market-moving trends with it offering a valuable array of trading ideas and signals on every traded asset in the world.
QuantConnect startup seeded in Chile and New York
QuantConnect is a new trading and investment cloud-based algorithm service and community startup that was seeded between Chile and New York. The company aims to level the playing field for independent traders by providing the right technology tools to design and execute present and future proof trading strategies, and back-test their programs using historical market data.
The project is the brainchild of Jared Broad, serial entrepreneur born in New Zealand, founder of automated trading firm Stocktrack.org, and Shai Rosen, founder of Chilean auction website Ganeselo.com.
The service has been in the beta-testing stage for the past year with programmers including graduate students interested in pursuing a career in quant trading, and computer scientists from leading financial firms. The firm has been working quite hard in its disruptive strategy and has signed up thousand of prospective clients in its community platform and raise its profile at conferences such as Finovate in London and TechCrunch in San Francisco. During the process the firm has been creating an unique space in the algorithm trading industry, including the respect and support of employees of Google and Facebook. Tshe recent partnership with high profile trading global players such as FXCM and tech innovators such as Estimize and StockPulse gives them an unique outstanding spot.
The Plan
Looking further ahead, the firm has plans to set up a hedge fund based around the most successful managers, marketing individual strategies to retail investors via online brokerages, and packaging the best algorithms as an exchange-traded fund.
Although QuantConnect appears to have first-mover advantage in what could be a very lucrative market, they have at least one potential competitor in the form of Quantopian, which is working on a similar offering. The Boston-based technology shop has the backing of VC investor Spark Capital and high-frequency market maker Getco.
The Technical Nitty-Gritty
Unlike MT4, which uses the proprietary MQL4 programming language for its algorithms, Quantconnect uses the C# programming language, a general-purpose object-oriented language derived from the popular C/C+/C++ family of languages. Programmers can design and back-test their strategies for free, using vast cloud computing power leased from Amazon.com, and will only be charged when they want to make trades with their strategies by setting up trading accounts.
Instant access to this massive computing power means that a simulation based on 30 stocks in the Dow Jones Industrial Average could be run in a matter of minutes. By comparison, the same calculations on the average desktop computer would take several days to compute.
Applying principles of openness and transparency in all aspects QuantConnect is creating a spot in a high competitive and disruptive part of the global financial and trading world. For that QuantConnect defines themselves as an innovative company giving any advanced algorithm trader or a complete access to an enormous library of financial and capital markets data, thanks to a generous network of data partners for providing the right resources.
Apple Invests USD 1 Billion in China-Based Ridesharing Company.
In a day where the legendary Warren Buffet invested in Apple there are two things we know now about Apple: First, the company is serious about cars. Second, it’s ready to start looking beyond the iPhone.
Apple and cars
While it has remained mum on just about every rumor about its ambitions to build a proprietary car, Apple made an unprecedented decision to invest $1 billion in the “Uber of China,” Didi Chuxing.
So why would Apple put a billion dollars into a non-tech, non-consumer electronics company? Autonomous vehicles.
China has moved surprisingly rapidly to get autonomous cars on the streets. The country’s government recently released a draft proposal that would allow driverless cars on the country’s highways in 2020 and on city streets by 2025. Since Apple wants to create its own driverless cars, where better to invest than the largest car market on earth, which also happens to be the most progressive market in terms of getting driverless cars on the streets?
Apple’s product slowdown
We’ve said it before. Apple invests and has finally reached a plateau in terms of innovation. Despite releasing several new products and services over the last few years — i.e. Apple Music, Beats Music, Apple Watch, Apple TV etc. — there hasn’t been anything compelling enough to turn into one of the company’s next big things. The trifecta of the iPhone, the iPad and the Mac is no longer what it once was. And the iPhone made up 65% of the company’s revenue during the latest quarter.
Considering Apple has never really invested in startups — if it sees something it likes, it just buys it to add it to its own fold — it sounds like Tim Cook is finally ready to admit that the Apple as we knew it is gone. Now it’s time for Apple to start using its cash to invest and hopefully insulate the company enough in case of an iPhone slowdown too.
Wooing China
Another potential reason for the investment is for Apple to get back on China’s good side. After all, why not just invest in Uber, which recently entered the Chinese market?
Apple has had some challenges in China recently. With smartphone sales for the company shrinking in the country, it lost an iPhone trademark dispute and has had some of its online entertainment services suspended following pressure from the Chinese government.
Of course, Apple’s not the only U.S.-based company struggling to cozy up to Chinese government officials. Dropbox, Google, Twitter and Facebook have all been banned from the country, likely due to the fact that they compete with Chinese tech companies.
Thus, one of Cook’s strategies could show that Apple is willing to get its own skin in the game in favor of China-based companies to show its dedication to the country’s own economic success. Whether that move makes a difference or not, of course, remains to be seen. As we’ve all seen before, the Chinese government is quite arbitrary in its decisions when it comes to U.S.-based tech companies.
One thing is for certain, however: Apple has entered a new frontier.
APPLE Stock last year May 2015 to May 2016, source Yahoo Finance
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