October 16, 2018

NZD Firms on Inflation Jump, Strong Wages Buoy GBP – US Market Open

MARKET DEVELOPMENT – GBP AND NZD SHINE, USD BULLS AT RISK

GBP: Sterling rose to session highs after the latest employment report with UK wages beginning to show some signs of life. The BoE focussed wage components rose above analyst estimates with the ex-bonus figure rising to the highest level since January 2009 at 3.1%. This also backs up recent commentary from BoE Chief Economist Haldane, who stated that wages are a growing source of inflationary pressures and as such will monitor closely. Elsewhere, Brexit rhetoric ahead of the EU summit continues to suggest that while progress has been made, key issues, most notably the Irish border, are still yet to be resolved.

USD: Risk sentiment is firmer this morning with US equity markets trading higher, consequently, this has seen high beta currencies favoured over the USD, which has now made a firm break below the 95.00 handle. A close below the 23.6% Fibonacci retracement of the 2018 low to 2018 high could spell trouble for the crowded bullish bets.

NZD: The Kiwi is flying high this morning after NZ inflation figures rose above analyst estimates with the headline reading rising to 1.9% from 1.5%. A large factor behind the jump had been the higher energy prices, coupled with the falling exchange rate in the third quarter.

DailyFX Economic Calendar: Tuesday, October 16, 2018 – North American Releases

DailyFX Webinar Calendar:Tuesday, October 16, 2018

IG Client Sentiment: NZDUSD Chart of the Day

NZDUSD: Retail trader data shows 83.0% of traders are net-long with the ratio of traders long to short at 4.87 to 1. In fact, traders have remained net-long since Sep 20 when NZDUSD traded near 0.65728; price has moved 0.4% lower since then. The number of traders net-long is 2.3% higher than yesterday and 4.8% higher from last week, while the number of traders net-short is 2.0% lower than yesterday and 3.9% lower from last week.

We typically take a contrarian view to crowd sentiment, and the fact traders are net-long suggests NZDUSD prices may continue to fall. Traders are further net-long than yesterday and last week, and the combination of current sentiment and recent changes gives us a stronger NZDUSD-bearish contrarian trading bias.

Five Things Traders are Reading

“US Dollar Erases Gains as Italy Secures Budget Deal, Brexit News Looms” Christopher Vecchio, CFA, Sr. Currency Strategist
“Risk Aversion Still Dominating Markets | Webinar”by Martin Essex, MSTA, Analyst and Editor
“bitcoin (BTC) Price: Driven by Fidelity and Tether (USDT)”by Nick Cawley, Market Analyst
“Trading Outlook for EUR/USD, EUR/AUD, EUR/JPY, Gold Price & More” by Paul Robinson, Market Analyst
“GBPUSD Boosted on Highest Wage Growth Since 2009” by Justin McQueen, Market Analyst

— Written by Justin McQueen, Market Analyst

To contact Justin, email him at Justin.mcqueen@ig.com

Follow Justin on Twitter @JMcQueenFX

Published at Tue, 16 Oct 2018 13:42:00 +0000

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December 16, 2017

Cruchbase Feels Bitcoin Lost Sight of Being a Medium of Exchange

The opinions on the current state of bitcoin are rather divided, to say the least. Some people think it’s doing well, whereas others grow increasingly worried. According to Crunchbase, bitcoin is no longer a means of exchange. Instead, it has become slow, expensive, and anything but convenient. This is anything but a popular opinion, mind you, but there is some truth to this statement as well.

For a cryptocurrency with such a high market cap, bitcoin lacks some basic functionality. Sending transactions is a bit of a gamble if it has to happen quickly. Including high fees is always an option but it shouldn’t even be necessary. Unfortunately, bitcoin is no longer a means of exchange, according to Crunchbase. The value of the world’s leading cryptocurrency certainly doesn’t represent the state of the ecosystem. At the same time, these issues are nothing new under the sun either.

Crunchbase Doesn’t Like the Current State of bitcoin

In its current form, bitcoin is slow and expensive to use as a means of exchange. It makes for a worthwhile store of value, though. In fact, it may outperform any other financial asset in existence today in that regard. Crunchbase confirms bitcoin shouldn’t be looked at a peer-to-peer version of electronic cash whatsoever. That situation may reverse again in the future, though. For now, it seems unlikely anything will change in the near future.

The first-mover advantage bitcoin has is slowly eroding, to say the least. It is evident this cryptocurrency still has plenty of potential if something changes. Pushing down the fees will be very difficult until SegWit adoption increases or the Lightning Network comes around. Either of those outcomes is still months away, at best. The amount of money one pays for the speed of confirmations imply doesn’t add up. Crunchbase also touches upon the growing transaction backlog. It has been another problem for bitcoin due to the lack of scaling.

Granted, one could easily adorable this to growing pains. It is evident bitcoin is still maturing in front of our eyes. However, the currency has been around for many years. These issues have been known for many years as well. A lot of time was wasted due to political bickering over how scaling should work. The community eventually settled on a solution which has an adoption rate of under 15% months later. An uneasy situation, to say the very least

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