It was an eventful weekend - and heading into a week of total unpredictability. Sometimes, that can be a good opportunity for trading.
The Fed pulled out its bazooka, as many assumed it would. Yet it came in a surprise Sunday, before the open to this week's markets, an announcement of interest rates dropping again and a commitment to buy up $700 billion in government bonds.
The news immediately sent the never-sleeping bitcoin markets to go into pumptastic mode, gaining 7.7 percent on some exchanges. Then, as the Asian markets opened, Japan's Nikkei 225 index busted out a long red candle of selling, which caused BTC to follow suit.
Circuit breakers popped off on U.S. equities markets this morning, as the S&P 500 dumped 10 percent before someone decided a reboot on trading might fix the flummox. The index concluded the day down 11 percent, so who knows "how low we could go" in the equities' game of doing the financial limbo?
Watching a Howcast video on limbo-ing is prompting some ideas here. Number one tip here seems to be don't start with the stick too low. Good traders are going to be putting those stops (and limits!) in ranges most familiar with the upward and downward trends over the last week because number go up but number also go down.
Volatility in crypto is going to be the name of the game this week - and is at levels not seen in some time. Skew Markets busted out a chart to reflect this with an upward slope on realized volatility going into outer space. Remain vigilant!
Bitcoin Volume Gains Traction After 24-Hour Roller-Coaster Ride
After initially rising on weekend news and then falling, the cryptocurrency's buying volumes have picked up. Gold has actually performed similar, based on the charts.
QE4 Begins: Fed Cuts Rates, to Buy $700B in Bonds
QE4, the fourth time the US Federal Reserve has stepped in to provide dramatic support since 2008, marks a return to ZIRP — zero interest rate policy which resulted in a short rally for BTC.
The largest cryptocurrency by market cap was perilously close to falling past $4,500. This came after the rate cut news and quick, suggesting continued concerns over what the markets will do over the next week.
Price Drop Casts Pall Over Bitcoin Miners’ Equipment Upgrades
Several major exchanges — save Coinbase and Bitstamp, prominently — were plagued by outages of some kind Thursday. Most notably, BitMEX was offline “for maintenance” for a total of one hour.
Why Bitcoin’s Safe-Haven Narrative Has Flown Out the Window
CoinDesk's director of Research Noelle Acheson compares and contrasts last week's big-time bitcoin market drop to the cryptocurrency's largest dump back in the salad days of April 2013.
LISTEN: Price is Swinging
Host Adam B. Levine and John Biggs talk about the bitcoin drop below $5,000, how price swings affect crypto miners and examine how cryptocurrency infrastructure is affected in volatile times.
Tweet of the Day
One month ago, bitcoin was trading in the $9,000-$10,000 range. Today, it's wobbling between $4,500-$5,500, almost half. Will the halvening be able to un-half bitcoin's price? We'll see in May.
Trend: After volatile trading in the last 36 hours, bitcoin is ranging sideways within $4,800 to $5,200 in the last few hours of trading. The U.S. government has made a slew of announcements over the last few days, from declaring a state of emergency and additional support for the markets, making prices see-saw.
It's possible volatility is here to stay, and price moves depend on positive or negative news about coronavirus effects. Assets like gold seem to be into lockstep with price movements of bitcoin and the Nikkei 225 has been an indicator of overnight trading performance these days. Bitcoin as an uncorrelated asset is no longer in whipsaw times for the overall market.
As for other top crypto assets, Binance's BNB is down. Ether and XRP, second and third in market capitalization, is performing more poorly than the top dog, bitcoin, down 4 percent.
Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Leaves (CoinDesk) Brian Brooks is leaving the crypto exchange to become the second in command at the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) effective April 1, 2020.
US Woman Gets Jail For Funding ISIS (CoinDesk) Zoobia Shahnaz gets 13 years for providing over $150,000 in cryptocurrency to a foreign terrorist organization and attempting to travel to join ISIS.
Disclaimer: The information presented in this message is intended as a news item that provides a brief summary of various events and developments that affect, or that might in the future affect, the value of one or more of the cryptocurrencies described above. The information contained in this message, and any information liked through the items contained herein, is not intended to provide sufficient information to form the basis for an investment decision. The information presented herein is accurate only as of its date, and it was not prepared by a research analyst or other investment professional. You should seek additional information regarding the merits and risks of investing in any cryptocurrency before deciding to purchase or sell any such instruments.
A Wild Weekend Into a Potentaily Wilder Week