Markets

For Sander Ressler, Managing Director of Essential Edge Compliance Outsourcing, a compliance supervision consultancy for the wealth management space, the Reddit-fueled surge in GameStop’s share prices towards the end of January was a memorable time for his firm.

Direct or personalized index portfolios have been utilized by high net worth investors for over 20 years.

Remember years ago when a group called "Occupy Wall Street" set up camp on........Wall Street........and were going to "democratize" the banking industry? Remember loan decisions were going to be made by committee by wiggling their hands either up or down for approval?

Speaking recently at a Senate Finance Committee hearing, Dr .Yellen commented; “I think many (cryptocurrencies) are used, at least in a transaction sense, mainly for illicit financing. And I think we really need to examine ways in which we can curtail their use, and make sure that anti-money laundering doesn't occur through those channels.” Now if you buy into that line of thinking you may be very surprised to know that the data just does not support Dr. Y's comments (and Daffy didn't win an Academy Award).

The most stunning display of misplaced culpability was witnessed on Wall Street last week. It began when a number of small investors, congregating in a Reddit chat group, started vigorously “crowdbuying” stock in public companies - most notably: GameStop ($GME) - which they believed were undervalued and possessed abnormally high and unjustifiable short interest ratios.

Some use charts to predict price fluctuations. Some focus on fundamentals. Others use time machines built out of DeLoreans. Whatever mechanism you are using to forecast the price of bitcoin, make sure not to overlook the most basic analytic tool of all – psychology.

Never before in history has there been a viable replacement for gold but, alas, there is now. A young whippersnapper born of the digital age that answers to the name of Bitcoin may be putting old gold out to pasture.

Since we are basically still at the very beginning of 2021, with almost everyone making predictions for what may or may not happen in the coming year, it might be a good idea to look back. NOT at what happened but rather some very topical quotes and sayings that always seem to get overlooked (or ignored), BUT which have a direct and lasting importance on what's happening now. With some of these quotes, the government (and financial 'smarties') would rather you didn't remember them, but hey, they were the ones who said them.

The mainstream emergence of Special Purpose Accquisition Companies (SPAC for short) has became one of the hottest market stories of 2020 and the trend appears to be continuing into the new year.

Just in case you haven't heard (amazing), the price of Bitcoin reached over $40,000 last week as more institutional investors have decided to gain exposure to the digital asset/currency.