After last week's powerful rally in almost everything but gold stocks, most asset classes pulled back a little this week. The exceptions were Bitcoin, which rose again for the the third week in a row, and gold stocks, which regained part of last week's massive loss.
More on Market Update 24 May 2013: Gold Stocks and Bitcoins Buck Pullback Trend
This week most markets made gains, with the exception of gold stocks. Coffee and Bitcoin were especially strong.
Bitcoin rose 7.2% to close at 2.76 g. Trading volume has been declining for the last several weeks. It is encouraging that the seizure of Mt. Gox US bank accounts by the DHS did not spark a selloff. Still, expect continued volatility!
More on Market Update 17 May 2013: Gold Stocks Tumble, Bonds Bounce
This week most markets continued to make gains, with all assets except silver and coffee advancing. Japanese stocks were especially strong.
Bitcoin rose 33.5% to close at 2.57 g. This more than recovers its drop last week. Expect continued volatility!
More on Market Update 10 May 2013: TLT and HUI Treading Water
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This week saw a pullback after the prior week's monster rally. Government-issued currencies, stocks and bonds all gave up about half of last week's gains, while Bitcoin continued its recovery. Commodities were mixed, with silver continuing to fall, crude oil continuing to rise. The week's biggest loser was coffee, which gave back much of its gain from last week.
Filed under Bitcoin, Bonds, Coffee, Commodities, Cotton, Dow Jones Industrials, Platinum, Silver, Stocks, US Dollar by
All but three asset classes were lower this week, the gainers being Bitcoin, gold stocks, and long dated treasuries.
Bitcoin ended the week up 51.8% at 1,392 mg, after setting another record high every day this week. The latest round of panic buying seems to have been triggered by the partial bank account confiscation plan announced in Cyprus. The realization that their money is no longer safe in banks has spooked investors across Europe, but especially in Spain, where downloads of Bitcoin software have skyrocketed. Because Bitcoin has such a small market cap, currently about 15,800 kg, and trades less than 200 kg each day, it doesn't take much money moving in (or out) to swing the price, so we should expect continued volatility in the near future.
More on Market Update 22 Mar 2013: Europe scrambles for bitcoins
Most assets were lower this week, with the major exceptions being Bitcoin, the free market online currency, and Cotton.
Bitcoin ended the week up 8% at 917 mg, after recording another all-time high of 938 mg on Monday. Things got exciting the next day, as high transaction volumes caused two different versions of the Bitcoin mining software to update the distributed ledger (known as the "block chain") differently. This split, or "fork in the block chain", was deftly handled by the developer group, but it caused a dip in the price which has now been mostly erased. If you are interested in more technical details, you read about them here. This should serve as a reminder that Bitcoin is a young currency, and still vulnerable to failures of technical, social, or political origin. Keep position sizes small enough that you won't be badly hurt if one them turns out to be fatal, but keep in mind that there is still tremendous upside if this experiment in free market money succeeds.
It was another mixed week, with government currencies and long bonds lower, while stocks and commodities moved higher. Bitcoin, the free market online currency, ended the week up 26% at 849 mg, after recording another all-time high of 893 mg on Wednesday. If you have a time-horizon of a few years, don't let these prices scare you away… Bitcoin has plenty of upside, though it's volatility will be huge. My strategy is to keep position size small, but add a little every week.
In a week when most assets turned in excellent performances, bitcoin once again outshone all others. The only things that lost ground this week were mining stocks and silver.
Currencies were all higher, led by bitcoin, which added an astounding 24.6% to close at 520.7 mg, within spitting distance of its all-time high of 598 mg. In fact, in all of bitcoin's history, there are only 3 days on which it was traded at higher levels.
Filed under Bitcoin, Bonds, Coffee, Commodities, Cotton, Dow Jones Industrials, EUR, Euro, Platinum, Real Estate, S&P 500, Silver, Stocks, US Dollar by
This was a good week for everything but gold stocks and coffee.
All the currencies were higher, led by the free market Bitcoin, which continued its near vertical ascent, adding 8.1% to last week's 9.1% rise, closing at 312.2 mg. The Euro was the strongest of the government issued currencies, up 1.8% while the CAD was weakest, up only 0.2% – now at parity with the USD at 18.7 mg. More on the USD below. The Japanese Yen closed up 1.7% at 0.210 mg, hovering near its all-time low of 0.205 mg, set the weekend before. Look for more weakness here as the Japanese government printing presses begin to run overtime.
More on Market Update 25 Jan 2013 – Everything Up but Gold Stocks
Stocks, bonds, and currencies (other than Bitcoin) were weaker this week, while commodities, with the exception of copper, were higher.
Among the government issued currencies, the Japanese Yen was weakest, falling 2.8%, while the Euro was the "least weak", declining only 0.3%. The US Dollar ended 2012 right at its 200 day moving-average, pushed above it in early January – reaching 18.9 mg on Jan 7th, 10.1% above the half-life predicted value – and has since retreated, ending this week at 18.4 mg, down 1.2%, and sitting 7.8% above the half-life curve forecast.
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