Friday, January 31, 2020
How Much Should You Have In Your 401k? / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
By: Submissions
401k is considered one of the most common retirement savings accounts being offered by companies to their employees. It’s one of their ways to assist their workers in preparing for their future. This account is very beneficial as it has both savings and tax advantages.
This retirement fund is not limited to cash but can also be in the form of stocks, real estate investment trusts, and mutual funds. What’s good with this is that it’s temporarily deductible from the taxable income up the portion of the employees’ contribution.
Friday, January 31, 2020
... / Politics / Pandemic
By: Nadeem_Walayat
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Thursday, January 30, 2020
Coronavirus Infections Spread vs Forecast - 30th Jan 2020 Pandemic Update / Politics / Pandemic
By: Nadeem_Walayat
The Coronavirus continues it's exponential spread across China, this despite Chinese state propaganda peddling a line of measures taken especially earlier in the month having limited the spread of the virus that is not being born out by data released that on a daily basis shows the spread is exponential to across the whole of China and likely neighbouring nations.
My analysis and concluding forecast of 28th January based on data up until the 27th of January utilised trend analysis to forecast that the Coronavirus could infect over 1 million people by the end of February 2020, which given the apparent fatality rate of 3.5% at the time converted into an death toll of at least 35,000. Which if it transpired would be far worse than the 2002-2003 SARS pandemic that infected 8,098 over 8 months resulting in 774 deaths, and this the Coronavirus would have significant economic and market consequences.
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Thursday, January 30, 2020
Fed Keeps Federal Funds Rate Unchanged Again / Interest-Rates / US Interest Rates
By: Arkadiusz_Sieron
The FOMC held its first meeting in both the new year and the decade, keeping interest rates unchanged. But why did the yellow metal move up regardless? Let’s examine the implications for the king of metals.
Yesterday, the FOMC published the monetary policy statement from its latest meeting that took place on January 28-29th. In line with expectations, the US central bank kept the federal funds rate unchanged at 1.50 to 1.75 percent:
Consistent with its statutory mandate, the Committee seeks to foster maximum employment and price stability. The Committee decided to maintain the target range for the federal funds rate at 1 1/2 to 1-3/4 percent. The Committee judges that the current stance of monetary policy is appropriate to support sustained expansion of economic activity, strong labor market conditions, and inflation returning to the Committee's symmetric 2 percent objective.
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Thursday, January 30, 2020
Deep Analysis and charts: Risk Market ignore global pandemic fears / Stock-Markets / Financial Markets 2020
By: Submissions
There has been two major events in January. First there was the brief intensification of the conflict between the U.S. and Iran, which quickly ramped back down. Secondly there is the coronavirus epidemic in China, which in the space of a week has spread from Wuhan and imprinted itself globally at pandemic levels, bringing much of China to a standstill when it would usually be celebrating the Lunar New Year.
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Thursday, January 30, 2020
Youtube Channel Watch Time Hours Drop Below 4000 Hours, What Happens to Monetization? / Companies / Google
By: HGR
We all know that 4000 hours over the past 12 months is the minimum requirement for a youtube channel to be accepted into the youtube partner programme and become monetized.
But what happens to an existing channel that drops below 4000 Watch time hours, as is the case with the channel in this video that is currently running at just 3000 watch time hours and has been doing so for several months.
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Thursday, January 30, 2020
Gold Price Seasonal Trend Analysis 2020 / Commodities / Gold & Silver 2020
By: Nadeem_Walayat
The gold bull market ended 2019 with a strong gain of 19%. The first half the year was marked with uncertainty as the price after an early year surge to $1350 gave up all of it's gains to drift lower to trade down on the year by early May. However, this was the calm before the bull market storm and that set the stage for a powerful bull run starting early June that saw the Gold price rocket higher to a early September peak of $1566, up over 25% on the year! Igniting Gold bug fever and encouraging prominent gold bugs to get carried away with headlines of Gold heading for $5000 and beyond.
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Thursday, January 30, 2020
Gold Long-Term CoT Perspective / Commodities / Gold & Silver 2020
By: Gary_Tanashian
Because it’s so important to see this correctly and not pretend we (well, I) know more than we (I) actually do I find it important to look at pictorial representations of history and think about them when I get some quiet time (ha ha ha, like not on Twitter, not reading financial/gold websites and most certainly not watching TeeVee finance and news).
So I am thinking about the Commitments of Traders alignment with respect to the gold price once again. That would be the same CoT that has doggedly hung a poor risk vs. reward sign out over the sector from a sentiment standpoint since the summer.
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Thursday, January 30, 2020
Are We Setting Up For A Stock Market Waterfall Selloff? / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2020
By: Chris_Vermeulen
Most traders understand what a “Waterfall event” is if you’ve been trading for more than 3 years. Nearly every downside price reversion event initiates in a breakdown event (the first tier of the waterfall event) which is followed by additional deeper waterfall price collapses. Almost like price breaks lower, finds support, settles near support, then breaks lower targeting deeper price support levels.
SPY Daily Chart
This example SPY chart from October 2018 through December 2018 highlights this type of event almost perfectly. With each tier in the waterfall event, price searches for new support levels as price weakness drives price lower throughout each breakdown event. We’ve highlighted these breakdown events with the MAGENTA lines drawn on this chart.
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Thursday, January 30, 2020
There’s No Fever Like Gold Fever… / Commodities / Gold & Silver 2020
By: MoneyMetals
In late December 2019, a bill from the German finance ministry – which had passed the lower legislative house – proposed lowering the "anonymous purchase limit" for precious metals from €10,000 to €2,000 (about $2,200), a reduction of 80%.
At the current price, one could buy less than one and one-half troy ounces of gold without activating customer ID paperwork, and for businesses – a criminal background check!
This is an additional decline from the €15,000 mandated just two years ago. Set to become law in early 2020, the effect was immediate, as long lines outside a coin shop in Cologne show.
Some of the world's largest banks – including several in Germany – have long made a habit of laundering literally billions of dollars, euros, and assorted financial instruments from questionable customers.
Thursday, January 30, 2020
5 Reasons that Make Forex the Best Market to Trade / Currencies / Forex Trading
By: Submissions
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Wednesday, January 29, 2020
Silver Price Trend Forecast / Commodities / Gold & Silver 2020
By: Nadeem_Walayat
We can all dream about Silver outpacing Gold. However the truth about Silver is that it tends to under perform during precious metals bull markets, and only really coming alive in the bull markets final stages when it tends to spike. So Silver for 2019 did what Silver tends to do which is to under perform against Gold. Though in reality maybe investors tend to set their hopes too high, as a gain of 15% for the year is still pretty good going against Gold up 19%.
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Wednesday, January 29, 2020
The "Everything Bubble" Just Burst. Here's Why / Stock-Markets / Financial Markets 2020
By: The_Gold_Report
Bob Moriarty of 321gold reflects on how government actions in the financial and public health spheres will pop market bubbles.
I was in Vietnam from July 1968 until March 1970. From November 1968 until July 1969 I was flying the O-1 Birddog as a forward air controller (FAC). Back then I used to believe all the bull our government puts out. Now, when Trump says the Iranians fired missiles at a US base in Iraq and none of our troops were injured, I know at once he was lying. And sure enough, two weeks later we find that 34 soldiers were injured.
Governments lie about everything and as a result we are about to pay a terrible price. All of them lie.
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Wednesday, January 29, 2020
Trump vs Cortez - Clash of the Titans / ElectionOracle / US Presidential Election 2020
By: Peter_Schiff
In the decades that I have been listening to politicians clumsily trying to explain the economy there has never been a period, with the possible exception of the early Reagan years, in which major party leaders were able to present a solid grasp of economic principles. But I have never seen a time in which the levels of ignorance coming from those in leadership positions is so extreme.
The state of affairs can be illustrated by two interviews last week by Donald Trump and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for the Democrats, the two undisputed leaders of our major political parties. Both put forth visions this week that are illogical, incoherent, and that completely ignore both data and experience. But these leaders are putting out beacons under which the vast majority of Americans are congregating. It's worse than the blind leading the blind, and it bodes very poorly for our ability to deal with the next economic crisis, which I believe is certainly slouching towards Washington, waiting to be born.
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Wednesday, January 29, 2020
Why Palladium Is on a Tear / Commodities / Palladium
By: MoneyMetals
Physical palladium and rhodium markets are buzzing. Reported prices for both metals leapt higher in recent days.
The story behind palladium’s move is that a physical shortage has developed in London. Traders sold metal they didn’t physically possess. Now they are being asked to deliver the bars and they are scrambling to secure the metal needed, bidding prices higher.
It looks like bullion bankers selling paper metal are finally getting called for selling way more than they can actually deliver!
People have complained about this practice in precious metals markets for decades.
Wednesday, January 29, 2020
The Platinum Breakout & Bull Market of 2020 / Commodities / Platinum
By: Chris_Vermeulen
Platinum has setup into a longer-term FLAG formation and has recently broken the APEX of this FLAG. The long term potential for Platinum, in conjunction with the advance in Rhodium, Palladium, Gold, and Silver, is a new Bullish Price Trend.
Our researchers believe Platinum must move above $1200 for this new Bullish trend to anchor a “Breakout Base” formation. The current investment environment suggests a new metals rally is setting up. Fear is starting to take hold of the markets and industrial and manufacturing demands are still driving prices and supply demands higher and higher. As investors pile into the metals as a form of safety, we expect Platinum to rally above $1200 within the next 4 to 6+ months and begin a much broader rally to levels above $1600 overtime.
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Tuesday, January 28, 2020
Coronavirus Infection Spread and Deaths Forecast 2020 - Video / Politics / Pandemic
By: Nadeem_Walayat
One of the worst places for a pandemic to begin is from within a totalitarian state as local party minions tend to be too scared to pass bad news up the chain of command, and obediently wait on orders from leaders residing many hundreds of miles away, by which time it's too late where virus's are concerned, and so it has been with the Corona virus outbreak in China. Don't be fooled by Chinese state propaganda of panic building of hospitals, chinese communist party bureaucracy ensures that it is already too late! The Corona virus has spread throughout China!
I am sure you have all seen news footage of deserted Wuhan streets. Though none of the news reporters appear to have put 2 and 2 together and worked out the reason why the streets are empty is because most of the people living there have already FLED the city, taking their Corona virus infections with them! TOO LATE, OUT OF CONTROL!
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Tuesday, January 28, 2020
Is an Accommodative Fed Bullish for the Stock Market? / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2020
By: EWI
"In 2007-2008, the Fed cut rates 10 times, but the S&P 500 still declined 58%"
Many investors heed every utterance from the Federal Reserve, hoping they hear a clue about interest rates. They assume that a fall in interest rates means higher stock prices, while rising rates will push stocks lower.
First, Elliott Wave International's research shows that the Fed follows the bond market. It doesn't lead it.
Secondly, EWI's research reveals that stock prices have risen during trends of lower and higher rates. Likewise, there have been periods of falling stock prices during trends of lower and higher rates too. In other words, there is no consistent correlation between the trends of stocks and interest rates.
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Tuesday, January 28, 2020
Trillion-Dollar Stock Market Cap Club / Companies / Tech Stocks
By: Michael_Pento
There are a handful of stocks in which institutions and individual investors have recently piled into. This behavior is emblematic of all bull markets once they begin to hit the manic phase. Wall Street falls in love with a few high-growth darlings and takes their valuations up to the thermosphere.If you add up the market capitalizations of just four stocks, Google (Alphabet), Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon, their combined worth exceeds $5 trillion. If you throw in Facebook, you get the top 5 biggest firms by market capitalization, and they compose an amazing 18% of the S&P 500. Another way of looking at this is that the market cap of a full 282 companies in the S&P 500 now equals the same as the top 5 behemoths.
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Tuesday, January 28, 2020
Corona Virus Wuhan Global Pandemic 2020 Deaths Forecast and Market Consequences / Politics / Pandemic
By: Nadeem_Walayat
One of the worst places for a pandemic to begin is from within a totalitarian state as local party minions tend to be too scared to pass bad news up the chain of command, and obediently wait on orders from leaders residing many hundreds of miles away, by which time it's too late where virus's are concerned, and so it has been with the Corona virus outbreak in China. Don't be fooled by Chinese state propaganda of panic building of hospitals, chinese communist party bureaucracy ensures that it is already too late! The Corona virus has spread throughout China!
I am sure you have all seen news footage of deserted Wuhan streets. Though none of the news reporters appear to have put 2 and 2 together and worked out the reason why the streets are empty is because most of the people living there have already FLED the city, taking their Corona virus infections with them! TOO LATE, OUT OF CONTROL!
Read full article... Read full article...