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Making $2,000 a Month With CryptocurrencyOn the road toward making $2,000 a month with cryptocurrency, one has to look well beyond traditional opportunities first and foremost. In the case of arbitrage trading, there are quite a few different options to explore. The triangular arbitrage opportunity can be extremely lucrative, although there are some caveats to take into account as well.The Triangular Concept Explained Unlike the direct arbitrage trading method, triangular arbitraging is a bit different. It will always involve exploring three different markets and up to three different exchanges. For example, one buys coin A on Exchange X, sends it to exchange Y for conversion to coin B, and sells that coin B on Exchange Z for even more profit. Both “steps” of the arbitrage process can yield individual gains which do not necessarily have to be equal in size. Is it Profitable? The main reason why speculators explore triangular opportunities is for the financial gain. Compared to dire.....
Continue reading at: https://nulltx.com/making-2000-a-month-with-cryptocurrency-triangular-arbitrage/

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Relax Everyone, The High Frequency Trading Problem Is Over You'll have noticed a number of people worrying over the high frequency trading (HFT) practices in the financial markets in recent years. Michael Lewis even wrote a whole book, Flash Boys, about how nefarious it all was. And there's undoubtedly people campaigning, right now, for markets to be protected from this practice. However, the truth is, just as with pretty much any other form of arbitrage that anyone has ever invented, whatever problems HFT may cause are solved by the markets themselves. And it's possible to point out that, right now, whatever those HFT problems were have indeed now been solved. We rather like the liquidity that it brings to the markets, we most certainly like the lower spreads that exist as a result of it. And HFT itself now seems to be a rather boring activity without any excess profits accruing to those who do it. It's a mature technology if you like, the panic and excitement is over.
And example.....
Continue reading at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2015/01/26/relax-everyone-the-high-frequency-trading-problem-is-ove#1010744b5641

This article is taken from the Wall Street Journal written about nine months ago and sits behind a a paywall, so I decided to copy and paste it here. This article explains Trump's policies toward global trade and what has actually happened so far. I think the article does a decent job of explaining the Trade War. While alot has happenedsince the article was written, I still think its relevant.
However, what is lacking in the article, like many articles on the trade war, is it doesn't really explain the history of US trade policy, the laws that the US administration is using to place tariffs on China and the official justification for the US President in enacting tariffs against China. In my analysis I will cover those points.

SUMMARY

When Trump entered the White House people feared he would dismantle the global system the US and its allies had built over the last 75 years, but he hasn't. He has realign into two systems. One between the US and its allies which looks similar to the one built since the 1980s with a few of quota and tariffs. As the article points out

Today, Korus and Nafta have been replaced by updated agreements(one not yet ratified) that look much like the originals. South Korea accepted quotas on steel. Mexico and Canada agreed to higher wages, North American content requirements and quotas for autos. Furthermore, the article points out Douglas Irwin, an economist and trade historian at Dartmouth College, calls these results the “status quo with Trumpian tweaks: a little more managed trade sprinkled about for favored industries. It’s not good, but it’s not the destruction of the system.” Mr. Trump’s actions so far affect only 12% of U.S. imports, according to Chad Bown of the Peterson Institute for International Economics. In 1984, 21% of imports were covered by similar restraints, many imposed by Mr. Reagan, such as on cars, steel, motorcycles and clothing. Protectionist instincts go so far in the US, there are strong lobby groups for both protectionist and freetrade in the US.

The second reflects a emerging rivalry between the US and China. Undo some of the integration that followed China accession to the WTO. Two questions 1) How far is the US willing to decouple with China 2) Can it persuade allies to join.

The second is going to be difficult because China's economic ties are greater than they were between the Soviets, and China isn't waging an ideological struggle. Trump lacks Reagan commitment to alliance and free trade. The status quo with China is crumbling Dan Sullivan, a Republican senator from Alaska, personifies these broader forces reshaping the U.S. approach to the world. When Mr. Xi visited the U.S. in 2015, Mr. Sullivan urged his colleagues to pay more attention to China’s rise. On the Senate floor, he quoted the political scientist Graham Allison: “War between the U.S. and China is more likely than recognized at the moment.” Last spring, Mr. Sullivan went to China and met officials including Vice President Wang Qishan. They seemed to think tensions with the U.S. will fade after Mr. Trump leaves the scene, Mr. Sullivan recalled. “I just said, ‘You are completely misreading this.’” The mistrust, he told them, is bipartisan, and will outlast Mr. Trump. both Bush II and Obama tried to change dialogue and engagement, but by the end of his term, Obama was questioning the approach. Trump has declared engagement. “We don’t like it when our allies steal our ideas either, but it’s a much less dangerous situation,” said Derek Scissors, a China expert at the American Enterprise Institute whose views align with the administration’s more hawkish officials. “We’re not worried about the war-fighting capability of Japan and Korea because they’re our friends.”

The article also points out unlike George Kennan in 1946 who made a case for containing the Soviet Union, the US hasn't explicitly made a case for containing the Soviets, Trump's administration hasn't, because as the the article explains its divided Michael Pillsbury a Hudson Institute scholar close to the Trump team, see 3 scenarios

• New Cold War with drastically reduced economic ties
• China resolve their tensions, integrate and run the world together
• Transactional US-China relationship of the sort during the 1980s

Pillsbury thinks the third is most likely to happen, even though the administration hasn't said that it has adopted that policy. The US is stepping efforts to draw in other trading partners. The US, EU and Japan have launched a WTO effort to crack down on domestic subsidies and technology transfers requirement. US and Domestic concerns with prompted some countries to restrict Huawei. The US is also seeking to walloff China from other trade deals. However, there are risk with this strategy

• Other countries like Japan and South Korea to dependent on China. Too integrated.
• Raise objections to Belt and Road. But no alternative
• The administration is not up to the task

ARTICLE

Trump Didn’t Kill the Global Trade System. He Split It in Two.

INTRODUCTION

My main criticism of this article is it tries like the vast majority of articles to fit US trade actions in the larger context of US geopolitical strategy. Even the author isn't certain "The first goes to the heart of Mr. Trump’s goal. If his aim is to hold back China’s advance, economists predict he will fail.". If you try to treat the trade "war" and US geopolitical strategy toward China as one, you will find yourself quickly frustrated and confused. If you treat them separately with their different set of stakeholders and histories, were they intersect with regards to China, but diverge. During the Cold War, trade policy toward the Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc was subordinated to geopolitical concerns. For Trump, the trade issues are more important than geopolitical strategy. His protectionist trade rhetoric has been fairly consistent since 1980s. In his administration, the top cabinet members holding economic portfolios, those of Commerce, Treasury and US Trade Representative are the same people he picked when he first took office. The Director of the Economic Council has changed hands once, its role isn't as important as the National Security Advisor. While State, Defense, CIA, Homeland Security, UN Ambassador, National Security Advisor have changed hands at least once. Only the Director of National Intelligence hasn't changed.
International Trade makes up 1/4 of the US economy, and like national security its primarily the responsibility of the Federal government. States in the US don't implement their own tariffs. If you add the impact of Treasury policy and how it relates to capital flows in and out of the US, the amounts easily exceed the size of the US economy. Furthermore, because of US Dollar role as the reserve currency and US control of over global system the impact of Treasury are global. Trade policy and investment flows runs through two federal departments Commerce and Treasury and for trade also USTR. Defense spending makes up 3.3% of GDP, and if you add in related homeland security its at most 4%. Why would anyone assume that these two realms be integrated let alone trade policy subordinate to whims of a national security bureaucracy in most instances? With North Korea or Iran, trade and investment subordinate themselves to national security, because to Treasury and Commerce bureaucrats and their affiliated interest groups, Iran and the DPRK are well, economic midgets, but China is a different matter.
The analysis will be divided into four sections. The first will be to provide a brief overview of US trade policy since 1914. The second section will discuss why the US is going after China on trade issues, and why the US has resorted using a bilateral approach as opposed to going through the WTO. The third section we will talk about how relations with China is hashed out in the US.
The reason why I submitted this article, because there aren't many post trying to explain US-China Trade War from a trade perspective. Here is a post titled "What is the Reasons for America's Trade War with China, and not one person mentioned Article 301 or China's WTO Commitments. You get numerous post saying that Huawei is at heart of the trade war. Its fine, but if you don't know what was inside the USTR Investigative report that lead to the tariffs. its like skipping dinner and only having dessert When the US President, Donald J Trump, says he wants to negotiate a better trade deal with other countries, and has been going on about for the last 35 years, longer than many of you have been alive, why do people think that the key issues with China aren't primarily about trade at the moment.

OVERVIEW OF THE UNITED STATES TRADE ORIENTATION

Before 1940s, the US could be categorized as a free market protectionist economy. For many this may seem like oxymoron, how can an economy be free market and protectionist? In 1913, government spending made up about 7.5% of US GDP, in the UK it was 13%, and for Germany 18% (Public Spending in the 20th Century A Global Perspective: Ludger Schuknecht and Vito Tanzi - 2000). UK had virtual zero tariffs, while for manufactured goods in France it was 20%, 13% Germany, 9% Belgium and 4% Netherlands. For raw materials and agricultural products, it was almost zero. In contrast, for the likes of United States, Russia and Japan it was 44%, 84% and 30% respectively. Even though in 1900 United States was an economic powerhouse along with Germany, manufactured exports only made up 30% of exports, and the US government saw tariffs as exclusively a domestic policy matter and didn't see tariffs as something to be negotiated with other nations. The US didn't have the large constituency to push the government for lower tariffs abroad for their exports like in Britain in the 1830-40s (Reluctant Partners: A History of Multilateral Trade Cooperation, 1850-2000).
The Underwood Tariffs Act of 1913 which legislated the income tax, dropped the tariffs to 1850 levels levels.Until 16th amendment was ratified in 1913 making income tax legal, all US federal revenue came from excise and tariffs. In contrast before 1914, about 50% of UK revenue came from income taxes. The reason for US reluctance to introduced income tax was ideological and the United State's relative weak government compared to those in Europe. After the First World War, the US introduced the Emergency Tariff Act of 1921, than the Fordney–McCumber Tariff of 1922 followed by a Smoot-Hawley Act of 1930. Contrary to popular opinion, the Smoot-Hawley Act of 1930 had a small negative impact on the economy, since imports and exports played a small part of the US economy, and the tariffs were lower than the average that existed from 1850-1914.
Immediately after the Second World War, when the US economy was the only industrialized economy left standing, the economic focus was on rehabilitation and monetary stability. There was no grandiose and ideological design. Bretton Woods system linked the US dollar to gold to create monetary stability, and to avoid competitive devaluation and tariffs that plagued the world economy after Britain took itself off the gold in 1931. The US$ was the natural choice, because in 1944 2/3 of the world's gold was in the US. One reason why the Marshall Plan was created was to alleviate the chronic deficits Europeans countries had with the US between 1945-50. It was to rebuild their economies so they could start exports good to the US. Even before it was full implemented in 1959, it was already facing problems, the trade surpluses that the US was running in the 1940s, turned to deficits as European and Japanese economies recovered. By 1959, Federal Reserves foreign liabilities had already exceeded its gold reserves. There were fears of a run on the US gold supply and arbitrage. A secondary policy of the Bretton woods system was curbs on capital outflows to reduce speculation on currency pegs, and this had a negative impact on foreign investment until it was abandoned in 1971. It wasn't until the 1980s, where foreign investment recovered to levels prior to 1914. Factoring out the big spike in global oil prices as a result of the OPEC cartel, it most likely wasn't until the mid-1990s that exports as a % of GDP had reached 1914 levels.
Until the 1980s, the US record regarding free trade and markets was mediocre. The impetus to remove trade barriers in Europe after the Second World War was driven by the Europeans themselves. The EEC already had a custom union in 1968, Canada and the US have yet to even discuss implementing one. Even with Canada it took the US over 50 years to get a Free Trade Agreement. NAFTA was inspired by the success of the EEC. NAFTA was very much an elite driven project. If the Americans put the NAFTA to a referendum like the British did with the EEC in the seventies, it most likely wouldn't pass. People often look at segregation in the US South as a political issue, but it was economic issue as well. How could the US preach free trade, when it didn't have free trade in its own country. Segregation was a internal non-tariff barrier. In the first election after the end of the Cold War in 1992, Ross Perot' based most of independent run for the Presidency on opposition to NAFTA. He won 19% of the vote. Like Ross Perot before him, Donald Trump is not the exception in how America has handled tariffs since the founding of the Republic, but more the norm.
The embrace of free trade by the business and political elite can be attributed to two events. After the end of Bretton Woods in 1971, a strong vested interest in the US in the form of multinationals and Wall Street emerged advocating for removal of tariffs and more importantly the removal of restrictions on free flow of capital, whether direct foreign investment in portfolio investment. However, the political class embrace of free trade and capital only really took off after the collapse of the Soviet Union propelled by Cold War triumphalism.
As mentioned by the article, the US is reverting back to a pre-WTO relations with China. As Robert Lighthizer said in speech in 2000

I guess my prescription, really, is to move back to more of a negotiating kind of a settlement. Return to WTO and what it really was meant to be. Something where you have somebody make a decision but have it not be binding.

The US is using financial and legal instruments developed during the Cold War like its extradition treaties (with Canada and Europe), and Section 301. Here is a very good recent article about enforcement commitment that China will make.‘Painful’ enforcement ahead for China if trade war deal is reached with US insisting on unilateral terms
NOTE: It is very difficult to talk about US-China trade war without a basic knowledge of global economic history since 1914. What a lot of people do is politicize or subordinate the economic history to the political. Some commentators think US power was just handed to them after the Second World War, when the US was the only industrialized economy left standing. The dominant position of the US was temporary and in reality its like having 10 tonnes of Gold sitting in your house, it doesn't automatically translate to influence. The US from 1945-1989 was slowly and gradually build her influence in the non-Communist world. For example, US influence in Canada in the 1960s wasn't as strong as it is now. Only 50% of Canadian exports went to the US in 1960s vs 80% at the present moment.

BASIS OF THE US TRADE DISCUSSION WITH CHINA

According to preliminary agreement between China and the US based on unnamed sources in the Wall Street Journal article US, China close in on Trade Deal. In this article it divides the deal in two sections. The first aspects have largely to do with deficits and is political.

As part of a deal, China is pledging to help level the playing field, including speeding up the timetable for removing foreign-ownership limitations on car ventures and reducing tariffs on imported vehicles to below the current auto tariff of 15%. Beijing would also step up purchases of U.S. goods—a tactic designed to appeal to President Trump, who campaigned on closing the bilateral trade deficit with China. One of the sweeteners would be an $18 billion natural-gas purchase from Cheniere Energy Inc., people familiar with the transaction said.

The second part will involve the following.

1. Commitment Regarding Industrial Policy
2. Provisions to protect IP
3. Mechanism which complaints by US companies can be addressed
4. Bilateral meetings adjudicate disputes. If talks don't produce agreement than US can raise tariffs unilaterally

This grouping of conditions is similar to the points filled under the 301 investigation which serve the basis for initiating the tariffs. I have been reading some sources that say this discussion on this second group of broader issues could only be finalized later
The official justifications for placing the tariffs on Chinese goods is found under the March 2018 investigation submitted by the office of the President to Congress titled FINDINGS OF THE INVESTIGATION INTO CHINA’S ACTS, POLICIES, AND PRACTICES RELATED TO TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER, INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY, AND INNOVATION UNDER SECTION 301 OF THE TRADE ACT OF 1974. From this investigation the United States Trade Representative (USTR) place US Tariffs on Chinese goods as per Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974. Here is a press release by the USTR listing the reasons for placing tariffs, and the key section from the press release. Specifically, the Section 301 investigation revealed:

• China uses joint venture requirements, foreign investment restrictions, and administrative review and licensing processes to require or pressure technology transfer from U.S. companies.
• China deprives U.S. companies of the ability to set market-based terms in licensing and other technology-related negotiations.
• China directs and unfairly facilitates the systematic investment in, and acquisition of, U.S. companies and assets to generate large-scale technology transfer.
• China conducts and supports cyber intrusions into U.S. commercial computer networks to gain unauthorized access to commercially valuable business information.

In the bigger context of trade relations between US and China, China is not honoring its WTO commitments, and the USTR issued its yearly report to Congress in early February about the status of China compliance with its WTO commitments. The points that served as a basis for applying Section 301, also deviate from her commitments as Clinton's Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky paving the way for a trade war. Barshefsky argues that China's back sliding was happening as early as 2006-07, and believes the trade war could have been avoided has those commitments been enforced by previous administrations.
I will provide a brief overview of WTO membership and China's process of getting into the WTO.
WTO members can be divided into two groups, first are countries that joined in 1995-97, and were members of GATT, than there are the second group that joined after 1997. China joined in 2001. There is an argument that when China joined in 2001, she faced more stringent conditions than other developing countries that joined before, because the vast majority of developing countries were members of GATT, and were admitted to the WTO based on that previous membership in GATT. Here is Brookings Institute article published in 2001 titled "Issues in China’s WTO Accession"

This question is all the more puzzling because the scope and depth of demands placed on entrants into the formal international trading system have increased substantially since the formal conclusion of the Uruguay Round of trade negotiations in 1994, which expanded the agenda considerably by covering many services, agriculture, intellectual property, and certain aspects of foreign direct investment. Since 1994, the international community has added agreements covering information technology, basic telecommunications services, and financial services. WTO membership now entails liberalization of a much broader range of domestic economic activity, including areas that traditionally have been regarded by most countries as among the most sensitive, than was required of countries entering the WTO’s predecessor organization the GATT.
The terms of China’s protocol of accession to the World Trade Organization reflect the developments just described and more. China’s market access commitments are much more far-reaching than those that governed the accession of countries only a decade ago. And, as a condition for membership, China was required to make protocol commitments that substantially exceed those made by any other member of the World Trade Organization, including those that have joined since 1995. The broader and deeper commitments China has made inevitably will entail substantial short-term economic costs.

What are the WTO commitments Barshefsky goes on about? When countries join the WTO, particularly those countries that weren't members of GATT and joined after 1997, they have to work toward fulfilling certain commitments. There are 4 key documents when countries make an accession to WTO membership, the working party report, the accession protocol paper, the goods schedule and service schedule.
In the working party report as part of the conclusion which specifies the commitment of each member country what they will do in areas that aren't compliant with WTO regulations on the date they joined. The problem there is no good enforcement mechanism for other members to force China to comply with these commitments. And WTO punishments are weak.
Here is the commitment paragraph for China
"The Working Party took note of the explanations and statements of China concerning its foreign trade regime, as reflected in this Report. The Working Party took note of the commitments given by China in relation to certain specific matters which are reproduced in paragraphs 18-19, 22-23, 35-36, 40, 42, 46-47, 49, 60, 62, 64, 68, 70, 73, 75, 78-79, 83-84, 86, 91-93, 96, 100-103, 107, 111, 115-117, 119-120, 122-123, 126-132, 136, 138, 140, 143, 145, 146, 148, 152, 154, 157, 162, 165, 167-168, 170-174, 177-178, 180, 182, 184-185, 187, 190-197, 199-200, 203-207, 210, 212-213, 215, 217, 222-223, 225, 227-228, 231-235, 238, 240-242, 252, 256, 259, 263, 265, 270, 275, 284, 286, 288, 291, 292, 296, 299, 302, 304-305, 307-310, 312-318, 320, 322, 331-334, 336, 339 and 341 of this Report and noted that these commitments are incorporated in paragraph 1.2 of the Draft Protocol. "
This is a tool by the WTO that list all the WTO commitment of each country in the working paper. In the goods and service schedule they have commitments for particular sectors. Here is the a press release by the WTO in September 2001, after successfully concluding talks for accession, and brief summary of key areas in which China hasn't fulfilled her commitments. Most of the commitments made by China were made to address its legacy as a non-market economy and involvement of state owned enterprises. In my opinion, I think the US government and investors grew increasingly frustrated with China, after 2007 not just because of China's back sliding, but relative to other countries who joined after 1997 like Vietnam, another non-market Leninist dictatorship. When comparing China's commitments to the WTO its best to compare her progress with those that joined after 1997, which were mostly ex-Soviet Republics.
NOTE: The Chinese media have for two decades compared any time the US has talked about China's currency manipulation or any other issue as a pretext for imposing tariffs on China to the Plaza Accords. I am very sure people will raise it here. My criticism of this view is fourfold. First, the US targeted not just Japan, but France, Britain and the UK as well. Secondly, the causes of the Japan lost decade were due largely to internal factors. Thirdly, Japan, UK, Britain and France in the 1980s, the Yuan isn't undervalued today. Lastly, in the USTR investigation, its China's practices that are the concern, not so much the trade deficit.

REASONS FOR TRUMPS UNILATERAL APPROACH

I feel that people shouldn't dismiss Trump's unilateral approach toward China for several reasons.

1. The multilateral approach won't work in many issues such as the trade deficit, commercial espionage and intellectual property, because US and her allies have different interest with regard to these issues. Germany and Japan and trade surpluses with China, while the US runs a deficit. In order to reach a consensus means the West has to compromise among themselves, and the end result if the type of toothless resolutions you commonly find in ASEAN regarding the SCS. Does America want to "compromise" its interest to appease a politician like Justin Trudeau? Not to mention opposition from domestic interest. TPP was opposed by both Clinton and Trump during the election.
2. You can't launch a geopolitical front against China using a newly formed trade block like the TPP. Some of the existing TPP members are in economic groups with China, like Malaysia and Australia.
3. China has joined a multitude of international bodies, and at least in trade, these bodies haven't changed its behavior.
4. Dealing with China, its a no win situation whether you use a tough multilateral / unilateral approach. If the US endorse a tough unilateral approach gives the impression that the US is acting like the British during the Opium War. If you take a concerted Western approach you are accused of acting like the 8 Powers Alliance in 1900.
5. Trump was elected to deal with China which he and his supporters believe was responsible for the loss of millions manufacturing jobs when China joined the WTO in 2001. It is estimate the US lost 6 Million jobs, about 1/4 of US manufacturing Jobs. This has been subsequently advanced by some economists. The ball got rolling when Bill Clinton decided to grant China Most Favored Nation status in 1999, just a decade after Tiananmen.
6. China hasn't dealt with issues like IP protection, market access, subsidies to state own companies and state funded industrial spying.

To his credit, Trump has said his aim was not to overthrow authoritarian governments, and that even applies to the likes of Iran. The Arab spring scared Russia and China, because the US for a brief moment placed the spread of democracy over its security interest.

UNDERSTANDING HOW THE US MAKES DECISIONS REGARDING CHINA

At this moment, China or the trade war isn't an area of great concern for the American public, among international issues it ranks lower than international terrorism, North Korea and Iran's nuclear program.

According to the survey, 39 percent of the country views China’s growing power as a “critical threat” to Americans. That ranked it only eighth among 12 potential threats listed and placed China well behind the perceived threats from international terrorism (66 percent), North Korea’s nuclear program (59 percent) and Iran’s nuclear program (52 percent). It’s also considerably lower than when the same question was asked during the 1990s, when more than half of those polled listed China as a critical threat. That broadly tracks with a recent poll from the Pew Research Center that found concern about U.S.-China economic issues had decreased since 2012.

In looking at how US conducts relations foreign policy with China, we should look at it from the three areas of most concern - economic, national security and ideology. Each sphere has their interest groups, and sometimes groups can occupy two spheres at once. Security experts are concerned with some aspects of China's economic actions like IP theft and industrial policy (China 2025), because they are related to security. In these sphere there are your hawks and dove. And each sphere is dominated by certain interest groups. That is why US policy toward China can often appear contradictory. You have Trump want to reduce the trade deficit, but security experts advocating for restrictions on dual use technology who are buttressed by people who want export restrictions on China, as a way of getting market access.
Right now the economic concerns are most dominant, and the hawks seem to dominate. The economic hawks traditionally have been domestic manufacturing companies and economic nationalist. In reality the hawks aren't dominant, but the groups like US Companies with large investment in China and Wall Street are no longer defending China, and some have turned hawkish against China. These US companies are the main conduit in which China's lobby Congress, since China only spends 50% of what Taiwan spends lobbying Congress.
THE ANGLO SAXON WORLD AND CHINA
I don't think many Chinese even those that speak English, have a good understanding Anglo-Saxon society mindset. Anglo Saxons countries, whether US, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Ireland are commerce driven society governed by sanctity of contracts. The English great philosophical contributions to Western philosophy have primarily to do with economics and politics like Adam Smith, John Locke, David Hume and Thomas Hobbes. This contrast with the French and Germans. Politics in the UK and to a lesser extent the US, is centered around economics, while in Mainland Europe its religion. When the Americans revolted against the British Empire in 1776, the initial source of the grievances were taxes.
Outside of East Asia, the rest of the World's relationship with China was largely commercial, and for United States, being an Anglosaxon country, even more so. In Southeast Asia, Chinese aren't known for high culture, but for trade and commerce. Outside Vietnam, most of Chinese loans words in Southeast Asian languages involve either food or money. The influence is akin to Yiddish in English.
Some people point to the Mao and Nixon meeting as great strategic breakthrough and symbol of what great power politics should look like. The reality is that the Mao-Nixon meeting was an anomaly in the long history of relations with China and the West. Much of China-Western relations over the last 500 years was conducted by multitudes of nameless Chinese and Western traders. The period from 1949-1979 was the only period were strategic concerns triumphed trade, because China had little to offer except instability and revolution. Even in this period, China's attempt to spread revolution in Southeast Asia was a threat to Western investments and corporate interest in the region. During the nadir of both the Qing Dynasty and Republican period, China was still engaged in its traditional commercial role. Throughout much of history of their relations with China, the goals of Britain and the United States were primarily economic,
IMAGINE JUST 10% OF CHINA BOUGHT MY PRODUCT
From the beginning, the allure of China to Western businesses and traders has been its sheer size I. One of the points that the USTR mentions is lack of market access for US companies operating in China, while Chinese companies face much less restrictions operating in the US.

• China uses joint venture requirements, foreign investment restrictions, and administrative review and licensing processes to require or pressure technology transfer from U.S. companies.
• China deprives U.S. companies of the ability to set market-based terms in licensing and other technology-related negotiations.

This is supported by remarks by Henry Paulson and Charlene Barshefsky. As Paulson remarked

Trade with China has hurt some American workers. And they have expressed their grievances at the ballot box.
So while many attribute this shift to the Trump Administration, I do not. What we are now seeing will likely endure for some time within the American policy establishment. China is viewed—by a growing consensus—not just as a strategic challenge to the United States but as a country whose rise has come at America’s expense. In this environment, it would be helpful if the US-China relationship had more advocates. That it does not reflects another failure:
In large part because China has been slow to open its economy since it joined the WTO, the American business community has turned from advocate to skeptic and even opponent of past US policies toward China. American business doesn’t want a tariff war but it does want a more aggressive approach from our government. How can it be that those who know China best, work there, do business there, make money there, and have advocated for productive relations in the past, are among those now arguing for more confrontation? The answer lies in the story of stalled competition policy, and the slow pace of opening, over nearly two decades. This has discouraged and fragmented the American business community. And it has reinforced the negative attitudinal shift among our political and expert classes. In short, even though many American businesses continue to prosper in China, a growing number of firms have given up hope that the playing field will ever be level. Some have accepted the Faustian bargain of maximizing today’s earnings per share while operating under restrictions that jeopardize their future competitiveness. But that doesn’t mean they’re happy about it. Nor does it mean they aren’t acutely aware of the risks — or thinking harder than ever before about how to diversify their risks away from, and beyond, China.

What is interesting about Paulson's speech is he spend only one sentence about displaced US workers, and a whole paragraph about US business operating in China. While Kissinger writes books about China, how much does he contribute to both Democrats and the Republicans during the election cycle? China is increasingly makING it more difficult for US companies operating and those exporting products to China.

CONTINUED

It seems that when we discuss use cases for crypto, there is a large elephant in the room that no one has noticed. Every day, more than $5 trillion is moved through foreign currency exchange markets: to facilitate international trade, provide investment and hedging opportunities, arbitrage weaker currencies, service travelers and tourists, and, most importantly, to maintain absolute US dollar hegemony. Central banks and BIS convene often, to coordinate their money printing with swaps and loans for foreign countries, to prevent wild swings in relative fiat value and keep the US and Euro currencies on top.
Crypto is an ideal vehicle to disrupt the international Forex markets. Buying crypto with one fiat currency and selling it for another is quite easy. Discuss.
EDIT: It seems that nobody understood what I was getting at. Here is an example:
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-01-02/yuan-dumps-bitcoin-jumps-china-researchers-suggest-one-devaluation-capital-controls
There could be billions worth of crypto changing hands every day if front-running central banks is a use case.

I’ll level with you. Up until about 3 or 4 years ago, I had never even heard the word arbitrage… And I’d been a financial advisor for like 5 years already!
So it doesn’t shock me if some of you reading this have no idea what it means either. And because of that, I want to define it to you.
Arbitrage in the dictionary means “the simultaneous purchase and sale of the asset in different markets to profit from unequal prices.”
In English, that means you buy a thing at one price and sell it as the same time for another price that is higher in a different market and you do it at the same time in order to make a profit on the difference between what you paid and what you sold it for.
For example, I buy a vehicle in Alabama at a low price and sell the same vehicle at the same time in Alaska at a higher price. And I make an instant profit.
You may ask, how is arbitrage different than just buying and selling things at a profit? Here is the key difference: with arbitrage, I am buying and selling at the same time. This means my profit is instant because it exists as a byproduct of my transaction.
With most buying and selling, the sale is not instant. This means I could be out some time and/or some money while I find someone to sell it to before I can make my profit.
Okay, so now that we now what arbitrage means, why is it important?
Well, it is a powerful way to invest. Arbitrage goes back for a long time! Banks, corporations, and Wall Street firms do it more than you could ever imagine. It is so powerful that they don’t really do any other type of investing.
How would you like to know exactly how to do this for yourself so that you can invest the way banks and the Top 1% do?
Great! That is exactly what I’m going to show you here!
First, I want to establish that there are two main ways of arbitrage investing. The first one we discussed already, which is buying and selling. An easy example of this could be with Forex markets. If I am trading in US Dollars and another currency is trading at a lower rate than normal and I knew it would be coming back up soon, I could buy a bunch of that currency with my USD in order to make an instant profit when it bounces back. This is done fairly regularly.
The other type of arbitrage investing is actually with debt. For this to work, you need to be pretty emotionally flat about debt. Otherwise, you are probably going to have some issues.
I could borrow money at 5%, knowing that I am going to make at least 6%. And I keep the difference in the middle.
That’s a simple way of doing it. Banks do this with your money. The interest they pay you on your account is actually a loan. You loaned them your money and that is why you’re getting interest. They are then investing your money to make more than what they have to pay you. I legitimately didn’t know this for most of my life. But it is true and it is extremely lucrative.
The key is, you need to be able to borrow money at a lower rate than what you’d make on it.
The third way you can do this is called double arbitrage. Let’s say that you had an asset that was already earning 6%. You then borrow it at 5%. You are making a 1% arbitrage on that money. But then the money you borrowed at 5% you will now loan to someone else at 8%. You’re making another 8% arbitrage spready because the 5% you’re paying is being covered by the 6% you are going to earn in the first place. So your total profit is 8% plus the other positive 1%. You are making 9% in arbitrage.
We do this with a tool called the Sacred Account. It is a whole life insurance policy that pays about a 6% dividend. You borrow at 5% and you loan it out on real estate deals that pay you 8-12%. Only ours is even more powerful.
You’re going to write the 5% you’re paying interest off on your taxes. You’re also going to use the 8-12% you’re making to pay your loan off early.
This means you’re making a 6% dividend. After tax deductions and early loan repayment you are probably paying closer to 3-4%. And you’re out there earning the 8-12% This means you are making 2-3% in arbitrage, plus another 8-12% on top of that.
Incredible right?
And the best thing about it is that this has nothing to do with the stock market. It has nothing to do with trading foreign currencies. It is secured by real assets and you know what you’re going to get.
This is the reason why the Sacred Account has been around for over 150 years and the concept of arbitrage investing has been around for thousands of years. It isn’t complicated, you have full control over the entire thing, and it costs you almost nothing to do.
If you’re reading this and you would like to learn how to get involved in this style of investing, then I want you to reach out to me. My team and I help do this with literally millions of dollars every single month for our clients and we would be happy to show you how. Click here to learn more!
Own Your Potential,
Jerry Fetta
CEO & Founder of Wealth DynamX
Jerry Fetta helps his clients gain more financial knowledge, make more money, keep more of it, and multiply what they keep.
If you feel like one or more of these areas is costing you money and opportunity right now, then get more information about Jerry Fetta and Wealth DynamX by going to www.WealthDynamX.com/contact
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As you may have read in the last Medium, referees of the new referral program are going to earn 25 CFT when they join the exchange. Let's all speculate and find what CFT is :D
​
–– 200% speculation beyond this point, leveraged x100 ––
CFT stands for Coss Fiat Token, the purpose of this token is to represent Fiat value on the exchange. The actual problem we're facing is the lack of liquidity on all Fiat pairs. Let's take ETH as an example: There are multiple ETH Fiat pairs: ETH/USD, ETH/EUR, ETH/GBP. The more the pairs the less liquidity we have. Why don't they merge all those pairs on only one pair ETH/CFT ?

"Da f*ck, I want to know how much I pay for ETH in my home country, not in CFT !"

Exactly, no one cares of CFT, and that's why you shouldn't even see it. Every user in the world will choose (or will have it auto assigned) his currency: someone living in Europe will have EUR displayed and someone in the USA will have USD displayed, but also someone living in India will have Indian Rupee displayed.

"1 CFT = 1 EUR = 1 USD ???"

No, the CFT will only be a stable coin, its rate will depend on your home currency based on Forex prices. For example we could have 10 CFT = 10 USD = 8.82 EUR etc.
​
Positive impact:
– Liquidity will increase a lot on Fiat pairs (now and especially when we get more customers trading as liquidity brings traders and traders brings liquidity).
– Scalable model to integrate many countries: "I'm from xxxx country, there is not any market in my home currecny, why can't I trade Fiat. Help?". If the conversion is made on client side, Coss can integrate a lot of countries, lot of currencies with ease (as long as they can receive and send Fiat through banks at some point).
– Absolutely needed for the POS (Point Of Sale) we're waiting for something around Q2 2019: if a little shop in Australia want to integrate Coss solution to accept payments in crypto, they shouldn't have to accept USD nor EUR, they should get AUD directly, same for any shop in any country around the world. Customer pays in BTC, gets automatically converted to CFT and then AUD on client side.
​
Negative impact / Concerns:
– Less opportunities to make arbitrages on Coss through different Fiat pairs (a little bit less volume).
– Probably not the possibility to own more than one Fiat currency at the same time (in reality you would hold them all).
– Your balance might change over time as prices on Forex moves, meaning your 132 CFT might be worth 132$ at some point and 131.53$ one day after, people will have to get used to that.
– Can create some confusion to some users, especially as websites like Coinmarketcap wouldn't know how to classify the prices, as CFT wouldn't be used somewhere else (at least for some time).
– Fees might increase as some conversions will be needed depending on the home country of the users (people might deposit a lot of USD and others withdrawing a lot of EUR, how would Coss manage that as it might become a real threat over time if the total CFT market cap grows to 10-50M$ for example, the model needs to be really solid.
– How would it be managed on the API, would people got the prices in Fiat like on the exchange, or would they get the order books in CFT and would need to do their own conversions depending on the currency they want to use (as a personal user of the API, it seems that this would need to be considered).
​
Other points:
– Even if Coss make a promotion on it, CFT needs to be backed by real Fiat, even if 25 CFT is probably "only" 2.5-10$, it needs to be paid by someone, if not it's a Ponzi scheme obviously. That means Coss Ltd has to pay for those tokens, and I guess they do have an acquisition price per customer in mind, so this is not something I'm really afraid off, but very important for long term viability of the Fiat model.
– Wouldn't be a bad thing to give Fiat to people if they do their KYC, they would at least be able to test the exchange and try trading crypto before even having to send anything.
​
Now it's your turn to speculate, hope you enjoyed the ride ;)

All statements are based on the author’s experiences. I take pride in informing the public and helping as many as I can through sharing my experiences with my readers. That said, no one except you can take responsibility for your Cryptocurrency Investing decisions, so do think it through before investing.
If you would like to learn more about the techlogogy behind cryptocurrencies, please check out our blockchain courses on crypto.
When I first started taking an interest in cryptocurrency I thought I was so lost in this huge sea of unknowns. Where do I start? What are the useful keywords to look up and keep in mind? What are the available helpful resources? This cryptocurrency investing guide is written so that in just 20 minutes, you would have a sense of what to expect of your upcoming crypto journey, and how to best go about starting it. Enjoy it, it might just be the most exhilarating ride of your life.
​
Rise of the Cryptocurrencies
As the tech literacy of the population increases, acceptance of crypto as a legitimate store of value follows, and it boomed. Titles along the lines of ‘Bitcoin price hits new all-time high’ and ‘Ethereum price surges’ are starting to perforate the general public’s news feed. What we know for sure is that people who were once skeptical of Bitcoin and the technology behind it are slowly understanding and getting increasingly involved with crypto. As at the time of writing, the market cap of the entire crypto space is at 30.9 billion USD. It was 20 billion just four months ago. What would it be four months from now?
Current Makeup of the Cryptocurrency Space
You would have heard of Bitcoin and the ‘altcoins.’ How this naming convention started was because back in the days of 2011, forks of Bitcoin appeared in the markets. The forks, or clones, each aspire to serve a niche area, aiming to be ‘better’ than Bitcoin. Since then countless new crypto has emerged, eroding away Bitcoin’s crypto market cap dominance. These altcoins are gaining market share at an alarming speed. Ten times or more growth has been observed in a time span as short as six weeks (see PIVX, an altcoin).
Cryptocurrency, Stocks, and Fiat
The currencies we know are referred to as ‘fiat’ by the cryptocurrency community. Although having ‘currency’ in its name, cryptocurrencies share more similarities with stocks than currencies. When you purchase some cryptocurrency, you are in fact buying some tech stock, a part of the blockchain and a piece of the network.
Cryptocurrency Exchanges
The most common place where people buy and trade cryptocurrency is on the exchanges. Exchanges are places where you may buy and sell your crypto, using fiat. There are multiple measures to judge the reliability and quality of an exchange, such as liquidity, spread, fees, purchase and withdrawal limits, trading volume, security, insurance, user-friendliness. Out of all these, I find Coinbase as the best exchange hands down. It has a beginner-friendly user interface, and an unbeatable 100% crypto insurance.
After setting up an intermediary bank account and verifying your details with Coinbase, you are only five simple steps away from a Bitcoin purchase:

1. Access the ‘Buy/Sell Bitcoin’ tab
2. Select the payment method using the drop-down menu
3. Enter the desired amount
4. Click ‘Buy Bitcoin Instantly.’
5. View your credited Bitcoins on your dashboard

When you get acquainted with buying crypto and start to itch for some crypto trading (e.g. BTC/ETH), simply perform an instant transfer from Coinbase to GDAX free of charge and start trading. Think of Coinbase as the place to conveniently buy and store your crypto and GDAX as your margin trading platform. Transfers between the two are instant and free.
As you slowly get familiar with other currencies, you might want to have the option of investing in them. Bittrex and Polo are two exchanges that offer a wide selection range.
When signing up on these exchanges for the first time, do make it a point to verify your account with the required documents early, as you do not want to be caught in the middle of some tedious and slow admin work when the trading opportunity comes. Verification on these exchanges may take days, and purchase/withdraw limits may only increase gradually as you trade.
An additional point to note: if you are using a currency other than USD, do check out the exchange’s ease of funding and withdrawal. You do not want your exchange to come into fiat withdrawal problems like Bitfinex did recently.
Cryptocurrency Wallets
Exchanges have inbuilt online wallets to keep the cryptocurrency you purchased. However, for those who heard of the Mt. Gox hack, you might feel uneasy to put on an exchange. If you do not wish to keep your crypto holdings on the exchange, you have the option to either use a paper wallet service like myetherwallet.com or spend 99 USD on a hardware wallet like KeepKey. Both serve the purpose of removing platform risk, at the cost of taking up the responsibility of keeping your cryptocurrency safe.
To transfer your crypto from exchanges to your hardware wallet for long term storage, simply follow these steps, using Coinbase and KeepKey as an example:

1. Plug in your KeepKey USB cable
2. Open your KeepKey Client (on Google Chrome under Apps)
3. Find your wallet address on the KeepKey Client UI
4. Access Coinbase ‘Send/Request’ tab and input your KeepKey wallet address
5. Confirm amount and click ‘Send Funds’

Take note to first send a tiny amount (e.g. 0.0001 BTC) for testing before sending the bulk, lest an error occurred and the transfer amount is lost. A small network transfer fee might be charged.
Personally, I own a hardware wallet, as I love the feeling of a having around a tangible reminder of my crypto holdings. Also, the hardware wallet’s user interface makes it easy to keep multiple coins, which is especially handy when you participate in ICOs (Initial Coin Offering) in the future.

Cryptocurrency as a Percentage of Your Investment Portfolio

This part will be wildly subjective. Crypto has the potential to realize many ‘rags to riches’ stories, but its volatility makes it unpredictable. As a precaution, the money you put in crypto should be money that you are fine with losing. I cannot emphasize the importance of this as we often underestimate how the volatility affects our emotional capacities. The upside is huge, but it comes with lots of risks and, if I may put it, emotional torment.
A conservative portfolio I would suggest is as follows:
< 30 years old (max) 30% Crypto, 50% Traditional Investments
30 – 40 years old (max) 20% Crypto, 60% Traditional Investments
> 40 years old (max) 10% Crypto, 70% Traditional Investments
This is not meant to be age discriminatory but considers the fact that one takes up more financial responsibilities (mortgage, family) as he grows older.
Within the designated crypto share of your portfolio, you may diversify your coins based on your risk appetite.

Show Me the Money! Cryptocurrency Investing

Now, this is where it gets exciting.
How do we pick the winner? How do we avoid picking the loser?
Note that crypto is now in a huge bull market and anything could rise over time. Also, do not dismiss the possibility that we may be in a bubble like the-dot-com boom back in 2000. Still, ask yourself these questions before you decide to invest in a coin:

• Are my investments safe with the dev team? The first rule of investing should always be the preservation of capital. Can you trust the dev team with your money? Are you about to leave your money with founders who have been involved in previous scams? If you see these telling signs, back off immediately. The coin’s price might grow for all you care, but it is just not worth it to put your capital at such risk.
• Does my coin of interest have a long-term plan? If you cannot understand their yellow paper, at least read their white paper. What are the team trying to achieve? Do they have the means, or have they already worked towards their goals? What are the timelines and milestones?
• Does my coin of interest seem like a well-marketed plan with no backup? Lots of ICOs these days just have a pretty webpage, and then they’re shipped out to sell. Watch out for these: are they able to deliver?
• How long should I stay in this? Do I have an exit plan? There will be coins where you do not want to hold forever, but wish to flip for some short-term gains. In this case, be sure to set a timeframe, or an exit price, to reduce to effect of emotions on your trades. Stick to your plan and watch your emotions.
• Does it have a real-world use case? Some coins seem to keep increasing in value simply due to supply-demand factors. This trend might not be sustainable. For a coin to have long term supported value, it must have a real-world use case eventually. Look out for coins that look too much like a get-rich-quick scheme.

Short Term Trading with Margin
Once you get familiarized with crypto, you may want to trade on your ‘stash’ in hopes of increasing it. For the experienced forex traders, this is nothing new. But for the new crypto investor, you may want to brief up on how to make a leveraged trade.
Short-term trading takes advantages of incoming news to make a quick buck. If you foresee good news from an upcoming release of a coin, you may want to open a long and see how it goes. Remember, buy the rumor, sell the news; act fast and be daring if you wish to make a profit with short term trading.
Mining
For those who are more comfortable with a predictable form of reward, mining is the way. Mining involves setting up of a rig, consisting of GPUs or CPUs and an investment in the electricity. Mining is only possible on cryptocurrencies that follow the Proof of Work protocol. It takes some effort to setup and gets things running, but it is attractive as a long-term passive income as long as you frontload the work.
Staking
Staking is the Proof of Stake version of ‘mining.’ Think of this as making dividends on your stock. The reward rate and staking method differ greatly among Proof of Stake coins, but in general, it takes less effort as compared to mining.
Arbitraging
As you get a hand in multiple exchanges, you may wish to buy from one exchange and sell on another to make ‘arbitrage’ gains when you spot an arbitraging opportunity. Take note of two things if you wish to do so: remember to factor in fees, and remember that the price could change when you are transferring your coin between exchanges, especially during volatile times. USD tends to be liquid so this happens less for it, but for other currencies such as CAD (Canadian dollar) and SGD (Singapore dollar), there may exist more arbitraging opportunities to exploit.
That’s about all I have, for now, invest smart and most importantly, don’t forget to have fun!

The Absolute Beginner’s Guide to Cryptocurrency Investing

References are made wherever possible. All statements are based on the author’s experiences. I take pride in informing the public and helping as many as I can through sharing my experiences with my readers. That said, no one except you can take responsibility for your Cryptocurrency Investing decisions, so do think it through before investing. If you would like to learn more about the techlogogy behind cryptocurrencies, please check out our blockchain courses on crypto.
When I first started taking an interest in cryptocurrency I thought I was so lost in this huge sea of unknowns. Where do I start? What are the useful keywords to look up and keep in mind? What are the available helpful resources? This cryptocurrency investing guide is written so that in just 20 minutes, you would have a sense of what to expect of your upcoming crypto journey, and how to best go about starting it. Enjoy it, it might just be the most exhilarating ride of your life.
Rise of the Cryptocurrencies
As the tech literacy of the population increases, acceptance of crypto as a legitimate store of value follows, and it boomed. Titles along the lines of ‘Bitcoin price hits new all-time high’ and ‘Ethereum price surges’ are starting to perforate the general public’s news feed. What we know for sure is that people who were once skeptical of Bitcoin and the technology behind it are slowly understanding and getting increasingly involved with crypto. As at the time of writing, the market cap of the entire crypto space is at 30.9 billion USD. It was 20 billion just four months ago. What would it be four months from now?
Current Makeup of the Cryptocurrency Space
You would have heard of Bitcoin and the ‘altcoins.’ How this naming convention started was because back in the days of 2011, forks of Bitcoin appeared in the markets. The forks, or clones, each aspire to serve a niche area, aiming to be ‘better’ than Bitcoin. Since then countless new crypto has emerged, eroding away Bitcoin’s crypto market cap dominance. These altcoins are gaining market share at an alarming speed. Ten times or more growth has been observed in a time span as short as six weeks (see PIVX, an altcoin).
Cryptocurrency, Stocks, and Fiat
The currencies we know are referred to as ‘fiat’ by the cryptocurrency community. Although having ‘currency’ in its name, cryptocurrencies share more similarities with stocks than currencies. When you purchase some cryptocurrency, you are in fact buying some tech stock, a part of the blockchain and a piece of the network.
Cryptocurrency Exchanges
The most common place where people buy and trade cryptocurrency is on the exchanges.Exchanges are places where you may buy and sell your crypto, using fiat. There are multiple measures to judge the reliability and quality of an exchange, such as liquidity, spread, fees, purchase and withdrawal limits, trading volume, security, insurance, user-friendliness. Out of all these, I find Coinbase as the best exchange hands down. It has a beginner-friendly user interface, and an unbeatable 100% crypto insurance.
After setting up an intermediary bank account and verifying your details with Coinbase, you are only five simple steps away from a Bitcoin purchase:

1. Access the ‘Buy/Sell Bitcoin’ tab
2. Select the payment method using the drop-down menu
3. Enter the desired amount
4. Click ‘Buy Bitcoin Instantly.’
5. View your credited Bitcoins on your dashboard

When you get acquainted with buying crypto and start to itch for some crypto trading (e.g. BTC/ETH), simply perform an instant transfer from Coinbase to GDAX free of charge and start trading. Think of Coinbase as the place to conveniently buy and store your crypto and GDAX as your margin trading platform. Transfers between the two are instant and free.
As you slowly get familiar with other currencies, you might want to have the option of investing in them. Bittrex and Polo are two exchanges that offer a wide selection range.
When signing up on these exchanges for the first time, do make it a point to verify your account with the required documents early, as you do not want to be caught in the middle of some tedious and slow admin work when the trading opportunity comes. Verification on these exchanges may take days, and purchase/withdraw limits may only increase gradually as you trade.
An additional point to note: if you are using a currency other than USD, do check out the exchange’s ease of funding and withdrawal. You do not want your exchange to come into fiat withdrawal problems like Bitfinex did recently.
Cryptocurrency Wallets
Exchanges have inbuilt online wallets to keep the cryptocurrency you purchased. However, for those who heard of the Mt. Gox hack, you might feel uneasy to put on an exchange. If you do not wish to keep your crypto holdings on the exchange, you have the option to either use a paper wallet service like myetherwallet.com or spend 99 USD on a hardware wallet like KeepKey. Both serve the purpose of removing platform risk, at the cost of taking up the responsibility of keeping your cryptocurrency safe.
To transfer your crypto from exchanges to your hardware wallet for long term storage, simply follow these steps, using Coinbase and KeepKey as an example:

1. Plug in your KeepKey USB cable
2. Open your KeepKey Client (on Google Chrome under Apps)
3. Find your wallet address on the KeepKey Client UI
4. Access Coinbase ‘Send/Request’ tab and input your KeepKey wallet address
5. Confirm amount and click ‘Send Funds’

Take note to first send a tiny amount (e.g. 0.0001 BTC) for testing before sending the bulk, lest an error occurred and the transfer amount is lost. A small network transfer fee might be charged.
Personally, I own a hardware wallet, as I love the feeling of a having around a tangible reminder of my crypto holdings. Also, the hardware wallet’s user interface makes it easy to keep multiple coins, which is especially handy when you participate in ICOs (Initial Coin Offering) in the future.

Cryptocurrency as a Percentage of Your Investment Portfolio

This part will be wildly subjective. Crypto has the potential to realize many ‘rags to riches’ stories, but its volatility makes it unpredictable. As a precaution, the money you put in crypto should be money that you are fine with losing. I cannot emphasize the importance of this as we often underestimate how the volatility affects our emotional capacities. The upside is huge, but it comes with lots of risks and, if I may put it, emotional torment.
A conservative portfolio I would suggest is as follows:
< 30 years old (max) 30% Crypto, 50% Traditional Investments
30 – 40 years old (max) 20% Crypto, 60% Traditional Investments
> 40 years old (max) 10% Crypto, 70% Traditional Investments
This is not meant to be age discriminatory but considers the fact that one takes up more financial responsibilities (mortgage, family) as he grows older.
Within the designated crypto share of your portfolio, you may diversify your coins based on your risk appetite.

Show Me the Money! Cryptocurrency Investing

Now, this is where it gets exciting.
How do we pick the winner? How do we avoid picking the loser?
Note that crypto is now in a huge bull market and anything could rise over time. Also, do not dismiss the possibility that we may be in a bubble like the-dot-com boom back in 2000. Still, ask yourself these questions before you decide to invest in a coin:

• Are my investments safe with the dev team? The first rule of investing should always be the preservation of capital. Can you trust the dev team with your money? Are you about to leave your money with founders who have been involved in previous scams? If you see these telling signs, back off immediately. The coin’s price might grow for all you care, but it is just not worth it to put your capital at such risk.
• Does my coin of interest have a long-term plan? If you cannot understand their yellow paper, at least read their white paper. What are the team trying to achieve? Do they have the means, or have they already worked towards their goals? What are the timelines and milestones?
• Does my coin of interest seem like a well-marketed plan with no backup? Lots of ICOs these days just have a pretty webpage, and then they’re shipped out to sell. Watch out for these: are they able to deliver?
• How long should I stay in this? Do I have an exit plan? There will be coins where you do not want to hold forever, but wish to flip for some short-term gains. In this case, be sure to set a timeframe, or an exit price, to reduce to effect of emotions on your trades. Stick to your plan and watch your emotions.
• Does it have a real-world use case? Some coins seem to keep increasing in value simply due to supply-demand factors. This trend might not be sustainable. For a coin to have long term supported value, it must have a real-world use case eventually. Look out for coins that look too much like a get-rich-quick scheme.

Short Term Trading with Margin
Once you get familiarized with crypto, you may want to trade on your ‘stash’ in hopes of increasing it. For the experienced forex traders, this is nothing new. But for the new crypto investor, you may want to brief up on how to make a leveraged trade.
Short-term trading takes advantages of incoming news to make a quick buck. If you foresee good news from an upcoming release of a coin, you may want to open a long and see how it goes. Remember, buy the rumor, sell the news; act fast and be daring if you wish to make a profit with short term trading.
Mining
For those who are more comfortable with a predictable form of reward, mining is the way. Mining involves setting up of a rig, consisting of GPUs or CPUs and an investment in the electricity. Mining is only possible on cryptocurrencies that follow the Proof of Work protocol. It takes some effort to setup and gets things running, but it is attractive as a long-term passive income as long as you frontload the work.
Staking
Staking is the Proof of Stake version of ‘mining.’ Think of this as making dividends on your stock. The reward rate and staking method differ greatly among Proof of Stake coins, but in general, it takes less effort as compared to mining.
Arbitraging
As you get a hand in multiple exchanges, you may wish to buy from one exchange and sell on another to make ‘arbitrage’ gains when you spot an arbitraging opportunity. Take note of two things if you wish to do so: remember to factor in fees, and remember that the price could change when you are transferring your coin between exchanges, especially during volatile times. USD tends to be liquid so this happens less for it, but for other currencies such as CAD (Canadian dollar) and SGD (Singapore dollar), there may exist more arbitraging opportunities to exploit.
​
Link the original blog post: https://blockgeeks.com/cryptocurrency-investing/

fintech #trading #algotrading #quantitative #quant #hft #forex #fx #crypto #gbpusd

Relax Everyone, The High Frequency Trading Problem Is Over You'll have noticed a number of people worrying over the high frequency trading (HFT) practices in the financial markets in recent years. Michael Lewis even wrote a whole book, Flash Boys, about how nefarious it all was. And there's undoubtedly people campaigning, right now, for markets to be protected from this practice. However, the truth is, just as with pretty much any other form of arbitrage that anyone has ever invented, whatever problems HFT may cause are solved by the markets themselves. And it's possible to point out that, right now, whatever those HFT problems were have indeed now been solved. We rather like the liquidity that it brings to the markets, we most certainly like the lower spreads that exist as a result of it. And HFT itself now seems to be a rather boring activity without any excess profits accruing to those who do it. It's a mature technology if you like, the panic and excitement is over.
And example.....
Continue reading at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2015/01/26/relax-everyone-the-high-frequency-trading-problem-is-ove#1010744b5641

fintech #trading #algotrading #quantitative #quant #quants #forex #cryptos #bitcoin

Making $2,000 a Month With Cryptocurrency - Triangular ArbitrageOn the road toward making $2,000 a month with cryptocurrency, one has to look well beyond traditional opportunities first and foremost. In the case of arbitrage trading, there are quite a few different options to explore. The triangular arbitrage opportunity can be extremely lucrative, although there are some caveats to take into account as well.The Triangular Concept ExplainedUnlike the direct arbitrage trading method, triangular arbitraging is a bit different. It will always involve exploring three different markets and up to three different exchanges. For example, one buys coin A on Exchange X, sends it to exchange Y for conversion to coin B, and sells that coin B on Exchange Z for even more profit. Both “steps” of the arbitrage process can yield individual gains which do not necessarily have to be equal in size. Is it Profitable?The main reason why speculators explore triangular opportunities is for the financial gain...... Continue reading at: https://nulltx.com/making-2000-a-month-with-cryptocurrency-triangular-arbitrage/

The aim of this post is to show how the current federal funds rate operation differs from its pre-crisis model and how it is important to Forex traders.

Before 2008

When things were simple (before 2008), the Federal Reserve set its target federal funds rate (FFR) as a single number and made sure that the effective federal funds rate (EFFR) is at the target level by performing open market operations (OMO). Those OMO normally included repurchase agreements (repo or RP) to temporarily increase the reserves supply in the federal funds market (FFM) (and thus reduce the demand and the EFFR) and reverse repurchase agreements (RRP) to temporarily decrease the supply of reserves and drive the EFFR up. It worked very well because the total size of bank reserves was rather small ($15 billion) in pre-crisis times.

Our times

Nowadays, when the Fed is holding $2.27 trillion in reserve balances (as of March 27, 2017), the old scheme would not fare so well. There is no scarcity of reserve balances at all. To create it, the Fed would need to sell a big share of its securities to shrink the total reserves to manageable size. But that would create some problems — it would drive down the prices of those securities and would launch a series of unpredictable market feedback loops. Instead, what the Fed is doing since 2008 is setting a target FFR as a range between two interest rates. For example, it is 0.75%-1.00% as of today while the EFFR, measured as volume-weighted median, was at 0.91% during the last 3 days.

Ceiling rate

The Fed makes sure that the FFM respects the target bounds by setting the interest on excess reserves (IOER) to the top boundary rate. When 95% of the reserve balances are the excess balances (balances exceeding the required level), the IOER rate paid by the Fed to the banks for holding these reserves serves as the ceiling for the rate corridor. It may sound counter-intuitive, because IOER would have been a floor level if only the FFM was composed only of the banks. However, it is not the case. The government-sponsored enterprises (GSE), such as Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and Federal Home Loan Banks, comprise the bulk of the FFM. GSEs do not earn IOER on reserve balances kept at the Fed. This creates an arbitrage opportunity for banks to borrow from GSEs and allocate the funds with the Fed to earn IOER. Consequently, the interest rate of GSE's loans to banks should be below IOER.

Floor rate

And how about the floor of the rate range (the 0.75% part of today's target range)? It is enforced by the Fed through the OMO called overnight repurchase agreement (ON RRP). With it, the Fed can drain some reserves from the system by borrowing cash from market participants, giving them securities as a collateral. Since not only banks can earn interest on their funds with ON RRP (GSEs can also do it), this sets the de facto lower boundary for the EFFR. Who would lend at a lower rate if they can choose to get at least this rate from the risk-less loan to the Fed? One important feature of the current system is that the EFFR does not cling to the upper side of the rate range (IOER) but hovers below it, falling down to near the ON RRP rate during the final day of the month. The reason for the former is that the banks pay higher FDIC insurance fees when they borrow more. And the reason for the latter is that the banks need to follow the Basel requirements, which limit their leverage, but are calculated based on the end-of-month balance sheet.

Efficiency

As a result, we can see the EFFR fluctuating between ON RRP and IOER — well within the boundaries of the Fed's target FFR. The short-term interest rates (represented by the 3-month Treasury bills) roughly follow the EFFR, which means that the interest rates get propagated beyond the FFM. Note the EFFR spiking down on each last day of the month:
EFFR inside target FFR range with 3-month Treasury Bill rate for comparison

Relation to Forex

So why should Forex traders care about this? Because effective federal funds rate and the Fed's ability to uphold it are even more important for the US dollar than the target rate set by the Federal Open Market Committee at its meetings. It is the higher EFFR that would stimulate banks buying more USD to park it either with the Fed or with the GSEs. It is the lower EFFR that would let banks to use the USD as a carry trade short side. Now you see that any significant news concerning GSE regulations, Basel III requirements, or FDIC insurance fee policies could have tremendous influence on the USD rate based on how such news could affect the EFFR. As a currency trader, you have to be up-to-date with the expectations of the FFM participants regarding those three components. I recommend the following resources to stay up-to-date with those topics:

• New York Fed — Markets & Policy Implementation — for all important changes in how FFM functions.
• Federal Reserve — the Fed board members might hint at the upcoming changes to how they will make sure that EFFR keeps within their target FFR.
• Bank for International Settlements — for its news regarding Basel III development and implementation.
• FHLBanks Office of Finance — for news on how Federal Home Loan Banks financial regulation changes.
• Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation — Financial Institution Letters — for anything related to changes in how FDIC fees work for depository institutions.

Of course, you can also use some financial news outlet of your choice that would cover all these topics.

fintech #trading #algotrading #quantitative #quant #hft #forex #fx #crypto #gbpusd

Relax Everyone, The High Frequency Trading Problem Is OverYou'll have noticed a number of people worrying over the high frequency trading (HFT) practices in the financial markets in recent years. Michael Lewis even wrote a whole book, Flash Boys, about how nefarious it all was. And there's undoubtedly people campaigning, right now, for markets to be protected from this practice. However, the truth is, just as with pretty much any other form of arbitrage that anyone has ever invented, whatever problems HFT may cause are solved by the markets themselves. And it's possible to point out that, right now, whatever those HFT problems were have indeed now been solved. We rather like the liquidity that it brings to the markets, we most certainly like the lower spreads that exist as a result of it. And HFT itself now seems to be a rather boring activity without any excess profits accruing to those who do it. It's a mature technology if you like, the panic and excitement is over.And example of pe..... Continue reading at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2015/01/26/relax-everyone-the-high-frequency-trading-problem-is-ove#1010744b5641

LIQNET A CRYPTOCURRENCY EXCHANGE WITH THE UNIQUE LIQUIDITY POOLING TECHNOLOGY
LIQNET SPECIFICS
THE LEN MECHANISM (LIQUIDITY EXCHANGE NETWORK) LEN (Liquidity Exchange Network) is what makes our exchange unique. This mechanism allows collecting and aggregating buy/sell orders through APIs of 1,2...n exchanges located anywhere in the world and forming a unified order book.LIQNET is a cryptocurrency exchange that uses a unique liquidity gathering mechanism. Find out how it works today in our review.What Is LIQNET?
LIQNET, found online at LIQNET.com, gathers liquidity from other exchanges and allows traders to access this liquidity through a single dashboard. You can take advantage of arbitrage opportunities between exchanges. Or, you can simply use LIQNET to access more liquidity.
The system revolves around the united limit order book, or LOB. You access this order book through the professional LIQNET interface. LIQNET was announced on April 24, 2018. The company is expecting to launch a token sale in May or June 2018.
How Does LIQNET Work?
LIQNET revolves around its limit order book, or LOB, and its LEN mechanism. The Liquidity Exchange Network, or LEN, mechanism prevents liquidity fragmentation by pooling bids and orders from different exchanges. Instead of accessing liquidity from a single cryptocurrency exchange, you can access liquidity from multiple exchanges using the same professional LIQNET dashboard. The main benefit of this higher liquidity is that traders can enjoy a lower bid/ask spread. LEN collects and pools orders from exchange customers like you. Then, it connects those orders with orders from other platforms, creating a single depth of market panel. Orders are collected and then made available for trading to all LIQNET exchange customers.
Using the public APIs of cryptocurrency exchanges, LEN polls them for purchase and sale bids, forming a single depth of market panel for its customers and allowing traders to find the best prices at minimal spread.
You can access LIQNET through your desktop browser or a mobile app.
LIQNET Features & Benefits
LIQNET emphasizes all of the following features and benefits:
No Slippage: High liquidity allows users to reduce or fully eliminate the costs of slippage. Expenses Reduction: The higher the market liquidity is, the smaller the bid/ask spread will be, which thereby lowers the cost of trading.
Trust: LIQNET’s liquidity “reflects the presence of a mass of people whose actions are much easier to predict than the actions of a single person,” explains the official website, which means that a single entity can’t dominate the trading market. Decentralization: LIQNET claims to be built on a decentralized system because their physical hardware is located in two different data centers, including centers in France and Canada. This isn’t what we typically mean by “decentralization”, although we understand what LIQNET is getting at.
Security: LIQNET holds customers’ funds in multiple locations, including hot wallets, multi-signature wallets, and cryptocurrency exchanges. This reduces the risk of theft. Multiple Trading Options: LIQNET supports direct trading from the financial chart and scalping trades (including post limit and stop orders right from the order book). Multiple Order Types: LIQNET supports stop order trades, stop limit trades, TP & SL trades, trailing stop trades, Iceberg, IFD, OCO, IFDOCO, valid till day/time trades, AON, IOC, and FOK trades.
Financial Charts: LIQNET provides a suite of analysis tools. Users can also customize their dashboard with 100+ different trading indicators. Multiple Currency Pairs: Right now, LIQNET lists just four cryptocurrency pairs, including LTC/BTC, ETH/BTC, BCH/BTC, and PPC/BTC. However, they allow users to deposit more currencies, including bitcoin, Litecoin, USD, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, DASH, and Peercoin (PPC).
LIQNET Fees A number of cryptocurrency exchanges aggregate liquidity from across different exchanges. So what makes LIQNET special? What kind of fees can you expect to pay? Here are some of the notable fees as listed on the LIQNET fees page: Trading Fees: 0.2% taker fee, 0.1% maker fee Deposit Fees: 0 (0% deposit fees on all deposit options, including bitcoin, Litecoin, USD, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, DASH, and Peercoin). Withdrawal Fees: 0.0001 BTC, 0.01 LTC, 0.01 USD, 0.01 ETH, 0.01 BCH, 0.01 DASH, and 0.01 PPC.
The LIQNET ICO LIQNET is expecting to launch a crowdsale in May / June 2018. That crowdsale will consist of a closed pre-sale and an open ICO. Further details of the token sale have not yet been announced. LIQNET has partnered with Como Capital to launch their ICO. It’s unclear how LIQNET tokens will work. However, tokens launched by other cryptocurrency exchanges typically provide a discount on trading fees. You might only pay 0.1% or 0.5% trading fees when paying with LIQNET’s tokens, for example.Who’s Behind LIQNET? LIQNET was created by a team of finance, law, and technology professionals with a proven track record in traditional investments and forex trading.
Key members of the team include Roman Shirokov (CEO), Evgeny Tarasenko (CTO), and Vyacheslav Kasatkin.
LIQNET was incorporated in 2015. The company is registered to an address in Singapore (10 Maxwell Road, Singapore).
LIQNET Conclusion LIQNET is a cryptocurrency exchange that aggregates liquidity from a number of different exchanges across the internet. The goal is to reduce the bid/ask spread while offering users the highest liquidity across multiple order types and markets. Right now, LIQNET is in the early stages of launch. The exchange is not yet available online, although a desktop and mobile app are preparing to launch in the near future.

Bots and talk of bots is endemic within the crypto space, with behavior, good and bad, often attributed to their actions. Mt Gox famously had the Willy Bot manipulating merrily, perennial bear Bitfinexed sees bots everywhere, and crypto traders are prone to boasting about the sick returns they’ve raked in from their proprietary arb bots. There’s no doubt that bot activity is very real. But is it profitable?
Got Bots?
In the 1950s, robots were promised that would soon eliminate the daily chores of housewives across the globe. 60 years later, and their cyber counterparts – bots – are promised that will do the same for crypto traders. If the hype is to be believed, these bundles of code can deliver a passive income for even the laziest or dumbest of traders. But as almost everyone knows, the hype is never to be believed. Profiting from bots isn’t that simple or easy. There are several types of trading bots available including arbitrage (arb) bots that capitalize on the difference in prices across exchanges. The price of bitcoin usually differs from exchange to exchange; Bitstamp, for example, typically displays a slightly lower price than Bittrex. The movements of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies is always mirrored across exchanges, however, so if BTC breaks out due to a massive buy order on Binance, you can bet that the other exchanges will follow suit. Bots work by profiting from the delay it takes for prices to update across all exchanges.
How Profitable Are Bots?
To make any sort of tangible profit from bot trading, you ideally need a stack of crypto to start with. If you’re running a bitcoin arb bot, for example, you’ll need BTC deposited on multiple exchanges that are connected to your bot via API. And even if you do have a healthy spread of coins, the returns can be slight. Romano – Viacoin developer and well-known crypto trader – claims the Hass bot he uses can make “0.26 BTC ($2K) a day by using 9 BTC for example just by using market inefficiencies” before adding that he doesn’t use the market maker bot that comes with Hass and cautioning that it’s “only for skilled traders”.
Arb trading can be likened to playing online poker. If you’re good at setting up your bots, you can make a living off it, but you’ve got to grind it out. Crypto trading bots are reminiscent of those money-making Forex programs that you find “veteran traders” trying to flog. If those Forex guys are as rich and successful as they profess to be, wouldn’t they be better served keeping that esoteric knowledge to themselves rather than offloading it to the masses for $100 a month? In other words, beware of geeks bearing bots.
Examples of Trading Bots
A slew of tokenized projects has emerged that promise “algorithmically-based smarter trading delivered via AI and machine learning” or words to that effect. These systems also utilize bots, but their claims of profitability have yet to be proven. If one of these new platforms were to deliver the goods and provide consistently high returns, crypto traders would flock to it, which simply hasn’t happened.
There is no doubt that machine learning has the potential to yield more profitable trading, but there is also no doubt that a lot of the claims attributed to AI should be filed under As If.
These are the most popular crypto bots on the market (and should only be tried at your own risk):

I have been lurking for a while and am pretty impressed with the caliber of this forum, so here's my challenge: I am having a hard time seeing how any crypto currency ever overcomes exchange rate volatility. Like most of you I am very excited by the potential of a decentralized currency, but I cannot get my head around the practical conundrum.
The conundrum in a nutshell: liquid debt markets are the sine qua non of stable exchange rates, but volatile exchange rates deter borrowers and lenders from originating Bitcoin-denominated debt.
How can an entrepreneur ever build a Bitcoin-based business if no lenders will quote them an interest rate on a Bitcoin-denominated loan? As a potential investor in a Bitcoin-denominated business, what baseline return would you demand on an investment with a 1-year payback period? How about a 5-year payback period?
If you can’t hedge exposure to Bitcoin volatility then how can you even think about Bitcoin-denominated investments?
Quick primer on using debt markets to price forward currency contracts: the forward discount/premium between two currencies is driven by the ratio of interest rates on deposits, because a decoupling of interest rates and currency forwards would represent an arbitrage opportunity (with turnover of >$4 trillion per day the global foreign exchange market is mind-bogglingly liquid; it reacts swiftly to new information and obvious inefficiencies are quickly traded away).
For example, say the 1-year rates on USD and MEX deposits are 2% and 3%, respectively. If the current (spot) exchange rate is 15 MEX/USD, then the 1-year forward contract would be 15.14706 MEX/USD (15 x 1.03/1.02).
The intuition behind this is that you could simultaneously (i) borrow 1,000 USD at 2%, (ii) trade 1,000 USD for 15,000 MEX, (iii) invest the pesos at 3%, and (iv) lock in the 1-year forward rate of 15.14706 MEX/USD. After one year you would receive 15,450 MEX (15,000 x 1.03), which after settling your forward contract would yield 1,020 US (15,450 / 15.14706), which is exactly what you owe on the original loan (1,000 x 1.02). Total wash.
If the forward rate were anything other than 15.14706 you could generate arbitrage. Another example: if the 1-year rate were 15.1000 MEX/USD then by borrowing 1,000 USD at 2% and investing it as 15,000 MEX at 3% you would end up after a year with 1,023.18 USD (15,450 / 15.1000), which after paying your 1,020 USD loan leaves $3.18 of risk-free profit.
Here’s my point: deep, liquid debt markets are the ballasts of currencies. They stabilize long-term exchange rates so that borrowers and lenders are comfortable committing to long term investment vehicles. If long-term exchange rates are not stable (i.e.; tradable at stable rates) then companies are squeamish about doing business in foreign countries and trade is limited to short-term transactions. This is what we see today in the Bitcoin economy, with merchants swapping out Bitcoins for dollars immediately following their transactions.
This strikes me as a classic chicken/egg problem. For want of a ForEx market Bitcoin can’t develop a debt market, and for want of a debt market the ForEx market will never appear.
Disclaimer: I’m not an economist, but like most of you I have a strong amateur interest in economics. My ForEx background is largely academic (I structure commodity derivatives for a living). My understanding could be completely off base, and I am wide open to being shown my errors.

Universal Basic Income (UBI) is a complex topic that is triggering a lot of debate. I think that if you dissect the arguments from both sides of the UBI debate, you'll find 2 philosophical questions at the core of the debate:

• How is a human life's worth measured?

Do all human lives have equal worth?
Is an individual's worth measured in how "productive" they are in their economic system? What do they do for a living? Are they young and fit (therefore paying more in taxes and insurance than the services they receive), or are they sick and/or elderly?
Is it measured in how they treat other people? Should our society explicitly reward generosity, selflessness, and kindness?
Perhaps it is measured in how closely they follow their society's laws, or how much they break them. After all, most people think more highly of a crime-free person that someone with a felon conviction.
It could even be measured in terms of physical attractiveness, or IQ, or EQ, or any other form of evaluation.

• What is the purpose of money? (I am specifically referring to "money" in a fiat currency system.)

Money can be simplistically defined as a way to exchange goods and services, without having to barter (i.e. here's 2 sheep for some HTML websites.)
Money can also be interpreted as a way to divide up finite resources. For example, we all may want 24 karat gold jewelry, but there is a finite amount of gold buried in the ground. Additionally, it takes a lot of manpower to extract that gold from the ground. Even if a resource is renewable, extracting and/or transforming that resource probably takes a lot of work.
Money could also be thought of as an incentive for working. No work = no money, except for cases of sickness, injury, or advanced age. This viewpoint is pretty limited though, due to the existence of interest-bearing accounts, the stock market, forex, arbitrage, etc. which require very little "work" in the traditional sense to earn more money.
When you combine the answers to those two philosophical questions, you'll have an argument in the UBI debate.