Tag: cryptocurrency

Stay Tuned for Year-End Commentary

As Christmas and Year-End 2022 approach there is a long list of topics to consider, including:

  • How to quantify the first truly down year for the markets since 2009
  • What inflation and higher interest rates mean going forward in 2023
  • How to approach higher taxes for those still working and those receiving Social Security
  • The timeless investing paradigms that have not changed
  • How much to diversify a portfolio while still paying attention to risk and liquidity
  • How to approach Long-Term Care decisions, both present and future
  • Changes made to gifting limits for 2023 (limits increased)
  • Changes made to IRA and 401k contribution limits in 2023 (limits increased)
  • What is next for cryptocurrency trading and valuation
  • What to serve for the Holiday meal (perhaps the most urgent item on the list).

What topics might be on your mind? Stay tuned for a Year-End commentary!

Thank you for reading, enjoy last minute shopping and TGIF!

TGIF 2 Minutes – Crypto Quarterly, vol. 4

Crypto is, of course, not dead. But the world of cryptocurrency could be considered seriously injured. Here are a few stats from 2022:

  • Bitcoin, on fire in 2021, has seen its price drop over 75% from its record high. Since only May 2022, Bitcoin’s value is down by half.
  • Coinbase, the first publicly listed and largest US cryptocurrency exchange, has seen its stock drop 80% from the time of its listing.

Continue reading “TGIF 2 Minutes – Crypto Quarterly, vol. 4”

Crypto Quarterly – Vol. 3, Oct 2022

In this issue of TGIF 2 Minutes – Crypto Quarterly, a less rosy update with the bright spot being that fees to trade crypto have gone to “free” in some cases. Binance, a world leader in Bitcoin trading volume, introduced zero-fee trading back in June. (Note that as recently as July 2022, the “CEO” of Binance still says there is no headquarters for the company, as it is “decentralized”.)

Value-wise, in a year that has been unkind to stocks AND bonds, Crypto stands out as an even bigger loser relative to traditional asset classes – by over double in a number of cases. Take for example the price of Bitcoin which started the year at approximately $46,310 as measured in US Dollars. Most recent prices of Bitcoin are around $20,098, or down over 55%. Coinbase, not a cryptocurrency but a crypto trading marketplace (among other technology functions), went public in April 2021 and is down around 78% since then. Compare these crypto-related price declines to the painful year-to-date performance of -21% in the S&P 500, -29% in the Nasdaq and -21.5% in the Russell 2000 which tracks small company stocks.

Continue reading “Crypto Quarterly – Vol. 3, Oct 2022”

Reviewing Crypto Quarterly – Vol. 2

Today’s edition is a review of Crypto from early April 2022. TGIF 2 Minutes will return with new content in early July! Read on for:

  • A high-level update & follow-up on cryptocurrencies
  • Brief comments on Inflation & 1st quarter 2022

Crypto Update

Continuing with the whirlwind of interest generated by “To Crypto Or Not To Crypto” and “Crypto Superbowl” there is more to say including highlighting the recent 36% decline in Bitcoin since November 2021. There is broad evidence that high-profile, fiduciary financial advisers are hesitant – for good reason – to include cryptocurrency across the board in client portfolios. At the same time, a good number of high-profile, responsible, fiduciary financial advisers are including cryptocurrency in some – emphasis, “some” – client portfolios, depending on the client’s goals and risk tolerance.**

Continue reading “Reviewing Crypto Quarterly – Vol. 2”

Crypto Quarterly (& More) – vol. 2

Today’s TGIF 2 Minutes features:

  • A high-level update & follow-up on cryptocurrencies
  • Brief comments on Inflation & 1st quarter 2022

Crypto Update

Continuing with the whirlwind of interest generated by “To Crypto Or Not To Crypto” and “Crypto Superbowl” there is more to say including highlighting the recent 36% decline in Bitcoin since November 2021. There is broad evidence that high-profile, fiduciary financial advisers are hesitant – for good reason – to include cryptocurrency across the board in client portfolios. At the same time, a good number of high-profile, responsible, fiduciary financial advisers are including cryptocurrency in some – emphasis, “some” – client portfolios, depending on the client’s goals and risk tolerance.**

Continue reading “Crypto Quarterly (& More) – vol. 2”

Crypto Superbowl

Well, well… if the citizens of planet Earth had not heard of “crypto” and “Coinbase” yet, they got a sensory overload of these terms and concepts when they tuned in to Superbowl LVI on Sunday night. And to further confuse the crypto uninitiated, the lines seemed almost blurred between electric vehicles, crypto, outer space, and beer (beer being easiest to understand).

Dubbed the “Crypto-Bowl” prior to kickoff, all sorts of researched news sources predicted the onslaught of cryptocurrency-related Superbowl commercials. Paul Vigna* of The Wall Street Journal summarized that ads of three crypto-related companies would be prominent. All three companies are exchanges upon which cryptocurrencies can trade:

  • Coinbase
  • FTX
  • Crypto.com
Experienced cryptocurrency traders and investors will say the concept and currency are beyond infancy and now in hyper-growth, thus leading to massive skepticism amidst adoption by risk tolerant investors.

Continue reading “Crypto Superbowl”

Crypto Quarterly – Vol. 1, Jan 2022

With the whirlwind of interest generated by December’s edition of TGIF 2 Minutes covering “To Crypto Or Not To Crypto”, demand exists for at least a quarterly dedicated to the topic of cryptocurrency. For those who are already crypto experts, this volume of “Crypto Quarterly” may be elementary but a great number of experienced investors admitted limited knowledge and appreciated the information.

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Looking Ahead in 2022

One thing is certain: numerous predictions about 2020 and 2021 in categories ranging, from the emergence of a pandemic, to continuance of the pandemic, how best to cure the pandemic, to rates of inflation, supply and demand in the economy, to the ability of technology to make accurate predictions… were wrong.

Possibly the largest factor affecting the US economy today, inflation, was not even on the list of biggest risks at the 2021 World Economic Forum.* This is not to poke fun at the predictors but rather an indication of how misguided predictions about risk can be.

Numerous predictions about 2020 and 2021 were wrong.

Continue reading “Looking Ahead in 2022”

To Crypto Or Not To Crypto

It is high time to talk about cryptocurrency, otherwise known as “crypto,” but where to start? Cryptocurrency is the broad term for digital currency or digital money. Blockchain is a technology that, among other functions, enables the existence of cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin is the best-known form of digital currency, although there are now more than 8,000 different cryptocurrencies many of which have no following or do not trade.

If all of this sounds too complicated for a Friday morning, read on anyway. We are all in this together. The diagram below first appeared in a May 2019 edition of TGIF 2 Minutes to illustrate how payment methods have evolved from Cash (far-left) to newer and often more convenient forms such as credit cards (“CC” in the diagram), then PayPal and Venmo (the “P” and “V”) and now digital forms such as Bitcoin (the “B”, far-right on the diagram). The world has rapidly gone digital in hundreds of ways including social and money.

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Investing in the Next Facebook?

How many people caught the news last week that Facebook officially changed its corporate name to… Meta? And changed its stock ticker symbol to MVRS? Presumably, MVRS is short for “metaverse.” What is the metaverse and is it the next “hot” investment? (In other news, Facebook is looking to distance itself far, far away from discoveries that the company knew full well for over a decade the damage its central social media platform would inflict and has inflicted on people of all ages, especially children. But that is not the topic of today’s TGIF 2 Minutes.)

Regarding Meta, CEO Mark Zuckerberg says succinctly, “the metaverse will be the successor to the mobile internet.” Gaming and alternate reality seem to be at the forefront of the concept with bitcoin and cryptocurrency central as well. The whole thing sounds huge.

Continue reading “Investing in the Next Facebook?”