Today's Video Update: March Madness may not be about basketball this year

Hello traders everywhere! Adam Hewison here, co-founder of MarketClub with your mid-day market update for Thursday, the 21st of March.

March Madness, May Really Be, March Madness
The NCAA basketball "March Madness" season starts today at noon, ET, however the March madness I am referring to has nothing to do with basketball.

The events in Cyprus and the ramifications it could have for the rest of the EU could be chaotic. Suddenly, there are no adults in the room, and once again we are seeing Russia jump into the fray with all kinds of loan deals, gas deals and donkey deals. How does all this Russian input complicate Cyprus? In my opinion, it presents a massive complication as Russia is not part of the EU and yet they are in the thick of things meddling in what is majorly an EU problem. The Russian interest is from all the money that's deposited from Russia in the banks of Cyprus. This saga has a lot more room to play out and if it is not contained, it has the potential to create a real ripple effect through Europe. Continue reading "Today's Video Update: March Madness may not be about basketball this year"

Today's Video Update: Cyprus, the mouse that roared

Hello traders everywhere! Adam Hewison here, co-founder of MarketClub with your mid-day market update for Wednesday, the 20th of March.

Cyprus, The Mouse That Roared
On Monday, I appeared on CNBC Asia's "Cash Flow" program and discussed Cyprus as being the "mouse that roared." Cyprus geographically is a very small country and represents only .5% of GDP for the EU. However, the ramifications and the notoriety of what this small island country is/was trying to do by seizing savers bank accounts is a psychological bombshell that was heard around the world, especially in Europe. That leads us to Russia, which has a great deal of its money on deposit in Cyprus. It is also rumored that some of the largest deposited funds belong to the Russian mafia. If that is the case, we would not expect to see the proposed disastrous idea of stealing savings from individuals and companies get passed. Continue reading "Today's Video Update: Cyprus, the mouse that roared"

Rob Cohen Imagines a Gold-Centric World

The Gold Report: Robert, you presented a paper at the Prospectors Developers Association of Canada conference that focused on, among other things, the uses of gold as a monetary asset. Please tell our readers about that.

Robert Cohen: Gold is quintessentially a monetary asset. Many people believe it is the most ideal monetary asset on the planet, given that the world's other monetary assets are fiat currencies that can be expanded at the whim of a government.

Every ounce of gold ever produced is still kicking around on the surface, a total of about 160,000 tons. Half of that may be in the banking system. Miners produce about 2,500 tons a year. So only a very tiny expansion of liquid gold accrues every year, especially compared to the global liquidity created by printing money. Continue reading "Rob Cohen Imagines a Gold-Centric World"

Today's Video Newsletter: The Fed meets today and tomorrow … what to expect

Hello traders everywhere! Adam Hewison here, co-founder of MarketClub with your mid-day market update for Tuesday, the 19th of March.

What Will The Fed Do?
The Fed will be meeting today and tomorrow to decide the future course of action for interest rates. I suspect the blowup in Cyprus, which could be the tip of the iceberg, will be weighing on policy makers' minds and that the Fed will hold steady. The Fed is on a tricky course to try to juice up the market and the economy with low interest rates. The strategy of keeping interest rates low and pumping money into the system to the tune of $4 billion every trading day has many detractors, who claim the cost of doing this is just too expensive and the nation cannot afford it. It would seem to this market observer that the Fed and the market are both addicted to cheap money. When interest rates begin to rise, and they will, expect to see a radical change in sentiment towards the equity markets as inflation will once again rear its value robbing head to a whole new generation of investors. Continue reading "Today's Video Newsletter: The Fed meets today and tomorrow … what to expect"

Gold Chart of The Week

Each Week Longleaftrading.com will be providing us a chart of the week as analyzed by a member of their team. We hope that you enjoy and learn from this new feature.

Weekly Gold Report (March 18th through March 22nd)

And so it begins. The first wave of profit taking came on a Sunday night thanks to reports from Cyprus that banks may begin taking money from accounts to help satisfy debt. While the final vote on its implementation has been postponed until later today, the news alone of banks seizing money from account holders at will was enough to have not only European investors concerned, the worry carried over to markets globally. Continue reading "Gold Chart of The Week"