Financialmarkets
Post Silver Trade AnalysisDid the initial breakdown for this asset January 6, 2021. Price retraced as fundamentals started to align. When price came back to the same level and showed bullish confirmation on 4hr and Daily, I took the same entry with same Stop Loss and Take Profit. This was supposed to be a position trade but the rallies from the retail investors completed the trade earlier than anticipated.
DAL Short Price is in bearish structure, retraced to correct the downward pressure, and moved down. Fundamentals: The gameplan to turn the company around is to attract customers via low prices and package deals (flight + hotel + cruise lines). However, the CEO does state all of this is dependent on the vaccine rollouts. The US is behind other nations when it comes to vaccine rollouts and some states such as NY also mentioned the shortage of supplies they were encountering. Also, the CEO acknowledges the first two quarters of the year will be difficult for the company and they will control their cash burn to turn around the third quarter.
Swing Gold Short Following general LH/LL structure, Monthly --> Daily are all bearish structure. 2hr and 4hr consolidated for some time so there are large sell orders generated and can bring in volume. Huge emphasis on the fundamentals; currently, there is investor optimism sentiment regarding the vaccine production (more and more companies producing vaccines and filing for EUA - J&J - also Moderna is starting a human study for booster shot), mass vaccination, and economic recovery (Biden's $1.9T economic relief package, UK Chancellor Sunak's economic relief package talks in March, and labor markets starting to strengthen a bit as lockdowns are gradually being lifted).
15 Types of Financial Market Participants ExplainedIn this post, I’ll be going over the 15 types of financial market participants as listed above.
You want to keep your friend close, and your enemies closer. As an investor or a trader, jumping into the market without knowing what these entities are doing is like jumping into a battlefield with just a stick in your hand.
So understanding the roles of each of these entities can help you significantly later as you mature as an investor, especially if you’re a beginner.
Investment Banks
- Investment banks buy, sell, and issue stocks and bonds, lead mergers and acquisitions, conducts market research, and provide asset management services.
- They act as a bridge between people who want to invest their capital, and people who need investments.
- Investment banks can be more specifically divided into two types: bulge brackets and boutiques.
- Bulge brackets are general investment banks like Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, and Deutsche Bank.
- Boutiques are more specialized investment banks such as Lazard, Evercore, and Guggenheim.
Structure of an Investment Bank
- A general investment bank can be divided into three offices: the front, middle, and back office.
- The front office consists of four divisions: the investment banking division, sales and trading, asset management division, and research division.
- The front office refers to the divisions that directly interact with clients, and are in full charge of generating profits for the company.
- The image of investment bankers portrayed in movies generally all refer to the front office. These are the people who make six figure monthly salaries.
- The middle office is in charge of supporting the front office.
- They are responsible for risk management or capital management.
- The back office is in charge of the operations of the investment bank as a company, so it includes IT, HR, and other administrative teams.
Front Office Divisions Explained
1) Investment Banking Division (IBD)
- The investment banking division is in charge of everything that happens in the primary market.
- The primary market is where securities are created, and the secondary market is where those securities are traded.
- Normally when retail investors invest, it all happens in the secondary market.
- In the primary market, investment banks offer a variety of services including the issuance of stocks and bonds, leading an IPO, or leading an M&A.
- Teams are normally divided by sectors, but they can also be divided into specific teams depending on the deal they’re doing.
- Their day to day work involves company valuation, industry analysis, analyzing a company’s financials, preparing for presentations, and financial modelling. (When I say financial modelling, I mean that they use excel. They don’t really use extremely sophisticated statistical models in this division.)
2) Sales and Trading
- When you think of Ivy League alumni who work in finance, it usually refers to people in the investment banking division, or in sales and trading.
- But recently, this division has been dying, and is on a downtrend.
- Trading can be divided into two types: prop trading or proprietary trading, and flow trading.
- Prop trading refers to the type of trading that we know, where traders buy low, and sell high.
- Flow trading refers to order flows, where if a client makes an order the trading desk fills that order on the client’s behalf.
- In that process, they leave a small profit margin and take a certain amount of fees.
- In the past, both types of trading were extremely active.
- But with the global financial crisis in 2008, prop trading within investment banks got banned, according to the Volcker rule.
- As a result, most major banks spun off their prop trading desks, and the people who used to be prop traders in investment banks left to create their own hedge fund.
- What’s left now is flow trading, but since flow trading refers to simply filling orders on the customer’s behalf, this process has recently been automated to a huge extent, especially with the emergence of high frequency trading
- Along with this, their profit margins and commission started to decline, and the sales and trading industry as a whole is shrinking over time.
- As such, the teams left in this division are teams such as high frequency trading teams, quant teams, and OTC market traders. (OTC refers to over-the-counter, which is where customized products are bought and sold, as opposed to standardized products that we see in secondary markets.)
3) Research
- The research division is in charge of market research.
- They make analyst reports that we’re familiar with.
- But this is another division that’s dying.
- Research conducted by these institutions were actually provided to their clients as a token of gratitude for using their services, and paying commission.
- But, with brokers like WeBull and Robinhood offering zero commission, their business model deteriorated.
- Especially in Europe, laws have been set to distinguish payments for commissions and payments for research material, and people don’t really want to pay money for services like these.
- Lastly, with the development of data science, the way research is conducted has completely changed.
- It has become more technical, using machine learning techniques of pattern recognition, and it’s becoming more common on the buy side.
Mutual Funds, Hedge Funds, Proprietary Trading Firms
- In the case of mutual funds, the capital of the fund comes from people, or the general public.
- The capital for hedge funds come from accredited investors who qualify the capital requirement.
- Normally, these investors need to invest a minimum of $500,000 to $1 million.
- In the case of prop trading firms, they trade with their own money. Hence the term ‘proprietary’.
- In terms of their investments, mutual funds are mostly limited to investments in stocks and bonds.
- Hedge funds and prop trading firms don’t have any limitations or regulations in terms of the asset they want to invest in.
- Even in terms of the trading/investment strategies that are used, mutual funds strategies are quite limited and regulated heavily, as opposed to hedge funds or prop trading firms that have no restrictions in their strategies.
- The logic behind restricting strategies that mutual funds use is that mutual funds manage capital of the general public, and thus have to be more careful with how they manage their funds.
- The regulations that the government poses on mutual funds are essentially ways to protect the general public from potential losses that might incur.
- As such, even when it comes to revealing information, mutual funds need to be transparent about everything.
- In the case of hedge funds, the government acknowledges that accredited investors with $3-4 million to invest are probably aware of the potential risks, and thus is relatively less limited in having to reveal their information.
- Lastly, in the case of prop trading firms, because they’re trading with their own money, they have no obligation to reveal any of their information.
- This is why prop trading firms use exclusive trading techniques and strategies that cannot be exposed to the general public.
- Mutual funds take a 1-2% management fee, and don’t take any other incentive fees.
- Thus, they focus on gathering as many people as possible in order to capitalize on a huge management fee.
- They are also legally allowed to advertise and do sales.
- Hedge funds take 1-2% as management fees, and 15-20% in incentives. This is also known as the Two and Twenty.
- Hedge funds are also limited from advertising.
- Lastly, prop trading companies take all of the profits they generate, and thus do not need any advertising at all.
- Examples of mutual funds include Vanguard, Fidelity, and State Street.
- Famous hedge fund examples include Bridgewater Associates, Renaissance Technologies, and Elliott.
- Lastly, prop trading companies are companies like D. E. Shaw, Hudson River Trading, and DRW.
Private Equity
- Private equities are very similar to hedge funds in terms of their nature, the way they receive management fees and incentives.
- But as opposed to hedge funds that normally invest and trade in the secondary market, private equities directly invest in a company. Hence the name ‘private’ equity.
- A prime example is a leveraged buyout fund. This is when private equities acquire a huge stake within a company, increase its profitability, and sell their stake for a higher price.
- In movies, these people are portrayed as bloodless and merciless people who lay off tens of thousands of workers to cut costs of a company.
- Similarly, there are venture Capital funds that invest in early startups, and Growth Equity Funds that invest in startups at later stages.
Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs), Index Funds
- Before I explain index funds, it’s important that you understand exchange traded funds, or ETFs.
- An ETF is essentially a basket of securities that trades on an exchange like a stock.
- In mutual funds, when they have a fund that tracks an underlying index, it’s called an index fund.
- Similarly, an ETF that tracks an underlying index is an Index ETF.
- An Index ETF is essentially the same thing, but a security listed on an exchange, into smaller bits, so that individuals can buy and sell the ETF like a stock.
- For instance, for an individual to invest in all 500 companies on the S&P 500 index is extremely difficult.
- What institutions do is, they buy the shares of all 500 companies on the client’s behalf, creating a basket with all companies.
- From there, they sell the ownership of the basket to clients, which is the ETF.
- Because these companies actually own the underlying asset, they are not exposed to the risk of bankruptcy.
- This is a passive fund, in which a fund manager does not really intervene actively.
- Thus, the fund manager of an Index ETF just needs to mechanically buy and sell shares according to the index, so that the ETF can perform in correlation to the index.
- Ever since the global financial crisis in 2008, quantitative easing has pushed market indices to move upwards over time, making passive Index ETFs a very attractive option for investment.
Sovereign Wealth Funds, Pension Funds, Endowment Funds
- A sovereign wealth fund is a state-owned investment fund that invests in financial assets, and is run by the state.
- A pension fund is a fund that is set up by contributions from employers, unions, or other organizations to provide retirement benefits to its employees or members.
- Pension funds are one of the largest players in the market by size.
- They invest in stocks and bonds, but also increasingly stated exposing themselves to other asset classes.
- There are also endowment funds, which is a fund that invests with the money that was gifted to them.
- These funds are often run by universities, nonprofit organizations, and sometimes even churches.
- The funds operated by Harvard and Yale are known as Super Endowment Funds due to their fund size and impressive returns.
- A general portfolio that consists of 60% stocks and 40% bonds would give an annual return of 5.4%.
- Super Endowment Funds have managed to reach an annual return rate of 11.5% over the past 20 years.
- These funds have great network value, easy access to premium information, and expertise in alternative asset class investments.
- This means that they don’t invest in just stocks and bonds, but also real estate, private equities, emerging equities, global bonds, and natural resources.
Brokers, Dealers, Exchanges
- Brokers play the role of middlemen who connect buyers and sellers within a market, and profit from commissions.
- Exchanges play the same role within the cryptocurrency market.
- Dealers play the role of market makers for customized financial products that are traded in the OTC markets.
- Essentially, they take the opposite position of the person trying to trade.
- Dealers mostly do business with institutional investors, because individual investors normally don’t trade customized financial products.
- As a rule of thumb, when someone says dealers, think of investment bankers who trade interest rate swaps, bonds, or CBS over the counter.
Insurance Companies
- Moving onto insurance companies; they receive premiums from their clients, and while their role is to pay their clients back in case of an accident, during day to day operations, they also participate in the financial markets with the capital they have.
- However, compared to the size of their fund, they play a relatively less significant role in the market.
Federal Reserve Board
- The Federal Reserve Board, or Fed, consists of 12 regional federal banks.
- They control the national monetary policy, supervise and regulate banks, and maintain financial stability.
- There’s a colloquial term that ‘the Fed prints money’, but this is not to be taken literally.
- One of the ways in which they control money supply is by buying or selling bonds in the open market, also called the open market operations.
- One of the reasons that all asset markets have been so bullish ever since the market drop in March is because the Fed has increased money supply at an unprecedented rate, thereby inflating asset prices.
Limited Liability Companies
- Limited liability companies are also players within the financial markets.
- They initiate share buybacks, give out dividends to shareholders, and insider transactions take place as well, which is actually highly illegal.
- Insider transaction refers to an insider of the company trading the company’s shares based on information asymmetry.
- For instance, if an executive at Pfizer bought the company’s shares before the vaccine announcement, knowing that the vaccine was ready, that would be considered insider trading, and he’d do jail time for it.
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
- The Securities and Exchange Commission is in charge of imposing federal securities laws and regulating the stock and options exchange.
- In the example suggested previously of an executive from Pfizer, the SEC would be the entity to investigate the case.
Retail Investors, Accredited Investors
- Retail investors refer to the general public that take part in the financial market.
- These are the people who work 9-5 jobs, and invest in stocks over the long run, or sometimes they’re full time traders and investors.
- Accredited investors are similar to retail investors in that they are an individual, but they’re different from other retail investors in the sense that they’re acknowledged by the SEC.
- Essentially, the government understands that an accredited investor has more knowledge and capital, and is capable of bearing more risk compared to the average retail investor.
- Thus, they get more opportunities to participate in the financial market that normal retail investors don’t.
- For instance, they can buy private companies that aren’t listed on the secondary markets, and they can invest their capital in hedge funds.
- To become an accredited investor in the US, your net worth must exceed $1 million, not including primary residence, or your annual income must exceed $200,000 for the past 2 years, or $300,000 in annual income with your spouse for the past 2 years.
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GBPUSD H4 - Long Trade SetupGBPUSD H4 - Rejected 1.35 as expected yesterday, hopefully we pull down enough to hit 1.34 support, find support and then we can look to scout out rejections and potential bid opportunity, NFP and USD data later, so this may completely thrown things all of the place, once the dust settles we can see where we are and re-evaluate.
Bullflag on the Daily for Silver ?Not having a bias on silver at the moment but, Considering the price rise of 162% in 140 Days from the lows in March was quite a large move for Silver, When looking at past prices it took 819 days to reach the $30 mark.
But overall I think a pullback to the 61.8 fib level of $18 would be a healthy correction before we start moving up.
That gives us time to buy in for the long run :)
AUDCAD H4 - Long Trade SetupAUDCAD H4 - I've marked on the bullish structure here because of the support significance, I think we should see a bullish reaction before breaking the neckline and potentially filling the double bottom, big fan of buying from support more so than selling from resistance, so usually catch an eye for these setups more than short setups. Just need to be patient for price to reach support and see what factors could influence (data/headlines/etc).
Usd/cad nice short sell!!! setupHello Guys, This is a quick break down of the pair and my perspective on the market, let me know in the comment section below if you have any questions, what you would like to learn from me, or anything of value that you wanna share,All entry will be based on multiple confirmation as stated on the videos, I suggest you keep this pair on your watchlist & use proper risk management.
USDWTI H4 - Long Trade SetupUSDWTI H4 - Plenty of time left on the H4, still an hour to go, but a break would be nice, we have been ranging far too long on WTI and some other pairs. Sideways markets are horrible. A break of $41.00, retest and then break of $41.50 should clear some space. Wishful thinking though, given the fact we have been moving sideways for over 5 weeks
NZDCAD H4 - Long SetupNZDCAD H4 - Pushing resistance, now, looking to see a rejection and selloff back downside. This has always been a better setup to buy from support, rather than to sell from resistance. Purely because it's bullish consolidation and the wick zone is clearer from support than resistance.
USDWTI H1 - Long Trade SetupUSDWTI H1 - Ultimately long bias on WTI for obviously and explained reasons over the last few weeks. Pulling back to this trendline support so we could see a bounce here to break the higher timeframe resistance. More noteable support zone at 31.30, so in the case we pullback this far, it could be wise to load up on positions.
DOWJONES LONGThe Three Pronged Approach to Kick-Start The Ecomomy
Welp... I called the dump.... which isnt hard when everyone else was saying it... and now I wanna call the DOWS Legendary pump I expect to happen tomorrow. This may be a V recovery... of course we have the check market structure for weakening at key resistance levels.. and to be honest the monthly chart looks terrifying but the talking heads on TV are doing a good job of blowing hot air into the asshole of this market. The crazy part is that I have my reservations about this Coronavirus scare, but we have to only think of the possible outcomes that come from it instead of its cause or legitimacy.
Firstly... What can we expect moving forward... Printing... LOTS of it. Im not going to go into that and beat that dead horse but I have to say. The last time we had a bail out this big it took 26 months to print the amount we just did OVER THE WEEKEND... Can anyone else hear a MASSIVE sucking sound coming out of the financial markets?
Second.. we need to look at what else they intend to do financially.. They are not only considering bailing out Wall Street again. They are also going to be bailing out the people which is going to be an insane amount of money if they wish to do so with almost every adult in the USA for the next 6-8 months. Its almost as though they are trying to get everyone whipped up into a frenzy to justify universal basic income... I believe this is going to also create consumption right as companies were supposed to seize up.
I also expect there to be some pretty draconian laws that will be reminiscent of the "Patriot Act" after 911. As the old saying goes; problem, reaction, solution..
What did this virus cause? just a jump start the economy with windfall profits from panic buying at stores right when they need it most... The Markets were and still are already over extended. This is going to create a large number of people to eye ball the situation right when the Fed is preparing to bail out mission critical companies... Remember... Right now it is IMPORTANT for them to show cash flow on their balance sheets and look strong when others are weak. Amazon and Kroger have gone on a hiring spree in order to create the illusion of healthy growth when its only induced by the stimulus as well as the Corona shopping spree... victory short lived in my opinion but they NEED to regain the markets confidence. After this weekend the Fed is out of bullets and I dont think they are pulling any stops on this one.
Finally lets talk what is likely to happen from here.. For starters there is going to be a MASSIVE jump in price action across the board. Its going to cause the Mainstream media to chew it up and mouth feed it to the 2 boomer viewers they have left and not to mention those damn hospitals, airports and Government Institutions that give them their false legitimacy. This is going to create a sense of normalcy in comparison to what we have been experiencing since the start of it all. When stocks pump HARD tomorrow people arent going to believe it.. Expect a 15-20% pop tomorrow in price action across the board... Im also talking about crypo of course...
So I bet this is the part where everyone lives happily ever after right? Wrong! For starters this isnt going to be a recovery like last time... This is going to be either a dead cat bounce or they plan on completely trashing the dollar all together which makes companies and by extension, their stocks skyrocket in value. Everything will skyrocket. Stocks, crypto, gold and silver... even food, fuel and water. No will will see this coming. Next they will ban cash stating that the virus is carried through paper money.. Thus forcing us to use the very banks that took their interest rates down to zero. Expect them to nickle and dime you trying to recover the profits from the negative rates I expect to start soon.. Oh yeah, and I forgot to mention... You know how you cant take out your money out of the banks because muh virus? welp... the banks will start charging you a negative interest rate on your deposits and your money will become worthless faster than you can get rid of it. They are also going to have a monopoly on monetary transactions for the most part.
From the ashes I believe that another solution will be offered... The IMFs SDR or SDX in tandem with XRP... yes I said it... XRP is going be the mechanism for global payment remittances between banks across the globe replacing the dollar. Bold claim I know.. But you cant ignore what Brad Garlinghouse has been doing lately. All is not lost though my friends. There will be a two tiered system.. The first will be their solution system.. The other will be crypto which I expect to be massively volatile and mostly a vehicle for speculation in the future and a store of value in BTCs case. Of course there are others that will emerge from the ashes and far too many for me to list here, but there will be good times ahead of those that paid heed to this warning... Its time to buy... its been time to buy crypt for a long time and now its time to BUY STOCKS NOW!!!!
God Speed Gents,
Mr. Lucifer