Saturday, September 9, 2017

EXPOSED: Fake Manufactured Weather causes Real Damage and shakes up markets

(GLOBALINTELHUB.COM) — 9/9/2017 As Hurricane Irma approaches US borders, investors should note the forces of the ‘invisible hand’ in nature and not only in markets.  As we explain in our groundbreaking work Splitting Pennies, the financial markets are not ‘as seen on TV’ and in fact, are the subject of constant manipulation, and this storm is no exception.
Weather Modification technology is simple and has been around for a long time, starting with the use of dry ice, evolving to use of ‘supersonic booms’ and finally aerosols.  The Pentagon has technologies that are far, far, far more advanced than weather modification.   See an extensive list of weather modification patents here.
The amount of evidence is overwhelming (of course they do not broadcast this on TV, but they have a profit motive, we’ll get to that) and some groups such as geoengineeringwatch.org have toiled to create a resource, summarized by this video here:
forex
Hurricane Harvey brought an abrupt and catastrophic end to the 12 year long major hurricane landfall drought in the US. Were climate engineering programs a factor in the Harvey disaster scenario? Available data has already made clear the answer is yes. How much decimation will the manipulation of Hurricane Irma inflict? The US government has been actively engaged in hurricane modification programs for a minimum of 70 years, historical documents prove this fact conclusively. Yet, the power structure controlled circles of academia (and corporate media) continue to fuel total denial of the climate engineering hurricane modification reality, this should not be a surprise. How much decimation have global geoengineering / weather warfare programs already caused? What are the primary objectives and agendas? How much worse will it get? The short video below provides verifiable data to confirm that climate engineering is a reality, and exposes some of the primary objectives.

Exposing and halting the ongoing climate engineering / weather warfare / biological warfare assault is the great imperative of our time. The best chance we have of accomplishing this monumental task is by raising an army of the awakened, by reaching a critical mass. 
Is it really so hard to believe, that the military has the power to control hurricanes?  Anyone who is either in the military or who ‘does business’ with the military knows this and that compared to some of the other fun toys the military has controlling the weather is easy.  Much of the known info about weather modification comes from HAARP but HAARP has closed what they have now is far more powerful:
Environmental modification techniques have been applied by the US military for more than half a century. US mathematician John von Neumann, in liaison with the US Department of Defense, started his research on weather modification in the late 1940s at the height of the Cold War and foresaw ‘forms of climatic warfare as yet unimagined’. During the Vietnam war, cloud-seeding techniques were used, starting in 1967 under Project Popeye, the objective of which was to prolong the monsoon season and block enemy supply routes along the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
The US military has developed advanced capabilities that enable it selectively to alter weather patterns. The technology, which is being perfected under the High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP), is an appendage of the Strategic Defense Initiative – ‘Star Wars’. From a military standpoint, HAARP is a weapon of mass destruction, operating from the outer atmosphere and capable of destabilising agricultural and ecological systems around the world.
The technology clearly exists, but as it is ‘classified’ having any smoking gun evidence without a Snowden whistleblower is impossible; it’s a paradox, as evidence by CIA’s FOIA request if they are investigating us:
This really is an intelligence agency, their logic is impeccable.  They cannot confirm or deny if information does or does not exist.  So let’s go with what we know.
NOAA is the official US Government agency that monitors the weather, and provides official information at nhc.noaa.gov – anyone from Florida knows this URL and has gone through the agonizing wait for the next update which can mean a big change of plans.
Like most of the US Government, it’s actually not ‘NOAA’ that provides us this valuable data it’s Raytheon, black ops corporate master – the largest defense contractor in the world, with 60,000 + employees and a market cap of 50 Billion.  See their product info here, and their interesting note in bold: 
Owned and operated by NOAA, JPSS is an “end-to-end” system that includes sensors; spacecraft; command, control and communications; data routing; ground based processing and dissemination of weather data to users around the globe, such as NOAA’s National Weather Service and the National Hurricane Center. The data provided by Suomi NPP and the JPSS satellites contribute to NASA’s study of earth climate trends.
JPSS polar orbiters carry a complement of advanced imaging and sounding sensors, which increase NOAA and DoD capabilities to monitor the entire planet and produce weather and climate predictions at a much higher fidelity and frequency. These advanced capabilities enable NOAA to better fulfill its mission to protect lives and property by increasing the timeliness and accuracy of public warnings and forecasts of weather and climate events.

JPSS CGS DELIVERS CRUCIAL DATA FOR NATIONAL WEATHER FORECASTS

Raytheon brings more than four decades of high-availability, reliable, precision-based, command-and-control systems experience to Suomi NPP and future JPSS missions. Suomi NPP is the bridge between existing polar-orbiting satellites and the launch of JPSS-1, scheduled for 2017. Providing critical data for Earth observation, Suomi NPP data is used to generate environmental data products, such as measurements of clouds, vegetation, ocean color and land and sea surface temperatures — all significant inputs to improve weather forecasting capabilities.

VALUE TO THE PUBLIC

While Suomi NPP and JPSS will not prevent severe weather events such as hurricanes, tornadoes or blizzards from occurring, Raytheon’s advanced technologies enable meteorologists and forecasters to make more timely and accurate weather predictions that support NOAA’s “Weather Ready Nation” campaign and help save lives, protect property and decrease the devastating economic impacts caused by severe weather.
Raytheon’s proven radars and sensors work together to help experts see further, track longer and prepare smarter.
Our Air and Missile Defense Radar stacks together like building blocks to increase detection ranges and accuracy on naval destroyers. Our VIIRS sensor — famously known for its ”Blue Marble” photo of Earth — orbits the planet to provide meteorologists with unparalleled environmental data. And our Multi-Spectral Targeting System combines lasers with infrared sensors to enable pinpoint military operations.
Raytheon Company is a technology company, which specializes in defense and other government markets. The Company develops integrated products, services and solutions in various markets, including sensing; effects; command, control, communications, computers, cyber and intelligence; mission support, and cybersecurity. The Company operates through five segments: Integrated Defense Systems (IDS); Intelligence, Information and Services (IIS); Missile Systems (MS); Space and Airborne Systems (SAS), and Forcepoint. The IDS segment develops and produces sensors and mission systems. The IIS segment provides a range of technical and professional services to intelligence, defense, federal and commercial customers. The MS segment is a developer, integrator and producer of missile and combat systems. The SAS segment is engaged in the design, development and manufacture of integrated sensor and communication systems for missions. The Forcepoint segment develops cybersecurity products.
Interestingly, a small uptick on Irma.  For the uninformed, a hurricane is a military operation however you look at it, in the aftermath when there’s no power, only the military (and in partnership with FEMA) has the logistic resources to swoop in and restore order.  During Hurricane Andrew strange rumors persisted about the quarantine and control of information that the Army imposed around the devastated areas.  This is a great resource with photographic evidence, and they suggested that even it may have contributed to George Bush losing the election later that year.  The government seemed helpless to do anything to battered Miami.  And it was after Andrew that Hurricane manipulation efforts went into overdrive.
So why now, after so long with no major hit to Florida?  Are they gunning for Trump?  Or Trump ordered it, to distract the population from what’s really going on and as a means of control?  (Remember that the one strong power Trump has is leader of the Military, the US President has almost no political power).  We’ll never know.. but let’s look at the big picture.
After World War 2 the US “Military Industrial Complex” or “Iron Triangle” (Government, Defense Contractors, Wall St.) hasn’t really had an enemy.  Hitler and Japan were real enemies, although funded and allowed to grow by US companies, the fact remains that if Hitler wasn’t stopped we’d all be speaking German and eating poor tasting frankfurters and drinking beer.  WW2 was the peak of show of industrial power and how factories could make bombs that would destroy infrastructure.  The “Marshall Plan” and other post WW2 economic plans led the intellectual Elite (who were hired by the now rich military contractors) to create several doctrines that would keep them in business with or without an enemy (with all the happiness of the 50’s they probably thought – what if there is no more Hitler?  How will we make money?  War is good for business… ) hence we have the Report from Iron Mountain MUST READ BOOK  – to explain plainly, companies like RAND corporation have created enemies most notably “Russia” and most recently “Terrorists” but their plan is so deep, they are not to rely on a single artificial enemy, so they resort to the most basic Earth element, the weather.  What does this mean?  A group of scientists hired by these corporations post WW2 (you can call them pseudo economists) created studies and reports showing that investing $1 in the Military equalled $2 in economic output.  This is the most ridiculous and twisted thinking, based on this logic if we firebomb Los Angeles we’ll be the richest economy in the world.  But remember, twisted or not – this is their doctrine.  A great example of this in practice was during the Ford days when the CIA was tasked with the job of collecting intelligence on Russia – did they pose a security threat to the United States?  The CIA found no evidence of any capability sufficient of posing even a limited threat, nor any motive or evidence of irrational intent to attack the US or any other country (and Russia has a history of never invading any country- only defending themselves).  This report was released and Donald Rumsfeld famously retorted that “Just because the CIA didn’t find any weapons doesn’t mean that they don’t exist” – Rumsfeld went on to make a fortune consulting for defense contractors.  During this period one General really believed the Russians were hiding a missile base on the dark side of the moon.  The US Military is big business, and business is good.  But threats change and the battlefield changes.  Contractors, planners, developers, and many others will make a fortune rebuilding South Florida.  And it’s a lot closer than Iraq.  And heck, is it really so bad?  Raytheon (RTN) employs 60,000 people and the US Government itself is the largest employer in the world.  People need to put food on their families (-George W Bush).

There’s a number of reasons humans would want to control the weather:
  • To make it rain
  • For military purposes
  • Pollution control
  • Terraforming (For example what they are doing in UAE)
So what are the ‘known’ applications of weather modification?  Cloud Seeding, and Terraforming in UAE:
Cloud seeding is the opposite of cloud busting. For one thing, it’s a real thing. The process has been replicated numerous times both in the lab and in the field and is backed up by years of peer-reviewed scientific research. For another, it impregnates clouds to instigate the precipitation process rather than magically gathering them using dark energies.  Cloud seeding is currently used all over the world—including throughout the United States, China (where it is used to clear smog in Beijing), India, and Russia—to enhance precipitation, both rain and snow, while inhibiting hail and fog. And it actually works.

The UAE’s Ionizers: Tearing the Sky a New One

The United Arab Emirates is a land rich in wealth but poor in precipitation. That’s why president Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan has had the nation’s top scientific minds secretly toiling for years to create a new means of weather manipulation that would work more effectively in the region’s extreme temperatures. The result: The biggest Ionic Breeze on Earth.
Ionic Breeze devices are giant ionizers mounted atop tall steel poles and were built by the Swiss company, Metro Systems International. The devices generate massive ionic fields, positively charged ions ground back to the Earth while the negatively charged ions rise into the atmosphere. As they rise, the negative ions (electrons) collect particles of dust on the way up. These flecks act as seeds for ice crystal formation, much as silver iodide does except without the need for clouds. As long as the atmospheric humidity is at least 30 percent, the system supposedly works even in clear skies.
In the summer of 2010, 100 such emitters were spread over five sites in the Al Ain region. During July and August alone, when the area typically receives zero rainfall, it reportedly rained on 52 separate occasions, often with gusting winds and sometimes hail. The Max Planck Institute for Meteorology monitored the project and backed the study’s findings. This could be huge for the Middle East, where water is often in short supply and desalinization plants are nine-figure investments (and another eight-figures a year to run). The ionizers reportedly only cost $10.5 million to build and $8.9 million a year to operate.
$10 Million to make it rain, literally.  So what does a multi-billion dollar black budget get us in USA?  Think about the positive economic impact of Hurricanes for a moment, such as the obvious Billions in rebuilding and reconstruction projects.  But there’s also a political benefit and military benefit, the military can test their logistics and new non-lethal crowd control weapons, as well as the general population control (those evacuating south Florida are not likely to participate in right wing anti-government protests, for example).  Confuse, obfuscate, and conquer has been the mantra of the world’s leading Elite for centuries “Divide and Conquer” – and there’s no better Fog of War than a Hurricane most intelligently because 90% of the population will not believe that it’s controlled.  It’s pure genius.
There’s not any proof that this is manufactured or controlled, but like many things with the government – if they have spent millions developing weather modification technology including Hurricane manipulation technology (both to create Hurricanes and divert Hurricanes or weaken them) – what are they doing with it if not using it?  Clearly, there have been strange phenomenon at play in the region over the past 20 years that are not explainable as ‘Global Warming’ – which would mean more frequent stronger storms, not a 20 year + lull.
Traders from FL enjoyed the free money Lowes and Nov FCOJ pop that always comes with a slight delay after the announcement that a storm is headed for central FL where the majority of Orange Juice is grown.  But this is really a perception trade, as OJ is grown in many places around the world and the increase in Lowes purchases are not really relevant.  Also note that unlike other disasters, there are usually few human casualties in Hurricanes.  Remember even during Katrina, it was only the people who refused to evacuate that were trapped on rooftops, and even they were mostly saved.  It’s not as if the Military is ‘killing’ people – although that IS what they do during WAR (including US Citizens, not only the enemy).
What is the conclusion of this information, simply that:
  • The weather is controlled, USG owns the tech for years, this is likely organized by Raytheon (RTN) although there’s no public information to prove this (it’s classified)
  • There can be political motivations for storms, for hitting or not hitting populated rich areas like Miami or Tampa.  There is a clear economic and military benefit to such operations as PsyOps and as logistic tests of population control, i.e. FEMA camps and other new systems to be tested
Finally, there’s an elephant in the room – the bubble of bubbles.. South FL real estate.  There’s literally groups of investors waiting for the big crash to come, but no one is buying – there isn’t panic selling yet, but there is a glut of Miami real estate.  Investors are so called ‘hot money’ from foreigners who have never been to Miami but think it’s a good solid investment because real estate ‘always goes up’ – but the city of Miami is spending $500 Million to build levees and dams Dutch style around low lying areas.
After this event no matter how small the damage, it will do much bigger damage to the perception of FL real estate.  Many investors will now think twice about FL as the golden ticket to USA investing success.  FL residents damaged by the storm, many of them will take their checks and move to higher, more defensible ground.  Suddenly, with one storm, the argument of Preppers in the Cumberland Plateau all makes sense.  Real Estate in the mountains just doubled in value.
All the development in South FL is based on one axiom – no Hurricanes.  The same could be said about Los Angeles and Earthquakes.  But there are thousands of places in USA with reasonable property values that have no natural disasters, but they aren’t good ‘locations’ in ‘trendy’ places.  Of course if you work online or from home then it doesn’t matter where you live, so it would be logical to choose such a place vs. the over inflated FL which is a disaster zone.  Although New York City is also on the ocean, NYC is mostly built on bedrock and has elevations as high as 33 feet, comparing with Miami’s 6 feet, that’s a big difference.  FL is a big swamp mostly that was turned upside down by developers.  Unlike cities that formed by natural geo-politics and economics, Miami and most of FL is an artificial construct like Las Vegas.  The point is that it was poor investment decisions leading to a mass of capital flooding the development of FL but this will stop likely or slow down to a trickle after this storm.  A giant wall could be erected around the state but at what cost?  All of these hidden costs and risks are now exposed as realities, and we will see how the re-insurers handle failing insurers already suffering from Harvey.
The positive effect on the markets is that these storms will likely pop the first and possibly the biggest real estate bubble which is the most frothy, south FL.  That’s because unlike other markets, FL doesn’t have such a robust ‘natural’ industry, as for example seen in Chicago or San Francisco.  In fact real estate is an industry in itself in FL and something like 60% of home ownership is by vacationers.  Money will flow elsewhere, into other projects, and investors will think different.
The reason is simple – it’s one thing to ‘tell’ someone that the market is going to crash, or Miami is sinking into the sea, but having a devastating event happen, going through the process whatever your involvement in FL (As Jimmy Buffett says, everyone has a cousin in Miami).. this event will change your thinking about FL investing and doing business.  Miami was a happy sleepy beach town before this boom, alligators and old folks and flamingoes.
Markets are manipulated, storms are too.  So what?  We live in a fake world with fake people who stare into a Fake book.  If you’ve read through this article you should congratulate yourself and take pride in knowing you are part of the real one percent, the one percent that understands how the world really works; the real global elite – the emergent intelligentcia.
If you want a deeper understanding how this can impact your investing, checkout Splitting Pennies and learn how basically everything is manipulated for profit, as a business.  If in Shakespeare’s time ‘the world is a stage’ – now the world is a ‘platform’ to launch new products.  Welcome to the real New World Order.

REFERENCE ARTICLES

Friday, September 1, 2017

Why it’s nearly impossible to trade Currencies with success

(Elite E Services) — 9/1/2017 — As we have explained in our book Splitting Pennies – trading FX is nearly impossible; or at least, it may be possible for some time, but in the long run, it’s a near certainty that without the use of professional algorithmic trading systems you will blow up your account.  That’s because of the dynamics of how FX works vs. other markets.  In traditional markets, there is a bias towards positive movement; all CEOs of public companies want their stock to go higher.  Bull traders, 401k investors, pension funds – basically everyone wants the stock market to go up.  The short sellers aren’t ‘pessimists’ so much as ‘realists’ that over-inflated P/E ratios are a sign for a crash from unrealistic levels.  This is NOT the case in FX.  Currency markets have opposing forces like ‘gravity’ and ‘anti-gravity’ – every country wants both a strong currency and a weak currency.  This may seem illogical, welcome to the world of Currency!  The reason is simple – exporters want a cheap currency and importers want a strong currency.  Politicians usually favor a weak currency because it’s good domestically and big business favors a strong currency (at least in the USA) because USA is a net importer.  Let’s have a look at today’s USD action most noticed in EUR/USD:
EURUSD
On the surface this looks like a great trading opportunity – but is it?  EUR went up on poor US Payroll data; and then fell on dovish jawboning from the ECB.  Planned conspiracy to manipulate FX or just random brownian movement?  Believe what fits into your mind that helps you sleep at night, either way – would you have been able to buy EUR at 1.1924, sell near the high at 1.1980 and then reverse, covering near 1.19 handle?  All within 10 minutes?  Maybe someone did it, even if by accident, but the point is that any trading plan or investment strategy shouldn’t rely on the ability of such skills because even if as a trader you were able to achieve this great feat – would it be able to repeat it, day in and day out – for years?  Probably not.
Enter more paradox such as “Triffin Dilemma”:
The Triffin dilemma or Triffin paradox is the conflict of economic interests that arises between short-term domestic and long-term international objectives for countries whose currencies serve as global reserve currencies. This dilemma was first identified in a 1929 book, Gold and Central Banks, by Polish economist Feliks MÅ‚ynarski,[1] who identified a fundamental instability in a gold-based international monetary system, that the reserve currency countries would tend to accumulate foreign reserves, but as the volume of these grew relative to the country’s gold reserves, international investors would begin to fear suspension of convertibility; later in the 1960s, it was rediscovered in the context of the Bretton Woods system by BelgianAmerican economist Robert Triffin, who pointed out that the country whose currency, being the global reserve currency, foreign nations wish to hold, must be willing to supply the world with an extra supply of its currency to fulfill world demand for these foreign exchange reserves, thus leading to a trade deficit. Due to MÅ‚ynarski’s precedence in articulating the problem, Barry Eichengreen has suggested renaming the problem to “the MÅ‚ynarski dilemma“.[1]
This is not only true for a reserve currency – any currency has a conflict between short term and long term interests.  For example, if a currency is weaker it can help exporters in the short term to boost sales, but hurt the same exporters in the medium term when they need to go out into the world and buy raw materials for higher prices.  This push and pull is what defines modern Forex on a systemic level.  While average investors certainly don’t need to know this unless you’re planning on getting a job with a central bank, it can help any investor understand how and why Currency markets fluctuate the way they do.  It should also be noted that these forces maintain ‘bounds’ naturally, establishing a sort of ‘high’ and ‘low’ limit for any FX pair.  For example the EUR/USD now trading around 1.19, it can go in next days to 1.20 or 1.21 but not 1.90, for example.  Even in rare cases such as the “Brexit” the GBP/USD went down by less than 10% – which is a lot, for a major Currency.  So let it be known to all that these risks in FX are investable (with the help of algorithms) and hedgeable.  Looking from a risk management perspective, it is a lot more manageable than securities, commodities, or bonds – which have the finality of the ‘ulimate’ risk (default) – as Currency is ‘money’ the Euro can’t ‘default’.
A final note to all you Bitcoiners – Bitcoin is a Currency it’s only a matter of time before it’s integrated into the Forex system, because BTC/USD is an FX pair.  Good time to brush up on your FX and understand the broader market (not just the microcosm of Cryptocurrencies).
Today’s move is a blip on the radar, a non-event for hedgers – and a potential huge trading opportunity for algos.  Game on!

Monday, August 21, 2017

Splitting Pennies a great way to learn about money

Are you confused or curious about the markets, money, or finance?  Splitting Pennies is a great start, because it's not a technical 'how to trade' or 'how to invest' book.  Yes, it gets a little technical - but it's done so in a way that is fun and entertaining.  See what these happy readers have to say, from Amazon:

I recommend this book to anyone interested in how the world of money really works
This should be the first book anybody reads before beginning forex trading. Joe is not selling a "get rich quick" trading strategy or some such nonsense, but provides a thorough, non-biased explanation of how both forex and the financial system in general operate. Anybody thinking about beginning forex trading should read this book first before ever opening a MT4 terminal, a few bucks spent up front will save you a lot of money in the long run. 
See more reviews and buy the book directly from Amazon (Paperback, Hardcover, or Kindle) by clicking here.


For more info, visit www.splittingpennies.com 

Saturday, August 12, 2017

How the big banks are banking off FX stupidity

We all know that the majority of people don’t know FX (Foreign Exchange) so this topic should come as no surprise.  However, it’s important for traders and investors to understand how the US banks are ripping off their clients, and the only reason they do it is because clients allow them, because they don’t understand how they’re being scammed.  What we are talking about is the retail deliverable foreign exchange market.  Deliverable currencies is FX that is ‘deliverable’ to a foreign recipient, for example if you want to pay up front for a hotel in France you’ve booked in advance for your summer vacation.  It’s not only retail but for the example here it is – someone walking into a branch and asking to make a foreign payment.  We’ll use Bank of America as the example, let’s look at their FX rates from their website, available here:  https://www.bankofamerica.com/foreign-exchange/exchange-rates.go
So here’s the first line of defense to this scam, which it can be fairly called (we will explain).  Only one side of the spread is displayed – this will depend when you are ‘buying’ or ‘selling’ but they will NEVER be displayed on the same time or on the same screen (then, normally intelligent people may be able to deduce they were being fleeced like a sheep).  Let’s calculate the total spread based on the above rates using simple FX math for the 2 currencies chosen for this example, Euro and Yen.
FX is quoted EUR/USD that means 1 EUR = 1.1820 USD – the spot FX spread is about 1.1820 / 1.1822 according to LCG Brokers from Fortress Capital; but the market is closed now (it’s Saturday, day of rest in FX).  Now if we want to calculate the inverse price, for EUR/USD using Bank of America’s tool, we need to use the 1/x (reciprocal) function seen on most common calculators.  So if EUR/USD is 1.12 the inverse (reciprocal) is .89.  If we use the same ‘spread’ to convert 1 USD = x Euro then we subtract 1.1820 – 1.12 = .062 or 620 pips.  .062 doesn’t sound like much of a spread, but if you look in % terms it’s 5.54% of the price.  If we add the same amount of pips (or percent, however you calculate) to the other side of the spread, it would be 1.244 – for a total spread of 1240 pips.  Common spot trading spreads can run as high as 2 or 3 pips for the real shady FX brokers from Asia or aggressive IBs.  1240 pip spread is laughable.  Now of course these customers are PAYING in foreign currency not TRADING foreign currency it would be impossible to trade over 1240 pip spreads – but this is the reality for these poor retail victims.  1240 pips is substantial if you’re sending more than $50 – so now let’s look at the shocking examples.  At these prices, if you sent 100,000 to Europe, that would be about $5,540 in spread.  Where does this $5k magically disappear to?  The markets?  No – it is booked as a profit on the bank’s balance sheet.  Recently we (Elite E Services, Inc.) sent a wire payment like this for $5,000 and the banker had the audacity to say that if Bank A (not Bank of America, we won’t reveal the name) did the FX conversion we’d save $10 on the wire payment fee!  We calculated that would have been $350 in payment to Bank A to save $10.
Now the critical thing for US readers to understand, this is a uniquely American practice which happens only inside the borders of USA.  If you are in virtually any other country, whether it be UK, New Zealand, Japan, Australia, Switzerland – you’re going to get rates on such transfers which are HIGH but probably something like 50 pips maybe 100 pips in extreme cases.  If you do transfers more than 100,000 that can go down to as low as 25 pips.  So how can the banks get away with it in USA?  They are simply taxing people’s stupidity, because there are alternatives.  Companies like Fortress Capital offer deliverable payment services by using payment processors like Commonwealth Foreign Exchange to get the same foreign rates and save customers up to 90% on transfers.  But they require an application and would not open an account for a single individual customer (it’s mostly for corporates who do regular transfers).  Then of course there’s Currencies Direct who has offices in USA, and a number of other companies.
But the fact is that the banks have people by the short and curlies, there are not really many or any choices when you need to do a single transfer – and banks are making a small fortune from this.  Could this be considered a Monopoly?  Anti-trust issues?
They settled huge claims and have since reduced the spread (whereas now it’s 5.5% it used to be 7% – 8% !!) and companies like American Express (AMEX) no longer charge a ‘foreign exchange fee’ – that’s right, on top of this horrendous spread many providers used to charge a 1% or 2% ‘fee’ on top of this!  Outrageous!
The sad thing is that most in the retail market, even small retail customers with little or no investment accounts understand stock trading.  Forex is not so complex as it is sometimes presented by the banks – I’m sure they do this intentionally, they aren’t stupid.. This profit center is good for them and costs them nothing, it’s a risk-less profit that no one can complain about because ‘hey, it’s Forex.’
This is not the ONLY way the big banks are banking off people’s FX stupidity, but it’s the most petty way, and the most widespread.  Millions and millions of dollars of such transactions take place on a daily basis and the banks are happy to keep things like this.

Tuesday, August 8, 2017

Alpha Z Advisors Offers An Alternative To Options Investing

(GLOBALINTELHUB.COM) -- Dover, DE 8/8/2017 -- Global Intel Hub exclusive interview -- Elite E Services sat down with Mike Connor, Principal and Senior AP of Alpha Z Advisors, LLC – a trading advisor offering alternative investments based on strategies incorporating research on price anomalies, behavioral biases and institutional practices. In November of last year, Alpha Z Advisors LLC was ranked #1 Options Strategies Category by Barclay Hedge, a service that tracks funds’ strategies. So we wanted to learn more about on the Alpha Z Advisors strategy, as we have always supported options as a great way to not only hedge investments but also provide additional alpha to any portfolio. Also, futures options are generally traded on regulated exchanges – unlike FX which are mostly traded over the counter (OTC).
Who is Mike Connor?
Professional risk manager and former member of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, who has more than 40 years’ experience in the futures and options industry.
What is the story behind Alpha Z Advisors?
Professor William Ziemba started Alpha Z Advisors, LLC with trading capital from friends and family. The initial investors were individuals he knew from the academic world in addition to a few referrals from the initial investors. The fund has grown in size from trading profits from the initial capital without attracting new investors.
How has the performance been?
2015 had great performance, more than 100% return, but it probably will never happen again due to a management decision to reduce initial margin to equity risk.
Why has it been so consistent?
The fund primarily trades options based on CME’s S&P 500 E-mini contract. Trading centers around the extreme prices of puts on the E-mini contract. The big money in trading options is made from being long, but returns are inconsistent (but the risk is usually very well controlled). The consistent money is made by being short options, but it comes with risk, and to stay in the game the risk has to be controlled.
How do you control the risk?
By properly hedging the positions either with other options or a futures position, and by margin to equity control. Short (selling) options positions are no different than an insurance company policies – you are selling price insurance. Like any insurance company, we’re going to have occasional disasters, like Katrina – but they should be manageable. Over a long time horizon, well managed market disasters should not prevent us from continuing to perform. We have had our share of ups and downs, and fortunately we have been able to survive all drawdowns. Good risk control and position sizing are the most important factors in any trading campaign.
What factors may impact the strategies’ performance?
Implied Volatility. Volatility is opportunity, but left unchecked it can be a horrible threat.
Considering the results, why do you think there’s not larger AUM?
Until recently we have not solicited publicly. This is our first concentrated effort at soliciting investors. In addition, we put together a minimum account size so high ($250K for the managed account, $100K for the fund). Our account size should eliminate many potential investors. We are looking for sophisticated investors that can take a part of their portfolio and take greater risk for a higher return.
How can investors ‘prove’ that the performance is ‘real’ – is there an institutional My FX Book ? There’s been a lot of CTA frauds that were real CTAs but used fake performance to lure investors – what assurances can we offer them about Alpha Z?
All the accounts – all the funds’ assets – all the performance results are compiled every month by an independent CPA firm. The statements themselves can be verified by the FCM.
Positions are manually stress-tested intra-day.
What makes Alpha Z Advisors LLC different than other CTAs?
I’m not sure if that’s the case, we have a very professional trading plan. You can go to Amazon and buy books published by our founder Dr. William Ziemba, actually he’s published more than 50 books on statistical abnormalities and opportunities in the stock market. It certainly does not mean we cannot lose, or have losing open positions – we are going to have losing positions there is no way around it. But overall, if we can control the risk and keep margin to equity at a reasonable level we should be able to survive during the bad times. We have, I think, enough excess margin to sit through a significant rise in implied volatility and still survive, if the positions and margin to equity can be properly controlled. Like any market position whether it is options or futures an unexpected giant gap opening is always a threat to open market position’s stability.
What makes the strategy different?
Trades are well positioned and I believe are market entry timing is very good. Our exposure is laid out over a broad time horizon (we don’t trade in nearby month, for example). If futures were a bullseye, you’d have to hit the target almost dead center to make a profit, with options, you can just hit the wall and still make a profit – of course, only with properly controlled risk and other parameters. I do not know how other CTA’s manage their positions and stress test their market risk, but I am confident our process is robust. What we do is not magic, it’s simply neutralizing the risk as much as possible, and there is a number of ways we accomplish that. It is all about understanding what the options can do if they move against you, and how you can respond adverse market activity.
The execution is done by a professional service. One way we keep our costs down other than accounting, is to try and soft dollar expenses through a soft dollar basis.
Customers are free to choose any brokerage house they want that clears at the CME. If customers do not have any preference, we are happy to set them up with our preferred FCM.
For more information contact:
Mike Connor
312-470-6260
Or visit www.alphazadvisors.com
This article/interview is for information/educational purposes only and is privileged, confidential and proprietary. This article/interview is NOT an offer to sell or a solicitation of any investment products or other financial product or services, is NOT an official confirmation of any transaction, or an official statement. Past performance is not indicative of future results. There is a substantial high and unlimited level of risk of loss in trading commodity futures, options, options writing, equities and off-exchange foreign currency products; such trading is not suitable for all investors.  Investors should only invest money they can afford to lose.

http://globalintelhub.com/alpha-advisors-offers-alternative-options-investing/

Sunday, August 6, 2017

Mysterious Trader With "Nearly Unlimited Bankroll" Said To Manipulate, Dominate Price Of Bitcoin

It was over three years ago, back in May 2014, when we wrote "How Bots Manipulated The Price Of Bitcoin Through "Massive Fraudulent Trading Activity" At MtGox" in which we first demonstrated one of the more striking observed "bot-driven" bitcoin manipulation schemes, in this case related to the infamous collapse of the now defunct Mt.Gox bitcoin exchnage.
As we wrote at the time, a number of traders began noticing suspicious behavior on Mt. Gox. Basically, a random number between 10 and 20 bitcoin would be bought every 5-10 minutes, non-stop, for at least a month on end until the end of January, by what appeared to be two algos, named later as "Willy" and "Markis." Each time, (1) an account was created, (2) the account spent some very exact amount of USD to market-buy coins ($2.5mm was most common), (3) a new account was created very shortly after. Repeat. In total, a staggering ~$112 million was spent to buy close to 270,000 BTC – the bulk of which was bought in November.
"So if you were wondering how Bitcoin suddenly appreciated in value by a factor of 10 within the span of one month, well, this is why. Not Chinese investors, not the Silkroad bust – these events may have contributed, but they certainly were not the main reason. But who did it? and why?"
Of course, in the end this alleged manipulation did not help Mt.Gox which eventually collapsed in what has been the biggest case of cryptocoin fraud in history.
We bring up this particular blast from the past, because in the latest case of bitcoin market abuse - with Bitcoin trading at all time highs above $3,000 - Cointelegraph reports of rumors swirling about a trader "with nearly unlimited funds who is manipulating the Bitcoin markets." This trader, nicknamed "Spoofy," received his "nom de guerre" because of his efforts to “spoof” the market, primarily on Bitfinex.
Of course, spoofing is what Navinder Sarao pled guilty of last year, when regulators inexplicably changed their story, and instead of blaming a Waddell and Reed sell order for the May 2010 flash crash, decided to scapegoat the young trader who allegedly crashed the market due to his relentless spoofing of E-mini futures (and also making $40 million in the process of spoofing stock futures for over five years).
It now appears that a spoofer has once again emerged, only this time in Bitcoin.
For those unfamiliar, spoofing is simple: it is the illegal practice of placing a large buy order just below other buy orders, or a large sell order just above other sell orders, then cancelling if it appears that the order is about to be hit or lifted. The idea is to make traders think that somebody with deep pockets is getting ready to buy or sell, in hopes of moving the market. If traders see a sell order of 2000 Bitcoin they may rush to panic sell before the whale crashes the price. And vice versa on the bid-side.
As an example of Spoofy's trading pattern, here is a breakdown of a typical "trade" by the mysterious entity as noted by BitCrypto'ed who first spotted the irregular activity: Spoofy is a regular trader (or a group of traders) who engages in the following practices:
  • Places large bids ($2 million and up) for Bitcoin, usually just under a smaller bid order, only to remove them once someone starts to sell. These orders usually have a lifetime of minutes, or sometimes as short as 5–10 seconds to manipulate the price up (more common)
  • Places large asks ($2 million and up), for Bitcoin when he wants the price to go down, or stop going up (less common)
  • Occasionally ‘Spoofy’ will allow orders deep in the orderbooks to remain for a few hours, usually $50–$100 below the current price. For example, during the recovery above $2,000, he had roughly 4,000 BTC of false orders in the $1,900 range that were unlikely to execute, and ultimately were never executed.
As noted above, spoofing is actually illegal - as ultimately the trader has no intention of ever executing the publicized trade - but as Bitcoin markets are largely unregulated, it’s a very common practice.
What is unusual in this case is the nearly unlimited bankroll that Spoofy has at his disposal: He regularly places orders approaching $60 million.
Even more unusual is that, as cointelegraph reports, most of Spoofy’s activity occurs on a single exchange: Bitfinex. This exchange came under fire earlier this spring when Wells Fargo cut off their banking ties. As a result, it’s virtually impossible to deposit fiat on Bitfinex without going through intermediaries.
Yet unlike most Bitfinex traders, Spoofy appears to have special privileges, and has massive sums of both fiat and Bitcoin at his disposal on that exchange, likely one of the only traders who does.
* * *
In addition to spoofing, "Spoofy" also engages in wash trading, or effectively trading with himself. As BitCrypto’ed points out in a recent blog post:
“Spoofy makes the price go up when he wants it to go up, and Spoofy makes the price go down when he wants it to go down, and he’s got the coin… both USD, and Bitcoin, of course, to pull it off, and with impunity on Bitfinex.”
The BitCrypto’ed blog also describes Spoofy’s wash trades, when he trades with himself by either selling into his own buy orders or vice versa. Wash trading at high volumes can induce a frenzy of buying or selling, as other traders respond to the high trading volume. Spoofy can execute wash trades at very low cost, about $1,000 per million dollars of volume.
A single entity (entity could be a trader, or a group of traders), single handedly wash traded 24,000 Bitcoins in shorts. In order to do this, you would need to have at least 24,000 BTC on Bitfinex and the USD to buy them with.
When Bitfinex announced its plan to distribute Bitcoin Cash, it initially planned to distribute Bitcoin Cash to holders of short positions. Immediately following that announcement, a single trader short sold tens of thousands of Bitcoin all at once. It’s likely this trader was Spoofy himself, hoping to acquire as much Bitcoin Cash as possible.
The large number of shorts on Bitfinex also led many to believe that an epic short squeeze was coming, and many Bitcoin traders purchase coins in expectation of this. Suddenly, he “claimed” all of his own shorts, closing them using his own Bitcoin. The number of shorts dropped drastically, yet without affecting the price at all.
Bifinex itself admitted the manipulation on August 2, one day after the fork:
“After the methodology announcement on July 27th, several accounts began large-scale manipulation tactics in an attempt to obtain BCH tokens at the expense of exchange longs and lenders on the platform, causing the distribution coefficient to artificially plummet.

We have determined that this kind of manipulation?—?including wash trading and self-funding shorts?—?is in violation of Bitfinex’s terms of service. Those who intended to take unfair advantage of the circumstances surrounding the BCH distribution at the expense of other users have been sanctioned accordingly.”
Interestingly, BitCrypto'ed claims that Spoofy isn’t limited to just Bitcoin, and that shortly after this ‘trader’ was ‘sanctioned’ by Bitfinex, another interesting thing happened: ETCBTC shorts immediately disappeared on August 1.

Here we can see how the ETCBTC shorts simply vanished, from 60,000 ETC short, to a low of 93 ETC. But let’s not just look at ETCBTC, what about ETCUSD?

 

A giant middle finger. Notice the dramatic increase and decrease in longs with no effect on price.

I'm not sure what to make of these, but it calls into question the legitimacy of this data. The point I’m trying to make by showing the ETCBTC/ETCUSD margin pairs also engaging in very funny business at the same exact time, how are we supposed to know that the BTCUSD longs on Bitfinex are not also subject to this manipulation?

ETCBTC Shorts = Clear evidence of manipulation
ETCUSD Longs =Clear evidence of manipulation
BTCUSD Shorts = Clear evidence of manipulation (and admitted by Bitfinex)
BTCUSD Longs = BTCUSD Longs in terms of USD, has never been higher in Bitfinex’s history. See the green line.

It's not just Bitfinex: Spoofy’s activity also drives crypto prices on other exchanges, as arbitrage takes place. Because BItcoin is so thinly traded, a single large “whale” can potentially move the entire market.
Just like in US stock markets where HFTs find instant price arbitrage opportunities, with the help of extensive spoofing, the same takes place in bitcoin exchange.
People underestimate how much exchanges follow each other. Manipulation on one exchange will affect prices on other exchanges. You have traders that watch all of the exchanges and if one exchange starts to pull ahead, they too buy on cheaper exchanges.

You don’t just have people, but you also have bots that will do the same thing, so price reactions can be immediate.
Just like equities. And while Spoofy is certainly exercising outsized control over the Bitcoin price, it is uncertain how much of an affect this is having across all the markets. The price is currently rising, having finally surmounted the $3,000 barrier. The only problem? Nobody knows how much of this increase is organic and sustainable, and how much is due to the market manipulation of Spoofy and others.
Finally, nobody knows who he is:  The identity of Spoofy remains a mystery. He may be i) a single trader, ii) a large OTC trading firm or group of colluding traders, iii) or even the Bitfinex management themselves. He sometimes seeks to drop Bitcoin price, and sometimes acts to increase it. One thing is certain: one single trader seems to have a "central bank"-like impact on the entire crypto market.