I Love 2018...and Trump Made American Stocks Below Average in 2017

I fell asleep early on New Years Eve to Black Mirror.

This morning I went for a ride in the Camelback Mountain hills.

This afternoon we drove to Coronado to start a brief family vacation.

Ellen drove part of the way and I was on the streams catching up on the markets. I have been noticing the relative strength of Ethereum vs Bitcoin the last few weeks and posted on Stocktwits that I was going to buy some more at $750.

By dinner, Ethereum was up $130. That’s a 15 percent move on a holiday afternoon! I will ring the register on a bit of it now (Sunday eve).

First of all I love the fact that the crypto markets are open 24/7/365. It’s 2018 and they should be.

I have never traded futures or currencies. They never interested me. Crypto is another story. I am a cash trader (no margin) which puts me in the minority but I love the idea of trading with/against the world on a weekend or holiday.

The stock markets have been part of my life for 35 years and I never had the urge to trade on holidays or weekends. In fact, I have argued they need to be open less!

As for what is in store for stock markets in 2018, nobody knows, but everyone has an opinion.

The year 2017 was an epic one for global stock markets. EVERY major country ETF was positive in 2017 with an average return of 28 percent. The fact is Trump made America below average in 2017. Charlie has the numbers and while America was being made great again, Austria, Poland and Argentina were all up over 50 percent!

If you think 2018 will be bad for US stock markets because 2017 was so good, my friend Ryan who heads research at LPL has some data that says not so fast!

Ryan also has some data that says a lot may be riding on the first day of trading tomorrow.

I know that Crypto mining caught fire in 2017 and will continue into 2018 because of the fat margins at the moment.

Here is what it costs to mine a Bitcoin around the United States:

Mortimer…turn those machines back on!