November Shockwaves

 

November has been quite the month both in the crypto and stock world depending what investors are involved in.

It was like a flash bomb was tossed into the crypto market with the collapse of the once giant FTX exchange and the shock waves continue to vibrate into countries, governments, lawyers, upcoming court cases, celebrities, sports stars and the continuing investigations into what happened to billions of dollars worth of crypto all thrown into a blender. I'm suing you and I'll sue back still going on with those involved.

Meanwhile, big and small exchangers out there with no involvement in FTX are felling the fallout either minimally or a lot as billions in Bitcoin, Ether and other coins were and still are being drawn out.

As an example, Kraken ... one of the top US based exchanges sent out updates that it had frozen FTX owned wallets until authorities look into it and has no affiliation or investments with FTX

Eventually this will fade into the past with memories of it surfacing when FTX and court cases are media worthy reminding us of the risk involved.

Overall, some folks lose the fact that crypto remains volatile and high risk with a lot of it built like a house of cards. Just because Tom Brady and others figure it's the next best thing to another Superbowl ring doesn't mean it doesn't come without high risk.

In the early years of the Bitcoin startup, it was exciting via an investor's view and it was easy to just sit and watch the value of Bitcoin go up in cycles for those into Hodling.

These days, not so much as I watch billionaire Whales manipulate the markets and I contemplate any further involvement in that marketplace.

In the stock market, there was and still is turmoil over a once favoured dividend paying stock called Algonquin Power and Utilities Corp. (AQN), paying increasing dividend distributions quarterly since 2017 and appeared to be running smoothly until it's last quarterly report threw a wrench into it all of it and the stock fell from it's average price of $18 per share CDN to $10 so far.

There are many reports, discussion and Blog articles about AQN since it's financial report that things were going sideways for now and expecting more debt while into buying two power outfits in the US to add to the company while selling a couple assets in Canada.

Most of it over ... if AQN's dividend will be cut some which many figure it will be but for now, it's all speculation. 

Although I don't own the stock but have it on my watchlist, this is part of the risk that comes with investing that I accept when buying a stock or ETF/Fund that hit not only DIY'ers broadside but invested institutions as well. 

Matt Poyner from Dividend Strategy has a good read on that subject using AQN as an example.

The Algonquin Problem

It would be awesome to have all winners in a stock portfolio but the reality is that doesn't happen and it's wise to diversify so hopefully overall growth is there in a given year. Writing about these issues that come up keeps me from being too overconfident with my picks. 

What happens in company back offices or boardrooms to a "Bahamas condo" run exchanger like FTX, or those that have no physical office at all ... is unknown to the DIY investor until it hits the media in the form of recent or quarterly financial reports ... or a total meltdown of an outfit.

Mid-November Market Manipulation 2022

 

It's been quite a week in the stock and crypto markets heading into mid-November 2022

With a recent statistic that inflation has dropped a tad in the US, although folks are not feeling it as the cost of living is higher than normal this year, money flowed back into the stock market over the last few days.

Investors are eager to make money after months of being flat or down, so it doesn't take much to get them into a positive mood for a change. In Canada, the latest interest rate hike was less than expected with hints that the hikes may be easing off more in the future. More good news for now but central bank policy can change from month to month.

This week ended on a high; Canada's TSX shot back up to the 20,000 point level.

The crypto scene has shown how fragile it is when it comes to Exchangers. For the second time this year, a multi billion dollar outfit went bust.

How long does it take to bring an Exchange and satellite outfits that has about 16 billion worth of cash and crypto coins to it's knees and fall into bankruptcy. Only a few days when a billionaire competitor gets social media involved leaving many empty handed when FTX withdrawals were stopped this past week. 

I'm sure all of this has crypto holders and investors questioning their own stake in current Exchangers where one manipulative action can bust an outfit. For sure, not a lot of trust out there now when Billions can go poof in an exchange like recently when crypto whales pulled out 6 billion in FTX ... in one day.

Overall, it's what's behind the game that controls a lot of the crypto market. Billionaire movers and shakers and Whales that hold the majority of a given coin. 

                              Courtesy of Cointelegraph

Meanwhile, Bitcoin which has had a 'hovering' level of 20 grand USD when it's free of market turmoil, is holding up fairly well ... dropping to the 15 grand level and upwards through all this commotion.

Once all this FTX business fades, there will be renewed cautious interest once again.

In the stock world, companies get into trouble or go belly up all the time and investors lose millions as well but a top crypto exchange worth 16 billion in a couple days. Wow.

The funny thing is with me, it's not such a shock or surprising where it's all about manipulation ... fear and greed mixed in and the crazy year of 2022. Hopefully that doesn't extend into the whole decade but certainly possible.

Meanwhile, growing my dividend paying stocks is my long term goal and I continue to have an interest in the top two crypto coins by market cap .... Bitcoin and Ether, where some heavyweight regulated financial companies in the US have plans for them going ahead with some already live and running.