Hi Everyone,

Forget the Winklevoss twins and their COIN ETF. The CFTC in the USA has just approved the first Bitcoin derivatives trading and clearing platform known as Ledgerx.

By the early Fall, investors in the United States will be able to buy options on Bitcoin and within a few months after, Ethereum.

This is really good news for cryptocurrency traders and investors as it will provide some much needed additional liquidity to this new market.

@MatiGreenspan
eToro, Senior Market Analyst

Today’s Highlights

  • More record low volatility
  • Yellen Tomorrow
  • OPEC’s Position

Please note: All data, figures & graphs are valid as of July 25th. All trading carries risk. Only risk capital you can afford to lose.

Market Overview

Say it isn’t so…

Stock market volatility hit another all time low.

That’s two days in a row!

Why won’t these equities go??

For the first time ever, here’s the VIX hitting 9.26…

Needless to say, global stocks are mixed with nothing really moving in any specific direction. The direction is coming from the currency markets with the US Dollar getting pummeled.

Here we can see the relative performance since the beginning of the year. Everything is green, except the greenback.

Who can save the poor buck?

While Donald Trump and his family don’t seem to be making any headway on promises to reform health care and cut taxes, there’s something else fundamentally pushing the Dollar down.

Expectations are setting in that the next rate hike from the Fed won’t come until March. And, subsequent hikes don’t even seem to be on anybody’s agenda at this point.

Lately, the Fed has been telling us that by selling off some of their extremely bloated balance sheet they should be able to have the same effect as raising rates.

Tomorrow, Janet Yellen will announce the interest rate decision, which of course is extremely unlikely to be adjusted. Ms. Yellen will not appear in front of the camera and there is no press conference at this meeting.

We may see some muted volume in preparation of her prepared statement but it’s really hard to imagine volatility going much lower than it already is.

Oil Market

The meeting in Russia yesterday did meet its intended result but not in the way people were expecting. They had dismissed concerns about increased production in Libya and Nigeria by saying that these countries were rapidly reaching max capacity anyway and that capping them is not a priority.

Instead, OPEC decided to reassure the market that they are on top of things by signaling that they have their finger on the pulse, so to speak. They stressed to investors that what they’re doing now should be enough but that if things turn sour and prices drop that they can respond relatively quickly.

This brazen display of confidence did indeed move prices upward by about $1 a barrel. However, the rise yesterday was just shy of covering the previous day’s fall (circled).

Wishing you an amazing trading day ahead.

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