Alt-Options Weekly Report (02.12.16)
Each week we pick some of our favorite stories, papers, and analyses floating around the internet and bring it to your screen. This week we look at a huge move by Jack Ma and Alibaba as well as the continued success of Blythe Masters’ Digital Asset Holdings. Enjoy, and continue to email our team what content you’d like to see us talk about.
Headlines
E-Commerce Giant Alibaba to Use Blockchain Technology for Cloud Service
Alibaba is studying blockchain technology to adopt it to it’s AliPay service, one of the largest online payment platforms in the world. They posted a statement following the move:
“We are very pleased to partner with United and help them make online booking from China a hassle-free experience. By enabling the option to use China’s most trusted and secure payment system, Chinese travelers using United’s website can expect the safe, easy and consistent experience they have come to expect, while avoiding any currency barriers” — Alibaba
Blockchain technology has the capability to improve managerial efficiency of inventory, payments, account management and more.
“If the blockchain will be widely used, with more and more financial institutions and commercial organizations applying the technology, ordinary people will participate, which will lead to the storage of information in it. The final value of blockchain is the storage of credit information, which is the heart of business and finance. In the past, we obtained this by ranking the companies. The usage of the blockchain will grow with the transaction records stored in it” — Alibaba Group Vice President Gao Hongbing
Top UK Asset Management Firms Team Up to Explore Blockchain Technology
Five of the UK’s largest asset management firms, namely Schroders, Aberdeen Asset Management, Columbia Threadneedle, Aviva Investors and Henderson Global Investors, have teamed up to explore how blockchain technology could help them reduce costs by cutting out intermediaries and “save billions of pounds in trading costs.”
A report from the Financial Times suggests that the firms, which collectively manage over £1 trillion in assets, are exploring several applications for the technology, including trading illiquid securities directly with each other. The aim is to speed up how quickly ownership of illiquid securities can be moved from one asset manager to another
Goldman Sachs backs Blythe Masters blockchain startup
New York-based Digital Asset Holdings announced in a statement on February 2 that Goldman Sachs and IBM have joined its recently announced round of funding, bringing the total raised to more $60 million.
Goldman and IBM join 13 other investors supporting Masters’s company, which on January 21 said it had secured over $50 million in backing from Deutsche Börse, Icap, JP Morgan, the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation, ABN Amro, Accenture, ASX , BNP Paribas, Broadridge Financial Solutions, Citigroup, CME Ventures, Santander InnoVentures, and PNC Financial Services.
Research
Bitcoin: Economics, Technology, and Governance
Rainer Böhme, Nicolas Christin, Benjamin Edelman and Tyler Moor — Spring 2015
This paper explores the economics, technology, and governance of Bitcoin. In addition to elucidating the space, the authors quantify what Bitcoin doesn’t have and how that contributes/makes the cryptocurrency unique. This is a great paper for beginners, looking to understand how the ecosystem works.
Technical Analysis
This week NEWSBTC offered us a technical analysis of price movements for February 9th.
The following analysis was offered:
As the chart shows, today’s range is defined by in term support at 369 flat (overnight lows) and in term resistance at the most recent swing high of 374 flat. These are today’s ones to watch.
We’ve not really got enough room to bring an intraday strategy in to play, so we’ll focus solely on our breakout strategy for today’s session.
If we break through in term resistance, it will signal a long entry (on a close above this level) towards an initial upside target of 379 flat. A stop loss on this one will keep things tight from a risk management perspective.
Looking the other way, and if we see some downside action this afternoon as a continuation of the overnight momentum, a close below in term support on the intraday chart will validate a short side entry, with an initial downside target of 363 flat. Again we need a stop, and somewhere around 371 looks to offer up a positive profile.
Best of luck trading!
Disclaimer: Alt-Options does not provide personal investment advice and we are not a qualified licensed investment advisor. All information found here, including any ideas, opinions, views, predictions, forecasts, commentaries, suggestions, or stock picks, expressed or implied herein, are for informational, entertainment or educational purposes only and should not be construed as personal investment advice. While the information provided is believed to be accurate, it may include errors or inaccuracies.