For those of you who like pretty charts, here's one that's trending in the crypto-world right now. They call it the HODL chart.
The more red colors indicate more active coins whereas the bluer colors indicate coins that haven't budged in a few years. We'll need to assume that many of the bluer coins are ones that may be lost right now and include Satoshi Nakamoto's holdings.
What's impressive to me is that according to this graph, 7% of all coins have changed hands in the last week and a total of 58.7% have moved in the last year.
Please note that there will be no daily market update tomorrow due to a local holiday.
Today's Highlights
Realignment
Aggressive Oil
Crypto Mayor
Please note: All data, figures and graphs are valid as of April 18th. All trading carries risk. Only risk capital you can afford to lose.
Traditional Markets
On January 15th, 2015 the Swiss National Bank wrecked havoc on international markets by unexpectedly removing a peg that had been firmly in place for 4 years.
By maintaining a steady exchange rate of 1.20 euros per franc, the Swiss were able to keep investors from flooding into the safe haven currency at a time when economic turmoil was rampant and kept the franc from increasing too much during that time.
Here's a video that we made about it at the time:
In a matter of minutes, the CHF currency surged by 19% against the euro taking out many currency traders and even several brokers who had not adequately hedged their risk.
Today, we can see that the entire movement caused on that day has now been reversed, thanks largely to the invisible hand and of course the negative interest rate policy from the SNB.
Aggressive On Oil
Black Gold has been pushing its highs lately but is now entering dangerous territory.
The crude oil inventories data that will be released at 3:30 GMT today are expected to show a decrease in US stockpiles of 0.5 million barrels. The forecasts are historically inaccurate but that's not stopping people from pushing the buy button this morning.
If the price breaks above $67.60 a barrel, it will be at its highest level since 2014 when prices crashed in response to a global supply glut.
The rise in prices over the last two years is thanks in large part to the coordinated reduction in production from members of OPEC and their allies who do their best to drive prices up.
At this point, however, OPEC should be very careful about what they wish for. If they continue to drive prices up much higher it could have some uncomfortable consequences. For example, higher oil prices in the past have led to breakthrough innovations in alternative energy. So, not sure who I'm rooting for here.
Crypto Mayor
The capital city of Taiwan has a new contender in the upcoming mayoral elections. Yi-Ting Cheng is the founder of the OTCBTC crypto exchange and the world-class coder is running on a platform of crypto innovation for the country.
Though the odds are stacked against her, support for this candidate is growing fast on social media.
This, of course, is far different than a recent bid from the current Mayor of Lafayette...
...and certainly different from Nicolas Maduro's ICO of the Petro, which has still yet to produce anything remotely transparent about the project.
Having a Mayor of a major city who is an expert in blockchain technology could certainly be a positive thing for the entire world.
Likely unconnected to this, the price of Bitcoin jumped this morning. Let's hope the rally continues.
eToro, Senior Market Analyst
Disclosure: This content is for information and educational purposes only and should not be considered investment advice or an investment recommendation. Past performance is not an indication of future results. All trading carries risk. Only risk capital you're prepared to lose.