Bitcoin is now legit on Wall Street.
On Sunday night at 6 p.m. EST, bitcoin futures began trading in Chicago.
Per Bloomberg:
For essentially the first time, professional and individual investors who want to buy into the bitcoin craze will be able to do so without having to actually buy the digital currency, and they will do it on exchanges that have been around, and regulated, for more than a few years.
The early action didn’t disappoint, either.
Bitcoin opened at $15,460 before surging past $18,000 as Asian markets entered the trading mix.
Here’s the rub…
Depending on what website you check, bitcoin prices can vary widely.
Last Thursday for instance, prices hit the $19,500 mark on the GDAX exchange. But at the exact same time, prices were stuck at $15,000 on other trading platforms.
How in the world does anyone effectively trade bitcoin when it’s impossible to get accurate pricing data in real-time?
Or for that matter, how can anyone get an accurate reading on future price momentum if the data are inconsistent?
In short, they can’t!
The large price spreads indicate that a lack of liquidity and professional interest persists. For other assets, such discrepancies are normally arbitraged away almost instantly.
Clearly, there are kinks in the system left unresolved.
So for now, bitcoin investing promises to be volatile, unpredictable and suited only for your most speculative capital.
But the same shortcomings don’t plague my colleague Jim Rickards’ trading system.
If you’re unfamiliar with his work, his strategy is truly fascinating.
His system was derived from a top-secret CIA project. In fact, to date, the CIA has given clearance to fewer than 100 people in the entire world.
Rickards is one of them. And now for the first time ever, he’s “declassifying” everything.