In light of recent reports, David Jones, Chief Market Strategist at Capital.com here comments on the impact of the meeting between President Trump and President Putin, and the US quarterly earnings season, on the financial markets.

At the start of the trading week, politics remains in focus for many markets. Last week saw President Trump visit the UK and today he meets with Russia's President Putin. Apparently, there is no formal agenda for the meeting but of course given both personalities involved here there is always the possibility of surprise which could have an impact on markets.

The end of last week saw a very strong finish for stock markets - in the USA the broader S&P500 index finished at its best levels in more than five months. The question now is whether there is enough momentum left to challenge the all-time high set in January of this year. There's plenty of news-flow for stock markets this week as the US quarterly earnings season continues with the likes of Netflix, Goldman Sachs, eBay and Microsoft all reporting. For the UK, the state of the High Street remains under focus with the latest retail sales due out on Thursday. The latest UK retailer under pressure is department store Debenhams with the weekend press reporting that its credit insurers were tightening terms. The share price of Debenhams has lost more than 50% of its value so far this year.

Last week was relatively quiet one for major currency markets. The pound continues to swing on various political resignations and utterings from the UK government but is broadly unchanged over the past three weeks. It's a big week for UK economic data with the latest unemployment numbers released on Tuesday and inflation on Wednesday - the CPI reading is expected to show 2.5%. It could well mean more volatility for the pound in the days ahead.

The price of oil continues to flip-flop around the $70/barrel mark. Although this has recently set three-year highs, it has been somewhat directionless in recent weeks. Perhaps there is something from today's Trump/Putin meeting that will inspire traders to pick a side and set up a more meaningful push here.

Forex trading can offer an efficient way of building real wealth. However, it comes with its risks. A few mistakes can end up costing you real money, not just time and effort. Luckily, Adam Truelove, Global Trading Director at Learn to Trade, has some tips on what to avoid.

Forex trading for beginners can be fraught with dangers, but by laying out examples of what you shouldn’t do, we can hopefully make the path ahead a little safer for you. Here are some common mistakes beginners make that you should avoid, to make your trading as low risk as possible.

1. Lack of direction

It’s no secret that the Forex market can be highly unpredictable. It is vital to not confuse this ‘unpredictability’ with ‘randomness’ as many beginners do. Often people start by going on to trade as randomly as they believe the market to be. Sometimes they win, sometimes they lose, but they never learn how to do either reliably. You have to learn to react to the volatility of the market, not give into it.

So, how do you work your way through the seeming madness of it all? The first step (and most crucial) is to have a trading plan.

Another important part is learning from the losses that you’ve made in the past and why they happened. The best way to do that is to record them in a journal. By keeping tabs on every trade you make, you will start to notice where it isn’t performing as well as it should be, or other factors are influencing outcomes. Having this plan and being able to change it based on the results is vital in Forex trading.

2. Not having a stop-loss

A stop-loss is an order designed to stop you from losing too much money on any one trade. It is an essential part of Forex trading and the longer you go without it the more you leave yourself open to risk. You should decide how much you’re willing to lose on any one trade and assign your stop-loss order accordingly. Just as importantly, you should avoid moving your stop-loss order just because your instincts tell you that one trade is eventually going to be a winner. Always let your head rule your heart, and never allow your emotions to make trading decisions for you. Everyone will experience some loss when trading; but by putting in place a stop-loss you are protecting yourself from losing too much, too quickly.

3. Averaging down and selling early

Trading is not just a numbers game, it’s a game involving your own emotions and instincts. Nowhere is this clearer than in the very common mistake of averaging down. Although this error is more common in the trading of stocks and shares, it is important to understand why it is a bad idea for beginner traders.

Averaging down is the practice of adding additional funds to a trade that you’ve already invested in at a lower rate than you initially purchased. You might do this because you have already invested in a trade, and you decide that it would be best to invest more while it’s cheap, and wait for the value to go back up. This is a sunk-cost fallacy, and you may be waiting a long time for any return, missing out on more profitable opportunities in the meantime.

4. Not diversifying enough or diversifying too much

Overtrading is a very common mistake that exposes many beginners to too much risk. By doing this, you are not insulating yourself from the market, in fact, you might as well be trading randomly. You should only trade when you think you have the advantage, and ensure you always trade according to your plan. An even larger risk for beginners, is over-diversifying by trading too many positions at the one time. By doing this, you leave yourself open to market risk, making it much harder to spot which positions and trades work. This also increases your risk of trade duplication, and overlapping positions, which can effectively double your losses on a bad trade.

Trading too much of your capital is another easy mistake for people to make. By risking large amounts of capital, you are likely to lose out in the long run because you have exposed yourself greatly to market risk. By mitigating your risk you can spread out your capital. Investing a maximum 2% of your total capital loss strategy rule, protects you from losing too much too quickly, when the market works against you.

Forex trading for beginners is a long learning process. It’s best to make sure you’re doing plenty of research, taking advantage of demo accounts and learning the markets, before you start depositing real money. Through your efforts, you can make Forex much less risky.

Business Insider spoke with Dharshini David, economist, broadcaster, and author of "The Almighty Dollar." David talked about why the Euro hasn't challenged the Dollar as an international currency, despite being used by more people than the American currency. She also talked about how the Yuan could become the world's dominant currency.

Trading is no longer a male-only club. Women now represent 19% of online traders worldwide, and they’re also more successful at it than their male counterparts. This stems from an international report assessing the habits and demographic data of more than 500,000 traders. It was published by BrokerNotes, the online trading comparison site.

What’s caused the shift
The shift has been driven by the democratisation of trading as a result of the internet. This has paved the way for women to enter an industry that’s historically been dominated by men. But it’s not only that female trader numbers are increasing. They’re also better at it.

Women are depositing less than men in their online trading accounts (on average $424 less) and are making fewer, more calculated trades. Men, on the other hand, make more trades and are much more likely to be reactionary to changes in the market, which is proven to have a negative impact on overall return on investment. This type of trading costs men money – the average income of a female online trader being £35,743 compared to the average male income of £32,525.

The female crypto boom
The crypto boom has had a big role to play in fuelling the surge of female traders. Last year, there were 9.6 million total online traders worldwide. In 2018, it’s now 13.9 million, with 2.7 million of them being female. Interestingly, 59% of women choose to trade crypto over traditional assets like forex.

Although both genders are trading Bitcoin, women only represent 10% of total Bitcoin traders. This points to the fact that women are looking to altcoins when investing in crypto with females accounting for 18% of Dash traders and Ripple also attracting a higher percentage of female traders.

Other data points

• Highest percentage of female traders in the UK are in Herefordshire (21%).
• 42% of women describe themselves as experienced traders.
• 16.23% of female traders earn more than £50k/year compared to only 10.93% of male traders.

Marcus Taylor, CEO at BrokerNotes, commented: “When people think of trading, they think of testosterone-fuelled ‘Wolf of Wall Street’ characters. The reality is there’s no place for stereotypes in an online world. By offering anyone the tools to research and develop trading strategies, the internet has opened up trading to the masses. With more women demonstrating a flair for trading, it points towards a transformation that’s also moving towards gender equality.”

Facebook, Google, and now also Twitter have all moved to ban cryptocurrency-based adverts on their sites. This means that any ads pertaining to ICO platforms, bitcoin wallets, token sales, crypto-trading etc. will be banned.

Much of this spouts from illicit ads and fraudulent activities. Therefore, there will be some exceptions and policies are still being put together. Analysts currently believe dips in market values and trading of crypto are being caused by the regulatory scrutiny and ban on ads.

This week Finance Monthly hears from BrokerNotes CEO Marcus Taylor on what this means for the crypto market as a whole: “The cryptocurrency market is taking a battering at the moment. It’s being viewed by consumers and big businesses as a wild west environment riddled with risk and instability. Google’s move to ban cryptocurrency ads, following Facebook’s decision last month, will light a fire under the industry to introduce the regulation needed to make the crypto market one consumers can trust in the long term.

“But what about the short-term impact? A recent report shows that 58% of online cryptocurrency traders are millennials and it seems logical that removing advertising from social media channels like YouTube and Facebook should have a major impact on their overall interest in the market. The reality will be different though.

“Although 18-30s represent a huge chunk of the market, 52% identify as experienced traders. The ban will simply serve to protect the ill-informed making bad decisions and bring market stability, rather than put a stranglehold on cryptocurrency trading.”

Barely a day passes by now on the internet when I am not offered to subscribe to the ICO (initial coin offering) of a new currency. If the statistics are to be believed, there are 11,000 of these new currencies, of which 1,200 or so are capable of being traded on the various cryptocurrency exchanges which have popped up around the world in recent times. But why are there so many of these new currencies popping up and how do they differ from one another? Richard Tall at DWF explains.

Cryptocurrencies - the 'next-gen' currency  

The first cryptocurrency was Bitcoin, and this has been with us since 2009. Bitcoin has in reality only been in the public consciousness for the last three or four years and most cryptocurrencies have been created within that time period. As it is now mainstream, Bitcoin can be used as a means of payment either through transfer over the internet, or by use of bank cards which are linked to accounts denominated in Bitcoin. In the modern environment, where so few of us use cash, it has the same sort of functionality as a fiat currency, albeit that the numbers of traders and businesses which are prepared to accept it remain in the significant minority.

Like Bitcoin, most new cryptocurrencies have their genesis in smart contracts. A smart contract is a computer protocol which enables a contract to execute automatically. The basis of a smart contract is that if X happens then Y will flow from that. Most of us would recognise that as a conditional contract, but a smart contract enables this obligation to happen in the decentralized world for those who sign up and agree to its protocol.

The rise of the token

The vast majority of new cryptocurrencies do not create their units in the same way as Bitcoin, though. A Bitcoin is created by solving an algorithm, the reward being generated through proof-of-work. Generally, most new cryptocurrencies being made now are offered as a token which is created by the originator and then traded through the blockchain. This is known as a proof-of-stake. An ICO in these circumstances will simply offer tokens for subscription by investors, usually to raise money for the next stage of development of their project, and in many ways an ICO shares many characteristics with an IPO of a development stage company. Many of us will remember the dot com era, where numerous companies sought funds to take themselves to the next stage of development, with the investors being asked at IPO to invest in the idea rather than a revenue, or indeed profit, generating business.

Coins and tokens - the regulator's perspective

The similarities between ICOs and IPOs have not escaped the attention of regulators. An offer of shares or bonds is clearly within the bailiwick of regulators and so both are subject to a host of legislation. However, the general mantra with an ICO and a cryptocurrency is that they are "unregulated." Bearing in mind money laundering and anti-financial crime legislation, "unregulated" is entirely inapt as a tag. Equally, little thought has been given by ICO originators as to the true nature of what is being offered. The SEC (the US Securities and Exchange Commission) has recently ruled that ether (the tokens behind Ethereum) are securities, on the basis that they are an investment contract (investment of money in a common enterprise with an expectation of profit). Accordingly, the SEC's view is that ether offers should have been conducted in accordance with securities laws. Many other regulators are issuing similar warnings, and making the point that simply because a new technology is being used it does not mean that the resulting token is outside long-established principles of consumer regulation. As a broad rule of thumb:

• If a token offers voting or similar rights it will be treated as a security, as it shares its characteristics with shares;
• If it offers redemption it will be an instrument creating or acknowledging indebtedness, or colloquially a bond;
• If it derives its value from fluctuations in value of another asset it is likely to be some form of derivative.

Whether an ICO is of any merit depends ultimately on the utility of the token offered and what it is capable of doing. Clearly the aim of most ICOs is for the value of the token to increase over time, and any investor needs to look closely at whether that will ever come to pass. Equally, those originating ICOs need to exercise extreme caution in relation to the terms of the tokens offered and the jurisdictions into which they are offered. This is a red-hot topic for regulators who definitely do not share the view that this arena is "unregulated".

According to data supplied by industry website CoinDesk, last Sunday around 8pm London time, the bitcoin hit a record high of $8,101.91, surpassing nay previously recorded price on the prime cryptocoin.

This was a surprising turn of events, though expected in such a volatile market, as on Sunday November 12th the bitcoin had fallen back down to $5,500 following a huge sell-off.

The difference in a week represents more than a 47% price increase.

Nicholas Gregory, CEO of the cryptocurrency business enabler, CommerceBlock, told Finance Monthly: "Bitcoin hit a new high early Friday and has effectively besieged the psychological $8,000 mark in the process.

"Bitcoin surged on the suspension of the SegWit2x hard fork but the current momentum is less technical than systemic.

"The cryptocurrency's momentum is being driven by a growing sense among speculators that the banking industry is firmly in its cross hairs.

"Increasingly, traders and speculators are looking at banks as Blockbuster Video and Bitcoin as Netflix. 

"CME Group's futures launch, which has the potential to open the floodgates of institutional money, has compounded the fundamental narrative within bitcoin that it offers a frictionless and low- or zero-fee alternative to the global banking system.

"By announcing measures to contain the volatility of bitcoin, CME Group ironically boosted Bitcoin even further.

"Again, this represents accommodation rather than repudiation, and the cryptocurrency surged accordingly.

"The message being given to the markets is that while they're not perfect and will need to be treated with kid gloves, Bitcoin futures, and by default Bitcoin, can work."

Brexit, Trump and the chaos in Catalonia are driving demand for multi-currency accounts – and within 10 years they will be the norm, affirms the boss of one of the world’s largest independent financial advisory organisations.

The comments from Nigel Green, founder and CEO of deVere Group, come as deVere E-Money’s global money app, deVere Vault, which has 27 different currency wallets, reveals that it expects to surpass 40,000 downloads and users by the end of the year.

Mr Green asserts: “We’re living in an increasingly uncertain world. Serious, far-reaching and ongoing geopolitical developments are driving internationally-minded people to concentrate on political risk and currency risk.

“Issues such as the deadlocked Brexit talks and what the post-Brexit era will look like, the unpredictability of the Trump presidency, and the chaos in Catalonia as it potentially moves towards independence from Spain, amongst many other geopolitical factors, present huge and sobering questions marks.

“This uncertainty is resulting in more and more people beginning to look at the possible impact such issues have on their wealth and how they can mitigate this risk. Understandably, this is spiking huge interest in and demand for accounts in which you can hold money in different currencies.”

He continues: “Ever since the major and sustained drop in the pound immediately after the Brexit referendum, people have become more focused that they could have currency risk.

“It was a wake-up call to many across the world; it was a watershed moment.”

The deVere CEO concludes: “Multi-currency accounts will be the norm within 10 years – most people within a decade will have the ability to access, use and manage their money in different currencies - for three main reasons.

“First, people have woken up to the fact that even ‘remote’ political risks can be linked to currency risk.

“Second, each year there are more and more expatriates and internationally-mobile people and businesses.

“Third, holidaymakers are increasingly aware of and unwilling to accept the rip-off charges their traditional banks impose on them for using their own money overseas.”

(Source: deVere group)

Russia’s plan to launch its own cryptocurrency, dubbed the ‘CryptoRuble’, is currently unfolding as President Vladimir Putin has given the green light for its go ahead.

This move will put Russia on the digital currency market and consequently allow Russian currency to rival the current cryptocurrency leaders such as Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash and Ethereum.

Minister Nikolay Nikiforov, the Russian government’s Top Communications Official, says the authorities plan to completely regulate the ‘CryptoRuble’.

“I am so confident to declare that we will run CryptoRuble just for one simple reason: if we don’t, our neighbours in the Eurasian Economic Community will do it in a couple of months,” He told Russia Today.

“When buying and selling a CryptoRuble, the rate will be 13 percent from the earned difference. If the owner cannot explain the reason for the appearance of his CryptoRubles, when converting them into Russian rubles, the tax for him will be 13 percent of the total,” he continued.

However, Andrei Barysevich, Director of Advanced Collection at Recorded Future, seems to think Russia has missed the mark on this matter:

"With the widespread introduction of supporting infrastructure only available to the government-backed cryptocurrency and swift oppressive regulations aimed at bitcoin and other blockchain currencies, the Russian government is frantically attempting to regain the control of the “runaway train" by introducing a legitimate alternative.However, Russian lawmakers seem to be missing the main point.

“Aside from criminals, the majority of the people purchase bitcoins, not because of convenience or anonymity, but rather the staggering profit levels it provides. The Russian Government is unlikely to see a widespread adoption of the CryptoRubles unless Moscow is able to convince people that the value of it will surge."

Do you think governments introducing cryptocurrencies is a strong move in opposition of digital currencies, or that it may actually function via central regulation and oversight?

According to reports, Jordan Belfort, the American stockbroker immortalized in the blockbuster movie Wolf of Wall Street, claims Initial Coin Offerings, the IPOs for new crypto coins, have become “the biggest scam ever.”

Belfort told the Financial Times that fundraising ICOs are “far worse than anything I was ever doing,” adding that “"It's the biggest scam ever, such a huge, gigantic scam that's going to blow up in so many people's faces.”

Many see crypto currencies as a massive investment in the future of finance, while other see them as a bubble, with rising prices inciting a speculative investment spin. According to official figures from CB Insights, $2 Billion was raised in ICOs in the first nine months of 2017 alone. In 2016 the same period saw $54 Million raised. Bitcoin, the leading crypto currency has also seen a rise from circa $1,000 to up to $5,000 this year.

Cryptocurrency expert and Founder of London firm CommerceBlock disagrees and says the old guard of banking and finance are running scared. Nicholas Gregory, founder and CEO of cryptocurrency enabler CommerceBlock, said: "The old guard are being cut out by ICOs which means the banks, VCs and lawyers are losing billions. No wonder they're upset.

"It's wrong to ban them because an ICO is just a way of crowdfunding investment for technology firms who choose to do it in cryptocurrency because that is their field. 

"In the old days - up to a year ago - you would go to a VC and they would decide whether to invest in your company and you would have to follow their rules. ICOs make it easier for companies to raise funds from more sources and free themselves from the straitjacket of VC interference.

"Are there scams? Of course. But there are scams in every financial system from penny stocks to fraudulent gambling sites.

"It's too easy for critics to point the finger of blame at the technology and not the criminals who exploit every loophole in every kind of commercial environment.

"Investors take a risk by buying into ICOs just as they do buying equities, even though they are not securities. But they are offered far greater transparency. There is more they can vet with ICOs because you can look at the source code of the firm you are funding. You can download the product and play with it. In the stock market all you get is a brochure.

"This is why it's more transparent and that's why VCs hate it. The VC model is all about the 1%. Only a multi-millionaire could invest in Facebook in 2009. With the ICO model, if you and I spot the next Facebook we can get in on it."

Odds are that you’ve been hearing more and more about cryptocurrency as digital tokens like bitcoin and ethereum have become valuable commodities. Converts (and investors) say that cryptocurrencies built on blockchain technology represent the future of money, finance, and commerce.

But skeptics say that digital currencies represent crowd-sourced pyramid schemes or are fuel for another tech bubble. We met with Olaf Carlson-Wee, who was the first employee at the cryptocurrency broker Coinbase, where he famously took his entire salary in bitcoin. Now, Carlson-Wee runs a hedge fund that deals exclusively in crypto-assets. We talked with Carlson-Wee in San Francisco about money, trust, and how he made his friends rich.

Bitcoin just hit the $5,000 mark, and the growth of blockchain is taking various sectors by storm, in particular that of currencies. In this article, Fraedom CIO Simon Raymer identifies five important points to consider when discussing the use of cryptocurrencies.

1 - Gaining a greater understanding

There remain many challenges ahead for the established financial services businesses before they can start to successfully embrace these new technologies, in general there remains today a low level of understanding of the impact, both perceived and real, of new cryptocurrencies.

Most discussions around cryptocurrencies are directed or based on the perception of bitcoin. There is generally a great deal of misunderstanding about bitcoin and blockchain, especially in the media where they are both hot topics.

However, many established financial services organisations have a mixed understanding of the impact both blockchain and cryptocurrencies can and will have on their businesses. The way decentralised transaction mediums and P2P are likely to reshape the way businesses interact with financial services (such as loans, or cross-border financial exchanges) is something of a grey area, as is how it will affect the way businesses pay or receive payment for their goods or services.

Other challenges businesses face in embracing cryptocurrencies include creating expensive innovation centres within existing teams. Moreover, gaining senior support to provide budgetary allowances to obtain subject experts who understand these technologies to educate and champion them within the organisation is a difficult task, as is supporting the technical entrepreneurs to use these technologies to find the right business opportunities to challenge the market with.

2 - The blockchain infrastructure

A Direct transactional P2P model does not typically use blockchain today, but with faster and more cost-effective processing as a by-product, it’s only a matter of time before its use becomes widespread.

That, in turn, will help drive further growth in already burgeoning cryptocurrencies, like bitcoin, ethereum and ripple. Almost every one of these new secure payment mechanisms uses blockchain as its underlying infrastructure, with its success in doing so raising prospects for the cryptocurrencies also.

3 - The chance to innovate

Established businesses who embrace blockchain and/or cryptocurrencies have great opportunities to drive innovation themselves in these areas. They have the chance not only to deliver both existing and new services to the market using new technology but also to bring their own established trusted brands to the table.

While a lot of consumers and businesses are willing to take a risk with a small start-up, many are hesitant to either try or commit at a large scale without the backing of a trusted established brand, and the sense of control, security and maturity that comes with that. This encapsulates the opportunity that established financial services businesses are likely to have by embracing these new technologies – but they must not delay too long. The success achieved already by P2P and cryptocurrencies, together with the growing number of start-ups using traditional financial services, acts as a warning shot to any established financial services business that they cannot ignore these new technologies and start-ups.

4 - The peer-to-peer boom

The use of peer-to-peer (P2P) transactions that bypass the banking channel is gathering pace. We see this especially in developing nations like India, where traditional banking and financial services are not as well established, and consumers and businesses are jumping directly to P2P transactions providers.

The saturation of smartphone devices has also driven growth and this usage is likely to grow further as apps become more widely accepted across the P2P delivery platform. Currently, the strongest growth of P2P is taking place in the B2C space but many new start-ups are embracing the P2P concept and trials are taking place using blockchain and P2P-based approaches

It’s true that the direct transactional P2P model does not typically use blockchain today, but with faster and more cost-effective processing as a by-product, it’s a matter of time before its use becomes widespread.

5 - Welcoming third party expertise

Third party technology providers with knowledge and understanding of how new technologies, not just limited to blockchain and cryptocurrencies, can best be taken advantage of to challenge and disrupt the market in the right way.

Traditional financial services providers need to tap into the experience and expertise of their peer group, the key providers in the marketplace. In addition, they need to tap into those in the industry who can help them to navigate these new technologies successfully, quickly and with less cost, than if they try to do it alone.