All eight indexes on our world watch list have posted gains for 2017 through November 20. The top performer thus far is Hong Kong’s Hang Seng with a gain of 33.0%, followed by India’s BSE SENSEX at 25.43%. In third is Tokyo’s Nikkei with 16.47%.

The Last Four Weeks

The tables below provide a concise overview of performance comparisons over the last four weeks for these eight major indexes. We’ve also included the average for each week so that we can evaluate the performance of a specific index relative to the overall mean and better understand weekly volatility. The colors for each index name help us visualize the comparative performance over time.

2017 YTD Performance

Here is an overlay of the eight illustrating their comparative performance thus far in 2017.

….continue reading for the Bear Market Perspective,  the Longer Term Perspective & Charts HERE

also from Advisor Perspectives:

Six Themes That Will Drive The Next 5 Years

…..related: All the Reasons Cryptocurrencies Will Never Replace Gold as Your Financial Hedge

Square, a payment company, is playing around with Bitcoin. In an article on CNBC, we read:

Jack Dorsey’s company is testing support for bitcoin through its Cash payments app.

“We’re exploring how Square can make this experience faster and easier, and have rolled out this feature to a small number of Cash app customers,” a Square spokesperson said via email to CNBC. “We believe cryptocurrency can greatly impact the ability of individuals to participate in the global financial system and we’re excited to learn more here.”

The test does not allow individuals or businesses to send or accept bitcoin, Square said.

Shares of Square spiked more than 5 percent Wednesday to a record high as one Wall Street firm was quick to recommend the stock on this potential development. The stock closed up 2.3 percent at $40.66 a share.

We are always skeptical when we hear something like: “Stock X has rallied because Y.” It is very hard to pinpoint specific reasons behind a given move. We’re not saying that the Bitcoin news was not the reason why Square went up. We’d simply rather say that it is a possibility rather than certainty as it might be gleaned from many media stories. The same goes for the “Bitcoin goes up because of the Square move” story. Wait, does Bitcoin affect Square or does Square affect Bitcoin? Which one is it? Or is it both? You can immediately appreciate the subtlety of any reasonable answer. While the Square story reads well and for precisely this reason is featured heavily in the media, the recent price move might have implications for the Bitcoin market beyond the possible temporary impact of the news.

For now, let’s focus on the charts.

 On Bitstamp, we saw very interesting and potentially quite important action as Bitcoin went down hard, and then came back with a vengeance. What might this mean for the Bitcoin market? Recall our recent comments:

The move up was partially reversed with Bitcoin falling steeply to around $5,500 yesterday. Bitcoin went below the 23.6% Fibonacci retracement level ($6,206) before coming back above this level today. This might mean that all the bearish indications have been nullified, particularly since yesterday’s move was completed on significant volume, at least in comparison with what we have seen in the last couple of weeks.

Depending on what move you precisely look at, we can draw several 23.6% Fibonacci retracements. Bitcoin, however, went back above the level we mentioned previously and also above all the 23.6% retracement levels we have considered writing this article. And it did so in a quite visible manner. This means that the situation is now decidedly more bullish than it was only a couple days ago.

On the long-term Bitfinex chart, we see the recent rebound very clearly. In our previous alert, we wrote:

Right now the situation is very different than what we saw previously. Right now, the situation is one in which we’re right after a very strong move to the downside but with no meaningful breakdowns. In other words, the very recent depreciation is significant in terms of price and volatility but not necessarily when compared to the overall rally back from around $1,000. It seems that a continuation of a move to the upside and a new all-time high might be in the cards. The next day or two might be critical in determining the next possible move.

It turns out that a move up was in the cards and that the recent invalidation of the breakdown below the 23.6% retracement (it almost doesn’t depend on which precise retracement we use). Also, depending on the time horizon, we saw a breakdown below the 38.2% retracement and a rebound. All this is quite important in and of itself. There are at least two additional factors to consider now, both of the bullish. Firstly, Bitcoin is not overbought in terms of the RSI. This might mean that there is still ample room for the currency to go up. Secondly, the recent local bottom was formed on very significant volume, which can be clearly seen on the chart. Combining these facts leaves us with a potentially bullish picture for the short-term, in our opinion.

If you have enjoyed the above analysis and would like to receive free follow-ups, we encourage you to sign up for our daily newsletter – it’s free and if you don’t like it, you can unsubscribe with just 2 clicks. If you sign up today, you’ll also get 7 days of free access to our premium daily Gold & Silver Trading Alerts. Sign up now.

Thank you.

Regards,

Mike McAra
Bitcoin Trading Strategist
Bitcoin Trading Alerts

1. Interest Rates will Double

   by Martin Armstrong

The fall of Byzantium resulting in the financial capital of the world moving to India – not Spain. That is why Columbus set sail trying to get to India, which was the financial capital of the world after Byzantium.

…read more HERE

2. RECORDS BEING BROKEN: This Is Exactly The Kind Of Thing The Late, Great Richard Russell Used To Warn His Readers About…

Records Broken At Art & Diamond Auctions! Also MAJOR ALERT: Remarkable Commercial Trading Moves In Silver & Crude Oil!

….continue HERE

3. Real Estate: Canada’s 6 Biggest Metros & The Plunge-o-Meter

In October 2017 Toronto metro SFD prices hung on to their recent correction high but after 7 months since the March 2017 spike and peak price, they have lost $206,215 or 17%

Vancouver prices are still defying gravity; FOMO and speculative pricing is still on.

….read it all HERE

Before the middle of this century, the growth rates of our technology— which will be indistinguishable from ourselves— will be so steep as to appear essentially vertical. From a strictly mathematical perspective, the growth rates will still be finite but so extreme that the changes they bring about will appear to rupture the fabric of human history. That, at least, will be the perspective of unenhanced biological humanity.

Kurzweil, Ray. The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology, September 26, 2006  

Massive debt is sealing the fate of governments and central banks.   As the cards collapse, radical developments in diverse areas of technology, combined with free market entrepreneurship, will destroy and rebuild the existing social order.

Smith, George Ford. The Fall of Tyranny, the Rise of Liberty, January 21, 2017 

My purpose in “Living with the Exponential” series is to get our thinking oriented to the supercharged future that awaits us.  One sample of this future has already arrived when it was reported a month ago that AlphaGo Zero defeated AlphaGo in the game of Go, 100 games to none.  A few months earlier AlphaGo had topped the best human player.  Unlike AlphaGo, AlphaGo Zero taught itself to play Go.

In 2011, IBM’s Watson computer defeated the two best Jeopardy! players.  Watson has since gone to medical school to assist doctors in their diagnoses.

Chess programs that run on desktop computers or even smartphonesroutinely beat human grandmasters.

The tech industry has spawned billionaires by selling to the masses.  Tech titans aim to eliminate disease itself, including aging. 

But the radical future isn’t limited to digits, as we’re seeing with Brexit and Catalonia.  

The world is changing fast, and it will change much faster in the years ahead.  Let’s try to stay on top of it.

Medicine

Gene Editing

“We cut your DNA, open it up, insert a gene, stitch it back up. Invisible mending,” said Dr. Sandy Macrae, president of Sangamo Therapeutics, the California company testing this for two metabolic diseases and hemophilia. “It becomes part of your DNA and is there for the rest of your life.”

It’s like sending a mini surgeon along to place the new gene in exactly the right location.

The experiment was done Monday in California on 44-year-old Brian Madeux. Through an IV, he received billions of copies of a corrective gene and a genetic tool to cut his DNA in a precise spot.

Signs of whether it’s working may come in a month; tests will show for sure in three months.

See AP Exclusive: US scientists try 1st gene editing in the body  (11-15-2017)

Surgical Training using Virtual Reality (VR)

We wiil need to double the number of surgeons by 2030 to meet the needs of the developing world.

Dr. Shafi Ahmed wants to train them simultaneously using VR.

“Ahmed made a splash back in 2014 when he reached 14,000 surgeons across 100 different countries by using Google Glass to stream a surgical training session. In 2016, Ahmed took this a step further by live-streaming a cancer surgery in virtual reality that was shot in 360-degree video while he removed a colon tumor from a patient.”

He also streamed Twitter’s first live operation.

Ahmed: “Forget one-to-one. My idea is one to many. I want to share knowledge with the masses.”

See Virtual Reality Is Reshaping Medical Training and Treatment (11-12-2017)

Treating babies born with jaundice

About 60 percent of babies are born with jaundice—a yellow tint to the skin and whites of the eyes.

The color is a sign that the baby’s blood has too much bilirubin—a byproduct of the body replacing old red blood cells.

The liver normally flushes bilirubin out of the body, but a newborns’ organ often can’t get the job done efficiently.

Newborns being treated for jaundice must often lie naked under therapeutic blue light for hours at a time.

New light-emitting pajamas could give parents a more comfortable, portable option for their babies. 

See Light-Up Pajamas to Treat Babies With Jaundice  (11-8-2017)

Reversing Aging

A team led by Dr. Dongsheng Cai from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine pinpointed a critical source of aging to a small group of stem cells within the hypothalamus.

Like fountains of youth, these stem cells release tiny fatty bubbles filled with mixtures of small biological molecules called microRNAs. With age, these cells die out, and the animal’s muscle, skin and brain function declines.

However, when the team transplanted these stem cells from young animals into a middle-aged one, they slowed aging. 

In a groundbreaking paper published in 2013, Cai found that a molecule called NF-kappaB increased in the hypothalamus as an animal grew older. Zap out NF-kappaB activity in mice, and they showed much fewer age-related symptoms as they grew older.

The animals also better preserved their muscle strength, skin thickness, bone and tendon integrity.

See Breakthrough Stem Cell Study Offers New Clues to Reversing Aging  (8-6-2017)

Artificial Intelligence

Ray Kurzweil: 

[When] a girl in Africa buys a smartphone for $75, it counts as $75 of economic activity, despite the fact that it’s literally a trillion dollars of computation circa 1960, a billion dollars circa 1980. It’s got millions of dollars in free information apps, just one of which is an encyclopedia far better than the one I saved up for years as a teenager to buy. All that counts for zero in economic activity because it’s free. So we really don’t count the value of these products.

Technology is always going to be a double-edged sword. Fire kept us warm, cooked our food, and burned down our houses. . .   It’s only continued progress particularly in AI that’s going to enable us to continue overcoming poverty and disease and environmental degradation while we attend to the peril.

I’m a believer that the Turing Test is a valid test of the full range of human intelligence. . .  I’ve been consistent in saying 2029 [will be the year an AI passes the Turing Test].

See Ray Kurzweil on Turning Tests, Brain Extenders, and AI Ethics  (11-13-2017)

Integrated Circuits

Most wearable electronic devices that are currently available rely on rigid electronic components mounted on plastic, rubber or textiles. These have limited compatibility with the skin, are damaged when washed, and are uncomfortable to wear because they are not breathable.

University of Cambridge researchers have developed a process that is scalable and according to the researchers, there are no fundamental obstacles to the technological development of wearable electronic devices — both in terms of their complexity and performance.

The printed components are flexible, washable, and require low power — essential requirements for applications in wearable electronics.

The technology is being commercialized by Cambridge Enterprise, the University’s commercialization arm.

See Integrated circuits printed directly onto fabric for the first time  (11-10-2017)

Government

The United States was founded upon the concept of secession. Not once, but twice. First, in 1783, when colonies seceded from the British Empire. Second, in 1788, when states seceded from the United States. 

Within eight years of the ratification of the U.S. Constitution, the first secession movement arose.

It flared up, again, in 1800 when Jefferson was elected the third President of the United States.

And, again, in 1803 when President Jefferson purchased the Louisiana Territory from Napoleon.

New England States would seek secession from the United States again in 1811 over the admission of the State of Louisiana into the Union, and again in 1814-1815 over “Mr. Madison’s War.”

In the 1850s, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland, called “the middle states”, represented 40 percent of the U.S. economy. A powerful secessionist movement arose in these states calling for them to form a separate country.

When the seven “Deep South” states seceded in 1860-61, many Northern newspapers upheld their legal right to secede and advocated a peaceful separation.

Secessionist movements continue in the United States to this day.

See Secession is as American as apple pie  (11-6-2017)

http://barbarous-relic.blogspot.com/

Records Broken At Art & Diamond Auctions!

November 14  – This is exactly the kind of thing that the late, great Richard Russell, the “Godfather” of newsletter writers, used to keep an eye on — records being set at art and diamond auctions.  From Bloomberg in May of this year:

….continue reading HERE

…also from KingWorld:

MAJOR ALERT: Remarkable Commercial Trading Moves In Silver & Crude Oil!