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? Daily Crypto News, August, 8th?

August 8, 2019 (updated August 8, 2019) Published by

Welcome to the Daily Crypto News: A complete Press Review, Coin Calendar and Trading Analysis. Enjoy!

? Steemit Statistics & Big Datas: ? End of July 2019 Update ?

We reached 12.2 mn visits in July 2019!

There is an important difference between total visitors to a site and unique ones. In this case the 12.2mn include the multiple times a person visited the website.

Therefore, as a good Steemian you probably connect everyday which will make you count for a total of 30 visits.

Therefore, how many “unique users” does Steemit has?

I] Traffic

Daily Steemit Traffic

You can find the full analysis here


? An Extortion Gone Bad: Inside Binance’s Negotiations With Its ‘KYC Hacker’

The Takeaway

Prior to publishing details about real Binance customers online Wednesday, a hacker operating under the pseudonym “Bnatov Platon” had a month-long conversation with CoinDesk reporters.


In the talks, Platon revealed how he allegedly hacked individuals behind an earlier hack in which 7,000 bitcoin was stolen from the world’s largest exchange.


Platon claimed his aims were altruistic, and that he simply wanted to bring the hackers’ identities to justice. However, it appears he also effectively asked for money in exchange for promises he would not release Binance’s customer data.


Platon and Binance would hold numerous talks, and reportedly struck a deal that was later aborted. CoinDesk has obtained full transcripts of these conversations.

? Ex-Coinbase CTO Is Behind Mysterious Nakamoto.com

Nakamoto.com is a website that’s more than twice as old as bitcoin, and for most of its life, it has just redirected to a San Francisco developer’s personal website.


Now, though, according to two industry sources, it’s under the ownership of one of the best-known investors in crypto: Balaji S. Srinivasan, former Andreessen Horowitz partner, founder of Earn.com and former chief technology officer of Coinbase.


The current site says, “Nakamoto is bitcoin country. HODL or GTFO.”

As of now, potential users can only enter their email address and await more information. Srinivasan never directly responded to multiple attempts to confirm he was running the site, but in a recent tweet he recommended a go-to-market strategy similar to the one the site appears to be using:

? Doubling up on STEEM! Reasons and Thoughts

Here is a quick post to tell you that I am doubling up on STEEM. One of the reasons is HF21 (find all the info from @steemitblog‘s post here) but this is neither the only one or the most important.

I think HF21 has its flows, yes it redistributes more to SP holder, but through this it will bring more investors, therefore more Buying pressure and a better STEEM Price I Believe.

More curation rewards also means more attention spent by SP Holder to curate content of quality. This would be beneficial to the entire STEEM Community.

In the end, what is the point to have 75% of your posts STEEM rewards / SBD if they are valued at a few cents, wouldn’t it be better to have 50% of a post valued a few $$$?

Full post Here

? Report: Around 300 Addresses Contain 80% of Tether Supply

The takeaway:

The Massachusetts-based crypto market research firm Coin Metrics says that 318 addresses hold at least $1 million worth of Tether (USDT), comprising 80% of the global Tether supply.


Bloomberg reported the company’s finding in a report on Aug. 7. Coin Metrics co-founder Nic Carter additionally mentioned that some of the USDT whales include major crypto exchanges, such as Binance and Bitfinex.


The report additionally notes that this is staggeringly different from the distribution of Bitcoin (BTC), for which whales apparently hold only around 20% of the total token supply. Moreover, over 20,000 BTC addresses reportedly hold at least $1 million in equivalent assets.

However, despite Bitcoin being more evenly distributed among its user base, the USDT whales may be able to swing the Bitcoin price on their own, as suggested by University of Texas at Austin finance professor John Griffin:

“The concentration of Tether suggests that control of Tether is in the hands of a few central players who can swing Bitcoin prices, and have a vested interest in doing so […] It also suggests that many exchange players have a vested interest in keeping the Tether game going.”

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? Daily Crypto Calendar, August, 8th?

“Look forward to year in review and an important announcement to celebrate the $ARN date!”

BitMax Listing

AMA session with Fivebalance at 7:00 AM (UTC). 1,000,000 FBN to be airdropped.

“Every Thursday at 8PM (UTC+8), join us to learn all about your favorite projects and their exciting developments!”

“Live AMA with our CEO @Kris_HK on @cryptocom ‘s Twitter this Thursday, 8 August, 11AM HKT.”

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STEEM Trading Update by my friend @cryptopassion

Here is the chart of yersterday :

STEEMUSD.jpg

Here is the current chart :

STEEMUSD.jpg

And the support line at 0.21$ is now broken… and the drop is continuing. I just have a little hope that it is a trap from the market and that we will be back upper than this line in the coming hours. If it is not the case, the drop should become more powerfull and show us where the market want to go…

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Last Updates

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Join this new Free To Play on the STEEM Platform !

? Daily Crypto News, August, 7th?

August 7, 2019 (updated August 7, 2019) Published by
  • Shark Tank’s Kevin O’Leary Questions Bitcoin’s Role as ‘Safe Haven’ ;
  • Bitcoin and Ether Lender BlockFi Raises $18.3 Million Series A ;
  • UK’s Tax Authority Requests User Data From Crypto Exchanges ;
  • Doubling up on STEEM! Reasons and Thoughts ;
  • Binance’s CZ: Like It or Not, Facebook’s Libra Coin Is Poised for Mass Adoption ;
  • ? Daily Crypto Calendar, August, 7th?
  • STEEM Trading Update

Welcome to the Daily Crypto News: A complete Press Review, Coin Calendar and Trading Analysis. Enjoy!

? Shark Tank’s Kevin O’Leary Questions Bitcoin’s Role as ‘Safe Haven’

The debate over bitcoin’s role as a “safe haven” asset hit mainstream media on Tuesday, following reports that bitcoin’s recent price run could be attributed to Chinese capital flight.


Speaking with CNBC on Tuesday, businessman and co-host of NBC’s “Shark Tank” Kevin O’Leary and Morgan Creek Digital’s Anthony “Pomp” Pompliano took opposing sides in the conversation. Pompliano is a well-known bitcoin bull, while O’Leary played the role of skeptic.


Over the course of the conversation, Pompliano said over half of his net worth now resides in the world’s largest cryptocurrency by total value. O’Leary sought to describe the investment strategy as foolish in return.


“In any one stock, never more than 5 percent, in any one sector, never more than 20 percent,” O’Leary said. “I teach this stuff! You never go beyond concentrations of that nature! Fifty percent! Shame on you! That’s nuts!”

Responding to bitcoin’s role as a safe haven, Pompliano said the asset is negatively correlated with every other major asset class.


“[Morgan Creek Digital] has been banging the drum for over a year now saying that this is a non-correlated asymmetric asset. If you look at times of global instability like in May, where we are lobbing tariff threats and the trade wars are going on, bitcoin is up 55 percent. It’s got a negative correlation, -0.9 to S&P negative -0.8 to gold.”

? Bitcoin and Ether Lender BlockFi Raises $18.3 Million Series A

Crypto lending startup BlockFi received $18.3 million in a Series A funding round led by Valar Ventures, the company announced Tuesday.


Valar, which was founded in part by PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, was joined by Winklevoss Capital, Galaxy Digital, ConsenSys, Akuna Capital, Susquehanna, CMT Digital, Morgan Creek, Avon Ventures and PJC. Valar’s investment was its first in the cryptocurrency industry following prior investments in other fintech firms like Transferwise, a press release said.


According to a company statement, BlockFi plans on using the capital for additions to its product line up. The firm’s premier product, yield-bearing bitcoin deposits, launched in March. Besides deposits, BlockFi offers cryptocurrency-backed loans.

? UK’s Tax Authority Requests User Data From Crypto Exchanges

Crypto exchanges come under fire


According to fintech-focused media outlet Coindesk, industry sources said that the agency has sent letters to at least three crypto exchanges in the U.K., including Coinbase, eToro, and CEX.io, requesting that they provide lists of users and transaction data.


HMRC is reportedly aiming to cooperate with crypto exchanges in a bid to identify individuals who evade taxes. According to the cited sources, the agency will probably only go back two or three years:


“If they [HMRC] do only go back two or three years, I think the interesting thing here is, that the individuals who went into crypto very early on in 2012-13 will not be affected. The ones who probably made the largest gains won’t be affected, it will be the people who came in around the time crypto peaked.”

? Doubling up on STEEM! Reasons and Thoughts

Here is a quick post to tell you that I am doubling up on STEEM. One of the reasons is HF21 (find all the info from @steemitblog‘s post here) but this is neither the only one or the most important.

I think HF21 has its flows, yes it redistributes more to SP holder, but through this it will bring more investors, therefore more Buying pressure and a better STEEM Price I Believe.

More curation rewards also means more attention spent by SP Holder to curate content of quality. This would be beneficial to the entire STEEM Community.

In the end, what is the point to have 75% of your posts STEEM rewards / SBD if they are valued at a few cents, wouldn’t it be better to have 50% of a post valued a few $$$?

Full post Here

? Binance’s CZ: Like It or Not, Facebook’s Libra Coin Is Poised for Mass Adoption

The takeaway:

Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (“CZ”) hopes to open a London office “very soon” as the crypto exchange turns its focus to Europe. Brexit won’t hurt and if anything will be good for crypto, he predicts.

On Facebook’s Libra project, CZ anticipates practical benefits from potentially listing the coin, and also hinted at further collaboration.

The forthcoming Binance.US is working with the usual suspects among crypto’s reliable banking partners.

CZ calls crypto insurance a “flawed concept.” Binance instead dedicates 10 percent of its $100 million in quarterly revenues to its internal “SAFU fund.”

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? Daily Crypto Calendar, August, 7th?

“@Gate_io startup project program, starting on the 7th of August”

“The rebrand will update the roadmap, website, products, vision, and we have a significant announcement regarding our future…”

“You will be able to see how our format seamlessly merges with a real 3D environment.”

“Join us next Wednesday 08/07 at 1 PM EST/ 5 PM UTC.”

“The AMA will go live on the 7th of August, 5 PM UTC.”

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STEEM Trading Update by my friend @cryptopassion

Here is the chart of yersterday :

STEEMUSD.jpg

Here is the current chart :

STEEMUSD.jpg

As expected, we are now testing the support line at 0.21$. It was foreseen in my previous posts and yeah it is happening… Not a good news but it is life, what can we do… So yeah, this support line is a major support line and as I explained yesterday, if we break this support, I think we will really go deeper… If you are thinking about buying new STEEM because it is SALE price, I suggest you to wait the results of the current test because if we break it, I think you will be able to buy a lot cheaper than now….

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Last Updates

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Join this new Free To Play on the STEEM Platform !


I’m Following The Smart Money, Are You???

August 7, 2019 Published by

The book, The Millionaire Next Door, published 1996 and having sold more than 3 million books in essence is about living below your means and being financially responsible in order to allow your cash to work for you vs. you working for cash.

If you don’t have one of these type of neighbors to mimic, just follow what the Smart Money on Wall Street is doing.

TIGER 21

Wealthy investors are trimming their stock positions, amid anxiety around a trade war and instability in Washington.

Members of TIGER 21, an investment club for high-net-worth individuals, reduced their stock allocation to 21% from 22% during the second quarter, according to the group’s quarterly report.

TIGER 21, a group of about 700 people with at least $10 million to invest, stands for The Investment Group for Enhanced Results in the 21st Century.

“They are concerned about the fact that the markets were priced to perfection; they thought they reached real highs,” said Michael Sonnenfeldt, founder of TIGER 21.

Source

Warren Buffett

Warren is the greatest investors of our lifetime.  Many don’t know he made the bulk of his money selling insurance.  Yes, he owns GEICO and many other insurance companies, but I’m talking about insurance in the form of options, where he collects premium with the right to buy the asset at a later day.  For example, during the Great Recession, Buffett loaned Goldman Sachs $5 billion.   Not only did Goldman agreed to pay a 10% dividend on preferred shares to Buffett, which cost Goldman about $500 million a year, but when Buffett finally cashed in, in total, Buffett made about $1.75 billion in cash and about $1.35 billion in stock, roughly a 62% return on a five-year investment.

With stocks at record highs, Berkshire Hathaway Inc. sold $1 billion more worth of stocks than it bought last quarter, its biggest net selling since the end of 2017. The result was that the company’s cash hoard — a major focus for investors in recent years — surged to a record $122 billion.

Source

Jeff Bezos

Between July 29th and Aug. 2nd the CEO of Amazon sold 1.5 million shares, while the stock sold off 6% during that same time frame.  But Jeff is by no means hurting, he’s still the richest man in the world.  Speaking of Amazon, the stock, well it’s sitting between daily supply and demand zones. 

Some folks on Wall Street have a $2500 target.  What I see is long term momentum decreasing.  It most certainly can break out, but it most certainly can break down too. Only time will tell, but in the meantime, I’m following the Smart Money.

This post is my personal opinion. I’m not a financial advisor, this isn’t financial advise. Do your own research before making investment decisions.

Capital One reports data breach affecting 100m customers

August 6, 2019 Published by

Capital
One reports data breach affecting 100m customers (The WSJ)

  • Capital One, the 5th largest US credit card issuer, confirmed on Monday that a hacker accessed the personal information of around 106m card customers & applicants, in one of the largest data breaches of a big “bank”.
  • The bulk of the exposed data related to information submitted by customers and small businesses that applied for Capital One credit cards between 2005 & early 2019. It appears that the breach occurred as long ago as late March 2019, and that it was found by a so called white hat hacker, who emailed Capital One about the leak.
  • Capital One was an enthusiastic adaptor of the cloud for data storage, with the process of shifting all data to AWS due to be completed by 2020.
  • The data hacked apparently included social security numbers, bank account numbers, credit scores & payment histories but not credit card numbers.

Analysis and Comments

  • There was some early speculation that as the hacker had previously worked at AWS, that the hack might have come from there, but more recent filings by the FBI suggest that the Capital One data breach was the result of a configuration vulnerability in the Capital One system.
  • The Capital One breach came just days after credit reporting agency Equifax announced a c. $700m settlement with a number of US government agencies regarding their data breach  FTC blog on Equifax settlement. The settlement includes a sum of up to $425m for the c. 147m customers that were potentially impacted by the breach announced in Sept 2017.
  • Capital One was quoted as saying that they would make provision for costs of c. $100-$150m in 2019 to cover the notification of customers, credit monitoring & technology & legal costs. Although if the Equifax settlement is anything to go by this might not be all they end up spending.
  • According to the FT, news of the breach sent the shares of Capital One down 5.9% – a big move but not massive. This suggests to us that some investors are starting to view these breaches and the subsequent costs and fines, as just being a “cost of doing business”.
  • This approach may end up being risky. In the US, there have been increasing calls for more regulation of the way financial institutions protect their customers data Credit agencies must change how they manage data. Some commentators have drawn parallels with the European GDPR structure, where penalties of up to 4% of global turnover (up to E20m) can be imposed for breaches in processes around how client data is handled EU GDPR rules. In addition, much larger fines, such as the notice of intent to fine BA for a large data breach in 2018 ICO to fine BA £183m.
  • Consumers are increasingly looking to transact online – as more industries go digital, especially via the cloud, this is an issue that is going to take up more investor attention.

Capital One Stock Price

? Daily Crypto News, August, 6th?

August 6, 2019 (updated August 6, 2019) Published by
  • US Federal Reserve Launching Payment System ;
  • Litecoin Just Halved Its Crypto Rewards for Miners ;
  • A Battle Between Bitcoin Wallets Has Big Implications for Privacy ;
  • Doubling up on STEEM! Reasons and Thoughts ;
  • North Korea Stole $2 Billion in Cryptocurrency From Exchanges, Says UN ;
  • ? Daily Crypto Calendar, August, 6th?
  • STEEM Trading Update

Welcome to the Daily Crypto News: A complete Press Review, Coin Calendar and Trading Analysis. Enjoy!

? US Federal Reserve Launching Payment System

The United States Federal Reserve Board is planning to release a real-time payments and settlements service in order to boost the payments infrastructure in the country.


A press release published on Aug. 5 reads that the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System has requested that Federal Reserve Banks develop a new interbank real-time settlement service to support faster payments in the U.S. The payment system is called FedNow and will purportedly launch in 2023 or 2024.


By launching FedNow, the Fed aims to modernize the country’s payment system with a real-time service that can transfer funds around the clock and on weekends and weekdays. The service will purportedly be available to both businesses and the general public.

? Litecoin Just Halved Its Crypto Rewards for Miners

Litecoin (LTC), currently the fourth-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, has just reduced its block reward for miners by half.


The litecoin blockchain reached the trigger block height of 1,680,000 at 10:16 UTC on Monday, according to the litecoin explorer from mining pool operator BTC.com.


The event marks a major threshold for miners, as the litecoin network is designed to reduce its mining rewards by half every 840,000 blocks (roughly every four years).

For this “halving,” the mining reward for every block has been reduced from the previous 25 LTC to 12.5 LTC

? A Battle Between Bitcoin Wallets Has Big Implications for Privacy

Bitcoin privacy wallet Samourai announced last Thursday that its primary competitor, Wasabi Wallet, is the target of an ongoing network attack.


The blog post is the latest in a string of allegations Samourai has leveled against Wasabi since mid-July.
The attack, according to Samourai Wallet, resembles a Sybil attack, where a small number of users falsifies new identities and pretends to be much larger in number. This would mean that the anonymity set, or crowd, in which a user can hide their bitcoin transactions is not actually as large as Wasabi suggests.


“As the Wasabi team has described it, the goal of the Wasabi mixing technique, is to hide your [unspent transaction outputs] in a ‘sufficiently’ large crowd (peers),” Samourai wrote in its blog post. “The current target Anonymity Set in Wasabi mixing is 100 peers.”

? Doubling up on STEEM! Reasons and Thoughts

Here is a quick post to tell you that I am doubling up on STEEM. One of the reasons is HF21 (find all the info from @steemitblog‘s post here) but this is neither the only one or the most important.

I think HF21 has its flows, yes it redistributes more to SP holder, but through this it will bring more investors, therefore more Buying pressure and a better STEEM Price I Believe.

More curation rewards also means more attention spent by SP Holder to curate content of quality. This would be beneficial to the entire STEEM Community.

In the end, what is the point to have 75% of your posts STEEM rewards / SBD if they are valued at a few cents, wouldn’t it be better to have 50% of a post valued a few $$$?

Full post Here

? North Korea Stole $2 Billion in Cryptocurrency From Exchanges, Says UN

UN: Hacked crypto funds weapons of mass destruction


In a confidential report acquired by mainstream media outlets including Reuters on Aug. 5, the U.N. Security Council North Korea sanctions committee said that hackers formed an essential part of government funding. 


“Democratic People’s Republic of Korea cyber actors, many operating under the direction of the Reconnaissance General Bureau, raise money for its WMD (weapons of mass destruction) programs, with total proceeds to date estimated at up to two billion US dollars,” Reuters quoted the report as stating.

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? Daily Crypto Calendar, August, 6th?

The Litecoin block mining reward halves every 840,000 blocks, the coin reward will decrease from 25 to 12.5 coins.

On August, 6th Deex launches the closed testing campaign of decentralized messenger for iOS devices.

AUX launches a new version of the website and updates social media by August 6th.

“We invite you to join an #AMA with our new partner, #nOS (@nOSplatform)… 5PM UTC (17:00 UTC) in $ARK’s Slack!”

“Join members of the SDF partnerships team tomorrow, Tuesday, August 6 for a free online workshop for Stellar developers.”

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STEEM Trading Update by my friend @cryptopassion

Here is the chart of yersterday :

STEEMUSD.jpg

Here is the current chart :

STEEMUSD.jpg

So after the confirmation of the break yesterday, the STEEM is now waiting just under the line which is now a resistance line. It is not a bad news and we could have a big drop due to the break but I think that the nice UP of the BTC is helping us to don’t drop. Let’s see what will happen soon. The BTC cound correct quiet soon and it could be the excuse for the STEEM to continue its drop.

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Last Updates

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Join this new Free To Play on the STEEM Platform !

Doubling up on STEEM! Reasons and Thoughts

August 5, 2019 (updated August 5, 2019) Published by

Dear Steemians,

Here is a quick post to tell you that I am doubling up on STEEM. One of the Reason is HF21 (find all the info from @steemitblog’s post here) but this is neither the only one or the most important.

I think HF21 has its flows, yes it redistributes more to SP holder, but through this it will bring more investors, therefore more Buying pressure and a better STEEM Price I Believe.

More curation rewards also means more attention spent by SP Holder to curate content of quality. This would be beneficial to the entire STEEM Community.

In the end, what is the point to have 75% of your posts STEEM rewards / SBD if they are valued at a few cents, wouldn’t it be better to have 50% of a post valued a few $$$?

Not to mention that your SP and current liquid STEEM would increase in overall value.

As you know, a good STEEM price increase would attract new users, which will make prices go up : Virtuous circle.

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Lately, I have assisted to many projects which confirm that STEEM is the Home of an innovating ecosystem with great entrepreneurs

  • @actifit launching its token on Steem-engine
  • @steem-engine allowing projects to get some kind of funding
  • @steemmonsters keeps on rolling ! Guilds are online and I think the phone APP launch will be the “going to mainstream” moment
  • @drugwars developments are continuing and even if the last release was not to the liking of some in the Community, th game is heading in the right direction
  • @nextcolony is launched and people seem to enjoy it
  • @steem-bounty increases interactions between Steemians
  • @steemhunt has maintained a high level of engagement
  • @partiko is working smoothly and is still my go to app on a mobile phone. (@esteem is also very popular)
  • @steempress allow bloggers all over the world to publish on Steem so easily
  • @dtube and @threespeak allow “Youtubers” to share and earn through the STEEM Platform
  • @appics is entering its final phase of development and will launch its token very soon

I could go on and on ! So many great projects out there !

Later, in another post, I will also share with you some doubts about some of the coins that popped up on Steem-Engine and are valued at delirious levels.

Later, in another post, I will also share with you some doubts about some of the coins that popped up on Steem-Engine and are valued at delirious levels.

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My Latest Transfers to Steemit

Today

On July, 30th

Preparing HF21

As I want to be very active after this HF21, I decided to increase my SP in order to curate some of the best content creators I know on the STEEM Platform

If you happen to have some Spare SP, do not hesitate to fill my offer on @minnowbooster !

I hope you enjoyed this post, if you did : upvote, comment and resteem. I will upvote answers and set a nice @steem-bounty.

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Germany expanding digitisation with the new Digital Care Act

August 4, 2019 Published by

Germany
expanding digitisation with the new Digital Care Act (Health Europa)

  • Germany has introduced the new Digital Care Act, which builds upon the 2016 ‘E Health Act’ that focused on developing information and communication technology in healthcare, particularly in the form of ‘electronic health cards’ and ‘electronic patient files’.
  • The new Digital Care Act will enable doctors to prescribe health apps, the cost of which, under certain conditions, will be reimbursed by German statutory health insurances.
  • Additionally, the German Act that currently prohibits the advertising for remote consultations will be amended, and any planned regulations of the introduction of the ‘electronic patient file’ have been removed, in order to facilitate its launch at the turn of the year 2020/2021.

Analysis and Comments

  • The electronic health card serves as an insurance card for people with statutory health insurance, while the electronic patient file (which hasn’t been built yet) is a further development of the card.
  • The file will enable statutory health-insured people to access a broad range of medical information such as, for example, findings, diagnoses, therapy measures, treatment reports, and vaccine history.
  • A separate privacy law governing the sensitive health data that is to be recorded in the electronic patient file is due to come into effect in January 2021.
  • Ultimately, the new law simply recognises the fact that patients have already been using health apps of various kinds, and stresses Germany’s intent to introduce digital services such as the electronic patient records as soon as possible.
  • Australia recently introduced a similar patient file called ‘My Health Record’, which apparently not only many Australians have opted out of, but is currently often empty (i.e. not being used as information is not being shared in a meaningful way between all parts of the system).

More Downside Ahead For Fluor Corp. – Part 2

August 3, 2019 Published by

Two months ago, I wrote,

More Downside Ahead For Fluor Corp.

Fluor Corporation, through its subsidiaries, provides engineering, procurement, construction, fabrication and modularization, operation, maintenance and asset integrity, and project management services worldwide.

Fluor is not only down 30% in May, but down 50% since the beginning of the year. And since the monthly candle just closed below the 2009 pivot low, the chart suggests price will continue to decline to the monthly demand at $13.

Today, I had a great conversation with some of the folks over at the Steemleo Discord channel where I stated the Markets can be timed.

Fluor Corp. is just one example. The fundamentals would of allowed you to time the down fall in Fluor Corp. from the previous earning announcement in May. On Friday Fluor Corp. announced their second quarter earnings.  The company reported a net loss of $554.8 million, or $3.96 a share, from a profit of $114.8 million, or 82 cents a share, from a year ago and missed revenue expectations in the process. During the earnings call, the CFO said cash flow was going to be in the red the rest of the year negative and that they would need to sale off some assets.   

Even if you aren’t a fundamentalist…like myself, the charts told you the same thing and suggested more downside. After Fluor Corp announced their earnings, the stock dropped more than 25% to a level not seen since November of 2004. We are talking about level last seen 15 years ago.

So whether you area fundamentalist or a chart technician, both analysis work, however, I just chose to use the charts to time the markets as I think it’s a better leading indicator because the Smart Money also leaves their footprints behind.

This post is my personal opinion. I’m not a financial advisor, this isn’t financial advise. Do your own research before making investment decisions.

Takeaway agrees to buy Just Eat in $10bn deal

August 3, 2019 Published by

Takeaway
agrees to buy Just Eat in $10bn deal (Reuters)

  • While Reuters reported this as a takeover, its more strictly a merger. And of course, as with all these deals, its just discussions, Takeaway.com has until 24th Aug to announce a firm offer or withdraw (Takeover panel rules).
  • Investors in Just Eat are likely to be offered 0.9744 Takeaway.com shares for each Just Eat share, implying a value of 731p or c. a 15% premium to the closing price on the previous Friday before the possible deal was announced. As a result, Just Eat shareholders would own just over 52% of the combined group.
  • The article highlights the apparent role of US activist investor Cat Rock, who is a holder of shares in both companies.
  • Some analysts have highlighted the lack of overlap between the two companies (the exception being Switzerland) as being a positive feature of the proposed deal.
  • Takeaway.com argues that online food ordering can be highly profitable – but only for the leading player in each market.

Analysis and comments

  • The competitive situation for the two companies is very different. Takeaway’s markets have a limited overlap with Uber & Deliveroo, whereas for Just Eat the situation is the exact opposite.
  • The cross border synergies between operators are limited, unless the target company is very inefficiently run.
  • This deal highlights some wider lessons for similar platform type markets. Yes, the potential end market is large (& growing rapidly). But, having a large (& fast growing) addressable market is not enough on its own to ensure profitability.
  • Its important to also look at the local delivery cost structure & the level of competition. On both counts the outlook for Just Eat looks challenging.
  • This is an aspect of many of the new emerging companies that investors seem to miss – yes the end market looks attractive, but even if there are barriers to entry, multiple players in the market can make it really tough to select a long term winner.
  • Furthermore, if the infrastructure or product is replicable – companies may sustain extended losses as they fight for market share, especially if your competitor has deep pockets.

We need to shift the healthcare focus to preventative

August 2, 2019 Published by

We need
to shift the healthcare focus to preventative (The Conversation)

  • On the 22nd July, in the last days of the May government in theUK, a green discussion paper was released on preventative healthcare. The report highlights the long term risk to health budgets if the emerging (& in some cases already emerged) life style risk factors (smoking, obesity, diabetes etc.) are not addressed
  • The report flags some of the recent successes, including the reduction in smoking (its now down to fewer than 1 in 6 of the adult population)
  • But, it also highlights some of the risk factors we are yet to find solutions to – of which the biggest is obesity (especially in children)
  • The report goes on to discuss the increasingly important role that technology will play in helping to solve these problems, obviously not on their own but as part of a wider shift in healthcare priorities
  • The article also highlights that only 5% of UK NHS spending (which is the bulk of the governments healthcare budget) goes on preventative medicine.

Analysis and Comments

  • This report and the related article picks up two very important issues in healthcare – that we think will have material impacts for investors.
  • Much of what we see in the industry around innovation is about better ways of doing the same thing (better heart valves, improved drugs etc). This is in of itself a good thing, but its not enough if innovation is really to make a difference to long term health outcomes
  • This article also picks up on the second important issue, institutional change. Across Europe much of our healthcare industry is driven by government spending & priorities. In such an environment, switching to preventative healthcare is tough as it does not really contribute to achieving short (or in some cases even medium) term goals.
  • The article picks out a number of areas where current technology, properly applied, could make a difference to longer term health outcomes. Inaddition, just yesterday, there were reports out can Google predict kidney disease, that suggest AI could be used to help identify those hospital patients that are at a high risk of developing kidney related complications. The current trial at the Royal London Free Hospital, seems to have gone well kidney app a life saver.
  • These technological advancements to really gain traction need a shift in emphasis among politicians, who set government healthcare priorities. When that happens we could see an explosion in opportunity for European healthcare companies.
April 2024
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