市場新聞與洞察

2021 has been a profitable year for stocks in the Dow Jones Index. Since the turn of the year, the Dow has seen what appears to be a roaring rally with no end in sight, fuelled by a return of investor confidence and a stimulus package aiming to revitalise a stagnant U.S economy. In the first quarter of 2021, we've seen an increase of over 3000 points (approx. 10%) in the Dow Jones, setting all-time records daily.

One of the main stocks pushing the price ever higher is Chevron. With the resurgence of international travel and consumer demand plus the price of oil rebounding from historical lows, companies like Chevron and Halliburton have seen a wave of new investment. This in turn has boosted their stock price, contributing to the bullish wave in the Dow Jones Index.

One cannot ignore the rise of tech stocks. During the COVID Pandemic, YTD has seen a strong push for Intel (up 30.03% since 31/12/2020) which has contributed significantly to the rally. All indicators point to a bullish market for some time to come whilst bearing in mind we are still in a COVID volatile environment and everything can change.

The market speaks for itself and the market is well and truly behind the rally. Intel Chart Above Source: Yahoo Finance Chevron Chart Above Source: Yahoo Finance By Hasan Albandar

World's Largest Banks By Klavs Valters Banks play a significant role in our day-to-day lives and as the global economy continues to expand year-on-year, they will continue to do so. Even though the United States has the largest economy by Gross Domestic Product (GDP), China dominates the list of the biggest banks in the world (by asset value), with four banks coming from the world’s most populated country. But who are the top 10 of the world’s largest banks? 1.

Industrial and Commercial Bank of China It’s the biggest bank in the world measured by assets, which is worth of $3.62 trillion. Despite its status as a commercial bank, it is owned by the state. Its services include credit cards, loans, business finance and money management for high net worth individuals and companies. 2.

China Construction Bank With assets of $2.94 trillion, China Construction Bank is the second biggest in the world. The bank offers corporate banking, which deals with credit, company e-banking, credit lines as well as commercial loans. It has around 13,629 domestic branches as well as overseas branches in Hong Kong, Seoul, Singapore, Tokyo, Kuala Lumper, Melbourne, Sydney, Auckland, Luxembourg, Frankfurt, Barcelona and London. 3.

Agricultural Bank of China Founded in 1951, the Agricultural Bank of China is the third largest bank in the world with assets of $2.82 trillion. The bank deals with small farmers and large agricultural wholesale companies but also works with non-agricultural companies. The Beijing-based bank also has branches in Tokyo, Sydney, London and New York. 4.

Bank of China The Bank of China is the second largest lender in China overall and the largest lender to non-institutions. It offers investment banking, insurance and investing services as well as personal loans, debit and credit cards, mortgages and insurance. Bank of China is the most globally active out of the Chinese banks, with branches in around 27 countries including Australia, Canada, Germany, Russia, Italy, and the United Kingdom to name a few. 5.

HSBC HSBC is a British multinational banking and financial services company. The bank has offices in 80 countries around the world and it provides private banking and consumer finance as well as corporate banking and investment services. HSBC has total of $2.57 trillion in assets. 6.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. JPMorgan is the largest US bank and worlds second most valuable bank by market capitalization. It offers investment services, wealth management, asset management and securities.

It has total assets of $2.45 trillion, making it the sixth largest in the world. 7. BNP Paribas BNP Paribas is a French international bank with offices in over 70 countries around the world. The bank was formed when Paribas and Banque Nationale de Pairs (BNP) merged in 2000.

It is the largest French bank and has assets of $2.4 trillion. 8. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group is a Japanese financial services company with headquarters in Tokyo. It was founded in 2005 when it was announced the plans to merge UFJ with the Mitsubishi Tokyo Financial Group and it is now world’s 8 th largest bank with assets worth over $2.4 trillion. 9.

Bank of America Bank of America is a US bank with headquarters in Charlotte, North Carolina. It is the second largest bank in the US and offers services for personal banking, small and medium size businesses as well as large corporations. With assets around $2.15 trillion, it’s the 9 th largest bank in the world. 10.

Credit Agricole Group 10 th largest bank in the world and 2 nd largest in France is the Credit Agricole Group. It was founded in 1894 with headquarters based in Montrouge, just outside of Paris. The bank has a history of working with the farming industry and has assets of up to $1.91 trillion.

Almost every country in the world has a stock exchange with some countries having multiple exchanges. There are over 60 major exchanges across the globe with the total market cap of over $85 trillion. But only 18 of those are in the so-called ''$1 trillion club''.

The top 18 stock exchanges have a total value of $77 trillion which makes up around 90% of the total global stock exchange market cap. United States The United States has two of the largest stock exchanges in the world - The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and the National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations (NASDAQ). NYSE is the largest with a market cap of just over $23 trillion, that’s around $12 trillion more than second largest stock exchange NASDAQ.

Some of the biggest companies listed on NYSE include the tech giants Apple, Google, Microsoft and world’s 4th largest company by market cap - Amazon. Asia The largest stock exchanges in Asia are located in Tokyo (JPX) and Shanghai (SSE), with total market caps of $6.06 and $4.53 trillion respectively. Some of the largest companies on the JPX include automotive manufacturer Toyota, SoftBank, Mitsubishi and NTT DoCoMo.

Europe The largest European based stock exchange is based in Amsterdam (Euronext) with a market cap of around $4.34 trillion, closely followed by the London Stock Exchange (LSE) at $4.32 trillion. Some of the largest companies listed on Euronext include American multinational cigarette and tobacco manufacturer Philip Morris, Procter Gamble and HSBC Holdings. South America Brazilian Stock Exchange (Bovespa) is the largest in South America and 20th largest in the world with a market cap of around $783 billion, followed by the Mexican Stock Exchange (BMV) at $393 billion.

Africa Largest stock exchange in Africa is based in Johannesburg (JSE), South Africa with the market cap of just over $1 trillion. It is worth pointing out that it was the first stock exchange to reach $1 trillion market cap in Africa. Australia At $1.45 trillion market cap the Australia Stock Exchange (ASX) is the largest in Australia with not much competition to the top spot on the continent.

Some of the largest companies include Commonwealth Bank, Westpac Banking Corp, and CSL Limited. The financial sector makes up around 40% of the total market cap of the ASX. Map of the Largest Stock Exchanges by Continent Source: Google Maps Getting Close To A Trillion The closest stock exchange to join the ''$1 trillion club'' is the Spanish Stock Exchange (BME) at $851 billion market cap.

Some of the biggest companies listed include Spain’s two largest banks - Banco Santander and BBVA and global energy company Repsol. Brazilian Stock Exchange in Sao Paolo is second closest the $1 trillion market cap at $783 billion. If it does reach the $1 trillion market cap, it will become the first South American stock exchange to reach the milestone.

Other two exchanges closest to the milestone include the Singapore (SGX) and Moscow (MOEX) stock exchanges at $727 and $621 billion market cap respectively. By Klāvs Valters This article is written by a GO Markets Analyst and is based on their independent analysis. They remain fully responsible for the views expressed as well as any remaining error or omissions.

Trading Forex and Derivatives carries a high level of risk.

Can you teach old dogs new tricks? Yes, of course you can if you give them treats and train them correctly through the new learning process. To teach an old dog new tricks the dog handler will be re-training the dog’s brain and so it is with human beings when it comes to currency trading.

We need to re-train our brains to learn how to behave properly in the Forex market. Let me explain. Your entire life as a human you have been accustomed to a high degree of certainty and influence in most situations.

Let's say you own a business and that business is not doing well. You have the ability to change many things, the staff, the location, the stock, the equipment, the selling method, the price and even the type of customers you are selling too. The bottom line is you have the ability to change and influence virtually every situation and what I am referring too is not restricted to just business owners.

As a human being throughout your entire life you’ve had the ability to manipulate situations to get the outcomes you desire. But in the currency markets the level of control and influence you have with respect to your currency trade is extremely limited. It’s this lack of influence and control that causing so much emotion in so many forex traders.

It simply drives them crazy that they can’t influence the price. But if you re-train your brain to think in probabilities it can potentially be extremely profitable. Forex Trading success is about three important things. » Ensuring the trading system has a small edge. » Risk Management. » Behaviour.

It is not difficult to find a currency trading system that has an edge and it's not difficult to manage risk, so why is it that not everyone can trade Forex and make money? Emotional discipline is the answer and the behavioural side of currency trading is the most challenging no question but if you can re-train your brain to think in probabilities and not certainties you can potentially profit handsomely. The trading edge you’ll have using the system you trade with has a random probability of success.

Meaning over a series of forex trades it will likely make money however picking the absolute winners is impossible. Finding an edge that has the probability of making money over a series of trades as I said is not difficult but you must understand that it's a series of trades that matters and not just this trade right now. Think of it like flipping a coin.

You and I know a coin is a 50/50 bet, its heads or tails and the odds will never change. But flip a coin 10 times and you could have 7 heads and 3 tails or 6 tails and 4 heads leading someone to believe that maybe it's not 50/50. Flip it 100 times and you will very quickly see that over time it will always end up being 50/50 as it cannot be anything else.

So to re-train your brain as a currency trader you need to do the following » Pick your edge. » Apply your risk management to ensure you are not risking more than you are looking to make on each trade. » Trade your edge over 20 trades and then judge the success. Provided the system you have does have a small edge, your average win is larger than your average loss and you do actually take the trade when the edge appears for 20 trades the outcome will highly likely be that you make money. The challenging part is re-training your brain to think in numbers over a period of time and not thinking in certainties on each forex trade you enter because your human instinct will want to see a winning trade every time.

But does a Casino worry if it has a few losing hands? Of course not because over time if it keeps playing the edge which has a better than 50/50 probability they will make money over time. They do not sweat or get emotional about one roll of the dice like many traders do with one trade.

They think in probabilities and not certainties. If you’d like to learn more about how to re-train your brain as a forex trader and learn some trading edges that can be applied successfully in the market over time join me every Wednesday evening at 7pm AEST for a free currency coaching session. To log into the session simply click on the following link at 6.45pm AEST (Sydney time) to ensure you are safely logged into the web conference room. http://gomarkets.webinato.com/room1 Andrew Barnett | Director / Senior Currency Analyst Andrew Barnett is a regular Sky News Money Channel Guest and one Australia’s most awarded and respected financial experts, and is regularly contacted by the Australian Media for the latest on what is happening with the Australian Dollar.

Connect with Andrew: Email

The Swiss Franc for close to 100 years has acted as a safe haven currency in times of market uncertainty but many traders and investors have no idea why. So here is the answer. Switzerland is traditionally seen as a neutral country when it comes to global conflict.

In fact the Catholic Church has for centuries entrusted Swiss National Guards to look after the Pope. Young catholic men are recruited for 7 to 9 years and sent to the Vatican to guard the Pope and whilst this is a noble gesture it is not the reason why the Swiss Franc acts as a safe haven currency. We have to go back to 1934 to discover the reason why the Swiss Franc has become one of the world's safe haven currencies in times of uncertainty.

In 1934 the government of the day brought in a law that made it heavily punishable with prison terms for any Swiss Banker to divulge any information about the banks clients names. Therefore instead of a bank account in Switzerland having a name as we see at traditional banks throughout the world in Switzerland bank accounts only had a number. So in 1934 the birth of Swiss numbered bank accounts began.

Anyone seeking any information about the names of any bank accounts would be politely declined. This of course led to the channelling of hundreds of millions and eventually hundreds of billions of dollars of rich families money into Swiss Banks accounts. The money came from all throughout Europe and as the word spread anyone who wanted to hide money was likely opening a bank account in Switzerland.

The Jews, any family with a long line of inheritance was putting money in Swiss Francs and even the Nazi’s were entrusting millions with the Swiss to look after. Of course Switzerland became over decades a tax haven for the super wealthy as they looked to hide money and avoid tax Switzerland as a Nation has a fortress mentality and is a land-locked country with tunnels into Germany, Italy and France and these tunnels are heavily fortified and mined. At the sign of any invasion these tunnels can be blown up to protect Switzerland and ensure no army can easily cross over into Switzerland.

The Swiss see their country as an impenetrable place and this leads to a feeling of safety, and that of course extends into their banking. In Switzerland it’s not just chocolates and watches being made, banking is a huge industry with financial markets seeing Switzerland as a very low volatility county with virtually no unemployment (3%), very high wages, high standards of living and a very safe banking and financial system. On top of all of this Switzerland is one of the few countries around the world that traditionally has positive trade balance figures which means more money is coming into Switzerland than leaving and thus we have a Swiss Franc that is forever being sought after.

A stable economy, a stable banking system, positive trade balance numbers and a law that was enacted in 1934 that enabled money to be hidden in Switzerland are the real reasons why the Swiss Franc is sought after in times of uncertainty. On a side note the Swiss also refused to join the European Union they refused to join the Euro and today continue to maintain a high level of independence from the rest of Europe, which is seen as a positive. Andrew Barnett | Director / Senior Currency Analyst Andrew Barnett is a regular Sky News Money Channel Guest and one Australia’s most awarded and respected financial experts, and is regularly contacted by the Australian Media for the latest on what is happening with the Australian Dollar.

Connect with Andrew: Email

When you boil it all down trading is a game of numbers, the more numbers you make over time the more money you make however many traders don’t focus on the numbers game over time and instead focus their attention only on if they are winning or losing right now and it affects their ability to control their emotions. Here is a suggestion that could help you better focus on the numbers game rather than just focus on the Win or Loss right now. I like to call this process “Thinking in 10’s” but before I share the theory with you let me remind you that trading is not necessarily about how many times you win or lose.

Trading is about how much you win when you win and little you lose when you lose. Trying to find a system that wins 70%, 80% or even 90% of the time is extraordinarily difficult and any system that does have such a high strike rate for a period of time will eventually see a change in the percentage success. Just because it worked 70% of the time the past couple of months doesn’t mean it will continue to run at 70%.

Think about this for a moment. A trading system that has a risk / reward target of 1:2 meaning only needs to be correct 38% of the time to break even. Better than 38% and a 1:2 risk / reward strategy is potentially very profitable.

The probability when you trade is 50/50, the market can only go up or down, so gaining an edge to be at least 50% correct with a risk / reward target surely cannot be that difficult. It’s not the edge or % success that is the question, it’s the behavior of the trader in being able to focus over the long term on 1: 2 and not trade to trade. So consider thinking in 10’s.

Instead of evaluating your result day-to-day or week-to-week consider evaluating your performance after the next 10 trades. Lower your expectation on each trade, just follow your system, narrow your focus and ensure your risk is less than the reward and trade the plan for the next 10 trades. Then evaluate your overall result allowing the trades to show an overall success risk / reward ratio after 10 trades.

Many successful traders will be able to tell you what their risk / reward ratio is. In other words for every $1 they risk what is their average return? I think all traders should know these numbers and a good start would be to work out yours after the next ten trades.

So thinking in 10’s is all about following your strategy for 10 trades and not thinking win or loss per trade. Remember it's a numbers game over time, you will win some and you will lose some and it’s about how much you win when you win and how little you lose when you lose. Risk management is the key.

For more trading tips join me every Wednesday evening live online at 7pm AEST. You can simply click on this link and join the coaching session. http://gomarkets.webinato.com/room1 Andrew Barnett | Director / Senior Currency Analyst Andrew Barnett is a regular Sky News Money Channel Guest and one Australia’s most awarded and respected financial experts, and is regularly contacted by the Australian Media for the latest on what is happening with the Australian Dollar. Connect with Andrew: Email