IBM

International Business Machines

Dow Jones

Dow Jones Industrial Average Falls 112 Points as Markets Await Guidance on Interest Rates

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The Dow Jones Industrial Average pulled back from yesterday's 548-point gain as investors waited for the Federal Reserve to release minutes from September's meeting on monetary policy.

In September, the Fed raised rates for the third time in 2018.

Today's report will provide additional clues on whether the central bank has committed to a fourth-rate hike later this year.

Dow Jones

Dow Jones Today Falls Over 80 Points as White House Escalates Trade Tensions

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The Dow Jones today dropped as much as 100 points in premarket trading after Peter Navarro, President Trump's top trade adviser, offered a few harsh words on national trade policy during an interview with CNBC this morning.

In an interview with Squawk Box, Navarro said that the U.S. needed to protect its intellectual property on developing technologies, citing robotics, artificial intelligence, and high-level technology.

Bitcoin

Here's Our Bitcoin and Crypto Outlook for 2018

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David Zeiler and I have known each other and worked together for 20 years now. We worked together at The Baltimore Sun, and I hired Dave here when I helped launch and then ran Money Morning.

We've become good friends.

I've become one of his biggest admirers.

Indeed, I even started a kind of "running gag" with Dave on Twitter, where we're both active users. Anytime I see Dave post something substantive about Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies, I "reply" with some variation of this tweet:

#Attention: If you aren't following @moneymorning #cryptocurrency editor @DavidGZeiler, then you really aren't following #bitcoin or #ethereum or the #blockchain. Dave is a #mustread/#mustfollow expert on #cryptocurrencies.

Here's the thing…

While I admit that this is a "running gag" between us, what I'm actually saying is no joke.

No joke at all.

In just a few short years, Dave has become one of the most prescient, most widely read chroniclers on cryptocurrencies. He's part of the amazing "bench" that Publisher Mike Ward has built here at Money Map Press – and underscores why we're "investment idea leaders" in areas like technology, cryptocurrencies, energy, medical marijuana, options trading (and trading systems), and wealth creation.

That's why I invited David to talk specifically about Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies.

Dave amassed his expertise the "right" way – through immersion. He was one of the early Bitcoin "miners" – back when it was still possible for an individual investor to be a go-it-alone cryptocurrency prospector.

Since then, as an Associate Editor at Money Morning, Dave has become one of the industry's foremost writers/analysts about all things related to cryptocurrencies.

And he's made some stunning calls along the way.

In early 2016, when Bitcoin was trading at $450, Dave predicted – on the record – that the crypto coin could zoom to $2,000 – and then go higher from there.

Much higher.

As we know now, Bitcoin did soar – just as he predicted. It zoomed past $19,000 before the crypto market collapsed.

When we last talked to Dave, it was during the big Bitcoin sell-off early in the year.

As part of the activities here at 2018's midpoint, I thought Dave would offer some terrific insights about what to expect in the last half of the year.

He didn't disappoint...

Trading Strategies

The Past Four Months Prove It: Passive Indexing Is Pure Portfolio Poison

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Index investing was sold, hard, to investors – to the tune of $58 billion a month – as a safe, hassle-free way to ride stocks all the way to the moon.

Led by the High Priest of Indexing, John Bogle, and endorsed by Warren Buffett and other legendary investors, indexing was supposed to be the answer to all our investing goals.

"Buy a low-cost index, sit back, and let the magic happen."

But trade wars… U.S. President Donald Trump's vendetta against Amazon… North Korea… Iran… Italy… rising interest rates… and more have all helped propel huge swings, and I suspect 2% daily swings were not what most new index investors were looking for when they made their initial investment.

It's not just volatile periods that present problems for index investors, either. It's a bad idea all the time - and here's why...