Expert opinion

Startups in the music industry are nowadays flourishing, trying to answer some of the questions that the same technology that allows their existence is posing. Data security, secondary ticketing, royalties, hit songs: every topic has someone covering it in more or less successful ways.

The social media help ask these questions but also spread the word about these startups, while many of them get a kickstart from incubators. Marketplus will run a special in the following weeks regarding these startups.

This week Marketplus will look into GUTS, a company developing a platform for the sale and resale of tickets to shows and events, using the blockchain technology. In the Netherlands, where GUTS is based, the live music industry is expanding, according to advisors DDMCA and the number of visitors to concerts and festivals grew from 1.6 to 2.9 million people from 2011 to 2016, while the revenues went from 46 to 140 million euros.

French poet Paul Valery is often quoted saying “the trouble with our times is that the future is not what it used to be”. So true.

Since Donald Trump’s election as president of the United States, research and views have been very divided on emerging markets. And, in general, negative views have carried the day. On the one hand, many agreed that the macroeconomic situation and microeconomic fundamentals were in the process of improving and that 2017 would hold some positive surprises in store. On the other hand, the utmost caution was in order, given the threats to launch trade “reprisals” against a number of emerging economies. All in all, having fallen out of grace in late 2016 and early 2017, emerging equities and debt have been among the best performers in their respective asset classes, with gains of 8.8% and 1.75% respectively, as of 15 March and in euros. Where does the consensus stand now?

Compass-AM recently announced it obtained from FINMA its license as Securities Dealers. Pietro Ugazzi, one of the founders and customer relationship manager, explains why this is important for the company. […]

Stocks have rallied about 15% at Wall Street since the presidential election of the last November. The Standard & Poor’s 500 hit the 2400 mark at the beginning of March, after four month featured by extremely low volatility, as shown by the VIX index (see Figure 1), a popular measure of the implied volatility of S&P 500 index options, published by the Chicago Board Options Exchange. Such measure is colloquially defined as the fear index since, generally, the VIX has an inverse relationship to the stock market. It tends to increase when stocks decline and vice-versa. A rising stock market is considered as less risky and here is why, during these four months of almost unchanged uptrend, the VIX stood at historically low levels. Now, at the end of March, the VIX is testing its 200 days moving average, after a long accumulation on the historical lows and it is trying to get through the 13 points mark that has been intact since January.

The yellow metal traders are expecting the fundamentally important vote on US healthcare, which will reveal, whether Donald Trump can get legislation passed. Due to that reason the bullion bounced around the 1,245 mark on Friday morning. From a technical perspective the commodity price is squeezed in between the weekly R1 at 1,242.38 and the 50.00% Fibonacci retracement level at 1,248.96, which is enforced by the long term downward trend line at 1,250.12. Due to this trend line it can be assumed that the legislative bill will not be passed. However, it might as well be easily broken, and market participants should stay vigilant.

In the good old days investors could keep their portfolios balanced with 60% in bonds and 40% in stocks

During the first half of Tuesday’s trading session the New Zealand Dollar remained near the previous closing price of 0.7050 against the US Dollar. The currency exchange rate was prepped up by the 20-day SMA, which was located at the 0.7049 level and the lower trend line of a rather week medium term ascending channel pattern at the 0.7035 level. It is highly possible that the currency exchange rate will surge by the end of the day’s trading, as the closest resistance level is located at 0.7082, where the weekly R1 is located at. However, a break of the resistance is unlikely, as the weekly R1 is strengthened by the monthly S1 at the 0.7090 level.