Daily Archives: December 21, 2020

Uncharted Territory: How Technical Analysts Are Trading Bitcoin at All-Time Highs – CoinDesk – CoinDesk

Posted: December 21, 2020 at 11:48 am

Bitcoins bull run appears to be in full swing amid a broader consensus that 2021 could bring more significant gains. The question now for market participants is how high the cryptocurrency could go and, conversely, which levels could act as support levels or potential entry points for investors looking to buy.

For long-term investors, continuing to HODL coins and trusting forecasts for a bitcoin price rally to over $100,000 by prominent observers is a fairly straightforward way to play the market. Yet, short-term speculators and leverage traders, who rely more on technical analysis to identify price targets, resistance and support levels, may find it difficult to keep doing what theyve been doing without previous price levels to provide obvious guideposts.

Thats because bitcoins latest move above $20,000 has pushed the cryptocurrency into uncharted territory. As the top cryptocurrency has never been traded above $20,000 before, there are no higher price lows or lower price highs that could be considered potential bull/bear targets or support/resistance levels.

In such a situation, Fibonacci extensions and retracements can help identify key price levels, according to William Noble, a chief market technician at Token Metrics.

Fib extensions reveal $26,000 as the next target

The $26,000 level is the 38.2% extension of the move from the March bottom to November highs around $19,000, Noble told CoinDesk during a Zoom interview on Wednesday. Thats the first target for bitcoin.

Bitcoin Fibonacci extension

If prices break above $26,000, the focus would shift to the 61.8% extension at $29,822. According to Noble, the 76% extension at $32,000 could act as resistance or serve as a potential price target.

The Fibonacci extension for an uptrend is drawn by joining three points the lowest price or the point of origin of the bull trend, a major price high, and the low of subsequent pullback bounce. That will generate Fibonacci extension levels of 23.6%; 38.2%, 50.0%, 61.8%.

Bitcoin daily chart: Fibonacci extension and retracement example

Meanwhile, the Fibonacci retracement on an uptrend is drawn by connecting the low and high points to get 23.6%, 38.2%, and 61.8% retracement levels.

These percentages are based on the Fibonacci sequence a series of numbers beginning from 0 and arranged so that any particular number of the series is simply the summation of the previous two numbers. For instance, 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, 233, 377 and so on.

A closer look at the sequence tells us that every number gets closer and closer to 61.8% of the following number. Further, every number gets closer to the 38.2% of the number two positions to its right and 23.6% of the number three positions to the right of it.

Thats how retracements are calculated. Meanwhile, working the sequence in the reverse order gives extension levels. Traders dont need to know the formula or make calculations, as a charting software or platform like TradingView will do it for them.

The challenge lies in picking the most relevant price points while drawing Fibonacci extension and retracement levels. Its more of an art than science, Noble said.

Fib extensions in 2017

Fibonacci tools served the purpose in 2017 when bitcoin traded in uncharted territory for 10 months.

Bitcoin 3-day chart shows 2017 rally peaking just above 161.8% Fib extension

The cryptocurrency rose to fresh record highs above $1,200 in February and peaked at $19,783 just above the 161.8% Fibonacci extension (extreme extension) of the move higher from January lows to November highs.

Ive never seen anything extend that much, but it did extend 1.618 all the way up to near $20,000, quipped Noble, adding that Fibonacci extensions would have been helpful if you were buying breakouts in 2017.

Many analysts are expecting bitcoin to chart a 2017-like meteoric rally in 2021. However, Noble believes it could play out in the coins associated with decentralized finance (DeFi).

When asked about the level to watch for during potential pullbacks, Noble said the 61.8% retracement might serve well in the alternative cryptocurrencies and DeFi universe coin.

Ignore the RSI

The widely tracked relative strength index (RSI) and other momentum indicators like Stochastic are useful in a range trade and not necessarily in a trend, Noble said.

Newbies and amateur traders often misread the above-70 or overbought reading on the 14-day RSI as a sign of bearish reversal. In reality, the indicator can and does stay overbought longer than sellers can stay solvent, to paraphrase economist John Maynard Keynes.

Bitcoin daily chart

For instance, bitcoin rallied from $11,900 to $19,000 in the four weeks leading up to Nov. 24 despite RSI signaling overbought conditions. A similar pattern was observed on the daily and weekly charts during the 2017 bull run.

I dont know if RSI is going to come into play until you get to one of these [Fibonacci] targets, Noble said. People are having a hard time with bitcoins current rally because its behaving like equities. It goes up, it sits and goes up again.

Other tools

Traders can also use Gann fans, which are based on the idea the market is geometric and cyclical, and there are pivot points to mark support and resistance levels.

Keeping a close track of changes in the options open interest could also help identify price targets.

Bitcoin options open interest

At press time, options at $20,000, $24,500, and $36,000 strikes show significant buildup of open interest or open positions. Bitcoin is currently trading near $23,450, having hit a new lifetime high of $23,77 during the European trading hours.

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Uncharted Territory: How Technical Analysts Are Trading Bitcoin at All-Time Highs - CoinDesk - CoinDesk

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Judge: Suit filed by 29 women can proceed against former Portland doctor – The Columbian

Posted: at 11:48 am

PORTLAND A judge has denied a request by a former suburban Portland doctor to put a two-year hold on a civil case filed against him by 29 patients who allege he sexually abused them.

Multnomah County Circuit Judge Melvin Oden-Orr noted in his ruling Monday that for some plaintiffs, 17 years have already passed, The Oregonian/OregonLivereported.

Four women filed a lawsuit against West Linn Dr. David Farley and then another 25 women joined it last week. Together, the 29 women seek a total of $290 million in damages, alleging Farley performed unnecessary pelvic exams and engaged in sexual battery while they were in his care.

The Oregon Medical Board stripped Farley of his state medical license in October for dishonorable and unprofessional conduct and gross or repeated negligence. He remains under criminal investigation by West Linn police.

Karen OKasey, Farleys lawyer, argued among other things that postponing the civil suit would protect Farleys Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination in the police investigation.

My client is facing a criminal investigation based on the same conduct, if not more, alleged by these same defendants, she told the court.

The judge found the arguments werent sufficient to grant a hold on the civil suit.

Citing case law, Oden-Orr wrote, Defendant has no absolute right not to be forced to choose between testifying in a civil matter and asserting his Fifth Amendment privilege.

Further, Oden-Orr said Farleys request isnt to simply delay a civil trail but also to delay gathering evidence in the case.

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Judge: Suit filed by 29 women can proceed against former Portland doctor - The Columbian

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Mark Cuban: Bitcoin is ‘more religion than solution’ and won’t help in ‘doomsday scenarios’ – CNBC

Posted: at 11:48 am

Although bitcoin has tripled in value this year, billionaire Mark Cuban remains cautious about the cryptocurrency, as he has been for years.

"My thoughts haven't changed," Cuban told Forbes of the cryptocurrency on Dec. 8 eight days before bitcoin hit a record high of $20,600 on Wednesday for a story published Thursday.

Bitcoin, Cuban said, is "a store of value...that is more religion than solution to any problem."

And bitcoin or any cryptocurrency will not replace fiat, or government-backed, currency, he said.

"No matter how much [bitcoin] fans want to pretend that it'sa hedge against doomsday scenarios, it is not," Cuban said. "Countries will take steps to protect their currencies and their ability to tax, so the more people believe this is anything more than a store of value, the more risk of government intervention they face."

Those who argue in favor of bitcoin often say it is a hedge against inflation and the U.S. dollar, and that it will survive any economic or infrastructure collapse (except for downed internet), comparing it to gold.

Cuban agrees bitcoin is like gold in that it is a store of value, but because by its code the supply of bitcoin is limited, as demand fluctuates, the price will be volatile. "But," he said, "as long as people accept [bitcoin] as a digital version of gold, it's investable."

Investable, of course, doesn't mean it's a sure bet. Though Cuban himself has previously invested in businessesbuilt oncryptocurrencyandeven in bitcoin, he frequently warns against it, calling bitcoin a "gamble." And when it comes to gambling, you need to be prepared to lose that money.

In fact, Cuban previously told Wired he would "rather havebananas than bitcoin," because at least as food, bananas have intrinsic value.

He reiterated the point to Forbes: "[Bitcoin] is what it is, something that enough people have agreed upon is an investable asset," he said. But"a banana has more utility, potassium, is a valuable nutrient to every person on the planet."

For the investor to change his mind about bitcoin, "it would have to be so easy to use, [like] it's a no-brainer," Cuban said on"The Pomp Podcast" in April.

"It would have to be completely friction-free and understandable by everybody first." So easy, in fact, that "grandma could do it."

Disclosure: CNBC owns the exclusive off-network cable rights to "Shark Tank."

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Correction: This story has been corrected to reflect Cuban's quote that bitcoin is "a store of value."

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Efforts to stop Trump’s border wall construction could extend long past Inauguration Day – Salon

Posted: at 11:48 am

When Carlos Flores filed suit against the Trump administration last summer, the Laredo-based attorney said he wanted to help his clients try to stave off border wall construction on their stretch of the Texas-Mexico border at least until the presidential election in hopes of seeing a new administration take over.

But with the election over and Trump set to give way to President-elect Joe Biden next month, Flores said the court battles over Trump's signature promise could stretch well past next month's inauguration.

"I could foresee that there are going to be some significant legal battles between now and at least Jan. 20 and possible further into 2021," he said. "It depends on how quickly and how decisively the Biden administration reacts to what's going on down here."

Flores represents Zapata County and two South Texas landowners in a lawsuit challenging Trump's 2017 executive order mandating construction of a physical barrier on the border. It also challenges a series of environmental waivers issued in May aimed at fast-tracking almost 70 miles of barrier from Webb County to Zapata County.

The lawsuit alleges the administration violated the Fifth Amendment's due process clause, which provides for equal protection under the law. The executive order "creates a 2nd Class United States citizen at the southern border who can have their land seized wholesale based on racist and white nationalist motives," the lawsuit states.

During the campaign, Biden said his administration would not build another mile of barrier should he win, and his campaign website states that during his first 100 days in office, he will end the "so-called National Emergency" that Trump declared in order to divert Department of Defense money to help build the barrier.

Still, Flores worries that the border barrier may not be among Biden's immediate priorities, which could allow the Department of Homeland Security to continue moving forward until it gets new marching orders.

"The thing I am really concerned about is that as we head into the winter months, the pandemic is going to get worse," Flores said. "And on day one he's going to have an economic crisis."

Jessica Bolter, a policy analyst with the Migration Policy Institute, said last month that Biden could immediately end Trump's emergency declaration, but it's unclear how that would affect ongoing construction projects and the money already dedicated to them.

"Ending the transfer of future funds doesn't mean in itself that wall construction stops," she said.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration shows no signs of slowing progress on one of his most high-profile campaign promises. A U.S. Customs and Border Protection online tracker of border wall construction indicates a 69-mile stretch of new barrier is under construction in Webb County, and another 52-mile project is in the "pre-construction" phase.

The government hasn't built anything on the land that's part of Flores' lawsuit; court documents show that last month the federal government was granted more time to file documents seeking to dismiss the lawsuit, which would allow the project to proceed. Flores said hearings are possible as late as next month.

"It's all going to depend how aggressive the feds are in moving forward with the construction," he said. "I just don't know why they would spend all this money. I guess people feel like they're going to get fired by President Trump between now and Jan. 20, I don't know."

The Texas Tribune is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans and engages with them about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.

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Bitcoin Tops $21K, Blowing Past $20K Record as Analysts Remain Confident of Future – CoinDesk – CoinDesk

Posted: at 11:48 am

After testing investor patience for three weeks, bitcoin surged past $20,000 to reach fresh all-time highs and is currently trading above $21,000.

The number one cryptocurrency by market value jumped over the key psychological threshold during the early U.S. trading hours, surpassing the previous peak price of $19,920 recorded on Dec. 1. At the current price of $21,123, bitcoin is up 8.8% over 24 hours, according to CoinDesks Bitcoin Price Index (BPI).

Bitcoins value has doubled in the past three months and the institutional-led rally looks sustainable. Meanwhile, other prominent cryptocurrencies such as ether, litecoin and XRP are still down 58% to 88% from their respective lifetime highs reached three years ago.

When this [rally to near $20,000] happened in 2017, there was a real lack of products for the new converts to experience, whereas today there are endless uses, protocols, services across farming, lending, standard trading, etc, Soravis Srinawakoon, CEO and co-founder of cross-chain data oracle Band Protocol told CoinDesk. Therefore, wed expect to see the new adopters hang around this time.

Breaking above $20,000, which represented a significant hurdle in the mindset of most traders, is entirely new ground for bitcoin and opens the doors for a climb to $100,000 over the course of 2021, according to some.

That rise would bode well for other crypto sectors as well, including decentralized finance (DeFi), according to DversiFis CEO Ross Middleton.

Bitcoin profits are partially recycled back into other smaller tokens later in the bull cycle. In 2017 that was other blockchains such as Ripple, Litecoin and EOS, said Middleton. However, this time around, funds are likely to flow into the new crop of DeFi blue-chip projects, built on Ethereum.

DeversiFis CEO pointed to DeFi protocols Aave, Compound, Synthetix and Yearn Finance as his picks of where the capital could flow.

And while bitcoin is now up over 180% on a year-to-date basis, gold has added just over 22%. Bitcoin, often touted as digital gold, has decoupled from the yellow metal this quarter with a more than 80% rally. Meanwhile, gold has suffered a 1% drop, with investorspulling money out ofexchange-traded funds.

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Cloudpunk is an exceptional cyberpunk game that keeps getting better – PC Gamer

Posted: at 11:48 am

GOTY 2020

(Image credit: Future)

In addition to our team-selected Game of the Year Awards 2020, individual members of the PC Gamer team each select one of their own favourite games of the year. We'll post new personal picks, alongside the main awards, throughout the rest of the month.

Cloudpunk's transformation has been a pleasure to watch. The version that launched in April was greata cyberpunk courier romp that saw you exploring the dystopian city of Nivalis in your flying car and on foot. Massive voxel spires tearing through the clouds below you; walkways filled with street vendors, dealers and corporate security; everywhere you look something eye-catching and unusual. It's a game you can wrap up in 10 hours, but one that beckons you to explore it for days. Weeks.

If developer Ion Lands had left it that, I'd still probably be writing about Cloudpunk here. I'd still be gushing about Rainia, a rare cyberpunk protagonist who isn't dying from cynicism, who's cool because she absolutely isn't trying to be. And of course I wouldn't forget about Camus, her constant companion. He was an AI dog in a former life, and now he's a car. He's the best boy. The pair meet a lot of fascinating people during their first night on the job, and through them Cloudpunk explores transhumanism, terrorism, AI rights and all sorts of topics, both speculative and relevant now.

Cloudpunk is dense with worldbuilding, but it's not bogged down in it. Nivalis itself is huge and ancient, the sort of thing you can't really know, but you'll come to understand it pretty well, and the greater world around it, just by driving around. In a few hours, you'll have the kind of strong sense of place that a lot of games fail to produce after 50 hours. And like us, Rainia is a newcomer to the city, encountering its oddities for the first time. She doesn't just accept that "this is how it is". She's frequently stunned by it, but also very critical. It's an incredible place that also happens to be deeply fucked up and broken.

So yeah, it was fantastic. Then the first-person mode appeared, initially for the on-foot sections. Previously, these were presented side-on with a fixed camera, and while the ability to explore the city outside of the car was very welcome, I always found myself aching to return to my boxy, banged-up vehicle. The first-person mode changed that straight away. Walking around became a delight. Wizardry must have been involved. The game wasn't designed with a first-person perspective in mind, but it works so damn well. Now I can't imagine playing it any other way. And it only took Ion Lands a month to implement. As I said: wizardry.

Viewing the city up close really lets you admire the impressive voxel art and so many little details that were hard to pick out when it kept you at a distance. It's so much larger and intimidating and lively, but simultaneously intimate. An unlocked third-person camera was also added, and most recently a first-person driving mode, letting you experience the whole game from Rainia's eyes. It's the best way to see the city, but I'm just as enamoured with the inside of my car, which includes a diegetic display that puts your fuel meter, bank balance, minimap and other helpful details on the dashboard.

Cloudpunk could have just let me fly my car around a weird city in the distant future and I would have absolutely been content, but it reeled me in with its intriguing, understated story and then catapulted itself to the top of my favourite games list thanks to the extra attention it's received from Ion Lands. Jumping back in to grab some screenshots, I was reminded just how seductive Nivalis is, and while the story is behind me, I don't think I'm quite done being a tourist.

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Cloudpunk is an exceptional cyberpunk game that keeps getting better - PC Gamer

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