Happy New Year! What an end to 2023! 

Indeed, many people will be starting 2024 with more money in their accounts than expected, and this can only be a good thing.

With everything moving quickly, 2024 will prove a pivotal year for the financial markets. Whilst it will not be all one-way trading, with a bit of luck, there will be more positives than negatives.

Or at least a lot of money-making opportunities for those with proven trading programs that can exploit the markets during bullish and bearish periods.

The overall economic outlook remains cloudy, especially with so many elections taking place, which can change the current direction of travel.

In my last report, I discussed how the new Argentine President would deal with Xi and other BRIC nation leaders when Argentina joined the group. But now we all know he dealt with them by not joining. So, changes can happen very fast.

The BRICS will be a significant story this year, and with Modi already doing an Oil deal with Saudi Arabia in Rupee, we must expect more assaults on the American dollar over the coming months.

Dollar weakness will not be a significant factor for those trading EUR/USD, but we need to be much more aware of how the dollar performs against less popular, non-western currencies.

Dollar weakness and the performance of the big 7 in the SP500 got equity traders jumping up and down at year-end, and we should expect much more bullish commentary coming from our eternally optimistic stock-picking community, at least in the short term.

I am still not convinced by the gung-ho attitude, no matter how many experts they roll out to add credence to the buy mantra.

I prefer to ignore the orchestrated opinions of the talking heads and stick to my charts. And this year, contrarians and active swing traders will make the best gains.

I am expecting 2024 to be a good year for commodities. Whether that is because the economy starts to improve because of dollar weakness or both, time will tell, but I do like the commodity space.

This year will be a defining year for the industry regarding Bitcoin and crypto.

We all know the bullish arguments and pending ETFs have many salivating about the upside potential. But it’s not so straightforward.

We are far from 2021 and the frantic under-qualified buying we saw back then. Whilst we can all welcome cryptocurrencies being given much more respect by major institutions, we should expect that these institutions will have a different attitude towards the crypto industry as an area of investment and use their muscle to mould the industry into what they want, rather than allow it to fulfil its original promise.

In terms of dollar value, what the upside will be only time will tell. However, regarding an exchangeable asset that the public can use that is beyond the control of governments and central banks, this claim may need to be re-evaluated.

There is also the currency from hell to consider: CBDC.

The most prominent promoters of CBDC are the same people who will have a more significant say in the future of crypto. That doesn’t sit well with me, and whilst the end result is a long way off, it is a concern and something we need to monitor.

Where we finish this year is far from certain, and many potentially massive changes are beyond our control. That said, as investors, we are best placed to take advantage of any economic and political shenanigans.

With the future being so uncertain, it’s going to be very important that we place our investment capital in areas which give us the best opportunity for real growth.

I will do my best over the coming year to discuss developments in a various markets and continue to urge investors to spread their capital across a variety of sectors and instruments.

I appreciate that smaller investors may not have the capacity, knowledge or time, to continually adjust their portfolios. Moreover, many of the major financial institutions demand such high entry levels many investors simply cannot find funds which offer the same return as HNW individuals receive.

On the trademakers platform, investors of all sizes can find a host of trading programs, which because of the low entry level, allows everyone to participate in our industry. Either by investing in one program or spreading your risk across numerous programs.

This is a great opportunity for investors who wish to have a more diversified portfolio and don’t want to put all their eggs in one basket.

Moreover, for those traders with trading programs that have proven themselves to be profitable, perhaps it’s an idea to contact trademakers, and if your program is profitable, ask about adding your program to their growing list of Fractionalised investment programs.

trademakers invest their own money in every program they accept on their platform, so it’s a win-win situation for both investors and program managers.

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