NullBeta

Inflation Nation July 2017 Fed Preview Tomorrow the Fed will convene for their July meeting, this time with little fanfare. Unlike in June, there are no expectations of any policy shifts or rate changes. No post meeting press conference is scheduled, nor are there any new economic forecasts releases. After two highly anticipated rate bumps earlier this year, this meeting seems mundane. No surprises are expected this week, but that being said, the devil is always in the details when it comes to parsing the meeting’s closing statement. Balance Sheet: Earlier this year the Fed hinted it might move away from quantitative easing, a policy that saw the Fed’s balance sheet rise from $0.9 trillion to $4.4 trillion since 2007. Any plan to reverse this policy would signal that the Fed is increasingly comfortable that economic growth is returning to a more normal, predictable, and sustainable trajectory. Quantitative Easing’s aim was to boost market liquidity through the purchase ...

On October 31st of 2008, an unknown entity by the name of Satoshi Nakamoto, released a proposal called “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System.” This proposal, more formally known as a white paper, offered a way for individuals to send electronic money without having to go through an intermediary. For this system to work, Satoshi Nakamoto utilized ideas from cryptography, computer science, and economics, to create a system that is now known as a blockchain. On January 3rd of 2009, the first block was mined on the Bitcoin network… and… well… the rest is history. The objective of this guide is to break down all the technical jargon surrounding Bitcoin and blockchain technology so that even a 5th grader can understand it. Albeit, if the show Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? has taught me anything… it’s that… we AREN’T ! Even in this short introduction, words like “blockchain,” “cryptography,” and “mined,” may seem intimidating if you have no experience with digital curr...

Major market indexes, including the NASDAQ, DOW Jones Industrial, and the S&P 500, are at, or near, their all-time highs. However, valuation metrics, such as Price-to-Earnings (P/E) ratios, have also risen over the past year, potentially indicating the U.S equity market is overvalued and too expensive. For example, at the writing of this article the S&P 500 currently has a P/E valuation of 25.69, which is over 64% higher than the historical mean of 15.66. This lofty evaluation shows that many investors believe that the current bull market will continue for at least the foreseeable future.  The P/E ratio represents the stock price over the earnings the company has had per share. The higher the ratio the more expensive the stock, higher ratios mean that investors are optimistic that future earnings will be high enough to offset the current valuation. (Tech stocks have high P/E because they’re always expected to earn more down the line). These high valuations indicate that i...

Dear readers, We are proud to introduce ourselves, as Null Beta. We are an investment club composed of 5 members with experiences across investment banking, corporate finance, and currency trading. Our mission is to provide others with the necessary tools to succeed within trading, while pushing ourselves every day to learn something new about generating alpha. Through understanding market dynamics and developing trading algorithms, our members establish and build upon analytical skills that would otherwise be left undeveloped in classroom settings. Null Beta’s mission is to create the maximum level of returns possible, irrespective of the market. Our goal is to create an algorithm that will be able to generate above average returns within the cryptocurrency universe. Our algorithm will be long-short and thus should be neutral to the behavior of the cryptocurrency market. With that introduction, we now welcome you to the Null Beta blog. This blog will be dedicated to providi...