Of Trumpian Tariff Damage: 2019 Set To Be Worst Trade Year By Volumes, Since The Great Recession...

See the bottom of this one -- Trump's lunacy, on trade, will now cause the worst global trade volume, in over a decade -- since 2007-08. . . and the Great Recession. Ugh.

From another of our properties, then [and, only slightly off topic]:

Bakkt To The Futures, For Now At Least, Largely "Up On Blocks" -- In Dr. Brown's 1955-Era Garage. . .

Well, well, well -- I can't say as I am at all surprised. The opportunity / appetite to speculate [or even hedge] within the "physical" Bitcoin markets -- just offers scant to no. . . institutional appeal. [No. . . institutions -- to the extent they want exposure, at all -- want it paid in fiat -- like the CME product; see pull-quote from article, below.]

That is, despite the Coiners' clap-trap about institutional investors "having to own" this asset, for "diversification" purposes [as it is claimed to be uncorrelated with the stock market, and uncorrelated to interest rates]. . . there is just no. . . there, there. [Would an institutional asset manager "have" to buy... a steaming pile of garbage, simply because it too, is uncorrelated, with the actual economy? I think not.]

This is less an actual futures trading product, and more a cute little snow-globe -- a bauble, that sits on one's desk -- as a potential ice-breaker / conversation starter. It is a. . . toy, at best.

Here's the CoinDesk story, of this morning:

". . .The Intercontinental Exchange’s highly anticipated bitcoin futures contract mustered just $5 million of total trading – and its daily product traded fewer than five contracts [per day] across its first week. . . .

Each of Bakkt’s futures contracts represents one bitcoin, so the total trading volume works out to just over $5 million, based on the current price of $8,322.

By comparison, some 4,099 bitcoin futures contracts traded on Friday alone at rival Chicago-based exchange operator CME, whose market opened in 2017. And the CME’s futures contracts represent five bitcoins, for a trading volume of $165 million on the single day. . . ."

Now you know. I suppose these hideously low volumes also make sense -- given that Trump's tariffs have put the global trade volume in a downward spiral -- so much so, that 2019 [through three quarters, and absent a major Q4 miracle] is likely to finish as the worst year, for global trade volume, since 2007-08 -- yep, the year of the great recession.

Disgusting.

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