US Dollar and Yen May Rise as Meme Stocks, Coins Warn of Market Excess
Signs
of market excess began to emerge prior to the 1929 collapse in
financial markets that helped trigger the Great Depression. An old
industry adage- one that has become an embedded platitude in stories of
financial bubbles – states, “When the shoeshine boy gives you stock
tips, sell”.To get more news about WikiFX, you can visit wikifx.com official website.
This
principle still appliesin the 21st century, though the occupation and
medium of communication is different. TikTokers and other social media
influencers are the new digital canaries in the financial coal mine.
Fringe assets with no clear-cut fundamental value have surgedduring the
pandemic in large part thanks to their encouragement.
These assets
include – but are certainly not limited to – shares of GameStop,
Bitcoin, and its absurdist descendant Dogecoin. Their spectacular rise
can arguably be attributed to four phenomena [not in order of
relevance]:Trading apps like Robinhood have helped to bring a younger
demographic of traders to the financial fore. While this is not
problematic in and of itself, newer users are often less experienced.
When combined with user-optimized interfaces that make it easier to
trade, this has led to the general gamification of stocks and trading
(i.e. the adoption of a video gaming-like approach to platforms and
services as well as to trading itself).
#2 Growing Interest Among Millennials Engaged in Trading
While
retail trading was previously associated with an older and more
risk-averse demographic, the new paradigm has come to feel more like a
game. The influx of younger traders who grew up in a more digital world
with these new trading instruments have begun to change the landscape
and nature of trading as a whole.
#3 Memeification of Securities
The
rush of younger traders has also brought the social zeitgeist with it.
Memes are a key feature of this phenomenon. When memes become associated
with or take on the form of an asset – Dogecoin is a prime example –
the familiarity that this confers, combined with a trading platform
presenting investing in a game-like way, has helped push prices higher.
#4 Ultra-Loose Credit Conditions
When
the pandemic hit, central banks all over the world turned up the credit
taps full blast in an effort to avoid a credit squeeze and implosion of
the global financial system. While the tsunami of liquidity was met
with open arms as a bulwark against credit stress, it has also allowed
for rampant speculation. At the end of 2020, the tech-leaning Nasdaq was
up over 40 percent and the S&P 500 around 15 percent.
However,
these returns pale in comparison to some of the outliers, as introduced
above. Besides those already mentioned, this also includes shares of
Tesla, whose iconic CEO Elon Musk has helped propel the stock to
astronomical heights.
Below we will explore four rather strange
assets that have attracted acute attention in mainstream media after
initially starting off on the social/financial periphery.
Dogecoin
was created on December 6, 2013 as a joke using the famous Shiba Inu
“Doge” meme as the face of the token. For many years it remained a
financial pariah until meme culture began to permeate more mainstream
conversations and began to be promoted by celebrities and influencers.
Its growing popularity came with the new wave of younger, meme-friendly
traders.
Between January 1 and May 7 of this year, Dogecoin rose by
a whopping 13,263.9%. Tesla‘s Musk compounded the cryptocurrency’s
gains after tweeting “Doge” and “Dogecoin is the people's crypto”,
sending the digital token up over 60% in one day. What started as a joke
has led to a market cap of close to $100 billion and wider-spread
adoption in retail trade.
The Wall