This week was another volatile week in bitcoin futures trading with the first bitcoin futures contract from the CBOE expiring after the market saw its first dip below $10,000. News came that South Korea’s government and Chinese authorities are planning to block domestic access to trading platforms that allow trading. If this occurs we could see another move back below $10,000 and a decline in volume and open interest. It is expected that at least 10-20% of all bitcoin trading comes out of South Korea so this would be a big blow to the price action. 

I have included a chart of the front month futures contract with the downward sloping trend line since the start of exchange trading back on December 17th 2017. Really, we would need to see a break through this trend line with a push back through $14,280 to start a new upward trend. At that point we could see a run made for the highs, but relaxation from Government scrutiny needs to occur in order to do that.

Bitcoin Jan ’18 Daily Chart

bitcoin_jan18_daily_chart

Phillip Streible

Early in his career Phillip began trading his own account as a screen trader focusing on the metals, grains and stock indices. He then became a Series 7 licensed financial consultant with A.G. Edwards. Later, he expanded his trading experience into a Series 3 licensed commodity broker with Investment Analysis Group. Most recently he was a senior market strategist at MF Global before joining RJO Futures in October 2011 as a senior commodities broker. As a senior commodities broker his goal is to show clients how to anticipate, recognize and react to bull and bear market conditions through the use of technical analysis techniques that help them to define risk.