Bitcoin flash crashes by $2K in 5 minutes, liquidating $600M in longs

Bitcoin (BTC) fell over $2,000 in five minutes on March 31 as a wave of volatility disrupted an otherwise calm market.

BTC/USD 1-minute candle chart (Bitstamp). Source: Tradingview

BTC sees sudden volatility

Cointelegraph Markets Pro and Tradingview showed a nightmare for long traders unfold on Wednesday, with BTC/USD suddenly dropping from $59,350 to $57,000.

At the time of writing, the losses were still mounting after the pair hit lows of $56,713 on Bitstamp. 

“Exactly Bitcoin,” trader Michaël van de Poppe reacted to what has become a familiar event on short timeframes for Bitcoin.

Previously, upside had been the focus for day traders as news from PayPal spawned a run-up to just below $60,000.

Those betting on a continuation of the bull run lost big on Wednesday, however, as the downturn liquidated long positions worth $600 million amid a 24-hour total wipeout of $1 billion.

For quant analyst PlanB, their demise was nonetheless beneficial, helping to rid the market of unwanted leverage and ensure more organic future rises. As Cointelegraph reported, similar events have occurred with both long and short positions in recent months.

“Beautiful stop loss hunting .. again,” he commented on Twitter.

“Now that all leveraged longs are liquidated, we finally have room for breaking $60K in April.”

Funding rates creep up

Meanwhile, indicators showed reason to believe that further price increases for Bitcoin would need some work.

Funding rates across derivatives platforms were higher on the day, reaching as high as 0.375% on Huobi, a classic sign that downward pressure is incoming.

Bitcoin funding rates vs. BTC/USD chart. Source: Bybt

The longer-term picture remains more than positive, with analysts pointing to $68,000 and $73,000 as the next hurdles to watch.

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source https://cryptonews.wealthsharingsystems.com/2021/03/bitcoin-flash-crashes-by-2k-in-5-minutes-liquidating-600m-in-longs/

Poker After Dark Season 12: Big Hands from “Not About Nick” Week 2

Bullish traders cast low-risk Ethereum options bets with this clever strategy

Ether (ETH) has been making higher lows throughout 2021, and the current trend indicates that $1,800 might be the bottom for April. Even traders and investors who do not rely on technicals have become optimists after Visa initiated a pilot to settle transactions in USD Coin (USDC) through the Ethereum network.

Ether price in USD at Coinbase. Source: TradingView

Given that Ether’s price is looking like it’s ready to pursue new yearly highs, there’s a few investment options on the table. Buying and holding is an excellent strategy, as well as a leveraged long position up to 2x. The problem lies on the downside, as a 20% move would result in a 40% loss using futures contracts. Not to mention there is not much room for additional leverage as it requires a considerable upfront.

On the other hand, options strategies provide excellent opportunities for traders who have a fixed-range target. For example, for those expecting a moderate 15% price increase in thirty days, the ‘Iron Condor’ strategy provides 12% gains with minimal upfront funds required. This strategy also limits the downside to 10%, regardless of how the asset performs.

This bullish strategy consists of buying 10 Ether worth of $1,600 put options while simultaneously selling the same amount of $2,240 calls. To finalize the trade, the buyer will sell 7.5 Ether worth of $2,080 put options and balance it by buying 8 Ether contracts of $2,880 call.

Unlike perpetual futures (inverse swaps), options have a set expiry date, so the expected outcome must happen during the defined period.

The Ether (ETH) calendar option below refers to the April 30 expiry, but this strategy can also be used on Bitcoin (BTC) or applied on a different time frame.

Derivatives exchanges price these contracts in Ether, meaning the displayed profits and losses are calculated by Ether fractions at the expiry date.

Profit / Loss estimate. Source: Deribit Position Builder

Considering that Ether is currently trading at $1,810, any outcome between $1,790 and $2,545 (up 40.6%) yields a net gain. For example, a 15% price increase to $2,080 results in a 1.2 ETH net gain, or $2,500.

Meanwhile, this strategy’s maximum loss is 1.04 ETH, which will happen if the price on April 30 is below $1,600 (down 12%) or above $2,545.

The Iron Condor strategy allure is the potential 1.2 ETH gain while losses are limited below $1,600 at expiry.

Overall this conservative strategy yields a much better risk-reward compared to leveraged futures trading because of the limited downside. The upfront cost (deposit) is 1.04 ETH, and this also reflects the maximum potential loss.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph. Every investment and trading move involves risk. You should conduct your own research when making a decision.

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source https://cryptonews.wealthsharingsystems.com/2021/03/bullish-traders-cast-low-risk-ethereum-options-bets-with-this-clever-strategy/

WPT GTO Trainer Hands of the Week: Shallow Big Blind Defense

Today you’ll be playing in a multi-table tournament where you defend the Big Blind with less than 20BBs in the effective stack. This spot will be one of the most commonly played in all of tournament play, since ranges to continue are quite wide and this situation comes up nearly every orbit.

Your range to defend the big blind against a min-raise will be quite wide at this stack depth. Certain hands like most pocket pairs and a variety of hands containing an Ace will not be in your range, since you would reshove with those hands preflop.

Keep in mind that postflop due to the shallow stacks you can simply check-call with many of your strong hands since standard betting on all streets will allow you to be all-in by the river. Using stack depth to determine your slow play frequency is an important concept in winning play.

Since ranges are very wide, you’ll generally be able to continue profitably against small c-bets with hands as weak as undercards to the board with gutshot straight draws. Facing larger c-bets, you should be prepared to fold hands as strong as bottom pair with no draw when the flop is somewhat coordinated. You may not be able to get to showdown profitably with those weak pairs on very poor board structures.

When your opponent checks back on the flop, you should generally size up turn lead bets. Draws as weak as gutshots are valuable to round out a turn betting range in these spots. Larger sizing in these spots is generally used to attack the now somewhat capped hand range of Villain.

In passively played pots checked down to the river, don’t be afraid to value bet hands such as 2nd pair. You can often get value from bottom pair type hands or even Ace high.

To access the free five hands, visit this page.

Regular play on the WPT GTO Trainer will help you adjust your decisions closer and closer to GTO strategy.

You don’t have to be the world’s best player to use GTO Strategy, and thanks to the WPT GTO Trainer, now you don’t have to buy expensive software or have expert level knowledge to study GTO.

Why use the WPT GTO Trainer?

The WPT GTO Trainer lets you play real solved hands against a perfect opponent in a wide variety of postflop scenarios for cash game and tournament play.

If your goal is to be a tough poker player then you should try the WPT GTO Trainer today.

Register a free account here (it only takes your e-mail address to begin) to play hands and see true GTO strategy in real-time.

The WPT GTO Trainer has over 4 billion unique solved flops, turns and rivers that are fully playable.

As you make decisions in a hand, you receive instant feedback on the specific EV loss (if any) and Played Percentage for every action you take as compared to GTO strategy.

The full selection of scenarios for the WPT GTO Trainer are only available to members of LearnWPT, however we’re giving PokerNews Readers free access to the Trainer on a regular basis with the WPT GTO Hands of The Week.

Use this series of articles to practice the strategies you learn on LearnWPT (or at the table) and test your progress by playing a five-hand sample each week.

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source https://cryptonews.wealthsharingsystems.com/2021/03/wpt-gto-trainer-hands-of-the-week-shallow-big-blind-defense/

Oops! A 100% Bitcoin hodl outperformed CNBC’s 2017 altcoin basket by 170%

Bitcoin (BTC) has produced phenomenal returns most years, but when it comes to maximizing them, it’s best just to buy and hodl.

That was the conclusion from new data circulating on social media this week, which casts serious doubt on the merits of following investment advice from mainstream media.

Don’t believe the hype?

Under the microscope was CNBC, which in 2017 offered viewers an investment portfolio made up of 30% Bitcoin and 70% altcoins.

Four years later, those who invested $10,000 at the time now have around $52,300. Had they just bought and hodled Bitcoin, however, they would have over $140,000.

“The 30% #BTC allocation is responsible for 75% of the return,” Twitter account StatsBTC, which uploaded the numbers, noted in comments.

CNBC’s portfolio came courtesy of well-known pundit Brian Kelly, months before it hit then all-time highs of $20,000. Altcoins also saw peaks, months later in early 2018, with most only to crash and never recover.

Subsequently, the network gained an unenviable reputation for acting as a buy signal for investors — ironically by telling them not to invest in Bitcoin. The same fate has since befallen the likes of gold bug Peter Schiff.

As Cointelegraph reported, fellow host Jim Cramer, on the other hand, has embraced Bitcoin thanks to persuasion from Morgan Creek Digital co-founder Anthony Pompliano. His investment, thought to be around $500,000, has made Cramer “a ton of money,” he said earlier this month.

All hail the king

Meanwhile, even a longer-term HODL strategy will have suffered from exposure to altcoins at the expense of its Bitcoin presence.

According to Bob Simon, owner of the StatsBTC account, $100 divided equally between Bitcoin, Litecoin, XRP, Dogecoin and Peercoin in March 2014 would now be worth $6,000. A Bitcoin-only punt, by contrast, would sell for $12,130.

“An equally weighted basket of the top 5 cryptocurrencies has underperformed Bitcoin by over 50% over the past 7 years,” he summarized.

Bitcoin vs. mixed investment returns. Source: Bob Simon/ Twitter

Analysts still believe that this coming summer will produce huge gains for altcoins, with one arguing that a peak price “Alt Season 2.0” has already begun.

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source https://cryptonews.wealthsharingsystems.com/2021/03/oops-a-100-bitcoin-hodl-outperformed-cnbcs-2017-altcoin-basket-by-170/

The Good, Bad, and Ugly • This Week in Gambling

This week’s gambling news looks at what’s good, bad, and ugly about the Las Vegas recovery efforts after the pandemic. Vaccines are rolling out across America, speculation is that things could return to “normal” as soon as this summer.

Hello, players! And welcome to This Week in Gambling! I don’t know about you guys, but I can’t wait for Las Vegas to completely reopen again at 100%! And according to some industry experts, a full Las Vegas recovery could happen within just a few months!

This week’s big story has three parts: The good, the bad, and the ugly. First, the good news: Vaccinations are rolling out all across America. And in Nevada it’s estimated that 70% of the residents and workers will be fully inoculated by the end of May. And that, my friends, means that Las Vegas casinos, hotels, restaurants, bars, and shows could be operating at 100% by June or July.

Additionally, all that Joe Biden stimulus money is just floating around out there… and you know people are just itching to travel again! So as awful as things have been for the past year, they could completely turn around as soon as this summer. Of course, it won’t be all good when things return to normal. For example, those sweet deals on Vegas hotel rooms and flights? Yeah, those will probably return to normal prices as well. That’s to be expected.

However, Las Vegas is already experiencing other unexpected issues: For one, it’s getting harder and harder to get around in Vegas right now… at least using a service like Uber or Lyft. It seems that some of those companies drivers are having second thoughts about allowing strangers into their vehicles during a pandemic. No worries, though… the taxis are still running.

Of course, things could get downright ugly as well if a third wave of Coronavirus were to hit. And god help us if that third wave were a new strain of the virus that we didn’t have a vaccination for… putting us right back to where we were at this time last year. So fingers crossed, my friends, that everything continues to go well. Now for an update and a correction on a story we brought you last week.

And as we watch the Las Vegas recovery efforts, an update on our last show: We reported that the U.S. Department of Justice had abandoned their fight against online gambling and decided not to appeal their latest loss in the Wire Act case to the Supreme Court. But, it turns out that may have been a bit premature.

News agencies reporting that story have since retracted their statements, saying that in fact the DOJ could still appeal to the Supreme Court. Of course, they published that retraction after we put out our video. However, with the death of Sheldon Adelson in January, and a new administration in the White House, many experts agree that the Justice Department most likely will not appeal this case any further. Still, we’ll keep an eye on it.

And finally this week, the Bellagio just announced an exciting new feature for their guests! They are adding live, fully grown marlin to their fountain pool area out in front of the hotel. And for a small fee, tourists are welcome to try their luck fishing them out. The new Bellagio Marlin Fishing Experience will be open to the public starting on April 1st… That’s April 1st, my friends. Mermaid rides are extra.

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source https://cryptonews.wealthsharingsystems.com/2021/03/the-good-bad-and-ugly-%e2%80%a2-this-week-in-gambling/

Artur Martirosian Wins 2021 EPT Sochi Main Event ($325K)