Bitcoin Trading Alert originally sent to subscribers on February 24, 2015,
10:18 AM.
Briefly: speculative short position, stop-loss at $273,
take-profit at $153.
Rakuten, a Japanese electronic commerce company, with $5.3 billion in
revenue for 2013, might be warming up to Bitcoin, we read on the Wall Street Journal website:
Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten is considering accepting the virtual
currency bitcoin as payment, founder and Chief Executive Hiroshi Mikitani
said.
“We are thinking about it, and we probably will,” Mr. Mikitani said at the
Rakuten Financial Conference in Tokyo, where panelists discussed
crypto-currencies and other alternatives to cash and credit cards. “We would
like to be open.”
Mr. Mikitani declined to specify when the company might decide, saying it
was a trade secret.
Rakuten is one of the largest Japanese companies to take an interest in
bitcoin and other digital currencies. It has formed a department to study
digital currencies and invested in bitcoin-related ventures in the U.S.,
including San Francisco-based Bitnet Technologies.
This is one of the first bigger companies based outside of the U.S. making
possible preparations to accept the cryptocurrency. This is positive news as
it shows that there are leading companies all over the world thinking on
Bitcoin adoption. This might help Bitcoin get wider recognition.
As we have frequently stressed, Bitcoin is still not really well know, nor
is it actually very convenient for simple transactions. But this is mainly
due to the fact that the cryptocurrency is relatively young. Improvements
will have to be made as far as security and ease of use are concerned.
Adoption by an increasing number of companies might help solve another aspect
of the problem – that not that many companies are actually taking Bitcoin.
With more firms expressing their interest or downright accepting Bitcoin,
it will become increasingly present in the worldwide payment system. We still
have years before it might become an alternative to credit card transactions
or money transfers but we’re seeing business making a move closer to
cryptocurrencies, slowly but perhaps consistently.
For now, we focus on the charts.
On BitStamp, we saw appreciation but one of a very modest magnitude. The
volume was down but not by much and it was overall relatively moderate.
Bitcoin remained below $250 (green line) and the possible declining trend
line (black line). Our comments from yesterday remain up to date:
(…) The weekend generally left us with the sense that the previously
bearish outlook became slightly more bearish. This might not yet be the point
where Bitcoin begins to fall but we still anticipate the cryptocurrency to
move down during the next more significant swing.
Today, the action has been less volatile than yesterday (…). Bitcoin has
barely moved and the volume has been weak. Righ now, we would expect Bitcoin
to trade under $250 for another couple of days before declining more
significantly.
Today, we’ve seen Bitcoin relatively flat, slightly to the downside (this
is written around 10:00 a.m. ET). The volume hasn’t been strong, and all the
action doesn’t suggest a strong move taking place just now. Generally, not
much has changed in the last couple of days. We’ve seen up and down trading
but $250 has shown itself to be a relatively strong barrier. The situation
being as it is, it seems that we’ve seen failed moves above $250, which would
suggest a possible further move down along with the general trend.
On the long-term
BTC-e chart, we saw weak action yesterday, today has also been relatively
weak and the situation now seems pretty similar to what it was yesterday:
It now seems that yet another move up, a weak one at that, was followed by
a decline on increased volume. The magnitude of the move doesn’t quite
suggest a strong move just now but it would seem that the next big move might
follow the general trend which has been to the downside.
With Bitcoin below the possible declining trend line (highest black line
in the chart) and below $250 (green line), with the most recent local top
lower than the previous one, we might just as well see a continuation of the
downtrend. We would expect Bitcoin to stagnate some more before resuming the
move down. This is our best bet at the moment. $200 (dashed red line) might
be the level to observe as far as the next move to the downside is concerned.
Summing up, we think speculative short positions might be
the way to go.
Trading position (short-term, our opinion): short
position, stop-loss at $273, take-profit at $153.
Thank you.
Regards,
Mike McAra
Bitcoin Trading Strategist
Bitcoin
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