Gold is still a neutral reading because of two contradicting signals. The bullish signal is that stagflation poses a severe threat in 2025, an indicator of extreme bullishness for the metal. However, the Fed has decided to keep from devaluing the dollar for the time being in order to battle inflation again. So gold is kind of stuck in this uncertain market where demand is hesitant.

The VIX spiked massively today as the market reacted to what felt like a confirmation from Powell that we are likely on pause for rate cuts until further notice.

Guiding just 2 cuts for next year, high risk stocks sold off very hard today.

For me personally, being on the sidelines and cash heavy was very difficult the last few weeks.

Being patient and not chasing stocks is a lesson I've learnt the hard way too many times...

I took a position today in the Nasdaq near the closing low, and will now begin to find some opportunities - especially if the market continues to sell down.

Feeling a bit vindicated in my cautionary language the last few weeks...

Gold
Gold continues to look choppy between $2,600-2,720s which is a rather large consolidation zone. Trading these swings would have considerable changes in value. If the Fed mentions not wanting to cut as much in 2025, it might be bearish for gold as well. However, if we get a confirmation on stagflation, this could pump demand back into the metal as investors will dump the dollar in search of the metal or even crypto.

Bitcoin is getting closer to my $110,000 price target which is where I said could be a major decision point. This because the crypto will either reject off a 7 year trend line as it has always done, or it will break above and confirm new uncharted territory. This sudden rise today could be in line with the fears of stagflation next year as inflation stays elevated and jobs data weakens.

Gold is no longer as bullish as it once was earlier in the year. Without any serious geopolitical issues, gold might not have a great reason to rise. And with stick inflation, the Fed might need to reconsider cutting rates in 2025.

Demand for the dollar is already on the rise due to the anticipation of higher rates for longer and a somewhat stable economy. Gold has outperformed the market this year, and up until late October, it was the asset to buy. However, it appears that the metal has reached a peak for now.

Gold
Good news for the metal after CPI numbers came in as expected. Usually expected results are not a cause for volatility, but it brought inflation higher for the second month. With an uptick in unemployment and inflation, investors may start to get concerned over a stagflation environment. Gold broke out of a key resistance level and may test the $2,720s.

Oil
Oil prices rise from the lows of $66 and have been stuck within a range since September. I think oil is a neutral state there is no clear trend, which makes me suggest that oil will continue to trade within this range. CPI m/m and y/y increased within expectations, but Core stayed the same. This means that food and energy prices could be impacting inflation now, but not enough to cause concern. Analysts still expect another cut this month.

The core of U.S problem is jobs data. It's okay to see less jobs added when interest rates are higher. But now the Fed is loosening up its policy and cutting rates. Yet unemployment rates continue to rise. Investors are patiently anticipating the UE rate to drop back below 4%, but that is a big 'if'. CPI can't keep rising if unemployment is going to rise or else it means stagflation.

NASDAQ Strong at the Highs
The pro of being in a bull market is that the market goes up notching new highs every month, and the con is that we never know what could break the uptrend. I think the biggest fear is not a bear market, but the fear of how big a retracement will be before hitting new highs again. Higher CPI will probably take us lower towards $20,700, although a pull back will probably not get that steep and turn back to the upside around $21,000.

Gold is Up Before CPI
With CPI tomorrow, gold opened up green and is heading higher towards resistance near $2,700. Investors could be anticipating a higher number tomorrow which would be a bad sign for two reasons. Other than the Fed losing the inflationary battle, a higher CPI would look more like stagflation with our current jobs numbers. The US now has 4.2% unemployment, 0.1% higher than last month (which is significant). We have seen 4% or higher since May of this year. And while CPI was on its way down, the trend was broken in November when we jumped from 2.4 to 2.6% inflation.

So now there's this question whether or not the Fed is still winning, whether inflation will return to 2%, whether jobs can maintain steady or continue to cool. If we get a higher CPI and/or Core, gold is likely to break over the falling trend line and back towards $2,720s

Price action looks a bit stagnant just short of 100k. I do believe there is a strong probability that we head to test that, but would personally like to wait for a retest before it heads back above $100,000

Fundamentally, I think BTC has a good backdrop into 2025. With the return of Donald Trump and the new department of government efficiency (DOGE) run by Elon Musk, Bitcoin currently has some strong allies taking power. Additionally, we see a pretty strong setup for the US economy, amidst falling inflation and a consumer feeling stronger than recent years.

 

Yesterday a friend of mine visited me and the look on his face was not appealing at all. I knew something was bothering and that was why he came. Although I thought he had some financial issues and would need my assistance, I was ready to hear him out. Not until he opened his phone and showed me his 4 months of gambling history and how he had lost so much in gambling and it's affecting his business and him literally. For personal reasons, i dont want to mention the amount he lost but just believe this dude has lost a fortune there.

As we continued our conversation he pleaded why he came he wanted to disable anything that had to do with gambling on his phone. He had deleted his gambling app but he still gets notifications from these gambling platforms. So i helped him restrict emails from this platform, i disabled everything ads on his browser so that most websites wouldn't make him see gambling ads.

Today i was surprised to see him, back to my house again saying he was watching YouTube and everywhere was filled with gambling videos and gambling. Please what should i do? Because i told him not quite long to completely delete his YouTube.

I've been trying to buy bitcoin for a while now and I can't seem to find a way to buy it from UK, I can't use coinbase or any exchange.

Is there any recommendations I can use to buy bitcoin in UK, even better without kyc verification cause I just visited there.

Please I'll appreciate all response and quick.

Thank you all.

[What are bitcoin nodes and what are they important to the network]

I would love to do a lil-intro on what a bitcoin node is before I dive into the main context of the topic incase a newbie is reading.

What are bitcoin nodes and what are they important to the network

Bitcoin nodes are computer or devices that run a bitcoin software and store a copy of the entire bitcoin blockchain, which is the decentralized digital ledger that records all bitcoin transactions. Nodes are essential to the bitcoin network cause they:

Verify Transaction: nodes ensure that the same bitcoin is not spent twice theyby checking the validity of a transaction, if you have transferred a bitcoin to someone before you could see that the transaction is being processed or some apps would tell you validating transaction, its the node that is responsible for oder in the bitcoin network.

Nodes also ensure transparency by storing a copy of the entire blockchain which helps improve accuracy and integrity of the network.

Nodes are a key factor that helps synchronise wallets with network allowing bitcoin to sent and received between one another.

In conclusion nodes helps maintain decentralization, ensure security, facilitate network scalability etc., bitcoin nodes are literally the backbone of the entire network and they are the main reason the network remains functional and smooth.

Introducing the idea of repurposing smartphones as a bitcoin node

In our current time a lot of people are using the bitcoin network regularly which calls for a need for more nodes, smartphones get outdated easily and most phones don't last more than 2 years as they life span and would get dumped or thrown away, instead of letting old smartphone collect the dust or trashing them away you can repurpose them into a bitcoin node and let them leave the rest of their days useful to the bitcoin network. And moreover there are very easy to come by and the set isnt complex although it might need to few extra components that you can find around.

Old smartphones have the necessary hardware and storage capacity to run a Bitcoin node, making them an ideal candidate for repurposing. By installing Bitcoin node software on these devices, we can create a decentralized network of nodes that verify and relay transactions, ensuring the integrity and security of the Bitcoin blockchain.

How to setup and run a bitcoin node on a smartphone.

Requirements

-An old smartphone android or ios( although smasung seems to be the best)
- A microsd card at least 128gb for a pruned node and 1terabit external harddrive to run a full node.
- an otg adapter for android or a lightning to USB camera adapter for ios
- a steady power source( power Bank)
- Internet connection WiFi

Software
-termux and then install bitcoin core(abc)

Or mynode for ios

Setup

1. Prepare your phone:
    - Make sure your phone is fully charged and has enough storage space.
    - Enable Developer Options and USB debugging (for Android).
    - Trust the computer (if prompted) when connecting your phone to a computer.
 - Insert the microSD card into your phone.
    - Format the microSD card as internal storage (for Android) or use the "Store Bitcoin blockchain on external storage" option (for iOS).
 - Connect your phone to a Wi-Fi network or use a USB Ethernet adapter for a wired connection.
 - Connect your phone to a power source to keep it running continuously.
2. Install Bitcoin Core (Android) or MyNode (iOS):
    - Download and install Bitcoin Core from the tremux or andronix from playstore
    -  Termux is a Linux terminal emulator for Android. It will provide the emulation environment for Ubuntu Linux
    - After installing Termux on the phone, you must install Ubuntu on the emulator. All you have to do is copy and paste this code on Termux

pkg upgrade && termux-setup-storage && curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/AndronixApp/AndronixOrigin/master/repo-fix.sh > repo.sh && chmod +x repo.sh && bash repo.sh && pkg update -y && pkg install wget curl proot tar -y && wget https://bitbrasil.com.br/sh/ubuntu20.sh -O ubuntu20.sh && chmod +x ubuntu20.sh && bash ubuntu20.sh

    - In the same way that Ubuntu was installed on Termux, install Bitcoin Core on Ubuntu by copying and pasting the following command and executing it on Termux.

apt-get update && apt-get upgrade -y && apt install curl -y && curl https://bitbrasil.com.br/sh/install-full-node.sh | sh

This code will install the Bitcoin software on the mobile phone and store the blockchain data on the external drive.


3. *Configure the node:
    - Set up the node as a "Full Node" or "Pruned Node" (depending on your storage capacity).
    - Configure the node to connect to the Bitcoin network.

    - Regularly update the node software and restart the node if needed.

Credits

https://portaldobitcoin.uol.com.br/brazilian-teaches-how-to-run-a-full-bitcoin-node-on-an-android-smartphone-tutorial/amp/

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5425137.0

[What is an emergency funds]

What is your reaction when financial storms occurs or when unexpected expenses arise, is your first answer going to ask for money from the friend or taking a loan from the bank, how have you been managing your finance and mitigating unforseen events that arise in life, today I want to bring to light what many of us may already know and practice or what we have neglect called self insurance.

Having a financial safety net could be all the difference between financial stability and financial disaster which are just two sides of same coin, self insurance is simply accepting responsibility for your financial wellbeing and that includes ensuring that panic and States of extreme lack of funds is eliminated or reduced to a minimum.

How can this be achieved, yes we can't stop life from taking its toll and bad things from rising from the darkness but what we can is shield ourselves and protect all our financial assets by having a financial safety net that we can easily dive into in difficult times called an emergency funds.

Many of you already know about this but in this article I'll like to throw some light on it and if your a newbie hearing this for the first time hope it helps you.

What is an emergency funds
This is a money that is kept aside to cover up for unexpected expenses or big financial emergencies that may occur, this could be some situations like house repair, health challenge like an operation, an emergency funds mostly consist of 3-6 months of your living expenses.

Why Do I Need an Emergency Fund?

-Unexpected expenses: car repairs, medical bills, home maintenance etc

-Loss of income: you can use that funds to back yourself up in situations of job loss, severe illness or injury

-Financial stability: helps avoid debt and reduce stress

Benefits of Having an Emergency Fund

- Reduces financial stress and anxiety that may result from unexpected emergencies.

- Helps avoid debt and high-interest loans

- Provides peace of mind and security

- Allows for flexibility and freedom

How to Build an Emergency Fund

- Start small: begin with a manageable goal, like $1,000

- Automate: set up regular transfers from your checking account or allocate little savings.

- Prioritize: make saving a priority just like you invest or spend on bills.

- Consider a separate account: keep your emergency fund separate from your everyday spending money so you won't be tempted to touch it

Notes to take

- Review and adjust: regularly review your emergency fund and adjust as needed, you should take note that the higher or more income and financial level you achieve there is also need to increase the size of your emergency funds.

- Avoid dipping in: try to avoid using your emergency fund for situations that are not real emergency or you can solve from your reserves and in most cases only use emergency funds for server emergencies.

- Consider a emergency fund challenge: challenge yourself to save a certain amount in a short timeframe, that way you can help yourself to build a saving habit quicker.


Having an emergency fund is also important for a bitcoin holder cause it it help you in achieving a more long term investment than someone that doesn't.

Going straight to the point I want to talk a little about bankroll management and how we can effectively practice this to optimize our gambling wins and also help control excessive gambling habits.

Starting off as an early gambler can be a lot of challenging going through loses and even getting through those early stages of unguided addiction, this was a case for me cause I can remember how to struggle to get myself in oder for a while when I started taking gambling serious for a while, most of us enjoy gambling and would gamble more often than others and its quite needful that we don't overdo it.

Many of you already know about bankroll management and might already be practicing It even If not fully but however i would enjoy to share my view on bankroll management and how to practice it in your own way.

Bankroll management by definition refers to the strategies and techniques used to manage your betting funds effectively, ensuring you can withstand losing streaks and maximize your winning potential.

To practice bankroll management there are a few tips you must know:

1. Set a budget: to me this is the most important part of bankroll management and I know a lot of persons most already practice this, why I consider this the most important is cause if you have set out how much you are willing to give to gambling that is the first step to self control and even if only this is kept you can effectively practice you would have no problem with addiction.

2. Divide your bankroll or budget: this is just spliting your allocation into smaller parts, so that you can easily control how you spend it on gambling, why this is important is cause at times we might find ourselves in situations where we want to stake too high that it might include a huge portion of our budget and if we lose or spend so much too early when the allocated time for the vmbudget to last has not elapsed or is closed to then we can be tempted to add more funds or take out of our extra cash to gamble again.

3. Determine and manage your bet size: why i recommend this step is that this way you get to spend as you should on each bet, I'm normally a high staker so i would allocate up to 5-15% of my budget to each game I should play and its depends on the odds or how confident I am and my risk tolerance with respect to each game.

4. Play safe: we have always monitor and adjust our bet size and allocation with respect to how much we have lost or how well we are winning so that we can stick to our budget and manage it through out our playing time, also dont chase loses cause it could throw you off track, try to take a break and have rest when you lose money and stick to the budget.


By implementing these strategies, you'll be able to:

- Extend your betting longevity
- Reduce the risk of significant losses
- Maximize your potential winnings
- Enjoy a more sustainable and enjoyable betting experience

Remember, Bankroll Management is essential for responsible and successful gambling. It helps you stay in control, make informed decisions, and maintain a healthy relationship with gambling.

[My experience]

Everyone has his/her own personal view on the subject of gambling and it always lingers on this two perspectives in the society and also has an impact on the way people view and approach it. Gambling in whichever form it takes be it a play to earn stake game, online casino or simply playing with friends, often sparks a debate on its true nature as a fanfare activity or a financial trap to wreak people.

My experience
On March 26th, 2024, my friend and I visited a bar, where he normally played snooker with his friends, I would always sit close to watch and cheer him up while I drink and hardly played cause I'm not good at it, one of his play mates challenged him to a bet on drinks, with rules lower buys drinks for the next person for each round, my friend got serious and was on a winning steak and the scores was 12-3 under 2 hours of playing, while at the beginning of this game it was more fun fare when the score were still some how even and reachable, but now the other guy was sweating probably because of the price of the drink which was about 3k(3$) per bottle for the least beer, the look on his face has totally changed and I believe he never planned for the game to go that way.

Now while some folks would argue that gambling is fanfare, I believe there is a line to this and it gets to a point where we could wreak ourselves if you are not careful, no one needed to tell me, that fellow was grieved by his losses which was not supposed to be so if we are just having fun.

Gambling as a thrilling or exciting activity
For many persons, gambling is a very good way to add thrill to any activity or game to make it more entertaining, playing a regular game with nothing to gain or lose can be at time so boring and would hardly bring out your best but with a price involved everyone gets serious and wants to put more effort, making it a fun to be a part of.

Like when we normally set football competition in my street and everyone would have to contribute an amount to participate, it makes the whole event more thrilling and engaging for all.

Gambling as a pitfall trap
We all know how easy it is to get a habit out of gambling, that excessive dopamine would just make you going back for more untill your well out of control, the byproduct of gambling Is clearly a financial wreak and the idea of easy money or double your cash seems can lure even the most discipline into blindness and eventually a gambling addiction that would lead to indebtedness from chasing losses. With this much bad side gambling can also be seen as a dangerous social activity that can lead many to ruin if left unchecked.

The idea of personal responsibility has always been the key to evade from addiction but her is the big question.

How can one draw a line between having fun and getting addicted since they occurr in the same process?

Would education on gambling side effect help some people nor to get too engaged in it despite the thrilling experience it can offer?

What is your personal view on this[/b]

[The Big Question]

The Big Question

Who Is Really At Fault?

Have you noticed that whenever someone complain or there is an incident of scam they is always a role that was played by the person in that happening, either they failed to be security conscious or they were totally ignorant, and when you look at it the scammer never forced them to comply, this people willingly fell for their trick (Now to be clear I'm not saying scammers are right or saints, I'm pointing to the fact that we are responsible for ourselves, so enough of that shitty excuse, yeah the Internet would be a safer place without scammers but there are here, so deal with it)

There are lots of crypto investors that are well educated, have a good job and a higher level of exposure than even most scammers, but they chose to enter into the crypto space irresponsibly and they inevitably get scammed and at times lose huge sums of money or even life savings. Last bull run there was this Elon musk swap scam that was on and someone lost 10 bitcoins to it and even other cases where people have gotten scam through crypto ads or crypto exchanges that shut down and all this would have been prevented in a way.

In conclusion
there are numerous experiences and stories of people getting scammed and it wasn't as tho a high class hacker went into the blockchain or stole their seed phrase, they literally gave them their money, I think no matter the new app with added security or software, people would still fall into scam as long as they chose to remain ignorant and disregard security consciousness, we can not protect anyone's holding for them, no matter how many treads on security and how to avoid scams are introduced, at the end of the day its a personal responsibility and each person must play their role in their safety.

With crypto you gotta have high standards when it comes to safe guarding it. There are crazy scams all the time and so elaborate that even some bitcoin devs fall for them.

It's so funny how people would be so careless in the crypto space, and you would wonder if there knew what they were doing, it's decentralization for God's sake which means you are responsible for yourself you can't go around messing with what you have;

• your safety is in your hands
• your improvements is also in your hands

I think if more people accept that it's their responsibility to protect and safeguard themselves and also filter the information they consume, we would have a reduce in the amount of scam that happens.

Firstly, I don't think there is any need for the big question in bold, here. Because obviously you're not disputing the fact that not only one plays the role in scam rather the both party does.

It's very much obvious that both the scammers and the scammed plays a very big role in every scam case but the fact that this scammers are just so greed not to go work for their own money rather prefer to take from people who have worked for themselves, that's the only place I blame this scammers hence, I thing the people scammed in the crypto space especially with the Ponzi scheme scam are truly at fault for there lost coins. Greed plays a major role in this scam case most victims are very greedy to the extent of risking their money to get more with someone who you don't even know.

It's just poor to see such scenarios but it's true that both party plays a very big role in every scam, but we pray circumstances don't befall us hence we could be save in the crypto space, because for sure there is no 100% safe place in the internet.

Yeah they played a big role in fooling you and also held your hands and forces you to send your bitcoin to them, then you go around screaming I was scammed, doesn't that sound lame to you, the truth is that your were ignorant, careless and failed to be security conscious, yeah your so busy crying out for decentralization and most you don't know what that really means, you in fucking control, no one is responsible for you but yourself, and scammers know that and that's why they exploit the shit out of you, if it's so fun been ignorant your free and can continue blaming the mirror for showing you how ugly you are than applying some make up.

If more people realise that decentralized systems isn't like a banking or centralized system were you can go and report a transaction and they seize the persons money or track the person( although its possible if they are not smart enough) then you would be more careful when doing deals here.

I was juts scrolling through Binance new and I saw an airdrop from Pepe coin worth over 1 million dollar and I clicked on it to see how I can participate in this amazing airdrop as I read through i saw that this airdrop to participate in it I needed to send them a tip and I was wondering if Binance now promotes scam or if this is ledgit, does anyone have experience with this or should i bail.

Yes it's another bull run and everyone that invested in a scam project or lost money in the last bull run are already filled with FOMO and shouting to the moon for new projects they have no knowledge about, many Influencers are out again promoting new projects and promising huge returns and you can see a lot of persons in the Comment section following and wants to invest.

Don't let the green you see everywhere confuse you to forget the basis of investment, do your own research and don't follow the crowd that has no knowledge in what they are doing, don't let greed push you into looking for outrageous profits like 100x on new projects and you end up losing your money to scammers.

Avoid rapid investment or aggressive investment by putting money in every project available, take your time to research and make informed decisions, it's better to have only 5 good coins in your portfolio than to have a 100 shit coins there.

Lastly invest what you can afford to lose, or rather stake what you can afford to lose cause I know no matter the advice many read they woudl still invest in shit coins so stake what you can afford to lose.