Fintech Focus For December 28, 2020

Quote To Start The Day: Solitary trees, if they grow at all, grow strong.

Source: Winston Churchill

One Big Thing In Fintech: Gangti Zhu, a Maryland retiree, says he put almost his entire life savings into a Robinhood Markets account this year, only to lose about $300,000 in a hack.

He describes the same painstaking experience that other users have encountered: a panicked search for a phone number, a slew of emails after finding there’s no emergency line and then relief when the money was finally returned to his account.

The key difference, he says, is that Robinhood then took the funds back.

“Our team concluded its investigation and determined that your account was not compromised and that no unauthorized activity took place in your account,” read the Dec. 4 email from a customer support representative named Greg P., seen by Bloomberg. “As a result of our findings, we removed the corrections made by Robinhood.”

“I was traumatized,” said Zhu, 63. “I was left in the dark, hopeless, anxious and had no idea what had happened to my account and what to do next.”

Source: Bloomberg

Other Key Fintech Developments:

• Telegram approaching 500M users.
• Goldman Sachs pushes digital tech.
• Biden to revamp crypto regulations.
• White House looking to stablecoins.
• China tells Ant to refocus payments.
• Fintech robotic process automation.
• Robinhood employees and salaries.
• Ripple sued regarding security sale.
• SEC market data rules not so clear.

Watch Out For This: China will overtake the United States to become the world’s biggest economy in 2028, five years earlier than previously estimated due to the contrasting recoveries of the two countries from the COVID-19 pandemic, a think-tank said.

Source: Al Jazeera

Interesting Reads:

• SEC approves NYSE direct listings.
• SpaceX doubles launch pad usage.
• Facebook to be able to read minds.
• Alibaba hit with new antitrust probe.
• Market moves into euphoria, greed.
• Stillbirths a consequence of COVID.
• Gene editing stops COVID’s spread.
• Big technology and edge computing.

Market Moving Headline: Coming into the extended holiday weekend, on tapering volumes, U.S. index futures balanced within prior range.

Key Takeaways:

- Analysts extended 2021 S&P 500 targets.

- Fear and greed are tugging at each other.

- Jefferies ups 2021 GDP forecast to 5.25%.

- Net equity buying the largest in months.

- Inflation is rising where you don’t want it.

- Positioning suggests elevation of volatility.

- The big picture breakouts remain intact.

Bank of America Corp’s BAC Michael Hartnett summarized it best: “[T]he year of the virus, the lockdown, a crash, a recession, an epic policy panic, the greatest stock market rally of all-time, a V-shape economic recovery, and ending with a vaccine for COVID-19.”

Though risks remain, markets are pricing in the odds of a continued rebound. Unless some exogenous event were to transpire, technically speaking, all broad-market indices are in an uptrend.

For next week, two go/no-go levels exist; S&P 500 trade that finds increased involvement above $3,691.00 and below $3,667.75 would suggest a change in conviction. Anything in-between favors responsive trade.

Source: Physik Invest