Hey guys,

I have a bit of a practical/unpractical cashless lifestyle story for you to kick things off tonight. I most definitely lead as close to a cashless life as society will allow. I do the majority of spending day to day on cards and pay that off with instant online banking transactions or crypto payments.

As my income has shifted further away from fiat, the cash that I have easy access to, whenever and wherever I want, has diminished. Today for example, I found myself running late for a night out at a cash only, 2nd tier football game. I realised my physical wallet was empty, so stopped at an ATM to withdraw a simple $20 note.

“You have insufficient funds.”

No, it should actually read: ”You have no access to your own funds because the banking system is archaic.

I do in fact have the funds, I just don’t have access to them because it’s a Saturday night and the banks won’t clear transfers that I’ve made back to my account before Monday at the absolute earliest.

While hanging out with my mates today, I used a debit card to deposit some money into a sports/racing betting account. I always deposit more than I need to there for potential arbitrage opportunities that always arise and they have no problems instantly accepting my deposit and letting me play there, but when it comes to withdrawing back to my bank account, the banking system breaks the process down. Nope, you have to wait until the next business day.

Crypto withdrawals to get your hands on fiat cash pose the same problems. No easy, instant way to get my hands on cash without being raped by exorbitant middle man fees which completely rule the advantages of crypto useless.

So here I am, sitting on my lounge Steemit blogging on a Saturday night, rather than watching my local football club roll an old rival at home. Frustrating much!

Market Overview

Anyway, enough complaining about the lifestyle I choose to lead and it’s inability to integrate with the society I choose to lead it within, let’s talk markets again.

The big overnight talking point was the one and only NFP release out of the US. Total nonfarm payroll employment ticked up by 103,000 jobs in March and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 4.1%.

We also saw some hugely significant revisions to those numbers as the change in total nonfarm payroll employment for January was revised down from +239,000 to +176,000, February saw upward revisions from +313,000 to +326,000.

With these revisions, employment gains in January and February combined were 50,000 less than they were released and acted on during those months.

Hugely significant to markets who are at the mercy of the Federal Reserve who continue to tell us how they will raise rates faster this year because the economy is strong enough to handle them.

Hmm...

Forex Markets

With the NFP number and revisions outlined above, forex markets are of course all about the US Dollar reaction.

The USD of course fell into negative territory heading into the weekend after the weaker than expected NFP number. This was highlighted nowhere better than on the USD/JPY chart that we were trading yesterday heading into the release.

Here’s an updated intraday look:

USD/JPY Hourly

Price of course has pulled back, but I wouldn’t be too hasty in dumping the longs you’re in the process of building because surely nothing changes from the Fed on that and the Dollar will continue to appreciate long term as a result.

I don’t need to post a chart, but you won’t be surprised to have seen the SPX drop closer to those lows again. Juicy, I know!

Cryptocurrency Markets

I just wanted to include a quick cryptocurrency update as they are the markets that continue to trade into the weekend, post NFP.

Start with a higher time frame for context and the Bitcoin daily:

BTC/USD Daily

Yep, still all about that long term trend line that just doesn’t want to break. Price is just lingering around at support.

Or is it retesting the underside of broken trend line support, this time as resistance? The intraday certainly makes that suggestion:

BTC/USD Hourly

Which is it? Well, you tell me?

@forexbrokr | Steemit Blog

Market Analyst and Forex Broker.

Twitter: @forexbrokr
Instagram: @forexbrokr

NFP Fallout in Forex and Crypto Markets, Plus a Personal Cashless Lifestyle Frustration Story