17 Top Traders Round Table with James Koutolas, Tim McCourt, and Roy Niederhoffer – 2of2

Published: Dec. 5, 2018, 9:57 a.m.

"I would say that 90% of the people I've talked to that have made investments have actually used the term 'picks and shovels', and I'm starting to worry about whether the picks and shovels trade is the crowded trade, not the crypto trade." - Roy Niederhoffer (Tweet) Welcome to Top Traders Round Table, a podcast series on managed futures brought to you by CME Group where guest host Chris Solarz continues his conversation with Tim McCourt, the Global Head of Equity Index and Alternative Investment Products at CME Group, James Koutolas, CEO of Typhon Capital Management, and Roy Niederhoffer, President of R.G. Niederhoffer Capital Management. Listen in to learn more about the future of cryptocurrency technologies, the unprecedented strength of the blockchain in Bitcoin, and how the SEC and world economies are looking into cryptocurrencies. Subscribe on: In This Episode, You'll Learn: How pick-and-shovel plays are faring in the crypto market Why Roy is hesitant to make any judgments about the future of cryptocurrency technologies What people are calling the "inconsistent trinity of crypto" The future of scalability in crypto "To me, [the blockchain] is the most secure electronic security ever created." - Tim McCourt (Tweet) Why the cost of trading crypto is not an issue to worry about What makes the blockchain one of the most secure things ever created What makes Bitcoin "anti-fragile" Where the SEC stands now on regulation of Bitcoin "That's one of the most interesting things about the blockchain, is that it's a living breathing digital organism." - James Koutolas (Tweet) Why James worries about ICO's and the security behind them What makes Bitcoin such a unique trading commodity Why James sees new all-time highs in Bitcoin in 2019 This episode was sponsored by CME Group: Connect with our guests:   Learn more about James Koutolas and Typhon Capital Management Learn more about Tim McCourt and CME Group Learn more about Roy Niederhoffer and R.G. Niederhoffer Capital Management   "The barriers represent opportunities, the negative feelings represent bearish sentiment. As they say with the stock market, the S&P climbs a wall of worry; there has never been a wall of worry as high as the crypto wall of worry." - Roy Niederhoffer (Tweet) Full Transcript The following is a full detailed transcript of this conversion. Click here to subscribe to our mailing list, and get full access to our library of downloadable eBook transcripts! Niels Welcome back to Top Traders Round Table, a podcast series on managed futures brought to you by CME group where our guest host today, Chris Solarz, continues his conversation with James Koutoulas, Roy Niederhoffer and Tim McCourt where they discuss the current state of the crypto space. So, without further ado, let’s rejoin the conversation.  Chris When I see the spectrum of products available for offer on the crypto, on the hedge fund side now, the media says that there are over three hundred crypto hedge funds perhaps trading ten billion dollars. I put them on a spectrum from very short-term to very long term.   So, at the very short-term, we have the arbitrage guys, the exchange arb guys that we’re seeing now. The arb is, perhaps, so well squeezed that now they’re doing triangular arbs, maybe they’re doing bitcoin dollar on one exchange versus bitcoin Ether on another exchange versus Ether dollar on another exchange. They’re becoming a little more complex because perhaps the easy money has been made over these past few years.   So, those are probably the shortest term. Then we’re seeing trend followers, if we just go out along the spectrum, who are probably holding it for weeks to months. Somewhere in the middle, we see what has emerged as coin pickers. I would liken this to the long/short equity industry where they’re truly looking at fundamentals. They’re looking at the bottoms up. They’re trying to figure out if ripple is going to outperform other currencies.