Credit Cards: Over 41% of Total Revenue Going to “Fraud Prevention”

Credit card issuing companies are spending upward of 41% of total revenue every year on — more or less futile anyway — attempts to prevent (or at least limit) credit card fraud. This is a well-known fact throughout the banking and credit card industries.

Outdated Infrastructure

Largely anachronistic money transfer systems such as credit cards but also bank wire transfer technologies, dating from the age of the telegraph but still in use today, prove increasingly unfit for today’ where much more frequently than in pre-internet days some sort of “overseas” aspect is present.

High Extra Cost Consumers Have to Pay

Despite the high extra cost thus associated with all “international” transactions, a large percentage of transactions in the consumer and B2C fields alone involve a “foreign” party in today’s world. These “overseas” transactions are particularly prone to fraud or other kinds of loss as legacy systems used by banks were not designed to process the volume of worldwide transfers they have to in this day and age.

Making It Worse: the Only “Features” That Are New

Banks’ only “innovation” offered is the reckless integration of useless, and even more risky, new features into retails customer credit cards such as NFC (near-field communications). This makes the unsuitability of both credit cards and banks themselves for the real world even more obvious. All “new” NFC-equipped cards can be read at points of sale without card terminal contact, a fact that is already frequently used for cracking into and fraudulently charging to cards located in bags and wallets of passers-by.

Will Be Worse in the Future

Therefore, it is quite likely that these 41% will increase even further, unless a fundamental shift in the technologies employed takes place — even as established banks appear to see very little reason to finally offer their customers appropriate, modernised tools and business models.

Much rather, it will be “business as usual”: banks will roll all their costs (and losses) over to the “stupid little customer” who, in their view, is only “there to be milked” (or slaughtered). If you feel insecure about using NFC-enabled debit or credit cards, send them back to your bank and ask for a replacement without that “feature”. It might even make your “usage fees” lower in the long run.

Gold Bars Collection at the Bank of England Museum

The International Gold Bars Collection is at the Bank of England Museum from 19 February to 14 May 1998. The article below outlines basics of exhibits and general precious metals information for well-versed investors. More related information can be found in the Gold and Silver Bullion & Coin Investing Guide available here as an audiobook edition.

Bar Types, Weights and Purities — Cast and Minted

Most gold bars are classified into two ‘types’, depending on their method of manufacture: cast and minted. Cast bars are those made by the pouring of molten gold into a mould of specified dimensions. Markings are then applied manually or by a press. Minted bars are made from gold blanks that have been stamped out to the required dimensions from a flat strip of gold. Markings are normally applied by minting presses (as in the case of gold coins).

Bar Weights, Precious Metals Denominations

Gold bars can be denominated in different units of weight to accommodate the preferences of different geographical regions:

* Grammes – International
* Ounces – Mainly English-speaking countries: USA, UK and Australia
* Tolas – Mainly India, Pakistan, Middle East, Singapore
* Taels – Mainly Chinese-speaking countries: Hong Kong, Taiwan, China
* Bahts – Thailand
* Chi – Vietnam
* Dons – Korea

Gold Weight Conversion Table

Grammes Troy Ounces
100 g – 3.2151 oz
1 oz 31.1035 g –
10 tola 116.638 g 3.75 oz
5 tael 187.145 g 6.017 oz
10 baht 152.44 g 4.901 oz
5 chi 18.750 g 0.603 oz
10 don 37.500 g 1.206 oz

Cast Bar Weights: Grammes and Ounces

Twenty-seven internationally accredited manufacturers produce small cast bars in grammes (500 g or less) and ounces (20 oz or less). In grammes, 10 weights are available, from 500 g to 10 g. In ounces, 7 weights are available, from 20 oz to � oz. The smallest cast bar in grammes weighs 10 g, first made in Brazil by Degussa (since 1985) as well as subsequently by Ourinvest and CRM.

The most popular small cast bars in Europe, Brazil and Japan are 500 g, 250 g and 100 g bars. Ounce bars are preferred in English-speaking countries: USA, UK and Australia.

The smallest cast bar in ounces is the � oz ‘button’ bar made by the Perth Mint (Australia) since 1976.

Standard Minted Bars

The manufacture of minted bars worldwide is dominated by 4 accredited manufacturers in Switzerland, providing around 35% of all minted bar types available.

* Argor-Heraeus – Subsidiary of Union Bank of Switzerland
* Metalor – Subsidiary of Swiss Bank Corporation
* Valcambi – Subsidiary of Credit Suisse
* Pamp SA

The three Swiss manufacturers, which are subsidiaries of banks, normally issue their bars internationally with the brand name of the bank.

Since 1974, an innovation of Credit Suisse, many minted bars have a plain decorative design (incorporating the name of the issuer) on the reverse side of the bar. An example of this is displayed in the Exhibition.

Minted Bar Weights: Grammes and Ounces

Minted bars are a modern phenomenon. Among accredited refiners worldwide, Argor-Heraeus (Switzerland) is believed to have been the first to issue a range of minted bars, in 1952. Now, 23 internationally accredited manufacturers produce minted bars in grammes or ounces.

In grammes, 16 weights are available, ranging from 500 g to 0.3 g. In ounces, 8 weights are available, from 20 oz to 1/10 oz. The Exhibition displays the world’s largest minted bars: the 20 oz and 500 g which are manufactured by Johnson Matthey (Canada).

Smallest Minted Bars

Tanaka (Japan) has manufactured the world’s smallest minted bars, mainly for the jewellery industry since 1990. They weigh only 0.5 g and 0.3 g. 1 g minted bars, first issued by Credit Suisse (Switzerland) in 1980, are manufactured by 12 accredited manufacturers worldwide, including Degussa and Heraeus.

Bar Purities

All bars record the assayed purity of the gold content, expressed in units per 100, 1000 or 10000.

Although there is an international trend to 99.99% gold bars, standard bars still vary among countries. For example:

* Dubai – 99.9%
* Iran – 99.5%
* Hong Kong – 99%
* Thailand – 96.5%

Large 400 oz (12.5 kg) ‘London Good Delivery’ bars, held by central banks, normally have a minimum purity of 99.5%.

(Source of gold bar information and photographs: “The Industry Catalogue of Gold Bars Worldwide” and Gold and Silver Bullion & Coin Investing Guide; please note that the link is to its audiobook edition).

Why MEGA Cloud Storage Is Also Great for Traders

MEGA offers a one-of-its-kind solution for securing your stored files, whether for personal or business use. The cloud-storage platform comes with a free Starter Plan, and there are also numerous paid-for plans that scale up to both power users and commercial use requirements.

MEGA Cloud Storage Compares Extremely Favorably

It’s the much better (and smarter option) than, say, Google Drive or Dropbox. (Read up on Privacy basics here if you didn’t know that and need to look up why Dropbox/AmazonS3 is not really a good idea.)

Better than Dropbox, Google Drive: MEGA cloud file storage

It is also worth mentioning that the MEGA secure storage platform seamlessly integrates with a wide range of devices, including NAS devices like QNAP and Synology, and has browser apps as well as standalone apps for all major operating systems. MEGA also offers MEGAcmd, a very neat command-line tool, to address the needs of IT professionals or programmers as well.

What Traders Can Do with MEGA a Cloud Storage Account

For marketers, MEGA Secure Cloud Storage offers a great alternative to much-hated Google Drive and Dropbox — both of which are infamous for their surveillance and lack of real control over user data. (To learn more about these concerns, read DuckDuckGo’s educational articles on Privacy and how to use alternatives to Google products in order to claim back your legitimate self-control over your data on the internet.) MEGA Secure Cloud Storage convincingly and masterfully addresses these concerns and offers an alternative option for all of us who want to be in charge ourselves (rather than any corporations, governments or faceless entities so wholly unrelated to us).

Storing Your Trading Data or Other Content with MEGA

With MEGA Secure Cloud Storage, it is easy to store your Lead Magnet or Free Downloads or other materials online. Simply link to your storage location, and your users and sign-up followers or anyone you want to share files with if you have an automatic onboarding process for your new users. (Or you can do it manually, if we’re talking smaller numbers of fellow traders or similar here.)

MEGA Secure Storage is a great offer from the New-Zealand-based startup that had been founded by Kim Dotcom when he came to the country in search for greener pastures.

MEGA Is Secure (Unlike Most of the Others)!

MEGA offers a unique safety feature where encrypted files — that cannot even be accessed by the company’s tech people — can be safely shared across the internet, including unsafe (unencrypted) simple emails or mobile text messages if need be. This is achieved by cleverly dividing the stored file’s URL into a public part and a private-key part that can be disguised or can be sent separately for security reasons.

Give it a try and see for yourself how this works!

The Right Tools for These Unusual Markets

5x-leveraged long and short, called "Bull" or "Bear" coins
Bull- and Bear-market ups and downs illustrated. Image (c) 2022 ffWeb. All rights reserved.

To trade Crypto coin calls or puts, Gate.io is a great exchange offering 5x long and short positions along with many other trading choices. Of course, it’s FREE to sign up for a trading account there. Wondering what to do in falling Crypto markets? Looking for smart strategies to make the best of a pretty bad situation? Then read this post and discover pro trader methods! In this article, you will discover the tools you need for the type of free-falling markets we have been witnessing in Crypto coins for multi-months a little while ago.

Tools to Apply to Any Market Situation

Find the right tools for any market, good or very bad ones! In this article, you will be introduced to and find some explanations about the tools and strategies you need in order to prepare and turn big profits on the back of the breakdown we’ve been experiencing in bitcoins across the board. No matter if it gets worse, or how nasty it’s going to be specifically, here’s how you can turn the tables on markets “doing this to you” right now! There are “Tools of the Trader” that are meant to be used specifically in markets like this! It’s not simply “buy low, sell high” or “buy now and wait for better times” but something more refined (and much more effective).

Call and Put Options for Crypto Markets

To do the same on Bitcoin as an underlying asset, you can use Crypto Long-Instruments and Short-Instruments. These are similar to Calls and Puts as we know them in other markets. Here they are structured as “perpetual leveraged positions” in a Crypto asset, i e a specific coin such as Bitcoin, Ether, Litecoin, Dogecoin, and many more. To see what this looks likein real life, use this chart and link to register for a trading account on Gate.io. Again, tt’s FREE to sign up.

If you like this post and want to stay in the loop on available “Tools of the Trader” and strategies, then please subscribe on this website in order to be notified of news and updates like this one WHEN the markets change and WHEN they’re needed.

Disclaimer: This article is for general informational purposes only, as are all articles and posts on this website. None of the information in this or our other publications or articles on this site is financial advice. Content authors do not even know your individual situation and, therefore, cannot and do not offer such financial advice here.

Opinions expressed in these articles and posts  are observations, thoughts, and analyses of the article or post author and opinions derived from them. Do not rely on them or any other content of our videos for your own trades or investments; do your own due diligence and/or seek any necessary financial advice from licensed professionals before investing your money.

Disclosure notice: Links in the description above are affiliate links; if you click them for signing up, I will receive a commission — and YOU RECEIVE rebates on trading fees they offer on Gate.io for referred customers, depending on the individual offer chosen.

After the FTX-Fraud Fiasco: Alternatives to Democrat Top Donors and Other Conmen

With Bankfried’s (or Sam Bankman-Fried, or what that character out there calls himself) on-purpose fiasco and shameful exit designed to give Crypto coins a bad name, alternatives are needed for traders looking for option-style opportunities. Not only is Bankfried not what some people thought he was, the entire FTX fiasco isn’t either. The breakdown of FTX is not proof for “Bitcoin being bad” whatsoever. Bitcoin is about de-centralization (not about banks, not about privately-controlled exchanges, not about the credibility of some “conscious” capitalist or the lack of it) but Bitcoin is about cutting out the middleman. This includes middle-men like Bankfried, or Joe Biden, or Donald Trump — the list doesn’t stop here (only that the latter two never had a clue about Bitcoin or internet or high-tech, at al — for better or worse).

So the failure of yet-another centrally-controlled entity causing some damage to a number of Crypto-market participants does not even touch about the concept of de-centralization. It’s not rocket science to figure this out.

Bitcoiners who obey by common-sense rules of storing their coin in paper wallets or in cold storage, and never rely on others to store them for them were doing just fine — and did not lose a penny. So, when you look at it closely, the FTX-Fraud fiasco does not damage Bitcoin but it confirms Bitcoin and its safety — except for user error and negligence, both of which affected users alone are to blame for.

You do not leave money in hot wallets and/or on exchanges, but you bring it back home at the end of a trade or at the end of a trading day. You do not leave it on Coinbase, on FTX, let alone on Binance, a minute longer than needed. Yes, it is convenient to use an exchange’s or other provider’s public and private keys to store your coins in — but no, it is dangerous: not your keys, not your coins. Simple as that.

Regardless, for the loss of leveraged long and short coins on BTC, LTC, ETH and others, there is a replacement needed for options-style leveraged trading that FTX’ “Bull” tokens and “Bear” tokens offered back in the day. An alternative might be with other exchanges, and we’ll look into that further in a separate article.

Maybe, we all can resume trading leveraged long and short positions with alternative tools — on other exchanges, and always with the above safety measures in place.

Bitcoin Safekeeping

Crypto-coin paper wallet exampleBitcoin and other Crypto currencies allow users to Be Their Own Bank, but being foolish or lax with security can prove very dangerous for those bankers-to-be. We explain how advanced users keep their Crypto coins safe and introduce tools and services available for Bitcoin and other Crypto currency owners.

Best and Safest Way

Despite what the media — and even mainstream bitcoiners, or at least the loudest ones! — keep telling you, the best solution is not the Trezor wallet or any other gadgetty hardware solution, however neat it may look. Don’t fall for shiny object syndrome here. The best way is a, literally, not at all shiny one — namely a simple paper wallet.

What Is a Paper Wallet, Anyway?

A paper wallet is a simple piece of paper, printed out on any computer printer (but preferably one without WiFi or any other smart or wireless capabilities — the dumber the better)! What’s not quite as simple about paper wallets is the underlying cryptography as well as other technological aspects involved. As a Crypto user, you do not have to worry about any of these though.

How You Do This

In fact, you do not have to stress out over any of the things happening in the background, The only thing you need to do is properly generate your paper wallet. Basic steps for this involve loading a paper-wallet generator website for your coin, disconnect your computer (and printer) from the internet (also turn off WiFi or any other local wireless connections that might act as a backdoor), then move your mouse around to create randomness (usually your progress is displayed on your screen), and print out your resulting paper wallet (or list of key pairs, depending on which format or type you have chosen).

Make Sure to Do This Properly — and Safely

Also make sure to put away all cellphones with cameras to also prevent these from eavesdropping; nobody must except you see your private-key portion on that paper you print! It’s also a good idea to fold over your paper wallets immediately, private key down. Afterwards, you may re-connect your devices, strip off any tape over cameras or what not.

That’s it — you now have a paper wallet. Note that different coins have different wallets (following from the different encryption mechanisms and other Block-index features of the different coins). You don’t have to worry about that either, but only make sure you follow the obvious steps of using the proper wallet generator for the coin you want to store.

Asset Classes or The Difference Between Paper Assets and Commodities

Asset classes, tangibles symbolized by precious metalsBusiness persons and investors use to distinguish between four major asset classes. These asset classes are Business, Real Estate, Paper Assets, and Commodities.

The reason for separating these four asset classes is that these four types of assets perform differently throughout different periods of the economic cycle.

It is crucial to understand the different asset classes’ different characteristics or “personalities” in order to make informed investment decisions. Today’s mass media and business or investment publications, however, do a great job of blurring the view of these, in fact, simple characteristics and mislead investors by an enormous load of background noise or outright stupid news. This happens for two reasons: (1) publications often have a vested interest in certain kinds of investments and want to “please” their ad clients and (2) the enormous speed at which these publications and their “payload” content need to be produced by junior employees or third-class journalists. Add to this the fact that commercial ticker content is largely uniform these days and you will understand whether or not it is a good idea to use media content to base investment decisions upon.

Each of the four asset classes have their particular advantages and disadvantages, ranging from complexity to risk and similar aspects. Not all asset classes fit all investors. For example, running a business requires the most effort and is the most people-intensive of the asset classes while providing the greatest profit opportunity as well as control. Paper assets, on the other hand, are the least demanding but normally offer very little control.

A more fundamental aspect though is between paper assets on one hand and commodities on the other. While paper assets do not have any intrinsic value, commodities do (as well as does real estate). The reason for this is that commodities as well as real estate address basic issues human needs (food and shelter) and will, therefore, be in demand as long as there are humans on this planet, The fact that something is of “natural” value means that its value will never go to zero. Prices will fluctuate and will either go up or down or sideways, but they will never go away. The price of shares, on the other hand, may “disappear” in an instant if a company goes bankrupt. On top, bakrupty laws provide that shareholders are compensated last and after all other debts have been settled.

These facts are well known by precious metals investors and these facts are the very reason for precious metals to be considered a safe haven investment. When times get tough and when the risk of bankruptcy increases, the “insurance policy” of holding precious metals becomes more appealing to investors. What exact portion of a portfolio is moved into precious metals is a matter of taste but classic advice usually recommended holding one third of one’s assets in precious metals. It should be noted, however, that diversification is not necessarily prudent and may even prevent profits. Rather, the asset class performing best during a particular period of the economic cycle should be allocated a larger portion.

Remember that “holding precious” metals does not mean to buy Gold or Silver ETFs. These are paper assets, just like stocks and bonds, and come with similar risks associated. Unlike physical precious metals, ETFs do have an inherent counterparty risk (bankruptcy of fund company) as well as systemic risk (everything from cash value and acceptance to the proper functioning of phone or internet connections to bank branches being open for business or ATMs running flawlessly; this means that a myriad of systems that are totally beyond your control need to be fully operational before you can expect to receive any of your money back).

The only thing you can control without any counterparty and systemic risks is the money you hold in your hands. In normal times, this includes the cash (paper money) in your pocket but if there is a currency crisis, not even your dollars or pounds or German reichmarks of 1923 are worth the paper they are printed on.

This is exactly why people buy physical bullion. It is a matter of eliminating all the risks that might materialize in financial or political crises. As banks do not make much money from customers interested in physical bullion, these people are called “Goldbugs” or all sorts of names by loyal bank employees who care about their own job and their employer rather than the customer they purport to serve. A “Goldbug” is actually someone holding gold “no matter what”, whether it is in good times or bad. That is not what is recommended for the precious metals investor, though, as physical bullion is the right investment for those times when it makes sense to load up on the “insurance policy” in order to be covered in case one of the risks above materializes.

Times like these also very easily justify the “cost” of physical bullion which is the premium over spot prices and — if you will — the fictitious interest lost which in light of current interest rates is not much anyway. As this cost is usually recovered by a small move of just a few points in the spot price, holding physical bullion usually “pays” for itself within a very short period of time.

Convenience & Showing Off

Sure, all Crypto coins are the coolest thing around — and conveniently using them is tempting. Showing off and being a great person for having the latest in portable cards, equipment or devices is anyway 

Be aware that most of the convenient or cool toys out there are less secure than the other stuff listed in our Coin Security section. Be sure to use them only for limited amounts or “risk capital” as in you can afford to lose it…

Informed Decisions

Investors will succeed if they do their homework. This homework is primarily about making informed decisions. Without the necessary information, investing success will be mediocre at best or your investments may even suffer losses.

Making Informed Decisions
Informed Decisions require information. Not the kind of “information” — or, rather, infotainment — that you get from the mass media. It may make you FEEL informed but, at the end of the day, you aren’t.

Decisions should always be based upon knowledge and that portion of information given from sources that do not have a vested interest (like e g financial advisors, brokerages or banks) but rather those sources that are not so readily available. In other words, you should have to “find” it yourself rather than being flooded with it (from talking heads on TV, radio, internet commercials or promotional videos; again, all these do have some sort of a vested interest in your investment decisions). Based on the latter ones, investing is bound to be based on mal-informed decisions.

Find a True Source
Only take your information from true sources, from people who do not only Talk the Talk but also Walk the Walk! Did you ever ask yourself if your friendly financial advisor has ever traded any of the investments they recommend? Did you ever wonder if your financial advisor knows any other asset classes beyond the ones they are trying to sell you at on particular given moment? Usually, the answer is No to both, and this should serve as a strong warning already — but they’re giving you “advice”.

Do Not Commit Financial Suicide
Taking financial advice from a “financial” reporter making $40.000 a year in New York City is a sure-fire way to failure. So is taking financial advice from your local bank clerk or broker. The same is true for “financial education” given by the public school system.

The information on this website has been written by people who are investing themselves — long term with lots of success (sometimes spectacular) as well as lots of failures (sometimes equally spectacular)…

Our Experience
Everyone writing here has done it themselves, is in it for a lot more than the current economic cycle, has already seen booms and busts and bubbles — and has gotten smarter in the process.

This may not be on prime-time TV and it may not be as easily accessible as turning on the tube while preparing dinner, but it’s definitely getting you further when it comes to making those Informed Decisions.