Facebook lost daily users for the first time in its 18-year history. CEO Mark Zuckerberg believes Facebook’s decline in users is likely due to the boom in popularity of the competitor platform TikTok.
Facebook lost daily users for the first time in its 18-year history in the final quarter of 2021, which CEO Mark Zuckerberg believes was caused by the TikTok boom.
The social media giant’s devastating earnings report on Wednesday sent Facebook shares plunging more than 20 percent, wiping more than $200 billion off the company’s market cap and erasing $29 billion from Zuckerberg’s net worth.
Facebook reported a drop of nearly 500,000 in daily logins during the last three months of 2021.
‘People have a lot of choices for how they want to spend their time, and apps like TikTok are growing very quickly,’ Zuckerberg said during an earnings call Wednesday, according to the Washington Post.
Zuckerberg reiterated that Meta – the company that owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp – is pushing hard to develop its short-form video Reels in an effort to compete with TikTok.
‘This is why our focus on Reels is so important over the long term,’ he added.
Facebook, which now only has 1.93 billion users logging in each day, also saw its shares plunged more than 20 percent in extended trading on Wednesday after unexpectedly heavy spending on its Metaverse project led to a rare decline in its fourth quarter profit.
Meta saw its stock fall 22.6 percent to $249.90 in after-hours trading, wiping about $200 billion off the company’s market value.
The company heavily invested in its Reality Labs segment – which includes its virtual reality headsets and augmented reality technology – during the final quarter of 2021, accounting for much of the profit decline.
Zuckerberg, who is worth approximately $107 billion, held more than 398 million shares of Meta at the end of 2020, according to Investopedia. Based on his reported holdings, the CEO personally experienced a more than $29 billion loss when the company’s stock fell Wednesday.
When I first heard of this adult-themed entertainment mecca I was a young child. The first images that I had seen were of showgirls in their extravagant headdresses, wearing rhinestones or sequin bikini-themed outfits. On television, their choreographed, in sync movements were classy. It drew you in, and even if you weren’t technically as rich as you looked on vacation, being entertained in that way sure did make you feel wealthy.
I grew to associate Las Vegas with making money. Many think of gambling, slot machines in particular. Aka losing money. Let’s not forget, gentlemen clubs. Giving away money. If these are things that you enjoy, so be it, live it up. But as a young teen, I then knew the probability of me getting rich from a slot machine or learning how to play poker and becoming a champion was slim to none.
I fantasized about having a piece of the pie. My thoughts of Las Vegas’ riches were composed of what it would be like to own a casino. Upon moving to Las Vegas, curiosity struck me and I Googled, “How much is Las Vegas worth?” I laugh now at the fact I thought there would be a direct answer as though there aren’t hundreds of thousands of enterprises connected to the city domestically, and globally.
Growing up in the largest economic state in the United States, California, you can’t criticize me too much for asking the internet such a question. See, my decision to move to Las Vegas wasn’t based on the televised images. Before moving I had been attending Oakland City Hall housing development and cannabis town hall meetings. Upon doing so, I learned much of what citizens were voting on had pretty much been decided years prior. Confirmation that it was then time for me to go.
Not knowing where I wanted to move to in the United States, I made an excel spreadsheet with a list of cities. I compared everything, from the weather, natural disasters, educational systems, pay rates, neighborhoods, racial demographics and anything else I felt was critical to know. I was leaving my sunny California beaches, and forest hiking trails. The waterfalls. The entertainment. The food. The diversity. Wherever I moved had to be worth it.
Las Vegas won. It was decided that I would migrate to Sin City. There was something about the city and its potential that was underway. And, many of my enjoyments could be found within the city or on a nice road trip to a neighboring state.
Let’s Get Into It: Las Vegas Loves Crypto
Fast forward and here were are in the city which is home to the $4.3 billion Resorts World Las Vegas which is also the most crypto-friendly resort around. Even the gentlemen’s clubs here have the understanding that digital money is the way of the future. Making it rain in binary. Bitcoin ATMs can be found in luxury shopping centers such as Trivoli Village, as well as common stores like cell phone repair shops.
Which Sports Game Are You Attending?
Home of the Vegas Golden Knights hockey team, and more recently with the completion of the Allegiant Stadium, now the Raiders NFL team. Las Vegas is no stranger to sports, as there are many genres of athletic teams here. But it’s the popular teams that make the news right? The A’s baseball team is reportedly eyeing the Tropicana hotel property for a possible Strip ballpark. Back in October Adam Silver stated that Las Vegas was on the consideration location list for the NBA expanding. That’s hockey, football, baseball, and potentially basketball all in one city. A guy (or girls) sports entertainment dream come true.
Home Is Where The Heat Is
Real estate is hot and with the increase of all-cash deals, The Treasury Department has included Las Vegas on the list of states it wants to monitor the transactions of. This is very significant because it shows economic growth in the city without the need for some to take out mortgage loans for their purchases. Las Vegas realtor Sonja Hanna keeps buyers informed via social media and her reports have shown the market isn’t slowing down. The top-rated entrepreneur’s website is SonjaSellsLasVegasHomes.com and can be reached at 702-425-3587.
Las Vegas has evolved from being a destination for retirement, and vacation gambling city to one of the most exclusive places to live in the United States. If you live here already now is the time to take advantage of the existing and developing opportunities. If you are considering moving here get ready for what all the financially smart and biggest entertainment city in the world has to offer.
Article By K. Crystal Carter
– K. Crystal Carter is a cryptocurrency and blockchain enthusiast who is originally from Oakland, California. She has 7.5 years of experience in the financial industry, and 6 years of being a cannabis hydroponics grow director and cannabis advocate at local City Hall meetings. She currently resides in Las Vegas as one of the lead Earthy Realist team members.
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Article By Jack Rich, EarthyRealist.com Contributor
Cryptocurrency investing has a steep learning curve. Even personal finance expert Suze Orman found it “aggravating” when she first attempted to invest using a cryptocurrency exchange.
“It was just too complicated for me,” she recentlytoldNextAdvisor.
And as a volatile, highly speculative investment, many investors are appropriately cautious. But for those who are interested in crypto but not in buying and holding actual cryptocurrencies, there are still ways to invest, albeit indirectly. And you might already have exposure to cryptocurrency without even knowing it.
The easiest way to get investment exposure to crypto without buying crypto itself is to purchase stock in a company with a financial stake in the future of cryptocurrency or blockchain technology.
But investing in individual stocks can bear similar risks as investing in cryptocurrency. Rather than choosing and investing in individual stocks, experts recommend investors put their money in diversified indexfunds or ETFs instead, with their proven record of long-term growth in value.
“Believe it or not, most individuals with a retirement plan or an investment portfolio allocated in an index fund already have some exposure to crypto,” says Daniel Johnson, a CFP with ReFocus Financial Planning.
Many of the best index funds — like S&P 500 or total market funds — include publicly traded companies that have some involvement with the industry by either mining crypto, being involved in the development of blockchain technology, or holding significant amounts of crypto on their balance sheets, says Johnson.
For example, Tesla— which holds over a billion dollars in Bitcoin and accepted Bitcoin payments in the past— is included in any funds that track the S&P 500. Since its 2020 inclusion, it’s become one of the most valuable, and therefore influential companies in the index. And Coinbase, the only publicly traded cryptocurrency exchange, is in the ARK Fintech Innovation ETF.
However, if you have some extra cash (and you’re tolerant of the risk), you can choose to allocate a small amount of your portfolio to specific companies or more specialized index funds or mutual funds. “An investor bullish on the future of cryptocurrency could invest in the stocks of companies working on that technology,” says Jeremy Schneider, the personal finance expert behind Personal Finance Club.
Experts generally recommend keeping these speculative investments — whether a single company’s stock, specialized index funds, or cryptocurrency itself — to less than 5% of your total investing portfolio.
Investing in Companies with Crypto Interests
That’s how personal finance expert Suze Orman initially did it. She recently told NextAdvisor about how she invested in MicroStrategy, a cloud computing firm that holds billions in Bitcoin, because its CEO was putting all of the company’s working capital into Bitcoin. She figured if Bitcoin increased in value, so would the value of Microstrategy’s stock.
But as anyone who follows Orman’s advice knows, she recommends index funds as a much better investment strategy than picking individual stocks.
Rather than buying shares in any single crypto-forward company, it’s better to maintain a balanced portfolio by identifying companies with crypto interests, and making sure their shares are included in any index or mutual funds you put money into. Not only does that allow you to invest in the companies where you see potential, but it also helps you keep your investments diversified within a broader fund.
If you invest with Vanguard, for example, you can use the site’s holding search to find all the Vanguard funds that include a specific company. Just enter the company’s ticker symbol (like TSLA for Tesla) and the tool will offer a list of all the Vanguard products that have holdings of its shares. Other investing platforms offer similar ways to search by company within index and mutual funds.
But specialized ETFs or mutual funds can also come with higher fees than total market indexes, so pay attention to how much you’re going to be charged for buying shares. Schneider considers an expense ratio (what you pay in fees) under 0.2% to be very low, and anything over 1% to be very expensive. For an already speculative investment, high fees can hinder your growth even more.
Here are a few more examples of publicly-traded companies that are adding Bitcoin or blockchain technology to their business. These are definitely not the only companies involved, and more are joining the list every day. (Circle, a digital payment platform specializing in crypto payments, for example, just announced its intended IPO):
MicroStrategy (MSTR)
MicroStrategy offers business intelligence and cloud services, and invests its assets into Bitcoin.
Marathon Digital Holdings (MARA)
Marathon Digital Holdings aims to be the largest bitcoin mining operation in North America.
RIOT Blockchain (RIOT)
Riot Blockchain is a Bitcoin mining company.
Bitfarms (BITF)
Bitfarms operates blockchain computing centers.
Galaxy Digital (BRPHF)
Galaxy Digital is a broker-dealer involved in crypto investment management, trading, custody, and mining.
Tesla (TSLA)
Tesla’s founder Elon Musk, is a proponent of cryptocurrency, and the company holds over a billion dollars worth of Bitcoin. It temporarily accepted Bitcoin payments in early 2021 before ending the program, but Musk recently said Tesla will “most likely” restart Bitcoin payments.
PayPal (PYPL)
PayPal is a payment platform where people can purchase cryptocurrency.
Square (SQ)
Square recently announced that it would be entering the decentralized finance space.
Coinbase (COIN)
Coinbase is the first public cryptocurrency exchange. It debuted on the Nasdaq in spring 2021.
Blockchain ETFs
ETFs — exchange traded funds — operate like a hybrid between mutual funds and stocks. An ETF is essentially a group of stocks, bonds or other assets. When you buy a share of an ETF, you have a stake in the basket of investments owned by the fund.
While many ETFs — such as total market ETFs — have very low expense ratios, specialized ETFs can be closer to the 1% ratio that Schneider would consider very expensive. This will make less of an impact if more expensive ETFs comprise a small portion of your overall portfolio, keep in mind the cost when considering options.
ETFs are often grouped by what sort of investments they hold, so one way you can indirectly invest in cryptocurrency is by putting money into an ETF focused on its underlying technology: blockchain. A blockchain ETF will include companies either using or developing blockchain technology.
Many people who are skeptical about cryptocurrency but believe in the “transformative” blockchain technology behind it see blockchain ETFs as a much more sound investment.
It’s like the California gold rush of the 1800s, says Chris Chen, CFP, of Insight Financial Strategists in Newton, Massachusetts, for a recent NextAdvisor story about blockchain technology: “Lots of people rushed in there to dig for gold, and most of them never made any money,” he said. “The folks who made the money are those who sold the shovels. The companies that are supporting the development of blockchain are the shovel sellers.”
ETFs are created by different companies, but you can often buy them through whichever brokerage you typically use to invest. Just like you can search your brokerage for individual stocks, you can also search for funds using the symbols associated with them. Here are a few blockchain ETFs currently available to investors (with listings on popular brokerages like Fidelity, Vanguard, and Charles Schwab):
BLOK (Amplify Transformational Data Sharing ETF)
BLOK is the largest blockchain ETF by total assets. It’s largest holdings are PayPal, MicroStrategy, and Square.
BLCN (Siren Nasdaq NexGen Economy ETF)
BLCN’s top holdings are Coinbase, Accenture, and Square.
LEGR (First Trust Indxx Innovative Transaction & Process ETF)
LEGR’s top holdings are NVIDIA, Oracle, and Fujitsu.
Crypto ETFs
For would-be crypto investors who are deterred by exchanges or buying and holding actual coins, one simpler way to invest — via crypto or Bitcoin ETFs — has remained out of reach.
Plenty of companies — from crypto exchange Gemini to longstanding investment firm Fidelity — have attempted to offer Bitcoin ETFs. But so far, all such U.S. proposals have either been rejected by the Securities and Exchange Commission or remain under consideration, as the SEC continues to drag its feet through the approval process.
A crypto ETF would be a major step in bringing cryptocurrency to U.S. investment portfolios,
offering American investors the ability to invest in digital currencies like Bitcoin or Ethereum without having to learn to trade on a crypto exchange.
The only similar option for U.S. investors today are private trusts that hold cryptocurrency, such as Grayscale Bitcoin Trust or Osprey Bitcoin Trust. These funds allow accredited investors to buy shares directly at market value, but anyone can buy secondary market shares through a brokerage account with a traditional firm, like Fidelity. There are management fees associated with the trusts to keep in mind, though (2% for Greyscale and 0.49% for Osprey) which can make this method of Bitcoin investment more costly than a commission-free blockchain ETF or buying crypto directly from an exchange.
The foreign exchange market is a global decentralized or over-the-counter market for the trading of currencies. This market determines foreign exchange rates for every currency. It includes all aspects of buying, selling and exchanging currencies at current or determined prices.
The currency markets are the largest and most actively traded financial markets in the world with a daily trading volume of more than $5.1 trillion (Triennial Central Bank Survey 2016). The majority of this trading is concentrated in the world’s major financial centers such as London, New York and Tokyo.
Large institutional investors such as banks, multinational corporations, hedge funds and central banks constitute the majority of the market activity. To knowledgeably compete in this overwhelmingly institutional marketplace, individual investors need to assimilate as much information as possible.
The major pairs are the four most heavily traded currency pairs in the forex (FX) market. The four major pairs at present are the EUR/USD, USD/JPY, GBP/USD, USD/CHF. These four major currency pairs are deliverable currencies and are part of the Group of Ten (G10) currency group.
EUR/USD – European Union (EU) and the United States (USD) USD/JPY – United States (USD) and the Japanese Yen (JPY) GBP/USD – British Pound (GBP) and the United States (USD) USD/CHF – United States (USD) and the Swiss Franc (CHF)
Forex trading is the world’s largest financial market for nothing – traders do make money online, but it takes a lot of work. If you do your work, be diligent enough to study the marketplace, and be patient with your profits, Forex trading can be a profitable online career.
EarthyRealist.com 