Like a lot of people across the world last night, @mrsbozz and I hopped in the car and went for a drive to see the Northern Lights. People who follow the Aurora Borealis have come to refer to her as Lady Aurora and on the occasions you get to see her, they say you are dancing with her. Hence the title of this post.
The geomagnetic storm that hit us over the past 24 hours is one of the largest I have seen in a while. Apparently, we are in a bit of a "supercycle" right now as far as solar activity and its impact on the Earth. Between the amazing show we had back in May and this one last night, I think @mrsbozz can finally check this item off her bucket list.
I have a mess of photos I tried taking in RAW format to see what I can do in terms of editing them. Wish me luck as I have never done that before.
Once I knew this storm was coming, I was watching the numbers as closely as I do the crypto markets. There are two key numbers you want to look at and there are many Aurora apps out there that will tell you what your current numbers are. If you don't want to install an app, you can go to the NOAA Space Weather Site.
Basically, you want KP to be high and BZ to be low. Before the sun even set last night the KP was north of 8 and the BZ was down around -50. Since I have been following the aurora, I have never seen numbers like that.
If the sun would have set at 3 PM we would have been seeing the aurora. It was so intense it pretty much lasted well into the night and into this morning as well. As I post this the KP is at over 7 in my area and the BZ is right around zero, I think that will change during the day and we might get a show again tonight.
Speaking of numbers, it is Friday, so it is only appropriate that I include some finance content in this post.
It is time again for another Finance Friday/Friday Finance. This is a series I started where I talk about random bits of financial stuff that I have seen, gathered, or experienced during the week. I hope as a reader you find it informational, entertaining, or both. I also hope it can generate some good discussion and edify the community.
SEC doing SEC Things
Someone in one of my social channels shared this post yesterday where one of the SEC commissioners was basically saying "we screwed up". Whether or not any changes come from this remains to be seen. In fact, this guy breaking away from the typical Gensler rhetoric could find him in the unemployment line.
My hope is that the crypto lobby is getting powerful enough at this point that we shouldn't need to worry about it too much. I see a lot of folks thinking the coming US election is going to have a huge impact on the crypto prices. I think it might in the short term, but in the long run, crypto is going to do crypto things just like the SEC has been doing SEC things.
As I said, I think the lobby is going to be putting pressure on whichever party gains control and hopefully we will see some positive movement forward either way.
FBI Creating Crypto
One of the other big stories this morning comes via the FBI and the fact that they apparently created the crypto NexFundAI so they could better understand how pump and dumps work. I don't think any of us would ever argue that price manipulation is definitely a thing. Additionally, the fact that governments have been playing around with crypto (likely longer than they would like you to believe) isn't that shocking either.
It only makes sense they would want to understand something so fundamentally disruptive. Here is one of the articles about it if you want to read more.
I do think it is funny that the use the word "secretly" in the article at all, because as we all know most blockchain is pretty transparent, so eventually, everything will come to light for the people who know what to look for.
Fireworks Ahead
No matter what happens moving forward, like the sky last night, I think it is safe to say we are in for some fireworks ahead. Personally, I'll be happy when the election is over November and we can focus on a path forward (whatever that looks like). Will it be peaceful? Will it be civil war? How long exactly is it going to drag out?
Just like with crypto and medical issues, sometimes the waiting is worse than the actual thing you are waiting for.
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