At the moment Cboe has four monthly Bitcoin contracts available and the next one expires this Wednesday. The Bitcoin price has been quite volatile over the last week with a trading range between $8,390 and $11,690 at its high, a 28% range. There have been several news item that created this volatility one of which was the announcement that crypto trading platforms needed to register with the SEC.
Bitcoin’s price on the Cboe closed at $9,257 on Friday. Since there is no physical aspect to Bitcoin all of its contracts will need to be closed before 2:45 pm on Wednesday or settled if the investor does not buy or sell their position. While there are many factors that drive Bitcoin’s price there may be some added volatility this week, and especially on Wednesday as the contract expires.
The Cboe is only open Monday to Friday from 8:30 am to 3:15 pm, Chicago time. There are extended trading hours, but they don’t cover most of the weekend. However, Bitcoin trades 24 hours, 7 days a week, so if Bitcoin’s price moves on a Saturday or Sunday until 5:00 pm an investor won’t be able to exit their position and could lose a substantial amount or all of their investment.
A real-time example is what has occurred this weekend. The Cboe’s last trade for Bitcoin, was $9,257. However, it is currently trading around $9,500 and has had a range of $8,500 to $9,500 over just the past day. The latest price drop has brought the price down to almost exactly the level it was at on Friday.
Expectations are for Bitcoin’s price to be relatively flat over the next three months with the the next two months contracts priced only slightly higher than the March price. However, June’s price is below April’s and May’s. This might be a reflection of last years price movement when Bitcoin dumped in January and February but then had a sustained really through to the beginning of June.
Comments are off this post!