A recent study discovered that the stock value of 28 companies affected by large data breaches has not performed as well as they might have otherwise. The study lasted several years and determined that the flow of stock prices for these breached companies has been impacted negatively. The total effect for each company ranges from moderate to minimal.

The study was conducted by the research team that stands behind the CompariTech web portal. They only looked at companies that were listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and also publicly admitted to very large data breaches. The final criterion was that these breaches occurred within the past three years.

The research team put 28 companies on the list. This includes household names such as Anthem, Experian, Apple, Community Health Systems, Adobe, Dun & Bradstreet, eBay, Global Payments, Home Depot, JP Morgan Chase, Heartland Payment Systems, Health Net, LinkedIn, T-Mobile, Monster, Staples, Sony, TJ Maxx, Target, Under Armour, Yahoo, T-Mobile and Vodafone.

Elon Musk taunted the SEC with his tweet "naughty by nature."

The value of Tesla stock has risen over 16% in trading last Monday following Elon Musk's signing of a deal with the SEC on the weekend. The gains on Monday erased the 14% decline of Tesla stock on Friday after the lawsuit was filed late Thursday by the SEC.

The dispute between Musk and the SEC occurred after Musk tweeted on August 7 that he had secured the funding needed to take Tesla private at a price of $420 a share. However, it soon became obvious that the commitment for this funding by the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia had only been made informally.  

For this reason, on Thursday the SEC filed a suit against Musk charging securities fraud. At first, Musk claimed he was going to fight against the charges, but following the rapid decline of Tesla's stock price, he reconsidered his position and settled the lawsuit on Saturday.

Recent news of Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, being investigate for Insider Buying has everyone looking for how this could happen and who in the past has been prosecuted for insider trading. It’s usually hedge fund owners that get in trouble for insider trading but there have been others including Martha Stewart, George Soros, and Marylin Star. When someone purchases stock on insider knowledge not available to the public, they can be prosecuted.

Elon Musk

On August 7th of last month, Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted that he had secured funding to take the company private from Saudi sources at the price of $420/share. This public announcement caused the price of the stock to climb dramatically (8 percent) before being halted. The problem is that Musk had never made a public announcement about the company in this fashion before. And he could be in trouble if the price per share is inaccurate or all the funding is not actually secured. Look for private investors to sue Musk for his announcement if they feel they lost money because of the public announcement on Twitter.

Martha Stewart

Martha Stewart got in trouble in 2004 for insider trading of ImClone stock and had to serve 5 months in prison with an additional 2 years of supervised time including some home confinement. Stewart sold ImClone stock two days prior to the stock falling 16% after an FDA decision on the biotech’s most important drug. She avoided $45,000 in loses by selling when she did. It was discovered that she acting on advise from a financial advisor who had knowledge of ImClone CEO Sam Waksal (Net Worth $70 million) selling $5 million of the stock. The reason he was selling was unknow at the time. Because she did not know the reason for the trade and did not have company information at her disposal, she was not charged with insider trading. But she obstructed justice during the investigation and was sentence for that crime.

The Winklevoss Brothers, Cameron and Tyler, have launched a stable coin today called the Gemini dollar after approval from New York regulators. The brothers are famous for the Gemini trading platform (created 4 years ago) in addition to work with Mark Zuckerberg in the early creation of Facebook (they got a settlement for their work). The coin has the approval of the NYDFS, the NY department of financial services.

The coins will be backed by US dollars, thus creating a coin that is more stable in price then others. This is Gemini’s first cryptocurrency coin. They have in the past tried to get an ETF approved for cryptocurrencies but have been rejected by the SEC. The coin is traded on the Ethereum network with the symbol (GUSD). You can easy convert between UDS and GUSD by depositing money into your Gemini account.

The US and Mexico reached a deal today to replace NAFTA with a new agreement between the US and Mexico. President Trump made the announcement from the White House where he spoke with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto on the phone, his negotiating team was present in the US. The deal will help both farmers and manufacturers in America.

Mexico to Purchase US Farm Products

During the announcement, President Trump expressed his view that the agreement includes Mexico purchasing as much farm product from the US as it possibly could.

Replacing NAFTA

NAFTA has been eliminated and this new deal between Mexico and America will last 16 years with 6 year reviews. The Mexican Peso moved 1% higher against the US Dollar when the announcement was made. Several US based companies that could see additional contracts in Mexico also saw their shares rise during the trading day.

Negotiations with Canada Have Not Began

President Trump has held back from negotiating with Canada, preferring to complete talks with Mexico first. Canada wants to make sure any new deal benefits its middle class. Canada appears to be able to join joint talks with the US and Mexico as an additional third party. The work Mexico had to do with the US was more difficult than the inclusion of Canada will be.

The longest ever bull market run has now been reached with the S&P 500 reaching a new high this afternoon. The market index reached 2873.23, a new high for the overall top 500 companies traded on the American markets. This bull run is now over 3400 days old.I have personally been holding Direxion Daily S&P500 Bull 3X ETF (SPXL) for a couple of years in retirement accounts. They have performed well and at this time are have been much more successful than cryptocurrencies that I hold at Coinbase.

GDP Now

The market is looking at stronger overall growth as illustrated by the GDP Now forecast and the past GDP report. The Atlanta Federal Reserve board is now forecasting 4.3 percent growth in the US for the upcoming third quarter. For the second quarter GDP was reported at 4.1 percent up from a revised 2.2 percent in the first quarter. The next GDP Now forecast comes out on Friday.

While looking for a good source of Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency information online, I came across Remivee and his site Tribetica.com. This is becoming one of my favorite sites for information on the new digital currencies that were the rage last year but have fallen sharply since the end of 2017. And that was one of the criteria that I was looking for, a source that was honest and not just hyping holding Bitcoin.

Taking a look at a post today illustrates the great content that you will find. An analysis of the current short positions in Bitcoin as traded on the Bitfinex market. Read the first paragraph and you will discover that bears have short positions rising from 17 thousand to 34 thousand over the past two weeks. A clear sign that you should not purchase more at the current levels. Although no recommendation is made, the bull position is also analyzed from a historic position. The long positions were built last year at the 6000 price and are hard to break through for the shorts. The shorts are at a all time high level and could lead to a short squeeze according to Remivee.

The Samsung C&T Corporation recently decided to allow crypto currency payments inside Samsung stores. The program has begun its trial run in the Balkan states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. Samsung mentioned it might expand this offer to other countries.

The company is currently only using the major cryptocurrencies. The formats currently accepted are Bitcoin, Litecoin, XRP, Ethereum, Steem, and Dash. Other cryptocurrencies might be too minor or volatile to be worth supporting.

Liberty Tax can help taxpayers with their returns, including the postcard tax return. The postcard-size 1040 form will be coming in 2019 and Liberty Tax is there to assist taxpayers navigate the new tax form, as well as the challenges associated with the recently passed Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

Nicole Ossenfort, the CEO of Liberty Tax, said that the company has helped taxpayers with their taxes for over 20 years. She continued to say that next year won't be any different. She finished by saying that Liberty Tax will continue to provide tax assistance at the professional level to millions of people around the country. You would think that paying with a postcard would not require a professional service but companies are betting this is not the case.

The IRS released results from a recent survey that revealed that taxpayers view paid professional tax experts as an invaluable source of info and advice. The only entity that rated higher than paid professionals was the IRS themselves. Liberty Tax service values the trust of the public and it works hard to provide to taxpayers knowledgeable advice.

It's Time that You Acknowledge Crypto Currency. No need to be afraid - lots of places now recognize it

FitSmallBusiness.com lists the Best Ways Your Business Can Use Cryptocurrency in 2018.

It is 2018 and by now if you are unaware what Bitcoin or LiteCoin is, your financial research is limited. Cryptocurrency came in with a bang and in recent years there has been an unprecedented surge in its market value. In a matter of 5 years, the value of cryptocurrency went from 1.6 billion US dollars to 300 billion US dollars. In 2017 alone, many businesses start to accept Bitcoin with an increase of 11.4 percent in its acceptance.

Online Purchasing

More people are now making online purchasing by using their cryptocurrency and many retail and online stores now accept payments in cryptocurrency.

Some businesses find themselves uncertain on what to do with the accumulated cryptocurrency. While in some instances the cryptocurrency is converted into cash but it takes few days and fluctuation in cryptocurrency can bring it down in monetary value. The best option is to reinvest the currency back in the business.

FitsmallBusiness.com is a digital publication that has researched extensively on how businesses can spend and reinvest the cryptocurrency they are earning.