Vital Knowledge Media's Adam Crisafulli

Adam Crisafulli, founder of Vital Knowledge Media, has over two decades of market commentary experience. He has been consistently recognized as a leader in his field and earned top 1-2 rankings in Institutional Investor's specialty sales rankings for 2017 and 2018.

His work is used by investors across asset classes (equities, fixed income, currencies and commodities), as well as geographic areas. Hedge funds, mutual funds, family offices, private equity firms and corporate executives (CFOs, IR departments) all rely on his content.

What’s Vital Knowledge Media?

Vital Knowledge Media was founded by Adam Crisafulli, a longtime market analyst for JPMorgan (and now owner/president of his own independent media company). Throughout his 20-year career on Wall Street, Adam developed his skills in writing and analyzing important events. Realizing that his 20 years in the markets could be monetized, Adam created an online platform where he could sell his market commentary and analysis to tens of thousands of readers around the world.

He collaborated with Designli to develop a subscription service that makes it easy for individual and institutional investors to access his most popular content pieces, including "Vital Dawn," morning pieces, intra-day commentary, calendars, weekly/monthly/quarterly summaries and more. The site was designed with both institutional and individual users in mind so you can manage your subscriptions and email settings while on the go.

This site is optimized for viewing on any device, including mobile phones and desktops, with tabs along the top for easier navigation of content pieces. Furthermore, setting up email reminders for today's most pertinent news items is simple too!

Each Wednesday, for instance, a piece titled "The Biggest Mistakes Investors Make" will be sent out to educate and inform subscribers. It provides an accessible yet detailed explanation of why some market participants may be making certain common missteps that could cause substantial losses.

Vital Knowledge's flagship morning piece, entitled "Vital Dawn," is perhaps its most impressive offering. It includes curated selections of the day's most important news items, an overview of micro and macro stories of interest, as well as comprehensive calendars (both for that trading session and days/weeks ahead). Most impressively, all this content is conveniently compiled in one place for our readers' convenience.

What’s Vital Dawn?

Watch CNBC's full interview with Vital Knowledge Media's Adam Crisafulli

For over 10 years at JPMorgan, Adam Crisafulli served as the primary author of their Market Intelligence commentary. This role allowed him to produce content for thousands of subscribers across asset classes (equities, fixed income, currencies, commodities) and geographies.

Due to his own experiences, Adam has devised a system for searching the world each morning and highlighting only the most pertinent news headlines. This enables him to present an overall market narrative without needing to rely on other outlets for incremental data - which has become increasingly difficult as more media sources appear online daily.

At the core of our new content universe is "Vital Dawn," sent via email between 5:30amET and 5:50am ET Monday-Fri, featuring curated selections of important pieces of news with analysis linking all incremental data back into the market narrative. Plus, there will be extensive calendars for both trading sessions as well as days/weeks ahead.

Additionally, each day's news will be punctuated by a concise "Market in a Minute" segment that allows subscribers to quickly assess the day's narrative in just 60 seconds or less. This element sets Vital Dawn apart from traditional Wall Street commentaries.

Generalists can quickly assess the day's news with this useful tool. It helps readers stay focused on their long-term investing objectives while staying abreast of recent developments.

Our content is carefully curated from high-quality financial journalism sources and always explicitly cited. However, we encourage you to read the full article as it may provide more detail than summaries available on Vital Knowledge. Furthermore, all third-party material is acknowledged with an explicit link when available so subscribers can easily click through to its source of news.

Content on Vital Dawn is subject to change and will be updated in real-time according to market conditions. As such, it makes for a great tool for generalists who must stay busy. Furthermore, investors with busy schedules will find Vital Dawn an invaluable resource as it keeps them abreast of market activity and offers timely insights into trends that could potentially affect their portfolios.

What’s Fast Money?

Watch CNBC's full interview with Vital Knowledge Media's Adam Crisafulli to gain more insight into his Market Intelligence commentary and how it assists investors in going Beyond the Headlines.

Adam was previously at JPMorgan where he created their industry-leading Market Intelligence commentary and earned recognition as one of the top two authors in Institutional Investor's specialty sales rankings for 2017 and 2018. After leaving JPMorgan in 2008, Adam launched Vital Knowledge Media: a subscription service providing market insights to tens of thousands of investors across asset classes.

Adam provides insightful analysis, and Vital Knowledge also curates essential news to help investors stay ahead of the media noise. Their goal is to go Beyond just reporting the headlines, offering an objective assessment of whether certain events may alter our current narrative or whether other developments could potentially do so as well.

Adam advises investors to closely monitor diverging S&P indexes and global drivers of market activity for indications that the election results may be close. Furthermore, Adam anticipates the Fed may begin easing up on its policy in an effort to stimulate economic growth.

He also mentions that many hedge fund managers aren't optimistic about the economy's long-term prospects, but are forecasting a brief surge in stock prices if President Trump wins reelection.

Fast Money is a live broadcast program on CNBC that airs from 5pm to 8 pm ET every weekday (and occasionally at 5 pm SIN/HK/TWN time). Reruns of the show air Tuesday through Friday at 5am SIN/HK/TWN and 12 pm SIN/HK/TWN.

The show is divided into three tiers: Page Two, Sector Trade and Fast Fire. Each tier features its own set of segments.

Page Two: Lee and her panel analyze the day's top stories and stocks, providing their audience with insightful data that could potentially yield profits.

Sector Trade: They identify sectors with a particular strength or weakness and explain why they think the market is favoring them.

Pops & Drops: They cover stocks that have experienced big gains (pops) and losses during the day or week.

What’s Closing Bell?

The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) has a longstanding tradition of ringing a bell to signal the start and end of trading sessions. Not only does this serve as a symbol for the exchange, but also serves as an effective marketing tool for public companies. The opening bell chimes for 10 seconds, while the closing bell sounds for 15. On special occasions such as IPOs or other milestones, celebrities, athletes, and entertainers have been invited to ring the bell.

Anyone who steps onto the floor of the NYSE should consider themselves fortunate. Entrepreneurs, traders or avid investors alike will all find this experience to be one that they will never forget.

In many ways, it's like the last bell that rings at school: It signals it is time for learners to stop and focus on other matters of life. Yet at the same time, traders get a final glimpse of their day's activities and assess what may lie ahead.

Many news programs will pause and wait until the NYSE's closing bell has sounded before providing their commentary. They then provide a summary of the day's market activity as well as any pertinent updates that come to light after the bell has been sounded.

Before 1995, it was the responsibility of NYSE floor managers to ring the bell. Nowadays, it's done by a team of NYSE executives who stand beside each ringer's left, providing guidance and encouragement as they press an illuminated green button to begin sounding the bell.

This ensures the ringer stays within the prescribed timing. Stacey Cunningham, former floor manager of the NYSE, is particularly strict regarding this matter.

When the bell ringer fails to press her button at precisely the right moment, she cannot ring until she presses another button and holds it down for 15 seconds. This serves as a reminder to her of both her responsibility as an ambassador of NYSE as well as leader within her company.

Emerging Markets-Mexico Peso Nears Five-Year High

Mexico has proven a remarkable bulwark against emerging market currency volatility this year. With its high liquidity, economic diversification and low borrowing costs, MXN serves as an attractive hedge for investors seeking to protect broader emerging market exposures.

Furthermore, Mexico's fast-growing economy presents an excellent investment opportunity as its nearshoring boom continues. We anticipate this trend will persist over the coming years and could further boost the peso's value over time.

1. High Liquidity

Liquidity is an integral element in emerging market finance and investing. The amount of liquidity an institution possesses can help it manage risk more effectively and make wiser decisions.

Furthermore, it can help the institution recover from a financial crisis. That is why many institutions look for high liquidity markets when seeking capital.

However, this liquidity can also be vulnerable to market forces. For instance, if investors are eager to invest in an emerging market with a low interest rate, then the market could become overleveraged and susceptible to a crash.

Similar outcomes could occur if the central bank of an emerging market tightens their monetary policy, leading to increases in bond yields. This could cause a domino effect and prompt capital outflow.

This situation could be especially dangerous for emerging markets that rely heavily on foreign investors and currencies for a significant portion of their external funding, such as South Africa, Turkey, Peru, Chile and Colombia.

In such scenarios, central banks of these countries could lose access to vital capital and be forced to raise interest rates in an effort to offset rising debt levels.

These emerging economies relied on liquidity during the global crisis to fuel their growth, but that supply could run dry if some advanced economies tighten monetary policies. A reverse outflow of capital could occur, placing strain on their sovereign bonds and weakening prospects for economic recovery in these countries.

For most emerging markets, however, this would not pose a major problem as their economies have generally sound fundamentals and currency reserves. This makes them more resilient to liquidity shocks than during the Asian financial crisis of the 1990s.

To accurately assess a country or market's liquidity, it is essential to comprehend its credit and fund flows as well as asset prices. These elements determine capital costs in any given market and will be utilized by market participants when assessing liquidity levels.

2. Economic Diversification

The peso, one of the world's most traded currencies, has experienced extreme fluctuations in its exchange rate over the last year as oil prices dropped and investors fretted over a potential U.S. recession and trade disputes.

Since its 2015-2016 slump, the Mexican peso has recovered much of its lost value - rising more than 5% over the last four months due to increased remittances and foreign investment.

Despite these positive developments, the Mexican peso still faces formidable obstacles. First and foremost, its decline has diminished demand for Mexican goods abroad and hindered businesses' sales - particularly those dependent on exports such as automotive. This has put a strain on growth across sectors that depend on exports such as automotive.

Additionally, Mexico's banks have also suffered. They experienced an uptick in defaults on domestic loans tied to sensitive money market interest rates, leading to reduced earnings which are crucial for banks' bottom lines.

Another major concern for the peso is its weak domestic economy. Economic activity has not recovered as quickly as investors had hoped after President Lopez Obrador's election in late 2016. A new government has introduced policies which are likely to slow growth and raise uncertainty.

Although the Mexican peso may not be one of the most appealing emerging market currencies, its value has remained relatively steady compared to other nations'. Furthermore, its performance during times of risk has been more reliable than other economies'. This makes it a good investment opportunity for those who understand both the risks and rewards associated with investing in emerging markets.

3. High Interest Rates

The Mexican peso is one of the world's most liquid currencies and an increasingly sought-after international financial instrument. Its rapid rise has been driven by three primary causes: higher interest rates, proximity to the United States, and its plentiful crude oil reserves.

On September 29th, Banxico raised its reference interest rate by 75 basis points (bps), marking the third increase in three months. This indicates that the central bank is following suit with the Federal Reserve in tightening monetary policy.

This decision marks a sharp change from Mexico's previous policy of keeping the peso low to contain inflation. Since late 2014, the value of the peso had depreciated due to lower oil prices, which have had an immense effect on Mexico's budget.

Another factor contributing to the peso's strength are President Lopez Obrador's energy policies, which have improved both economic activity and exports in Mexico. Furthermore, these initiatives have generated substantial remittances and an uptick in foreign direct investment (FDI).

However, the peso has recently suffered due to unease about US trade and economic policy. Donald Trump's election as president has reignited market concerns about a potential recession in America and whether or not his administration may renegotiate NAFTA.

Despite these uncertainties, Mexico's economy is forecast to expand at an annual rate of 3.5 percent this year. This strong expansion rate makes Mexico one of the most attractive emerging markets to invest in.

At its next policy meeting on 29 September, the Bank of Mexico is widely expected to raise its benchmark interest rate by 75 basis points (bps). Market participants will closely follow this decision; a hawkish move could send the peso further upwards while a dovish response function would push currency values lower.

4. Access to the U.S. Market

One of the great advantages of Mexico is its free trade agreement with the US, enabling seamless export and import of U.S.-grown products into one of the world's strongest economies. Furthermore, it's one of the most accessible neighboring countries - making it ideal for vacationing families or business trips alike. However, whether the Mexican economy will sustain its current rate of growth over the coming years or fall back into recession remains to be seen; regardless of which way it goes, investing in Mexico still presents an attractive investment opportunity for Americans looking to expand their global reach while capitalizing on one of Latin America's unique strengths remains high.