The No. 1 Question for Bitcoin Owners Today

A flurry of good news for bitcoin bulls... A new 'psychologically important' high... The No. 1 question for bitcoin owners today... How to break your phone addiction (while still reading us)... More from Dave Lashmet about COVID-19 testing...

We haven't taken a deep dive into bitcoin for several weeks...

But a lot has been going on in its orbit lately...

A few weeks ago, at the International Monetary Fund's semiannual meetings, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell spoke to a worldwide audience about digital currencies. And Powell basically said that he thinks there might be a place for them... He just isn't totally sure of the details yet.

This news was bullish for bitcoin...

Then, a couple of days later, we learned that digital-payments company PayPal (PYPL) will incorporate bitcoin into its platform at the start of 2021. You'll be able to buy and spend bitcoin and a handful of other major cryptocurrencies, though there's a catch... You won't be able to transfer your crypto into or out of your PayPal account, at least not yet.

Still, overall, this news was bullish for bitcoin, too.

And PayPal's announcement came on the heels of a big move by another digital-payments company... Square (SQ) – the company that Twitter co-founder and CEO Jack Dorsey also runs and seems to enjoy much more – said it recently spent $50 million in cash buying bitcoin.

And just last week, Square said it made $1 billion on its bitcoin business – highlighted by its Cash App – over the past year.

That turned some heads and was, again, bullish for bitcoin.

In fact, since we last looked at bitcoin in depth in the Digest, its price has risen more than 30%...

On October 14, we shared a video featuring Real Vision founder Raoul Pal about how he thought bitcoin could hit $1 million one day (which Crypto Capital editor Eric Wade previously said, too). Since then, the price of bitcoin has soared from $11,495 to more than $15,000 today.

Bitcoin is volatile, of course – on both the upside and the downside... But it has been in a steady uptrend since March. And if you zoom out further, it has been quietly rising off its most recent bottom in December 2018.

Of course, if you've been following us this year, you know our founder Porter Stansberry's long-term bullish thesis for bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

We believe everyone should own at least a little bitcoin as a small portion of their overall portfolio. It's the "ultimate asymmetric bet," Porter said during his "Capitalism in Crisis" presentation earlier this year with Eric and our Director of Research Austin Root.

You also know that Eric is a believer in bitcoin's long-term place in the world, too... And he's our foremost expert on navigating the cryptocurrency world and how to make sense of it.

A month ago, Eric was calling for new all-time highs... He first expected bitcoin's price to break through the "psychologically important" $14,000 level. And that happened quicker than even he thought it would.

So now that we're beyond that level, we're sure some folks are curious... What will bitcoin's next move be? And maybe you're even tempted to think...

With bitcoin up so much, should you sell now?

Should you just cash out? Well, Eric recently updated his Crypto Capital subscribers on all these questions in his latest video update on Friday...

If you saw Porter, Austin, and me talking about bitcoin just a few months ago and got involved for the first time there, you may have a 50% gain in a couple of months. But I will tell you that what we're here for with bitcoin, and cryptocurrencies in general, is not to make a short-term gain.

Perhaps you own 10 bitcoin today and want to sell just one-third of one bitcoin and try to buy back at a lower price on any pullback. Eric said that's a chance you can take...

But if you're looking at bitcoin as a long-term play – as a bullish bet on a "huge financial reset" eventually happening – Eric reminded folks on Friday that we're not there yet...

The evidence that we talked about at the start of today's Digest – the Fed considering digital currencies, and companies like PayPal and Square making big bets on bitcoin – show that bitcoin's story is still just getting started.

So instead of worrying about bitcoin's price, Eric suggests thinking about something else today... how it fits into your portfolio. He summarized his thoughts with a big-picture idea that can apply to bitcoin or any other asset you're trying to make decisions about. As Eric said...

If when you bought bitcoin originally, you bought what was a proper position size for you – let's call it $10,000, maybe it's $100,000 – and that has gone up. Now, today, you should probably be asking yourself, "How do I feel about my position size of bitcoin here, rather than the price of bitcoin itself?"

Because if your position size has gotten to the point where you think you own more bitcoin – or more cryptocurrencies, in general – than you feel comfortable owning, then it's not a factor of timing the market as much as it is right-sizing for yourself – rebalancing.

Wise words from our cryptocurrency guide.

We'll keep watching and following along... To that point, stay tuned to the Digest and your inbox for more from Porter and Eric about bitcoin and cryptos over the next week or so.

Switching gears, we want to share an essay from our colleague Dr. David 'Doc' Eifrig – about addiction...

It's a must-read article about phone addiction – and more important, how to combat it.

If you're like a lot of people, you're addicted to your smartphone. In fact, there's a decent chance you're reading this e-mail on your phone right now, if not the computer.

But we're learning more and more that too much "screen time" can be dangerous to your health in ways a lot of people don't understand. Doc gets into them all in this recent essay in his free Health & Wealth Bulletin.

For one, if you've ever felt a "phantom phone ring" – when you think the phone is ringing or vibrating in your pocket even though it's not – you've already experienced the effects of too much phone usage. According to Doc and his research team...

Experts say that experiencing phantom phone rings indicates a constant hypervigilance to the phone, which activates the brain unnecessarily. This hypervigilance creates a false scenario in which the phone acts as a fifth limb. We are so connected that our brains do not always separate us from our phones. That is scary.

The solution, according to Doc and his research team, is to be intentional...

In order to mitigate some of these disturbing consequences, Doc suggests seven ways to break your bad phone habits. Here's the first one...

1. Set screen-time limits. And this advice doesn't just mean phone screens... but all device screens. This is especially important for children. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, children aged 18 months to 24 months should only interact with the screen when doing so with parents and for the purpose of education. Children aged two to five years should be limited to one hour of screen time per day. Older children should be limited to two hours of screen time per day.

For adults, following strict limits like this is nearly impossible, especially if you need your computer and phone for work. While you're working, take breaks about every 45 minutes. Give your eyes a rest, get moving, and go outside for fresh air.

If you have an iPhone from Apple (AAPL), we suggest using the Screen Time app. You'll probably be surprised by how much time you spend on your phone.

I (Corey McLaughlin) was shocked... On average, I spent four hours per day on my phone before I started really paying attention. Once I thought about it and saw the stats, I realized that a lot of my screen time was needless – like scrolling on social media or compulsively checking e-mail.

It wasn't really productive... or necessary to stay in touch with and respond appropriately to co-workers, family, or friends. The final straw came when I realized I spent an entire day (24 hours) per week on my phone.

Life is too short for that... It's not what I want to be doing with my time.

Knowing what's going on helps...

First, speaking from experience, you'll likely save a lot of time if you delete the social media apps. And on the iPhone, you can also set daily limits on any of your apps that alert you when you've reached the designated limit (20 minutes for e-mail, for example).

At that point, you can choose to ignore the alert... or listen to it and put down your phone. Either way, you're at least intentionally making a decision instead of mindlessly scrolling without realizing how much time you're actually spending with your eyes locked on a screen.

On good weeks now, I've dropped to less than two hours of screen time per day (which is still about 100% higher than it was when I was a kid). Of course, every so often, some big project (or a contested presidential election) will kick it back up higher.

I think of what Doc suggests as "owning your phone," instead of letting your phone own you. It's worth considering at least.

For more of Doc's advice – and to see the other six ways to beat your phone addiction – click here to read this fantastic essay. And if you don't subscribe to his free daily Health & Wealth Bulletin and want to join the tens of thousands who already do, click here.

New 52-week highs (as of 11/10/20): ABB (ABB), Comcast (CMCSA), Cresco Labs (CRLBF), Corteva (CTVA), Green Thumb Industries (GTBIF), and Intellia Therapeutics (NTLA).

In today's mailbag, feedback on Kim Iskyan's essay about China's "soft power"... And Stansberry Venture Technology editor Dave Lashmet responds to a subscriber's question about COVID-19 testing. Do you have a comment or question? As always, e-mail us at feedback@stansberryresearch.com.

"I disagree with Kim on China's soft power. There are still more censors in China than armed forces. There's no rule of law, the courts rule as the CCP dictates. No civil liberties. These things are not going to change. The CCP grows ever more paranoid and controlling.

"I believe the Chinese economic miracle relates to the fact that compared to the horrors of Mao, the Chinese have it pretty good. But this relative improvement fades as time goes on. Authoritarian regimes tend to stagnate due to nepotism and corruption.

"No society has ever prospered with a president for life as China now has. I do not see a strong economic future for China... maybe revolution as the Chinese people seek escape from the heavy suffocating hand of the CCP." – Paid-up subscriber Robert P.

"Q, how come we can't get the $1.00 dollar Covid test created in Synegal [sic] that has really quick results and is a simple fix? Why do we have to make things so difficult?" – Paid-up subscriber Randy B.

Corey McLaughlin comment: A $1 test sounds great on the surface, so we dug a little deeper...

After researching the test you're talking about – and finding that it's an antibody test still in development in Senegal (Africa), and would come out in February at the earliest – I asked our colleague Dave Lashmet for his thoughts...

In short, Dave said you shouldn't hold your breath... He questions how accurate it is, which is critical if an antibody test is going to be effective for any population. As Dave told us earlier today...

Antibody tests prove that you had one of the coronaviruses – not necessarily this one. Maybe. But not necessarily.

That's why all the early population surveys thought they saw a 10% to 20% incidence rate of virus penetration. But these tests are up to 50% inaccurate, according to a National Health Service study in the U.K.

Fair to say, if you test a general population and get 50% false positives, well, then it looks like 50% of folks have had a coronavirus and that herd immunity is imminent...

Beside the fact that that's not how herd immunity works – which is tied to the risk of reinfection – these tests were so wrong they were banned from the U.S.

Dave said there are new ELISA ("serological enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay")-based antibody tests that can be much more accurate – up to 98%.

This is still enough real-world error to lead to millions of false positives, but Dave said they have their place in the big picture of testing – like showing how far a "superspreader" event reached, such as in a Navy ship, a cruise ship, or an office building. More from Dave...

Depending on the speed and accuracy of the test, they can go beyond background epidemiology to help reopen factories and college campuses.

So if they're accurate, they're not useless. That's putting the best face on it. When vaccines come around, they may also prove you got the vaccine.

So then an antibody test is a sort of certificate of protection – but only if the test is accurate. That's probably not true with an antibody test from Senegal.

This is where the sort of test we wrote about in Monday's Digest comes into play.

The little-known company that Dave recommends buying right now has developed a rapid antigen test that could also be 98% accurate – with a key difference in how it works and what it's testing for.

Antigen tests can show someone with an active infection. Antibody tests show that someone "had it." As Dave wrote in a recent special report to his Venture Technology subscribers...

Unfortunately, the antibody tests only tell us what already happened, not what's about to happen. That's why positive COVID-19 antibody tests are not reported by most U.S. states.

It's the antigens that matter, because antigens show active infections while folks are highly contagious.

An antigen test is a search for the physical parts of the SARS-2 virus (which causes COVID-19). Dave said if someone is at their peak days of infectivity – whether or not the person is showing symptoms – it's an easy screening tool...

It's easy to use and highly portable. You can use dozens of rapid oral test kits in a school nurse's office or hundreds at airport departure gates.

There is a place for antibody tests, too. But Dave stressed that it's important for them to be used together with antigen tests to really halt the spread of COVID-19. And that's why the test from this company he's talking about is so important.

To learn more about the test... this company... and why Dave believes its shares could rise more than 500% in the next six months alone, click right here.

All the best,

Corey McLaughlin
Baltimore, Maryland
November 11, 2020