The Purse

Welcome to our #93 weekly newsletter.

“For women taking control of their financial future”

-Jana Hlistova

From The Purse

In this week’s newsletter, we spotlight Serena Williams who is considered to be one of the greatest tennis players of all time.

Serena launched her early-stage venture capital (VC) firm, Serena Ventures, in 2014 with the mission to champion diverse, creative founders who are changing the world with their ideas and products across a wide array of industries.

Her mission-led investing approach is generating social impact by focusing on underestimated founders and underinvested markets.

You can review the news in brief so you stay on top of global financial, economic and investing trends.

And don’t forget to listen to The Purse Podcast with Christina (CJ) Juhasz, who is the Chief Investment Officer (CIO) for Women’s World Banking Asset Management (WAM).

We talk about impact investing, gender lens investing, why invest in women, emerging markets, women’s access to finance and more. Please enjoy!

I hope you enjoy this week’s newsletter.

Until next week,

Jana

Serena Williams: investing for social impact through her venture capital firm

How mission-led investing creates impact

Serena Williams is considered one of the greatest tennis players of all time. But her talents extend beyond sports to the world of business, entrepreneurship and investing.

According to Forbes, Serena’s net worth is $240m.

Serena launched her early-stage venture capital (VC) firm, Serena Ventures, in 2014 with the mission to champion diverse, creative founders who are changing the world with their ideas and products across a wide array of industries.

Today, Serena’s VC firm has 50+ portfolio companies with $33bn market cap, and 60% are diverse founder investments, as per Worth.

Black female founders: why is raising investment so difficult?

In Serena’s 2020 op-ed for CNN Business, she writes about the unique challenges black female founders face when raising capital for their early stage startup:

“The Black female founder begins her fundraising journey already down a match point.

Black women face a unique set of challenges colored by misconceptions of both race and gender. Investors notoriously doubt female founders, typically focusing investment analysis on the potential risks and losses of female-founded startups. They often assume that women-founded companies are more likely to fail….

Meanwhile, Black founders contend with systemic inequity at each step of their journey. Investors expect to see more traction from Black founders than their White counterparts, and will often question their technical expertise and market understanding.

Black female founders exist at the intersection of these challenges, making it exponentially more difficult for them to get the funding they need…

Black women rarely have a wealthy network they can call upon for early investment…”

Here are some stats (US) to highlight the problem…

* Only 4% of the people who work in venture capital are Black

* Only 3% of the people actually leading investments are Black

And in 2018 and 2019, Black women founders raised only 0.27% of venture capital according to a data report by digitalundivided.

Serena goes on to say in her 2020 op-ed:

“Without the network necessary to raise critical starting capital, most Black female founders close shop before their product even reaches the market. By building exclusive spaces and systems, we are missing out on the innovation and genius of so many..”

Silicon Valley, therefore, does not have a talent pipeline problem; it has a network selectivity and resource allocation problem.

So how does Serena Ventures address the problem?

The firm invests in early-stage founders who often pitch them on a vision. They look to support dreamers and visionaries of the future, while giving them the opportunity to capitalise on their genius.

This is a fundamental difference in how female founders and founders of colour are thought of and evaluated.

By recognising the systemic bias embedded in the mindset, process and decision-making inside traditional VC firms, Serena Ventures turns the process of investing in diverse founders on its head.

They invest based on potential and opportunity.

Here is one example of a startup they have invested in:

One Black woman in the Serena Ventures portfolio includes Crystal Evuleocha, who is a recent Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree and founded Kiira, a telehealth platform for collegiate women focused on addressing women's health inequities.

Kiira's AI-driven platform is staffed by health care providers who understand the gendered and racial nuances of health care, where Black Women are often dismissed.

The social impact of…

…investing in female founders and founders of colour is vast because the markets they address have been ignored or marginalised by investors for so long.

These markets have historically been underinvested and their customers are often underserved.

It is not surprising then that the startup valuations for female founders and founders of colour can also be below market value. And traditional investors are able to buy in at a huge discount.

This is despite female founders having a higher return on investment than their male peers. They often have to bootstap their startup for longer and become better money managers in the process.

Simply put: they do more with less.

In October (last month)…

…Serena Ventures partnered with MaC Venture Capital and Michael B. Jordan to create a startup pitch competition for Historically Black College and University (HBCU) founders.

The winners, will be announced by Williams and Jordan during halftime of the inaugural Legacy Classic, on the 18 December and will be awarded up to $1m in structured safe investments.

Read more:

* Serena Williams commercial and business profile

News in Brief

Financial news

* According to JP Morgan, the US will start raising interest rates from September 2022. They expect the central bank to raise rates by 0.25% from the third quarter of next year and keep raising them by 25 basis points every quarter at least until real rates are at zero.

* UK unemployment falls to 4.3% (to September) as payrolls keep rising. And that is down from 4.5% a month ago as firms continue to recruit as they recover from the economic shock of Covid-19.

* The Bank of England (BoE) is under pressure to raise interest rates in December. UK inflation has risen to a 10 year high of 4.2% in October.

* UBS: expect a year of two halves in 2022. It predicts that world economic growth will be well above trend in the first half of next year, before normalising in the second half as reopening effects fade.

Crypto: bitcoin, ethereum & DeFi

* The crypto market fell this week as China takes aim at ‘extremely harmful’ crypto mining. The selloff came after Chinese authorities ramped up their ongoing crackdown on crypto mining. The bitcoin price has rallied back toward $60,000 per bitcoin after crashing towards $55,000 earlier this week. Ethereum has meanwhile soared back toward its all-time highs.

* US President Joe Biden signs $1tn bipartisan infrastructure bill containing crypto broker reporting requirement into law.

* Ethereum infrastructure company, ConsenSys raises $200m at $3.4bn valuation.

* Ethereum name service market cap hits $1bn -just days after ENS airdrop. It kickstarted its DAO on 8 November.

* Crypto group loses bid to buy rare US constitution copy in ‘record breaking’ Sotheby’s auction.

* Square unveils white paper for decentralised protocol that lets you exchange bitcoin, fiat and more.

* Osprey Funds plans (crypto asset manager) plans to raise hundreds of millions to actively invest in NFTs.

The Purse Podcast

We cover the following in our conversation:

* Impact investing

* Gender lens investing

* Why invest in women

* Women's access to finance

* Emerging markets

* Measuring social impact

* and more

Please enjoy! Listen on all podcasting channels including iTunes and Spotify.

Coffee Break? Read This

* How women can spot signs of economic abuse

* What to do about employees who consciously exclude women

* Companies who don’t pay fairly ‘need to be dragged out of the dark ages’

We’d love to hear from you. Get in touch with Jana via the The Purse website or tweet @jointhepurse and @janicka.

The Purse Ltd. Copyright 2021 & All Rights Reserved.

The Purse provides content for informational purposes only, we do not recommend products or services or provide investment advice. Please do your own research or speak to a financial advisor.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jointhepurse.substack.com

Welcome to our #92 weekly newsletter.

“For women taking control of their financial future”

-Jana Hlistova

From The Purse

In this week’s newsletter, we focus on gender lens (equity) investing: what is it and what are some of the challenges?

Listen (again) to interviews with Jessica Espinoza and Rebecca Chesworth on The Purse Podcast about gender lens investing and ESG ETFs.

You can review the news in brief so you stay on top of global financial, economic and investing trends.

I hope you enjoy this week’s newsletter.

Until next week,

Jana

Gender lens (equity) investing is on the rise

What is gender lens investing and what are some of the challenges?

According to Parallelle Finance, there are 27 gender lens global and regional equity funds available to individual investors. And the total assets under management (AUM) is $3.47bn (approximately £2.54bn) as of 30 June 2021, which represents a 32% increase during the first half of 2021 (as reported by City AM).

What is gender lens investing?

Jessica Espinoza, VP at DEG/KfW and Chair of the 2X Challenge, shared this definition on The Purse Podcast:

‘Gender lens investing means that you incorporate a gender analysis into financial analysis to get better outcomes, both in terms of impact and return.

And there is a lot of momentum in the market because there is a strong impact case as well as a strong business case for gender lens investing.

Investments in women are associated with important ripple effects at the micro level, but also at the meso and macro level.

That means that these types of investments create value, not only for women and their families, but also for communities, for companies for the private sector, more broadly, as well as for the macro economy.

And as a SDG five, gender equality is not only an extremely important goal in and of itself, but also as a critical pre-requisite to achieve all the other sustainable development goals…’

The opportunity: diverse leadership outpeforms

A report by the International Finance Corporation (2019) revealed that gender balanced leadership teams in private equity generate a 20% higher net IRR (internal rate of return). And for portfolio companies with gender balanced leadership, the outperformance was even greater ie 25% increase in valuations.

And yet only 15% of senior investment teams have gender balance.

A 2015 study by McKinsey found that if women were to play an equal role in labour markets to men, 26% of global GDP could be added by 2025-a total of $28tn.

Which is why the women's market is sometimes referred to as the largest emerging market.

Jessica Espinoza goes on to say:

‘And we also know that women invest 90% of the income back into their family and community, especially in education, health, and nutrition, creating again, ripple effects way beyond the initial investment..

It's also the smart thing to do. ..And that's why gender lens investing resonates not only with impact driven investors, but also with commercial mainstream investors’.

What are the challenges?

Progress for women in corporate leadership roles remains slow.

And women have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic which has meant that many have exited the workplace.

In order to accelerate the pace of change, government mandates, regulatory actions, and stock exchange listing rules combined with stakeholder activism have a role to play.

According to analysis by Capital Monitor of 2,500 gender lens funds, the average ‘gender’ score has declined by 9% in 2021. And overall, they argue that gender lens funds appear to be neither strongly under or outperforming their peers.

However, as long as gender inequality exists at the company level, arguably it may be difficult to establish the benefits equality can offer (for now).

Marypat Smucker, the founder of Parallelle Finance has this to say (as per Capital Monitor):

‘The companies that make up the gender lens funds in question are the best of a bad bunch, as the current levels of women in leadership is ‘bleak’….There are no sectors that are really scoring well on gender diversity – that’s one of the things these funds are up against.’

In other words, we may simply be early.

What next?

* Listen to the interview with Jessica Espinoza on The Purse Podcast about gender lens investing and the 2X Challenge.

* Listen to the interview with Rebecca Chesworth on The Purse Podcast about ESG ETFs and gender lens investing.

* Read more on Impact Shares YWCA Women's Empowerment ETF (US) and SPDR SSGA Gender Diversity Index ETF.

News in Brief

Financial news

* Wall Street equities complete longest run of closing highs since 1997, with market sentiment ‘propped up’ by strong corporate earnings and big central banks affirming their relaxed monetary policies (ie money printing and keeping interest rates low/not raising interest rates). The S&P 500 has now closed at a record high 65 times this year.

* The US Federal Reserve ramps up balance sheet expansion ahead of tapering. Total assets rose by $88.2bn past week, most since September to hit fresh ATH at $8.7tn. The Fed balance sheet now equals 37.4% of US's GDP vs Bank of England’s (BoE) 41% and the European Central Bank’s (ECB) 80.5%.

* US inflation jumped 6.2% in October year-on-year, the highest jump since 1990. Americans are paying more for cars, clothes, food and energy. Core inflation jumped 4.6%, the most since 1991. Pressure on the Fed to raise interest rates has intensified.

* On Thursday, the FTSE 100 recorded a 20 month high. It is still shy of the levels in January 2020, and around 6.5% below the record high set in May 2018.

* UK recovery is lagging behind the rest of the G7, as growth slows to 1.3% in the third quarter (down from 5.5% in the second quarter). Economists believe that significant staff and supply shortages have limited activity.

* UK grocery inflation hits a 14 month high at 2.1% at end of October. Overall, inflation is expected to hit 5% by April 2022.

* Billionaire investor Ray Dalio warns inflation is driving down real wealth: ‘Some people make the mistake of thinking that they are getting richer because they are seeing their assets go up in price without seeing how their buying power is being eroded.’

Crypto: bitcoin, ethereum & DeFi

* The crypto market reached $3tn in market cap (Tuesday) as bitcoin and ether reach record highs. In November 2020, the market cap was around $500bn. BTC broke through a record high of more than $68,000 and ETH soared to $4,837. See the bitcoin and ether price today.

* Bitcoin biggest upgrade in four years has just been activated and it’s called Taproot. The Taproot update means greater transaction privacy and efficiency – and crucially, it will unlock the potential for smart contracts.

* Miami’s mayor says that residents will receive a bitcoin dividend in a MiamiCoin wallet. MiamiCoin is the city's token derived from the CityCoins protocol, a Stacks-based protocol that allows residents to hold and trade their city's token.

* The CEO of Apple, Tim Cook, has revealed that he owns crypto: ‘I think it’s reasonable to own it as part of a diversified portfolio,’ he said at the DealBook Online Summit.

* Rolling Stone mints first ever NFTs with Bored Ape Yacht Club. The NFT sale makes Rolling Stone the latest legacy print publication to enter the Web 3 space. The Economist sold one of its covers as an NFT for $419,000 just two weeks ago.

Coffee Break? Read This

* How to cultivate an unconditional sense of self-worth

* Women who stay away from office, risk their careers, BoE committee says

* ‘World designed by men has destroyed many things’, COP26 warned.

We’d love to hear from you. Get in touch with Jana via the The Purse website or tweet @jointhepurse and @janicka.

The Purse Ltd. Copyright 2021 & All Rights Reserved.

The Purse provides content for informational purposes only, we do not recommend products or services or provide investment advice. Please do your own research or speak to a financial advisor.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jointhepurse.substack.com

Welcome to our #91 weekly newsletter.

“For women taking control of their financial future”

-Jana Hlistova

From The Purse

In this week’s newsletter, we focus on a US report published by Pitchbook and supported by JP Morgan and Beyond the Billion on Women in VC.

Whilst the pandemic disproportionately impacted female founders in 2020, female-founded companies have shattered the previous annual deal value record in just the first three quarters of 2021. And crucially, the number of US female investors is at a record high.

You can review the news in brief so you stay on top of global financial, economic and investing trends.

I hope you enjoy this week’s newsletter.

Until next week,

Jana

More female founders are being funded and female investors are on the rise

A new US report confirms that the startup & investor landscape is changing for the better, for women.

Female founders have an uphill climb when it comes to accessing capital for their startup. In general, it takes women longer to raise and they raise far less money compared to their male peers.

A new report (US) published with support from J.P. Morgan and Beyond The Billion, found that whilst the pandemic disproportionately impacted female founders in 2020, female-founded companies have shattered the previous annual deal value record in just the first three quarters of 2021, as per Pitchbook.

And crucially, the number of US female investors is at a record high:

* At the end of 2019, 12% of general partners at venture capital firms were women and there were 740 female angel investors.

* Today, women make up 15% of general partners at venture capital firms, and there are now 1,000+ female angel investors.

Female investors are crucial…

…to women getting funding for their startups.

Based on research, women invest in female founders three times the rate men do. They also apply a new lens to investing and represent the lived experience and perspective of 51% of the population.

Women will appreciate products and services aimed at the female market in a way male investors simply can not -unless they invest the time and do the research. And many simply do not.

Female founders are not only up against gender bias, but they have to spend more time educating the majority male investors on their market and product.

It follows that female entrepreneurs have less resources to run their company for longer, so when they do raise capital (for their startup), they tend to be more effective money managers and generate a greater return on investment.

As more female founders exit their companies and generate higher exits, we’re likely to see more capital flow back into women.

Women (and men) investing back into women is a crucial part of diversifying the money flow, backing female founders, growing entirely new industries and companies. And ultimately driving higher returns on investment.

Here are the key points from the report (US only):

* Female-founded companies raised $40.4bn across 2,661 deals through the first three quarters of 2021, shattering the previous annual deal value record of $23.7bn in 2019.

* Venture investors have closed over 2,000 deals totaling $30bn with female-founded technology companies thus far in 2021 – an 83% increase in value over 2020 levels already.

* Exit value year-to-date ($58.8bn) has more than doubled the previous annual record, marking a 144% increase for female-founded startup exits compared to the overall US VC market's 102% increase.

* Exit volume is also up, with the 223 liquidity events by female-founded companies in 2021 representing a 12% increase from full-year 2020 figures. 2021 is on pace to be the eleventh straight year that female-founded companies exited faster than the broader market (with a 3% increase).

Gender lens investing is simply good business.

News in Brief

Financial news

* The S&P 500 Index gained 2% this week, marking its 5th straight weekly advance, the longest winning streak since August 2020, BBG has calculated.

* The US Federal Reserve will start tapering back is stimulus program (bond buying at $120 a month) from mid November and should end June 2022.

* The European Central Bank (ECB) balance sheet stagnated in the past week as weekly gross PEPP (pandemic emergency purchase program or money printing) purchases declined markedly. Total assets now at €8,366.1bn, equal to 80% of Eurozone GDP vs Fed's 37%, BoE's 41% and BoJ's 133%.

* Bank of England (BoE) leaves interest rates on hold ie at 0.1%. This came as a surprise as many investors expected a big hike. (Also, Britain’s expected economic growth rate in 2021 was trimmed to 7% and the forecast for 2022 was cut to 5% vs 6%).

* Bank of England (BoE) has lifted its inflation forecast, with consumer price index (CPI) peaking at 5% which is more than double its target rate of 2%.

* UK government to set fresh targets for female FTSE board representation. FTSE-listed companies have until Tuesday 30 November to submit their women in leadership data.

* Aviva CEO, Amanda Blanc, has said put more women at the top of multilateral organisations to help alleviate the financial impact of climate change. (About 80% of people displaced by climate change are women, but only 19% of International Monetary Fund and World Bank board members are female).

Crypto: bitcoin, ethereum & DeFi

* Bitcoin dominance weakens as altcoins rally. Bitcoin’s price moved between $60,000-$63,000, while altcoins and gaming tokens have seen significant gains. Solana’s SOL token has rallied 21% this week, breaking through its all-time high on Thursday. Ether (ETH) also climbed to a record, hitting $4,628 on Nov. 3. It is up 2.4% on the week.

* Decentraland’s MANA up 44% as metaverse tokens surge in wake of Facebook’s Meta rebrand.

* Shiba Inu crashes as SHIB whales sell enmasse. SHIB lost market capitalisation to Dogecoin and slipped out of the top ten cryptocurrencies.

* Squid Game cryptocurrency collapses in apparent scam. Squid token’s website and social accounts disappear after price jumped more than 310,000% in value and then crashed.

* CME Group plots to launch micro ether futures. The upcoming launch, planned for December 6, is pending regulatory approval.

* Galaxy Digital starts NFT collection CryptoPunk, according to Mike Novogratz. Galaxy Interactive, an affiliate of Galaxy Digital, raised $325m for a second fund to invest in non-fungible tokens and interactive gaming last month.

* Crypto exchange, Coinbase announces that eligible customers can borrow up to $1m (using bitcoin as collateral).

* US social media giant Reddit may soon convert users’ karma points to Ethereum based (ERC-20) tokens and onboard 500m new crypto users in the process.

Coffee Break? Read This

* What toxic men can learn from masculine women

* ‘I don’t have a choice’: childcare cost preventing US women from returning to work

* A quick explainer of COP26 -here’s how climate negotiations work and what’s at stake

We’d love to hear from you. Get in touch with Jana via the The Purse website or tweet @jointhepurse and @janicka.

The Purse Ltd. Copyright 2021 & All Rights Reserved.

The Purse provides content for informational purposes only, we do not recommend products or services or provide investment advice. Please do your own research or speak to a financial advisor.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jointhepurse.substack.com

Welcome to our #90 weekly newsletter.

“For women taking control of their financial future”

-Jana Hlistova

From The Purse

In this week’s newsletter, we focus on a survey of more than 1000 UK investors, who are looking away from the UK for their investments and over 20% are not holding any UK stocks.

The continued fallout from Brexit and Covid-19 has meant that UK investors are seeking higher returns overseas and also in alternative assets, such as cryptocurrencies.

And don’t forget to listen to The Purse Podcast with Helene Guillaume. She is the founder & CEO of Wild AI. We talk about women’s health, closing the gender data gap, investing in women’s health, female investors and more.

You can review the news in brief so you stay on top of global financial, economic and investing trends.

I hope you enjoy this week’s newsletter.

Until next week,

Jana

The majority of British investors are looking outside the UK for their investments

Over 20% of UK investors are not holding any UK stocks

According to a survey by uk.investing.com of more than 1000 UK investors, nearly 80% are looking away from the UK for their investments and over 20% are not holding any UK stocks.

The continued fallout from Brexit and Covid-19 has meant that UK investors are seeking higher returns overseas and also in alternative assets, such as cryptocurrencies.

Here is a summary of the survey results:

* 66% of UK investors own investments in the States, followed by Europe (14%), China (5%), Canada (3%) and India (2%).

* 29% believe the US dollar has the most potential over the next year (compared to 13% of investors who believe the pound sterling does)

* 18% said that cryptocurrencies will be the next best alternative (to the US dollar).

* From 2020, 67% of investors blame Brexit, 76% blame Covid-19 for the economic struggles, and 57% attribute rising employment gaps to Brexit and Covid-19.

* 79% of investors believe that the economy will weaken in the coming year due to how Brexit was being implemented and only 40% cited the pandemic as an anticipated factor of future economic weakness.

* Among those who thought that the UK economy would strengthen over the next year, 36% cited Brexit and 81% said that the economy would grow stronger because the pandemic will subside.

* 42% of investors said that if they voted to remain in the EU a member of the European Union in 2016, but 52% cited that they would opt to remain in the EU if they could vote today.

With record low interest rates…

… investors are chasing better returns on investments such as equities and in stock markets, such as the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq (US) which continue to achieve all-time highs.

Investors are also seeking alternative and riskier investments. It is not surprising that more investors are looking to crypto to achieve outsized returns.

For example, bitcoin has (as of the time of writing) appreciated 300%+ in the last 12 months. And ethereum has gone up 900%+ in price. Compare this to European stocks which appreciated 10.3% whilst commodities increased by 36.7%, as reported by Cointelegraph.

The recent launch of the bitcoin futures ETF in the US attracted a record $1bn inflow of capital in the first 2 days which, according to macro investors like Raoul Pal, will encourage ‘mass adoption’ for crypto.

Read more:

* According to research by crypto exchange Gemini (UK, published 2021), of the 13.5% of respondents (current or previous crypto investors), 41.6% are women. Of the 9.0% of those who are planning to invest, 40.0% are women.

News in Brief

Financial news

* The Nasdaq and S&P 500 close at record highs (again). Nearly half of the S&P 500 has now reported third-quarter earnings, with a large majority delivering better-than-expected results.

* European Central Bank (ECB): the Pandemic Emergency Purchase Programme (PEPP) will end March 2022 (or until it judges the Coronavirus is over).

* Eurozone inflation exceeds expectations as energy prices jump. Consumer prices rose 4.1% in October, the highest since 2008 and the core rate reached 2.1%, highest since 2003.

* UK Budget 2021: tax levels to rise to the highest level in more than 70 years. Public spending accounts for 2.5% more of the economy than in 2019-20.

* Tax burden to rise by £3,000 per family, according to Resolution Foundation (UK). However this figure includes business and employers’ taxes which are passed on to consumers.

* Lenders raise UK mortgage rates as inflation fears take hold. Markets are betting the Bank of England (BoE) will begin raising interest rates from November (record lows). Benchmark rates are expected to rise to 1.25% by the end of 2022 (from 0.1%).

Crypto: bitcoin, ethereum & DeFi

* Bitcoin fell below $60,000 as ETF-related euphoria subsided: traders cut crypto positions after bitcoin reached a new all-time high ($67K+). Bitcoin is currently trading at $61, 200+ (See today’s bitcoin price).

* Ethereum, the second largest cryptocurrency, hit a new all-time high at $4,400. Ethe is up more than 60% since its late September trough.

* Traders bet ethereum will benefit from ETF boost in 2022. Buying interest has ‘exploded’ in derivatives contracts traded that give investors the right but not the obligation to buy ethereum at $15,000 in March next year.

* SHIB overtakes DOGE as rival meme coin surpasses market capitalisation. According to data collected by price aggregator CoinGecko, SHIB is now one of the top ten cryptocurrencies by market cap.

* El Salvador bought an additional 420 bitcoin (bought the ‘dip').

* Mastercard will allow US banks and millions of merchants to integrate crypto into their products. Mastercard's extended partnership with Bakkt will allow customers buy, sell and hold digital assets through wallets.

* MicroStrategy adds another 9000 bitcoin to its holdings in the third quarter. The company’s entire bitcoin holdings is now $7bn.

* Squid Game crypto, a play-to-earn token, is up more than 86,000% in a week. The SQUID token can be used only in the Squid Game project, an online game that’s set to start in November.

The Purse Podcast

We cover the following in our conversation:

* Women's health

* Closing the gender data gap

* Investing in women's health

* Helene's startup Wild AI

* Female investors

* And more!

Please enjoy! Listen on all podcasting channels including iTunes and Spotify.

Coffee Break? Read This

* Menopause: standing up for older women

* What proportion of pregnant women have been fully vaccinated?

* Female-founded Rent-a-runway IPOs on the US stock market

We’d love to hear from you. Get in touch with Jana via the The Purse website or tweet @jointhepurse and @janicka.

The Purse Ltd. Copyright 2021 & All Rights Reserved.

The Purse provides content for informational purposes only, we do not recommend products or services or provide investment advice. Please do your own research or speak to a financial advisor.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jointhepurse.substack.com

Welcome to our #89 weekly newsletter.

“For women taking control of their financial future”

-Jana Hlistova

From The Purse

In this week’s newsletter, I write about why money printing is driving up money supply (M2) or the money in circulation and what this means for your money and future wealth.

For women especially, there has never been a more important time to invest. Quite simply, to not invest is risky. Once you’re clear on the returns you need to make per year (minimum), choosing the assets to invest in will be easier.

And remember, you can start small, even with £20 or £100 a month. Just do the research.

You can review the news in brief so you stay on top of global financial, economic and investing trends.

I hope you enjoy this week’s newsletter.

Until next week,

Jana

Women: why NOT investing is risky

The pandemic and money printing: why you need to invest in the right assets

When it comes to money, women are not risk averse despite the money myths the media likes to perpetuate.

And whilst we see less women (overall) investing in the equity markets and in cryptocurrencies than men, this is changing. Fast.

Women invest.

According to financial expert Barbara Stewart, the majority of women are risk aware meaning they like to take in more information before making an investing decision. A high percentage of women however, are risk takers and risk seekers.

This is important.

Women are money managers

We know that women make up 85% of all household decisions. And nine out of ten women will be responsible for the household finances, at one point in their life.

A key part of that is knowing how to generate wealth and grow your net worth. Especially as women tend to take more career breaks, earn less over time and have less saved for their retirement as a result.

And understanding how the pandemic has affected the economy and therefore your money and your net worth is fundamental to thinking through how you need to invest.

There has never been a more urgent time to invest. And there has never been a more urgent time to invest in the right assets.

What are the right assets? Assets which generate 11-15%+ per annum, at a minimum (depending on where you live).

Let’s put this in context: money printing

The pandemic has been a disaster for the global economy. We have seen the central banks and governments around the world step in and print money.

Otherwise referred to as quantitative easing (QE), this is simply where the central banks buy government and corporate bonds from financial companies and pension funds.

This pumps liquidity into the markets which has helped avert a financial crisis and buffered the economy from total collapse.

Global currency debasement

As more money is printed, the supply of money or the money in circulation goes up. This means that the value of the money you earn is being devalued (because there is simply more of it).

In other words, global currency is being debased.

In the US, the annual increase in M2 or money supply is estimated at 13%-15%. And in the UK, money supply is going up at 11% per annum.

Therefore, depending on where you live, you now need to earn an additional 11%+ just to stand still. Or, you need to invest in assets which grow in value by at least 11%+ every year.

Every year you do not earn 11%+ more or your assets do not generate this return, means that your net worth is going down. And financially speaking, you are losing ground.

So whilst there is lots of discussion about rising inflation (think rising food and energy prices), the key metric to focus on is the increase in money supply or M2.

Not investing in assets is risky

The only way to protect your hard-earned money and future wealth, is if you invest in assets.

Assets is essentially deferred expenditure which goes up in value over a given time frame. The aim is to generate returns which outpace inflation and the expanding money supply, every year.

But also knowing which assets to invest in, and how much, is key.

For example, ONS data revealed that UK average house prices increased by 10.6% over the year to August, up from 8.5% in July.

According to Cointelegraph, European stocks are only up 10.3% over the last year but commodities are up 35%+.

But the best performing macro asset worldwide in 2021 is bitcoin.

If you had invested in bitcoin via a crypto exchange 12 months ago, your investment would have appreciated by 400%.

And that’s not even taking into account how high bitcoin and other crypto assets like ethereum are likely to go up in price in this bull run. (Please note: the crypto can drop as much as 65-85%+ in a bear market).

Keep learning and invest in what you know

Women are keen learners. We like to understand the context and have all the information at our fingertips before we invest.

This is smart.

What next?

* Read (again) Women: why invest in crypto?

* Read up on investment platforms and open an account

Disclaimer: I invest in BTC, ETH, and DeFi protocols. Please do your own research. This article is for informational purposes only, we do not provide investment advice or recommend products.

News in Brief

Financial news

* On Friday, the S&P 500 ended a 7 day streak, the Dow Jones managed to close at a record high, in part driven by financial stocks.

* US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said that supply chain constraints have gotten worse, which could lead to an extended period of rising inflation.

* US jobless claims hit pandemic low. Just 290,000 Americans filed new claims for unemployment insurance last week, a 6,000 fall on the previous week.

* The latest signal from the Bank of England (BoE) that tighter monetary policy is on the way sparked a sell-off on Monday in short-dated UK government debt (and a spike in yields). Markets are now fully pricing in a rise in interest rates to 0.25% at the BoE’s next meeting on November 3.

* UK inflation dipped to 3.1% in September (from 3.2% in August), but many believe this is ‘the calm before the storm’. Inflation could top 5% in early 2022.

* UK borrowing falls in September to £21.8bn, a drop of around £7bn compared with September 2020, and less than economists forecast.

* CBI worries that UK shortages ie in raw materials, parts and workers are the highest since the 1970s.

Crypto: bitcoin, ethereum & DeFi

* First bitcoin futures ETF (US) rose more than 4% in trading debut on the NYSE. The fund tracks CME bitcoin futures, or contracts speculating on the future price of bitcoin, rather than the crypto itself. It was the fastest ETF to get $1bn in 2 days.

* On Wednesday, Bitcoin hit a new all-time high at $66,500+ after bitcoin future ETF launch. Bitcoin could even reach $150,000+ by the end of the year because of the new ETF. (See today’s price).

* Ether surged past $4000+ in a new all-time high (Monday). It has a total market value of approximately $480bn, less than half bitcoin’s $1.09tn. (See today’s price).

* Goldman Sachs says DeFi has its advantages over traditional finance. DeFi is easier to access for underbanked populations and provides faster settlements for users, but it’s still a work in progress, the report stated.

* Billionaire investor, Paul Tudor Jones says that he views crypto as a better hedge against inflation than gold. He also said that inflation is not ‘transitory’.

* Twitter and Square CEO, Jack Dorsey says that hyperinflation will happen soon in the US and around the world.

Coffee Break? Read This

* Burnout: the reality of 2021 women in the workplace

* Research: women leaders took on even more invisible work during the pandemic

* A marriage researcher’s favourite books and podcasts for better relationships

We’d love to hear from you. Get in touch with Jana via the The Purse website or tweet @jointhepurse and @janicka.

The Purse Ltd. Copyright 2021 & All Rights Reserved.

The Purse provides content for informational purposes only, we do not recommend products or services or provide investment advice. Please do your own research or speak to a financial advisor.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jointhepurse.substack.com

Welcome to our #88 weekly newsletter.

“For women taking control of their financial future”

-Jana Hlistova

From The Purse

In this week’s newsletter, we focus on a global report published about household inequality and what this means for women’s wealth.

We continue to see that unpaid care work and gender dynamics in the home has a negative impact on women accumulating wealth.

You can review the news in brief so you stay on top of global financial, economic and investing trends.

And don’t forget to listen to The Purse Podcast with Vicky Pryce, Chief Economic Adviser and a board member at the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR). We talk about the effect Brexit and Covid 19 is having on the global and UK economy, what this means for your money, are we headed for a market crash, why UK investment is key and more.

Stay safe everyone & look after yourselves.

I hope you enjoy this week’s newsletter.

Until next week,

Jana

Global report: household inequality (and what this means for women’s wealth)

Intra-house inequality has declined 20%, but global gender inequality persists between couples.

According to new global research, intra-house inequality has declined 20% between 1973-2016, as reported by the BBC.

However the research confirms that gender inequality persists across countries over time, and across rich and poor households. And this is despite more women joining the labour force and earning more money.

The household is a blackbox

It is often assumed that incomes are pooled and equally distributed within a household. But the household is often a place of great inequality.

The report describes the household as a ‘blackbox’ because according to Professor Swaminathan, we are not looking inside.

And the household is essentially made up of the distribution of work and wealth within homes.

Is it equal?

The research says that ‘..even in the Nordic countries, which have the lowest levels of gender inequality in the world, we found the women's share is less than 50% everywhere.’

Wait. But why?

In general terms, the gender pay gap persists.

And women to continue to take up the majority of childcare and household chores.

Globally, women perform 76.2% of total hours of unpaid care work, more than three times as much as men, as per the International Labour Organisation report (2018).

Therefore, women are more likely than men to take career breaks, work part-time or on a temporary basis to look after their young family and manage a household.

Not only do women earn less as a result, they have less time, they accumulate less money, they have less money to invest in assets, which negatively impacts their net worth (over time).

Crucially, a woman's lower income and lower net worth, affects the gender dynamics in the household, which (too) compounds over time. (This, of course, puts a strain on many partner relationships).

Increased earnings and personal wealth not only ensures greater personal agency, it also enables a woman’s negotiating power about how work should be distributed in the home (for example).

Therefore unpaid care work and gender dynamics in the home continues to mute wealth accumulation for women.

The rise of the female breadwinner

In the UK, women out-earn male partners in almost a quarter of households, up from a fifth 16 years ago, as per data from the Office of National Statistics (ONS).

Women earn the same as or more than their male partner in almost three-in-ten households: 27.6% in 2019.

And at the current rate of growth, it will take 62 years before women earn more than men in more than half of households.

According to Becky O’Connor, personal finance specialist at Royal London, ‘..women becoming breadwinners could be the key to some pretty big changes and the undoing of some harmful assumptions.’

And let’s not forget…

…that a massive transfer of wealth to women is taking place right now.

By 2023, a third of all wealth will be in women’s control (this will continue to accelerate over the next ten years).

As women’s wealth continues to grow, so will women’s negotiating power. And ultimately, this will lead to a shift in the gender dynamics.

And a more fair and balanced home (life).

News in Brief

Financial news

* US stocks had the best week since July on strong corporate earnings. S&P 500 gains 2% over past five days as company results are weighed against fears of inflation.

* FTSE 100 ends on a 20-month high after best week since May. That takes its gains this week to around 2%, the best since the first week of May.

* IMF warns of the need to be ‘very, very vigilant’ over rising inflation risks. Gita Gopinath, the IMF’s chief economist, said the strength of the economic recovery meant it was too early to ‘say anything about stagflation’.

* European Central Banks’s (ECB) Christine Lagarde says that Europe’s inflation spike is ‘largely transitory’.

* Bank of England (BoE) official, Michael Saunders, warns of early interest rate rise. His comments come as households face mounting energy bills and the prospect of higher food prices.

* US sales rise unexpectedly: retail sales rose by 0.7% last month, beating expectations of a 0.2% fall, and were 13.9% stronger than a year ago.

* UK petrol prices hit 140p for the first time since 2012. The rise follows the recent jump in oil prices (Brent crude hit $85/barrel on Friday for the first time since 2018).

Crypto: bitcoin, ethereum & DeFi

* Crypto market cap breaks $2.5tn as bulls predict a ludicrously strong Bitcoin and Ethereum rally.

* Bitcoin tops $60,000+ for the first time since May, 2021. (It is currently trading at $61,100+).

* Ethereum price pushes towards $4000. (It is currently trading at $3,870+).

* SEC approves Bitcoin Futures ETF. This is likely to open up Bitcoin to a wider investor base.

* Tether to pay $41m for claiming its stablecoins are fully backed by dollars.

* Coinbase announces NFT waitlist, following the lead of Binance and FX. To start, it will offer users the ability to mint, purchase, and showcase their NFTs.

* Bitcoin miner Stronghold will list almost 6m shares in in its $100m IPO (on Nasdaq, US). A common stock shares priced between $16 and $18 under the ticker SDIG.

* Former Chancellor Phillip Hammond says UK’s treatment of digital assets is a ‘huge risk’ for the finance sector.

The Purse Podcast

We cover the following in our conversation:

* Brexit & Covid: the impact on the economy

* Rising inflation, slower economic growth

* An economic recovery

* UK investment is key

* Climate change

* Female-led startups

* And more

Please enjoy! Listen on all podcasting channels including iTunes and Spotify.

Coffee Break? Read This

* Women aren’t getting promoted

* Female directors wait longer than men for their big break, report reveals

* Struggling to remember something? You may have an attention problem

We’d love to hear from you. Get in touch with Jana via the The Purse website or tweet @jointhepurse and @janicka.

The Purse Ltd. Copyright 2021 & All Rights Reserved.

The Purse provides content for informational purposes only, we do not recommend products or services or provide investment advice. Please do your own research or speak to a financial advisor.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jointhepurse.substack.com

Welcome to our #87 weekly newsletter.

“For women taking control of their financial future”

-Jana Hlistova

From The Purse

In this week’s newsletter, I have written an opinion piece on why women should invest in the crypto market, starting with bitcoin.

Sure, cryptocurrencies are a new asset class. They are volatile. And yes, we are still early. But there has never been a more urgent time to invest. And invest in crypto.

Especially if you consider what has happened to the global economy since the pandemic, the existing legacy financial system and what this means for your (fiat) money and your future wealth.

You can review the news in brief so you stay on top of global financial, economic and investing trends.

I hope you enjoy this week’s newsletter.

Until next week,

Jana

Women: why invest in crypto?

Opinion piece: there has never been a more urgent time to invest

Women invest in crypto.

And even though this trend is on the up and accelerating, based on the limited data we have, it is estimated that only 6%-7% of women invest in the crypto market overall. But the figures are higher for bitcoin (15%) and ether (12%).

Sure, cryptocurrencies are a new asset class. They are volatile. And yes, we are still early. But there has never been a more urgent time to invest. And invest in crypto.

Especially if you consider what has happened to the global economy since the pandemic, the existing legacy financial system and what this means for your (fiat) money and your future wealth.

Let’s put this in context: the global economy

The pandemic has been a disaster for the global economy.

The global markets crashed which is when the central banks and the government stepped in. In order to limit the damage to the economies around the world they:

* reduced interest rates (to zero or close to zero)

* introduced stimulus

* and started printing money.

Printing money essentially pumps liquidity into the markets (this avoids a financial crisis which buffers the economy).

Put another way, central banks buy government and corporate bonds from other financial companies and pension funds.

It’s no surprise that the level of debt has gone up dramatically since the pandemic: debt is at 400% of global GDP (UK’s debt-to-GDP ratio is 106%).

What’s the impact on global currency?

Debasement. Why?

As more money is printed, the value of fiat money goes down. The annual increase in M2 or money supply is estimated at 13%-15% per year.

What does this mean for your money?

The value of the money you earn is falling every year. Simply put, you need to earn more money every year just to keep up.

Are wages rising? No.

Plus you now have less money to buy assets which continue to go up in price. We are seeing this play out in the stock market, like the S&P 500 and the housing market, for example.

And this is without taking inflation into account, which is on the increase too. Think about the rise in energy prices. Therefore the cost of living is going up.

Although the narrative is that we will continue to see ongoing growth in the economy, the aging population, indebtedness, globalisation and technology is more likely to mute economic growth.

Why invest in the crypto market: focus on bitcoin

The only way to protect your hard-earned money and future wealth, is if you invest in assets.

Assets is essentially deferred expenditure which goes up in value over a given time frame. The aim is to generate returns which outpace inflation and the expanding money supply, every year.

Bitcoin, the the world’s largest cryptocurrency…

… is regarded as an inflation hedge and a store of value. Its market capitalisation is over $1+ trillion and is currently trading at approximately $55,000+.

As reported by Cointelegraph, bitcoin has been confirmed as the best performing macro asset worldwide for 2021.

Bitcoin has appreciated 400%+ in the last 12 months.

Compare this to European stocks which have only gone up by 10.3% this year, whilst commodities are up 36.7% and US micro-cap are up 32.4%.

This is despite bitcoin’s 60% retracement from its highs in May, now all cancelled out.

Moreover, bitcoin’s average annualised return is 200%+ …

…which is more than 10 times higher than the second-ranked asset class.

Bitcoin is a decentralised and permissionless (blockchain) technology and global monetary network which can not be controlled by any one party, government or central bank.

Unlike fiat money, bitcoin has a limited supply of 21m coins. It is impossible for more bitcoin to be ‘printed’ once all the supply is available.

Therefore unlike fiat money, bitcoin is deflationary, not inflationary. As an investor, the money you allocate to bitcoin, over a longer term horizon, should go up in value.

The price predictions for bitcoin vary from $500,000 to $1m++ (some investors are even more bullish on the price).

As we enter the last quarter of the year, macro investors such as Raoul Pal predict bitcoin to peak at $400,000 in this bull cycle (expected to end March 2022).

Bitcoin is the largest crypto market cap asset…

…and its market structure is very bullish. On-chain metrics indicate that investors are hodling bitcoin right now in Q4 ie they are not selling.

Institutions continue to buy. In fact, the Bank of America (BoA) recently said that Bitcoin is simply ‘too large to ignore’.

And let’s not forget that El Salvador recently adopted bitcoin as its legal tender, and Twitter enabled payments on its network (via bitcoin).

Despite its volatility, bitcoin is increasingly regarded as ‘sound money’ and a store of value by retail investors and institutions alike.

Bitcoin is often the first crypto asset investors buy…

..as it is regarded as the foundation asset. It is where investors start before they branch out into other crypto assets including ether (ETH), DeFi tokens (decentralised finance), NFTs and smart contract platforms like Solana and Polkadot, for example.

Being aware of the risks is crucial.

As is how much money you will allocate over what period of time and when, if ever you decide to sell.

Short-term volatility in the market matters less if you are clear about your time horizon. And investing for the long-term is likely to generate higher returns, as the data already indicates.

The key skill for investing in the crypto market might be to HODL (ie do not sell) when the crypto market nosedrives by, 60%-85%. This is not uncommon, especially if in a crypto bear market.

One way to derisk your investment…

… is if you apply the ‘dollar-cost averaging’ approach which simply means that you invest a set amount every month, regardless of the price.

When the price of the asset is low, you can afford to buy more than when the price is high. Over time, this will give you an average price you paid for the asset.

The other way to derisk your investment is to only allocate a small amount of your overall net worth, for example, this might be 1%-2% of your overall net worth.

It’s always a good idea to seek financial advice and ensure you don’t put all your ‘eggs into one basket’. But if you seek advice from financial experts, make sure they understand the crypto market too.

Diversification is important, however this is also a very personal decision.

Start small

Do not assume that you must be able to afford one bitcoin in order to start investing. You can decide to invest as little as £20 or £100 per month.

In fact, this is a great way to start. Once you invest, whatever the amount, you will pay more attention and learn as you go.

What next?

* Read the Bitcoin White Paper

* Read The Bitcoin Standard

* Check out crypto exchanges including Coinbase, Kraken, BlockFi

Disclaimer: I invest in BTC, ETH, and DeFi protocols. Please do your own research. This article is for informational purposes only, we do not provide investment advice or recommend products.

News in Brief

Financial news

* The US Senate reached a deal on a stop-gap measure to extend the debt ceiling, avoiding a US government default. The agreement increased the debt limit by $480bn. US stocks shoot up and reverse losses in response.

* On Friday, Wall Street stocks and government bonds wavered after weaker than expected US jobs data. Employers hired 194,000 new workers in September, widely missing expectations for 500,000 new jobs.

* European stock markets rallied on Thursday, as signs that Russia may help avert an energy crisis eased concerns about inflation.

* Bank of England (BoE) chief economist warns high inflation rate may persist in 2022. Huw Pill warns inflationary pressures may not pull back until after Covid and Brexit. UK inflation is expected at 4%+ by the end of 2021.

* UK house prices surge at fastest rate since 2007. House prices increased by 1.7% in September. (Most mortgages agreed in September would not have completed before the tax break expired).

Crypto: bitcoin, ethereum & DeFi

* Bitcoin has surged more than 30% in the last 7 days, to the highest level since May of this year. The bitcoin price currently at $55,000+. And Bank of America (BoA) says that bitcoin is ‘too large to ignore’.

* Wall Street might get four bitcoin futures ETFs by the end of October. (Canada already has a number of bitcoin and ethererum ETFs.)

* George Soros’ fund owns bitcoin, the CEO Dawn Fitzpatrick confirmed.

* The SEC just approved the closest thing to a US bitcoin ETF: the Volt Equity's ETF. This ETF aims to track companies that hold a majority of their net assets in bitcoin or derive a majority of their profit or revenue from bitcoin-related activities.

* Crypto companies raise a record breaking $6.5bn in Q3 2021 (in 339 rounds). The latest numbers are almost double the total amount raised throughout all of 2020, when VC funds invested $3.8bn in crypto companies.

* JP Morgan has said in a note that institutional investors are favouring Bitcoin over gold. The re-emergence of inflation has fuelled investors interest in bitcoin as a hedge and also as a store of value.

* Andreesen Horowitz values developer of NFT game Axie Infinity at $3bn. Sky Mavis, the developer of the crypto-based online game, has raised $150m in Series B.

* Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT project to launch ethereum token in in Q1 2022. The NFT collections has generated hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of trading. Owners are billed as members of the club, and membership has privileges—one of them, apparently, is a BAYC token.

Coffee Break? Read This

* A new start after 60

* Why women are more burned out than men

* If we’re serious about ending violence against women, we need to talk about culture.

We’d love to hear from you. Get in touch with Jana via the The Purse website or tweet @jointhepurse and @janicka.

The Purse Ltd. Copyright 2021 & All Rights Reserved.

The Purse provides content for informational purposes only, we do not recommend products or services or provide investment advice. Please do your own research or speak to a financial advisor.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jointhepurse.substack.com

Welcome to our #86 weekly newsletter.

“For women taking control of their financial future”

-Jana Hlistova

From The Purse

In this week’s newsletter, we focus on what investors should do to hedge against inflation.

And we highlight the recent volatility in government bond interest rates and why Goldman Sachs is saying that investors should not sell their tech stocks.

You can review the news in brief so you stay on top of global financial, economic and investing trends.

And don’t forget to listen to The Purse Podcast interview with Paulina Tenner. She is a co-founder of GrantTree, an angel investor and an author. We talk about how to launch a VC fund and lots more.

I hope you enjoy this week’s newsletter.

Until next week,

Jana

What should investors do to hedge against inflation?

A poll by interactive investor indicates investors are worried about rising inflation

The Bank of England (BoE) has forecast inflation to rise to 4% before the end of the year.

And a poll of interactive investor visitors indicates that 61% of investors are worried about inflation and of these 18% are already making changes to their investment portfolio, as reported by Investment Week.

Here are more results from the poll:

* 84% noticed the impact of rising inflation in their day-to-day life

* 55% consider inflation one of the biggest threats to their personal finances

* 37% are investing more money into the stock market

* 22% are investing broadly in the belief that stocks can go higher

* 15% are buying value stocks

* 12% are reducing their market exposure due to inflation concerns

* 52% of the sample said their investment strategy has not changed

* And 45% of respondents believe there are bigger issues to worry about.

So, how should investors respond to rising inflation?

As reported by Investment Week, investors should seek out inflation-linked assets.

Some exposure to inflation-linked bonds and real assets such as commodities, infrastructure and gold, is what Dzmitry Lipski, head of funds research at interactive investor suggests.

However, a broad, well-diversified, global equities investment portfolio is the ultimate inflation hedge.

Investors might also consider a commodity ETF which covers sectors such as industrial metals, precious metals, energy and agriculture.

And of course, effective low cost management is also crucial.

What to watch out for

The global stock market is considered to be overvalued at the moment. We are in what is often referred to ‘a market bubble’ and some expect the global market to crash soon.

In fact, Robert Kiyosaki, the American businessman, investor and author, said in an interview on Kitco News, that he expects ‘the biggest crash in world history’ to happen in October.

He says this is likely to affect all asset classes including crypto (Bitcoin). However, a market crash means that investors can start buying assets at a large discount.

Arguably many investors prepare for a market crash by holding more cash, waiting on the sidelines for when assets drop by at least 20% (before they start buying assets again).

Buying the dip is regarded as a good strategy and helps to accelerate returns. However, it’s worth remembering the old adage: ‘investing is about time in the market, not timing the market’.

Bitcoin as an inflation hedge

Bitcoin is the largest cryptocurrency in the world and is commonly referred to as a hedge against inflation and a store of value.

Investors such as Cathie Wood of Ark Invest and Michael Saylor of MicroStrategy, are very bullish on the future of Bitcoin and its price. Price predictions range from $500,000 to $1m++

Despite its volatility, Bitcoin has gone up approximately 200% per annum over the last 10 years. It has outperformed every other asset over that time.

Is Bitcoin a hedge against inflation? We think so.

Listen to this again:

* The Purse Podcast interview with Marina Spindler on women in crypto

* The Purse Podcast interview with Diana Biggs about Bitcoin, Ethereum & DeFi

* The Purse Podcast interview with Bridget Greenwood and blockchain and crypto.

News in Brief

Financial news

* Global stocks fell on Tuesday as as oil hit a 3-year high ($80 a barrel) and China’s energy crunch fuels concerns of higher inflation.

* Yields on government bonds have risen dramatically since policymakers at the Federal Reserve and the Bank of England signalled last week that interest rate hikes may happen sooner than expected. (This has had an adverse affect on tech stocks in particular).

* Eurozone inflation hits highest level in 13 years ie headline inflation came in at 3.4% last month. Although central bankers are saying the inflation is ‘transitory’, experts question that.

* The Bank of England’s (BoE) Monetary Policy Committee is prepared to raise interest rates before the end of the year if inflation continues to rise. (Currently UK inflation is likely to reach 4% before the year end).

* UK business confidence collapses as fears of ‘stagflation’ grow. Supply chain shortages and price rises could lead to the zero growth and high inflation seen in the 1970s.

Crypto: bitcoin, ethereum & DeFi

* Bitcoin’s biggest jump since July: price shoots up to $48,000 (adding $4,000 within hours). See the current price of Bitcoin & ETH.

* The US Federal Reserve’s Jerome Powell says Bitcoin will not be banned like in China. He differentiated between regulating stablecoins and banning bitcoin (and other cryptocurrencies).

* El Salvador mines its first bitcoin with volcanic energy. Almost 22% of the country’s power market is geothermal.

* Canada gets its first multi crypto ETF pegged to both Bitcoin and Ethereum. (Already four Bitcoin ETFs have launched in Canada).

* Tesla CEO, Elon Musk said on Tuesday the US government should avoid trying to regulate the crypto industry. Musk said: ‘It is not possible to.. destroy crypto, but it is possible for governments to slow down its advancement’.

* Solana NFT sells for $2.1m, breaking previous network record. The first Solana-based NFT sold for over $1m three weeks ago proving that the Ethereum blockchain is losing its dominion over NFTs.

* Grayscale adds Solana, Uniswap to Digital Large Cap Fund. The market cap of $SOL and $UNI tokens are now about $48bn and $13bn, respectively, according to CoinGecko. (The new tokens join Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin cash, Litecoin, Cardano and Chainlink within the fund).

Why should investors not sell their tech stocks amid interest rate volatility?

A slower growth economic environment means that tech stocks long term are a good bet

On Tuesday, a spike in interest rates resulted in a sell off in technology stocks. But according to Goldman Sachs, investors should hold on to their technology stocks for the long term, as reported by Markets Insider.

What’s going on?

The yield on the 10-year US Treasury note (a benchmark for borrowing costs for companies and households worldwide) hit a 3-month high of 1.56% on Tuesday.

And the UK 10-year gilt yield briefly breached 1% (for the first time since March of last year).

Yields on government bonds move inversely to prices. Treasury prices have continued to fall as investors position themselves for a rise in interest rates by central banks; this will be sooner than expected due to rising inflation.

Why have rising bond yields affected tech stocks?

The move in yields has caused a sell-off in equities, with losses centred on tech stocks.

This is because many tech companies have borrowed at cheap rates to fuel growth. And their valuations are closely tied to the company’s prospects for growth (in the future).

If interest rates and inflation is rising, investors expect slower future growth and company valuations will be lower.

But according to Goldman Sachs…

…in a low economic growth environment, with historically low interest rates, a long-term horizon should support valuations for high-quality, high-growth stocks.

For now, cyclical stocks may outperform technology stocks, if interest rates continue to rise. However Goldman Sachs expects this to be more ‘muted’ in an environment with slower economic growth.

The Purse Podcast

Emerging female fund manager: how to launch a VC fund:

We cover the following in our conversation:

* The world of startups

* How to launch a venture fund

* Engaging with investors

* Investing for social impact

* Paulina's journey as an angel investor

* Advice for women who want to become an angel investor or a fund manager

* And more.

Listen on all podcasting channels including iTunes and Spotify.

Coffee Break? Read This

* Working from home boosts career progress

* Men are dropping the ball at work: women pick up the emotional labour

We’d love to hear from you. Get in touch with Jana via the The Purse website or tweet @jointhepurse and @janicka.

The Purse Ltd. Copyright 2021 & All Rights Reserved.

The Purse provides content for informational purposes only, we do not recommend products or services or provide investment advice. Please do your own research or speak to a financial advisor.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jointhepurse.substack.com

Welcome to our #85 weekly newsletter.

“For women taking control of their financial future”

-Jana Hlistova

From The Purse

In this week’s newsletter, we focus on a report on ovarian aging published by think tank, First Longevity.

The ovary is the earliest aging organ in women and is considered a ‘pacemaker’ of the female body aging. The implications on women’s lifespan and quality of life are therefore significant.

So why haven’t we seen more scientific discovery and investment in this space?

And according to Age UK, one in five female pensioners is living in poverty. We know that women, on average tend to have one fifth of the pension men do and their cost of care is much higher.

And don’t forget to listen to The Purse Podcast interview with Mary Waring, an independent financial advisor. We talk about how to manage your money in marriage and divorce.

You can review the news in brief so you stay on top of global financial, economic and investing trends.

I hope you enjoy this week’s newsletter.

Until next week,

Jana

Ovarian aging: an underinvested market. Can you delay menopause?

Women’s health has been underresearched and underinvested. Time for change.

Women don’t have many options when it comes to extending fertility and delaying menopause. This is in part due to women’s health still being considered a niche market which has led to less scientific discovery and less investment over time.

Today’s solutions focus on addressing the consequences of infertility as opposed to the prevention. Think assisted reproductive technologies such as IVF and hormone replacement therapy (which also carries high cancer risk).

But according to a new report on ovarian aging by think tank First Longevity, 32% of women aged 18-44 years would take a form of treatment or intervention drug to delay menopause and extend fertility.

Here are a few key facts:

* Women’s life expectancy has increased by 30 years but menopause onset only by 3 to 4 years

* By 2018, the number of women having their first child after the age of 35 has increased ten fold since 1970

* Women may live 34% of their life in poor health compared to 26% for men.

* During the first year of menopause, women lose 80% of estrogen.

The ovary is the earliest aging organ…

… in women and is considered a ‘pacemaker’ of the female body aging-and the implications are significant.

The withdrawal of hormones during menopause often impacts a woman’s health in later life.

Menopause has been linked to increased risk of cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis and could even increase the risk of Alzheimer's Disease.

Shocking, right?

The costs to women and businesses (are real)

* 13m women are currently in menopause (UK)

* 1bn+ women globally will be in menopause by 2025

* Every woman will experience menopause which lasts 4-10 years

It costs women an average $20k in trial-and-error spending on prescriptions, doctor visits, treatments, devices and products. 

Many senior women leave the workplace in their 50s because of the menopause- whether they are aware of it or not. Ironically, this is often at the peak of their career.

Meanwhile businesses haemorrhage experienced female talent and money (because of it). And often remain in the dark about why senior women are leaving the workplace.

A 2019 survey by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development found almost 900,000 women in the UK left the workforce due to menopausal symptoms.

And the highest rates of suicide and divorce is for women aged 51-54 years-the menopausal age.

But, even though women control 80% of all healthcare buying and usage decisions in a $3.5tn healthcare industry…

…the menopause market is hugely underinvested.

80% of health VCs (mostly male) have never invested in women’s health. And reproductive healthcare still makes up 95% of the femtech investment space.

The menopause market only makes up 5% of femtech investment (despite it being valued at $600bn+, according to the Female Founders Fund).

This is one of the many reasons why…

… we need more female investors making decisions about where to allocate capital. Research proves that gender-balanced investment teams outperform.

But crucially, women apply a new lens to investing and represent the lived experience and perspective of 50%+ of the population.

Ovarian aging research and interventions

According to the First Longevity report, most interventions have been tested on ‘model organisms’ (only) such as mice, but very few have gone to clinical trials and tested on human beings:

* Supplementation: for example, curcumin, the active ingredient extracted from tumuric, has been shown to prevent rat ovaries from damage.

* Caloric restriction: a dietary intervention which is generally considered to prolong lifespan, could delay ovarian aging.

* Repurposed drugs: for example, a hormone that is available on prescription in the UK, melatonin, could be promising treatment for ovarian aging due to its antioxidant properties.

* New methods in longevity: including platelet-rich plasma (PRP) has been implemented in regenerative medicine in the last 10 years. Stem cell treatment is another method that is being investigated. Molecular targets could also be used in targeting ovarian aging.

What next?

* Listen to The Purse Podcast interview with Heather Jackson about the menopause.

* Listen to The Purse Podcast interview with Sergey Young about longevity where he also talks about women’s health.

News in Brief

Financial news

* Last Monday, the S&P 500 suffered its worst day since May and European markets suffered their worst day since July. Concerns that China’s indebted property group Evergrande could default on a debt payment, anxiety over the ongoing pandemic and the Fed tapering back on asset purchases hit stocks.

* US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said the central bank could start scaling back asset buying as early as November (and the process could end by mid-2022). Interest rates might go up in 2022.

* Chinese property firm, Evergrande missed its crucial $83m bond interest payment on Thursday. China's central bank, however, injected $17bn of cash into the banking system Thursday.

* The Bank of England (BoE) has warned this week that surging energy bills will lead to inflation topping 4%+ this winter. The economic fallout from the pandemic and Brexit is pushing up the cost of essentials.

Crypto: bitcoin, ethereum & DeFi

* Last Monday, Bitcoin fell below $45,000 in a broad crypto sell-off driven by worries about the spillover from Evergrande’s debt default. (See the current Bitcoin price & Ether price).

* Crypto millionaire Mike Novogratz says Bitcoin holding at $40,000 shows that the market is in good shape-and recommends buying the dip. Novogratz said he thought Monday's sell-off was also driven by concerns about regulation in the US.

* El Salvador bought the dip, adding another 150 bitcoin to its holdings. They now own 700 bitcoin.

* China declares all crypto-related illegal and forbids overseas exchanges from seving its citizens. Bitcoin dropped 5.7% to about $41,110 in the wake of the announcement, according to data from CoinDesk. Ether lost 9% to hit $2,788. This wiped out $150bn of value.

* Axie Infinity has sold $2bn worth of Ethereum NFTs. Blockchain gaming is a global phenomenon that will create the next ‘paradigm shift’, according to Alexis Ohanian.

Female pensioners: 1 in 5 live in poverty

Age UK released the findings as MPs prepare to debate the suspension of the triple lock in Parliament

According to Age UK, one in five female pensioners is living in poverty, as reported by The Independent.

In fact, the number of female pensioners living in poverty has increased from 14% (2012/13) to 20% (2019/20).

Age UK released the findings as MPs prepare to debate the suspension of the triple lock in Parliament (the triple lock ensures that pensions grow in line with whichever is highest out of earnings, inflation or 2.5%).

Based on the survey, here are some key stats:

* 1.25m women in this group are now living below the breadline

* Single female pensioners are at much higher risk of being in poverty than single men and pensioner couples

* Pensioners from black and Asian communities (including men and women) are around twice as likely to be living in poverty as white pensioners

* Male and female pensioners who rent their homes are also much more likely to be in poverty than those who own their home outright.

Based on research, women on average, tend to have one fifth of the pension men do and their cost of care is much higher.

However, according to the Department of Work and Pensions, ‘..pension reforms including auto-enrolment has helped millions more women save into a pension, many for the first time. Pension participation among eligible women working in the private sector has risen from 40% in 2012, to 86% in 2019’.

Read more here:

* Check your state pension age

* Pensions: everything you need to know for retirement

* Age UK pension calculator

The Purse Podcast

Marriage and divorce: how to manage your money

We cover the following in our conversation:

* Income vs net worth

* Common money mistakes

* Managing your money in marriage and divorce

* Financial advisors: how they can help

* How women can build their wealth

* and more

Listen on all podcasting channels including iTunes and Spotify.

Coffee Break? Read This

* New measures on freezing eggs leave women in the cold

* You need to practice your future self

* A proposal to overhaul flexible working UK laws

We’d love to hear from you. Get in touch with Jana via the The Purse website or tweet @jointhepurse and @janicka.

The Purse Ltd. Copyright 2021 & All Rights Reserved.

The Purse provides content for informational purposes only, we do not recommend products or services or provide investment advice. Please do your own research or speak to a financial advisor.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jointhepurse.substack.com

Welcome to our #84 weekly newsletter.

“For women taking control of their financial future”

-Jana Hlistova

From The Purse

In this week’s newsletter, we focus on Verve Super: a pension startup in Australia which has recently raised funding from female investors, and specifically from first-time female investors.

And Cathie Wood’s Ark Invest has sold $266m of Tesla shares this month. Given that Tesla shares have hit new all-time highs across multiple months, we ask why?

You can review the news in brief so you stay on top of global financial, economic and investing trends.

I hope you enjoy this week’s newsletter.

Until next week,

Jana

Verve Super: female investors invest in female-led pension startup

Women (and men) investing in women is smart business

Verve Super, a pension fund in Australia has recently raised funding and did so by actively seeking out female investors, with a specific focus on first-time female investors.

The female-founded startup has raised AUS $2.6m from first time female investors including Carol Schwartz and other businesswomen, lawyers and activists, as reported by Women’s Agenda.

Co-founded by Christina Hobbs, Alex Andrews and Zoe Lamont, Verve now has more than 5000 members and manages close to AUS $180m in funds.

A passion for women’s economic equality

Verve’s mission is to ‘build the wealth of women and be a destination for women who want to build wealth (and).. particularly, to do so through ethical investment’.

From the outset, they were seeking female investors who aligned with their mission to close the gender wealth gap, through impact.

And by doing so, they avoided the risk of not getting funding from the venture capital (VC) industry whose primary focus is to find ‘the next billion-dollar unicorn’.

It is not uncommon for female-led

…and impact-focused startups to clash with the standard (read old school) male-dominated VC industry.

The industry often lacks alternate perspectives, a gender lens or even a willingness and openness to examine an entirely new market and a new way of doing business, which serves a very different customer-namely women.

This is in large part because the industry still has very few female VC investors (and lacks diversity in general).

In fact, in US and Canada, women make up a mere 13-15% of VC partners (the figures are similar in the UK).

In many respects, it is easier for women to start their own fund, than it is to join an established male-dominated VC firm.

Female investors are crucial…

…to women getting funding for their startups.

Based on research, women invest in female founders three times the rate men do. They also apply a new lens to investing and represent the lived experience and perspective of 51% of the population.

Women will appreciate products and services aimed at the female market in a way male investors simply can not -unless they invest the time and do the research. And many simply do not.

Given what we know…

…it is not surprising that Verve Super have recently announced they would become the first pension fund (in Australia) to allocate capital to towards companies that meet gender equality criteria.

They have recently launched the Verve Gender Equality Investment Index which tracks metrics such as gender pay parity and the number of women in leadership.

Research shows that startups and companies which have gender diversity at the senior level outperform those that do not.

Therefore investing with a gender lens is simply smart business.

News in Brief

Financial news

* The US Federal Reserve ramps up balance sheet expansion. Total assets rose by $91.5bn past week, most since July, to hit fresh ATH at $8,448.8bn. Fed balance sheet now equal to 37.2% of US's GDP vs BoE's 38.8%, #ECB's 79.6%, BoJ's 133.7%.

* US inflation rate is at 5.3% in August. However core CPI fell to 4%, 0.2% below expectations.

* Equity inflows in 2021 top last two decades combined.Global investors are pouring more money into global equities in 2021 than between 2001 and 2020 combined, says Bank of America, stoking bubble fears.

* Property giant China Evergrande Group has said that it cannot sell properties and other assets fast enough to service its massive $300bn debts. China's junk bond yields keep rising to 14.4% due to fears of an Evergrande default could trigger a domino effect.

* UK inflation rises to 3.2% from July’s 2%. This is the highest figure in almost a decade ie it is the largest increase in annual rate from one month to next since records began.

* UK job vacancies hit record high of 1m as payrolls rebound to pre-Covid levels.

Crypto: bitcoin, ethereum & DeFi

* The price of Ethereum has rallied to $3,600+. This is still 16.7% away from the asset’s all-time of $4,356 recorded on May 12 this year. The price has since dropped and is currently at $3,400+).

* Bitcoin fund raised by NYDIG has raised nearly $17m to date. This provides an alternative and efficient way to invest in Bitcoin.

* MicroStrategy takes its Bitcoin holdings to 114,000 BTC ($5.1bn). The firm spent $3.16bn on this entire portfolio, which has a current value of $5.1bn- a 42% gain.

* Crypo miner Argo Blockchain launches IPO on Nasdaq. With a last closing price for Argo’s ordinary shares of £1.334, a successful IPO could raise as much as £100m.

* Solana’s market value falls to $20bn after 17hour outage. This was a 35% drop from last week’s record high following a network outage (which could bolster the case for more established platforms like Ethereum).

* Avalanche Foundation launches $230m in funding, AVAX hits new all-time high. It enters the list of top fifteen cryptocurrencies as its gains past $65. Since its launch in September 2020, Avalanche has emerged to be the fastest-growing blockchain ecosystem.

* Hedge-fund billionaire Ray Dalio says that regulators will ‘kill’ bitcoin if it becomes too successful.

Cathie Wood has sold $266m of Tesla shares this month. Why?

Tesla shares have hit new all-time highs across multiple months. Why sell now?

Cathie Wood’s Ark Invest has sold a total of $266m of Tesla shares (in September), as reported by Bloomberg.

This is despite the Tesla share price at multi-month highs. And Cathie’s target stock price target approximately 300% ($3,000 per share) above Wednesday’s stock price (when she sold $62 million of the electric-car maker).

The firm's flagship ARK Innovation ETF counts Tesla as its top holding at 10.49% of the ETF's holdings. (The ETF is actively managed, which means that it does not passively follow the index or market).

So why is Cathie Wood selling Tesla shares?

In an interview with CNBC, Cathie Wood commented on Tesla’s ‘exceptionally volatile trading patterns’ and the Ark Invest group ‘trades around the volatility’.

She goes on to say: ‘..we naturally just take profits because we know we’re going to get another opportunity associated with controversy to buy the stock lower.’

In other words, Cathie Wood may consider the Tesla share price to be overhyped or overvalued within the context of what is going on in the finanical markets and the global economy.

Global markets are being propped up by central banks as they continue to pump more liquidity into the global market. Investor sentiment in the US is turning negative. And recently, China has cracked down on the technology sector with regulation.

Moreover, Tesla has been caught up…

.. in the global supply-chain problems affecting businesses in the US and Europe. Tesla CEO, Elon Musk tweeted in early September that the new Roadster model will be delayed until 2023.

Coffee Break? Read This

* Women and work

* Women don’t feel like they belong in the workplace

* UK failing on childcare, survey finds

We’d love to hear from you. Get in touch with Jana via the The Purse website or tweet @jointhepurse and @janicka.

The Purse Ltd. Copyright 2021 & All Rights Reserved.

The Purse provides content for informational purposes only, we do not recommend products or services or provide investment advice. Please do your own research or speak to a financial advisor.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jointhepurse.substack.com