👀 Market Positioning going into Trump 2.0, FundedNext to launch Broker.

Hi guys, it’s Kieran! It’s Martin Luther King day in the US so many markets are set to close early, however it is the inauguration day of President Trump so markets are wide-eyed and expecting big moves. With liquidity thin, moves will get magnified, so let’s make sure that we are prepared.

📢 Prop Firm Industry News

FundedNext are launching a brokerage. They are planning to offer services worldwide and will soon be opening up for early access. They are not the first prop firm to open a brokerage, however we are yet to see many notable customer-facing innovations come from this, so it will be interesting to see where this leads. You can read more from Finance Magnates below.

Bespoke Funding are now ThePropVault and are under new management. They are communicating that current trader’s accounts will not be affected in any way, so let's hope this is a smooth transition for everyone.

From Payout Junction, here are the firms who have paid out the most over the last 7 days 🏆️.

🔥 Follow Payout Junction on X - https://x.com/payoutjunction

Monitor prop firm payouts LIVE on Payout Junction -https://payoutjunction.com.

🕜 Economic calendar

Here are this week’s red folder news events. Notable events being US PMI’s on Friday, and Unemployment on Thursday, however this week is all about Trump so expect headline risk to be high.

📈 The Macro View

Right on cue. Positioning has fully reset.

As if planned to perfection. The day of Trumps inauguration, positioning on Goldman Sachs Prime book is at neutral. Speculators have been shacked-out and the ‘long-stocks’ trade is no longer crowded. Much safer getting long US indices at these levels.

JP Morgan - Room for positioning to increase

JP Morgan agree. “There’s room for positioning to increase and the rebound to continue due to ‘goldilocks’ macro data and strong earnings, absent major negative surprises on the tariff / policy front.”

Fear & Greed - Fearful Sentiment

To further enforce the positioning charts above, overall market sentiment is still negative, so the contrarian ‘long equities’ signal is still in play.

Goldman Sachs Year-end S&P 500 target.

Goldman expecting the S&P500 to close 2025 out at 6500. That is about 8% up from where we are today. Feels conservative to me, but lets see.

The ‘Trade Policy Uncertainty Index’ is parabolic.

The positioning and sentiment readings that we have discussed above, paint a rosy picture for risk assets, however we must always keep in mind that anything can, and probably will happen. Trump is volatile and unpredictable, and there are always ‘second-order’ effects from major US policy shifts felt around the world. Under Trump, major uncertainty is the world that we live in, so all we can do is position ourselves well and manage our downside effectively.

OK guys that’s it for this week. Embrace the uncertainty and enjoy the ride. See ya next week!

Kieran

If you would like to Follow my personal trading journey, you can do so on X here > https://x.com/kierangohil_

🔥 Follow Payout Junction on X - https://x.com/payoutjunction