Happy Monday, Lark Traders! This is Lark Digest, the best trading newsletter to pair with your morning coffee.

We hope you’re ready to attack the new trading week cause we’ve got the goods for you today.

On the agenda:

• Why is everybody copying us? 🤔 

• What are the most important things to watch out for this week? ❗️ 

3-STAGE PROGRAMS ARE EVERYWHERE 🤨

They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and oh boy, have we been flattered a lot lately.

At this point, we’re now seeing firms launch their very own 3-Stage Program almost every week.

Now, in case you’ve forgotten, we were the first in the industry to launch ours in mid-2023.

Now, we always welcome competition and innovation.

In fact, now that it’s been over 6 months, we were hoping to see some creative improvements that would force us to continue pushing things forward.

But unfortuneately, that hasn’t happened…

Now, we don’t like to name names. The internet (AKA Twitter) is a very accessible place, and it’s easy to find these new programs.

But with some of them having targets of 6% > 6%> 6% (we’re only 5% > 4% > 3%) and having 4% daily loss limits (we have no daily loss limit), we still firmly believe we have the only 3-Stage Program worth taking.

But I hear you, I hear you.

Matt, 2-stages are already hard enough to pass. Why would I ever take a 3-stage program?

It’s a great question and one that’s worth discussing.

Here’s the value proposition of a 3-stage program, why it’s gaining popularity and why it’s worth considering:

1/ LOWER PRICE

Most 2-Stage $100K challenges are around $500 before discounts.

But our 3-Stage $100K starts at only $370.

We’ve even run 20% discounts that lower the price to under $300.

You can’t beat that!

And for those just getting started, we even have $5K accounts at under $30.

2/ NO DAILY LOSS LIMIT

This one is unique, and we haven’t seen a single other firm offer this.

Sure, our maximum drawdown is a static 5%.

It’s tight.

But the real trick is in leveraging your gains.

Once you’ve grown the account, you then get to take full advantage of having no daily loss limit.

And that also means way less stress because you now only need to watch your max drawdown level.

Pretty sweet, we know.

3/ WEEKLY PAYOUTS

Who doesn’t like getting paid more often?

Nobody!

And that’s why we lowered our payout frequency on our 3-Stage Program.

Your first withdrawal can be requested in 14 days, and after that, you’re free to get paid every. single. week.

But we always love to hear from you. Feel free to reply to this email and let us know what you think about the program and how we might improve it.

THE WEEK AHEAD 💹 

As always, we’re cutting out the fluff and leaving you with only the good stuff.

And fortunately for traders, it’s a pretty light week on the calendar before things heat up next week.

But still, this is what you need to keep an eye on:

1/ BANK OF JAPAN 🇯🇵 

On Tuesday, we’ve got the Bank of Japan (BoJ) meeting, and it’s pretty much guaranteed that they’ll maintain their current monetary policy.

Japan is currently struggling with deflation. Their current interest rate policy is negative (insane, right?) and that’s something they’re going to try and escape from in 2024.

From Deutsche Bank:

“We expect the central bank to stick with its current policy stance but further out see the BoJ abandoning its negative interest rate policy in April.”

So it should be a none event.

2/ BANK OF CANADA 🇨🇦 & ECB 🇪🇺 

On Wednesday, we’ve got the Bank of Canada’s interest rate decision, but don’t get too excited. It won’t be nearly as fun as UFC 297, which was held in Toronto last weekend.

By the way, what do we think of Strickland’s viral response to a reporter before the fight?

The BoC is expected to keep rates at 5%, so we expect it to be a non-event.

And the same goes for the European Central Bank.

The ECB has made it clear they’re taking a data-driven approach, so we don’t expect any major changes.

3/ TRUMP WILL GET THE OFFICIAL NOMINATION 🇺🇲 

As you know by now, we’re politics junkies, and we think all traders should be, too (to some extent).

As the 2024 presidential election heats up, there’s going to be comments and results that move the market (remember Trump versus China?), and so you’re going to want to stay on your toes.

The latest update is that Ron DeSantis officially suspended his campaign yesterday.

This means that it’s only a matter of time until Nikki Haley withdraws and Trump is the official nominee, setting us up for a Rocky II moment with Trump and Biden going head to head again.

We don’t expect this to move the market in any significant way just yet. But follow closely.

4/ STOCKS ARE AT ALL-TIME HIGHS 📉

We need to talk about the stock market because what just happened is wild.

Interest rates are at 20-year highs and yet, the stock market just hit all-time highs.

Now, you might be wondering, how the heck does that make any sense!? And it doesn’t.

Typically, higher rates hurt businesses, and that means a higher USD but lower stocks.

But not right now. So, what’s happening?

The market is confident that the Federal Reserve will engineer a “soft landing.” 

AKA, they’re going to lower inflation while avoiding a recession.

There’s now a 46% chance that the Fed will cut rates in March, and investors are already acting like a teenage girl at the mall with her dad’s credit card.

But sadly, our beloved Bitcoin hasn’t joined the party (yet).

Next week, we’ve got major Aussie news, a German GDP that’s expected to go from bad to worse and, of course, the latest Fed interest rate decision.

Not to worry, we’ll have the full breakdown for you next Monday.

We’ll see you Wednesday,
Matt | Lark CEO

PS: We officially launched Lrk Funding 600 days ago, and that means we’ve now gone 600 days without denying a single payout.

We’re just getting started.