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America's economy has recovered from the Great Recession by just about any yardstick. Is it perfect? No. But we are not in the middle of a crisis anymore, which is what 0% interest rates signify.

At a time when the U.S. economy is chugging along at over 2% growth and the unemployment rate reflects almost full employment, there's not much of a case for the Fed's key interest rate to remain at historic lows.

If you listen to some Wall Street pundits and economists, you might think that the Fed raising interest rates right now would cause disaster to strike -- it could send the global economy into recession and the stock market crashing.

If the Fed votes on Thursday to raise its benchmark rates, most likely it will go from being near 0% to maybe 0.125% or 0.25%. This first rate increase in years is more about psychology than finance or economics. The Fed has kept rates so low for so long that people are scared of any change.

The stock market has been swinging wildly in recent weeks at every hint that rates might increase. For the past 10 weeks, the stock market has gained one week and lost the next, partly because of the Fed.

This is not healthy. Keep in mind the Fed has been giving huge hints that it will raise interest rates sometime in 2015 for almost a whole year. In fact, you could argue they've been telegraphing this since 2012 when their forecasts started showing that Fed members believed interest rates would be higher than 0% by the end of 2014.

The bottom line is that the Fed has to act at some point. As with any big decision, there will always be hand wringing over finding the perfect time. It's best to rip the Band-Aid off now. If the Fed delays yet again on raising rates, it will probably just increase stock market turmoil. Already investors are asking -- if not now, will it be October? December? 2016?

The general consensus is that there's about a 50/50 chance the Fed will hike rates Thursday. In Wall Street terms, that means a rate increase is more or less already priced in.

Sure, there will likely be some market reaction (selling) right after any announcement of higher rates. But most likely people will gasp and then relax and realize the world hasn't ended or shifted that much after a 0.25% change.

The real key isn't the initial rate hike. It's what happens after that. Does the Fed continue to raise rates at its next few meetings or does it release the valve slowly and only hike two or three times in the next year?

The pace of the hikes is what people should be focused on, but they won't do that until the first rate hike is over. The question isn't whether it's the perfect time, it's whether it's a good enough time to act. Right now, the U.S. economy and the markets appear ready -- or, at least, as ready as they're likely to get.

A rate hike now sends the world the following messages: 1. The U.S. economy is better and we don't need 0% rates forever. 2. The Fed is not going to get all stirred up by every stock market blip. 3. The Fed has taken the first step -- so let's all breathe and start having a real conversation about what's next.

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The U.S Stock Market will open soon and in 2 hours time our daily signals will be out.

In order to prepare you better for the next session, we did a recap of the previous two days, in which we had huge announcments by APPLE of their new products, in their announcments Apple provided the stage for other tech giants to show their inovations, such as Microsoft, Adobe and others. 

In previous two days we have seen something that's called a parabola effect:

So what is this parabola effect? just like the ocean: before the huge waves hit the beach, water withdrawals from the shores, and when the surge does come, it comes with a bang and then slowly flattens before the water retracts from the beach back to the sea. That's what we're experiencing the previous two day.

Activate your account now to receive the signals in the next two hours, talk with our representatives on the chat and don't miss out on parabola trading.

APPLE STOCK

FACEBOOK STOCK

MICROSOFT STOCK

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Don't bet on Donald Trump to become the 45th president of the United States.

That's the message from the gamblers placing bets on the 2016 race for the White House.

Trump is beating his rivals by double-digits in national polls, but bettors remain skeptical the billionaire's lead will last until the Republican convention in Cleveland. Jeb Bush is actually the odds-on favorite to win the GOP nomination, according to Irish gambling website Paddy Power.

The former governor of Florida has 13-to-8 odds to be the Republican standard bearer. That is significantly better than Trump, who has 7-to-2 odds. That means a $100 bet would pay $163 if Bush wins, and $350 if Trump does.

Just like in sports gambling, the odds reflect wagers being made by real gamblers. That suggests people are putting their money on the line to bet on someone they believe will win the nomination.

It's a striking contrast with the polls, which show the real estate mogul with a big lead. The latest CNN poll released on Thursday shows Trump at 32% support for the Republican nomination, ahead of Ben Carson, his nearest rival, by 13 percentage points. No other candidate -- not even Bush -- registers double-digit support.

Greg Valliere, chief political strategist at Potomac Research Group, believes the gambling odds reflect a sense that Trump's harsh personality will eventually turn voters off.

"At some point you'll have huge chunks of the Republican establishment concluding he'll be a disaster in a general election," Valliere said.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is the favorite to win the White House, with 11-to-10 odds on Paddy Power. Jeb Bush is next with 4-to-1 odds, followed by Trump's 13-to-2 odds. Bush is viewed as a favorite at Betfair, a British site, followed by Marco Rubio and Trump.

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President Barack Obama has directed his administration to prepare to take in at least 10,000 Syrian refugees over the next year, the White House said on Thursday.

It is the first specific commitment the United States has made toward increasing its acceptance of refugees from the war-torn country. Since the start of the Syrian civil war in 2011, the United States has taken in 1,500 refugees, with 300 more expected to be cleared by October.

But refugee advocates and some members of Congress said taking in an additional 10,000 refugees did not go far enough toward addressing the humanitarian crisis triggered by the war, which has prompted a massive refugee influx into Europe.

In a letter distributed to House members and seen by Reuters, Democratic Representative David Cicilline asked Obama to accommodate 65,000 Syrian refugees by the end of 2016. Religious groups have called for the United States to accept 100,000 Syrian refugees.

European countries have taken in waves of migrants fleeing violence. Germany allowed 20,000 migrants into the country over the weekend and is preparing for 800,000 this year. Melanie Nezer, vice president of HIAS, a global refugee advocacy group, said that for the United States to allow 10,000 more refugees from Syria was not an adequate response to the crisis.

The United States is conducting air strikes in Syria as part of its effort to fight against Islamic State. It currently admits a total of 70,000 refugees from around the world annually, and is due to increase that total by 5,000 for the fiscal year starting in October.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest would not say whether the 10,000 Syrians would be a part of or in addition to that total.

Earnest said national security was a top concern for admitting Syrians, a country rife with anti-American militants, noting that intensive security screening for refugees could take up to 18 months.

"I do feel confident in telling you that the president will not sign off on a process that cuts corners when it comes to the basic safety and security of the American people and the U.S. homeland," Earnest told reporters.

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Voters looking to support an eccentric millionaire for president now have more options. John McAfee, who pioneered anti-virus software but most recently made headlines by evading Belizean authorities in 2012, announced a third-party White House bid this week.

McAfee is creating his own party: the Cyber Party. He told CNN he'll focus his bid on online privacy and domestic surveillance.

"We are losing privacy at an alarming rate — we have none left," McAfee told the network. "We've given up so much for the illusion of security and our government is simply dysfunctional. The government can spy on people using their mobile phones while they're with their wives and husbands."

McAfee knows firsthand about the amount of information we unwittingly share online. When he ran from Belizean officials who wanted to question him about the murder of a neighbor, reporters traveling with McAfee accidentally exposed his exact location by including metadata in a photograph they posted online.

Although McAfee was never a suspect in the murder — just a person of interest — he was eventually deported to the United States after illegally entering Guatemala while on the lam. McAfee had ended up in Belize after selling his anti-virus company, and then losing a significant amount of wealth in the most recent recession. As NPR reported in 2012:

McAfee's lifestyle in Belize was active and eccentric. His island home was known as a party house, with many women living there, most believed to be prostitutes from the mainland. And he had seven large dogs protecting the property. Faull, his murdered neighbor, had complained about the dogs and the constant traffic on the small road between their homes.

In the CNN interview, McAfee, who was arrested on charges of driving under the influence in Tennessee last month, said he's ready and willing to discuss his "checkered background."

McAfee filed paperwork with the FEC earlier this week. His campaign has also launched a website, though the page currently contains no information other than a quote attributed to George Washington: "Guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism."

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John Gibson was a pastor and seminary professor. When he wasn't teaching at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, one of his favorite pastimes was fixing cars.

He was married with two children. His daughter, Callie, was teaching in front of 250 college students when she got the call. Her father had killed himself.

It was August 24, six days after hackers exposed the names of millions of people who had signed up for Ashley Madison, the notorious site for those seeking affairs. Gibson's name was on the list.

"It was a moment that life doesn't prepare you for," Gibson’s wife said: "I had to call my kids. How do you tell your kids that their dad is gone and that he took his own life?"

In his suicide note, Gibson chronicled his demons. He also mentioned Ashley Madison.

"He talked about depression. He talked about having his name on there, and he said he was just very, very sorry," Christi said. "What we know about him is that he poured his life into other people, and he offered grace and mercy and forgiveness to everyone else, but somehow he couldn't extend that to himself."

Ashley Madison was hacked in July, and hackers released users' personal information in August. Since then, authorities in Toronto have said they're investigating suicides that could be linked to the data dump. Hackers have also sent extortion emails to people who were on the list.

Gibson said her husband was likely worried he'd lose his job. "It wasn't so bad that we wouldn't have forgiven it, and so many people have said that to us, but for John, it carried such a shame," she said.

Gibson, 56, was known as a great teacher with a "quirky laugh," but he had struggled with depression and addiction in the past, his family said. In a statement, a spokesman for Avid Life Media, Ashley Madison's parent company, expressed the firm's condolences.

"Dr. Gibson's passing is a stark, heart-wrenching reminder that the criminal hack against our company and our customers has had very real consequences for a great many innocent people."

Since his death, his family has made a pact to be more transparent with one another about their struggles. Christi Gibson has a message for the 32 million people exposed and their communities.

"These were real people with real families, real pain and real loss," she says. But "don't underestimate the power of love. Nothing is worth the loss of a father and a husband and a friend. It just didn't merit it. It didn't merit it at all."

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