This month also sees the introduction of the futures from CMC and a couple of others.

A lot of people are saying this will increase speculation on Bitcoin and push the prices higher but i'm a bit more cautious.

Though the above is true the opposite will also be true. The big players who think Bitcoin is a bubble about to pop will be able to short the future which will put downward pressure on the price. As far as i know, it's the first real time this will be possible so who knows how it will play out.

I think there's another week till the official launch so we could be nudging $20k by then...