Investments

I consider Bitcoin more of a gamble rather than an investment at this point.
 
Owning Bitcoin last week was not all that different from owning an airplane. One day you're flush, the next day your mechanic has fixed that situation for you...
 
I'm waiting for the regulators to step in...
 
Wish I had bought it at $100 when I first heard about it. Glad I don't own it now. Have no desire to touch it at this time.
 
Bitcoin has been pretty volatile this week. I'm not in it, but wish I had gotten into Ethereum early. That seems to hang around the $700 range pretty regularly.
 
It's interesting to see how it's moving along, personally I wouldn't touch it right now.

Some of the lower price proof of concept etherium based coin miner builds look interesting, but nothing Id spend "investment" level money on, maybe "rainy day project/experiment" money on
 
Your only playing catch up ,if you get in now. More a gamble ,rather than an investment.
 
My read is that a lot of people decided to take profit on what they had. Half the people in the bitcoin market are brilliant (or lucky), half are idiots. Time will tell who was in which half.

Right now, it's down 30% from a week ago.
 
My son told me to buy when it was $300, was going to do $50k, wifey said no. Had I done it I would be laughing hardily at this thread as I rifled my fingers through my $2 million plus profit.
 
Some did well when they went “all in” on BitCoin. It was a gamble then, and it still is now since it’s completely a speculative market. It’s tough to gauge, and even harder to put an investment-sized amount into it. I put in $1K into Litecoin with the expectation that I might lose a little... which it looks like I might.
 
PaulS said:
My son told me to buy when it was $300, was going to do $50k, wifey said no. Had I done it I would be laughing hardily at this thread as I rifled my fingers through my $2 million plus profit.
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Yeah, but that assumes that you got in when you thought about it, stayed in until last week, and got out before it started dumping... Lots of assumptions that I'm not sure happen without hindsight.

I personally can't wrap my head around the fact it's not really tied to anything. It's value is whatever people trade it at on a given day. So the huge rise for no real reason could just as easily become the huge drop for no real reason.
 
SaltH2OHokie said:
Yeah, but that assumes that you got in when you thought about it, stayed in until last week, and got out before it started dumping... Lots of assumptions that I'm not sure happen without hindsight.

I personally can't wrap my head around the fact it's not really tied to anything. It's value is whatever people trade it at on a given day. So the huge rise for no real reason could just as easily become the huge drop for no real reason.
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Well, he did buy when he told me to buy, he didn't have $50K but he has turned the few thousand or so that he did invest in a couple Rolex watches and still has enough in to buy a car, all house money now. No government control is actually kind of appealing to me, plus the block chain tech is hack proof (so far at least) and transactions untraceable. All good things. It is volatile but I think the naysayers gloom and doom is premature.
 
PaulS said:
My son told me to buy when it was $300, was going to do $50k, wifey said no. Had I done it I would be laughing hardily at this thread as I rifled my fingers through my $2 million plus profit.
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I considered buying it when it first came out and then I said, nah, fake cyber money? That can't be good.
 
I'm in and been in for a few months. Mining = printing money, buying crypto is a gamble. Even with the ups and downs I am at 2x my investment. HODLing for now.
 
How glad is everybody that bought gold when it was above 1800 an ounce..??
 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_fool_theory

Buying something that has no intrinsic value is not investing. Even with tulip bulbs, at the end you could still grow a tulip.

The end of this particular mania (manium?) is going to be very bad. I have seen headlines about people mortgaging their homes to buy this stuff.
 
PaulS said:
Well, he did buy when he told me to buy, he didn't have $50K but he has turned the few thousand or so that he did invest in a couple Rolex watches and still has enough in to buy a car, all house money now. No government control is actually kind of appealing to me, plus the block chain tech is hack proof (so far at least) and transactions untraceable. All good things. It is volatile but I think the naysayers gloom and doom is premature.
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I don't profess to understand anything about virtual currencies or block chains. But when I see people think the government can't control it, it's not traceable, or that it's hack proof, I have less faith.

Maybe it's true, and those that have had $Millions in Bitcoin accounts stolen without recourse (there's that "not traceable" thing?) just made some bad choices?

I prefer to lose money in things I think I understand. Like GA airplanes.
 
GRG55 said:
I don't profess to understand anything about virtual currencies or block chains. But when I see people think the government can't control it, it's not traceable, or that it's hack proof, I have less faith.

Maybe it's true, and those that have had $Millions in Bitcoin accounts stolen without recourse (there's that "not traceable" thing?) just made some bad choices?

I prefer to lose money in things I think I understand. Like GA airplanes.
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I don't understand the whole thing, hence my hesitation to invest. But, the block chain is pretty solid, and so far, untraceable. The stolen money, from what I understand, is the result of people using exchanges to store their keys, which essentially is your currency. If you use it as intended, storing the key offline, it's virtually unhackable, and unstealable.
 
One of the most basic rules in investing is: Don't buy anything you don't understand.
 
mscard88 said:
You have an expensive dentist! :popcorn:
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Fortunately I was buying gold (raw gold, not coins, one of the benefits of living in Alaska) back when gold was 400 to 700 an ounce. Something I did before I met my wife and for her to live on after I croak.
 
 
SaltH2OHokie said:
I personally can't wrap my head around the fact it's not really tied to anything. It's value is whatever people trade it at on a given day.
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So, what do you think of the U.S. dollar?

I’m not making any case for bitcoin, but you seem to think our fiat currency is tied to something of intrinsic value?

USG stopped doing that in 1973.
 
US$ is on an "oil standard" now Nate. Been that way for quite a while. ;)
 
I loved the concept of Bitcoin and would have jumped on the bandwagon...till it turned into a speculative commodity with no basis in reality pertaining to any real current value. No thanks. I don't even like stocks.

Yes, the US Dollar is also just funny money but its value is not just a speculation investment.
 
GRG55 said:
US$ is on an "oil standard" now Nate. Been that way for quite a while. ;)
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So “they” say. A number of countries no longer trading oil in USD now.

Which is either :) or :( depending on whether you’re emotionally attached to the greenback.
 
I'm still up about 20k in crypto. I'm not in any hurry to get out yet. Bought lite coin at 30 and bitcoin at 5k.
 
denverpilot said:
So “they” say. A number of countries no longer trading oil in USD now.

Which is either :) or :( depending on whether you’re emotionally attached to the greenback.
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Anybody emotionally attached to a currency needs help. Almost as badly as those emotionally attached to their airplanes, and give them a name. ;) :D
 
denverpilot said:
So, what do you think of the U.S. dollar?

I’m not making any case for bitcoin, but you seem to think our fiat currency is tied to something of intrinsic value?

USG stopped doing that in 1973.
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Not a currency trader, so I guess my statement could go to your choice of currencies that aren't linked 1:1 with gold/oil/rhino tears/etc.

But, it would seem a stretch to say that the USD is just as arbitrary in valuation as bitcoin, which was more my point.
 
denverpilot said:
... Which is either :) or :( depending on whether you’re emotionally attached to the greenback.
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Actually, it's not a matter of emotion. Changes in the value of the dollar have a big impact on our daily life. Ask Boeing and Caterpillar.

For example, as the dollar loses its position as the world's reserve currency its value will decline. A 20% decline, which is not out of the question at all (look a the Euro's history) will mean a 25% increase in the price of your new tv, your tee shirts, and all internationally-traded commodities like oil and foods. IOW, there will be huge domestic inflation that the Fed is powerless to control.

SaltH2OHokie said:
... But, it would seem a stretch to say that the USD is just as arbitrary in valuation as bitcoin, which was more my point.
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Right. The bills in my wallet bear the notice: "This note is legal tender for all debts, public and private." IOW dollars have value not just because a bunch of speculators are playnig with them but because a government says that dollars have value. Even a tulip bulb, in the end, had some intrinsic value -- you could grow a tulip. With these crypto currencies, you don't even have paper that you could use in the bottom of a birdcage. This amateur-hour currency fantasy will not end well.
 
I like the fact that bitcoin is not controlled by a government. It is not subject to political whims, such as Quantitative Easing, used during the O administration, to a tune of $4 trillion, and by GW Bush, who used it too to try to prop up an economy bogged down by other government misdeeds. The net effect of governments messing around with currency is always the money in your pocket being worth less. There are examples of people losing faith in governments, which in turn make their currency worthless. A recent example is Venezuela whose people are now starving. Bitcoin is a currency that so far is not able to be regulated by governments. It has been set up so that any one source, government or agency is not able to control it. They won't be making more of it, except under very specific rules that are inconsequential to the value. The value will continue to grow until it gets to the point of equilibrium, at which time it will become more stable, much smaller swings. When will this happen? No one really knows, some think it will be at $100,000 per bitcoin by the end of next year, but who knows if it will stabilize then.
 
This is why I only use silver certificates for purchases....

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Most countries' currencies are generally accepted by retailers globally. Although, some retailers are starting to accept bitcoin but they are still limited. So does that make it a speculative commodity as indicated above or a currency at this point?
 
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