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Bitcoin Value Sinks After Chinese Exchange Move

nytimes.com

11–20 of 116 posts

Re: Bitcoin Value Sinks After Chinese Exchange Move

#11
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Wait for a week, 10 days before making conclusions on the price of Bitcoin My conclusion is that it's pretty fucked up [1]. Nov 15 $US430 Nov 22 US$843 Nov 29 US$1137 Dec 6 US$552 Dec 13 US$869 Dec 18 US$584 Pick one of those dates before today and imagine saying "wait for a week ... before making conclusions on the price of Bitcoin". [1] https://coinbase.com/charts

Interesting, you already have the dec 18 value while the day is far from over. You have a strange way to pick up numbers.

It's down to ~480 so it's lost $100 in 30 minutes. Let's just say that my strange way of picking numbers can be described as "flattering" ... at worst.

Re: Bitcoin Value Sinks After Chinese Exchange Move

#12

In April, I watched the price of bitcoin every day. When it approached $200 I said "f*ck it," took out a student loan and bought in at $225. The VERY NEXT DAY the price collapsed. I watched bitcoin slide to $50 in a state of complete and utter devastation. I felt so stupid. I decided not to sell, and just considered the loan to be a write-off. Point being, you should assess the quality of your investment in years, no…

Should a currency be an investment?

Re: Bitcoin Value Sinks After Chinese Exchange Move

#13

In April, I watched the price of bitcoin every day. When it approached $200 I said "f*ck it," took out a student loan and bought in at $225. The VERY NEXT DAY the price collapsed. I watched bitcoin slide to $50 in a state of complete and utter devastation. I felt so stupid. I decided not to sell, and just considered the loan to be a write-off. Point being, you should assess the quality of your investment in years, no…

speculation != investment

Re: Bitcoin Value Sinks After Chinese Exchange Move

#14

In April, I watched the price of bitcoin every day. When it approached $200 I said "f*ck it," took out a student loan and bought in at $225. The VERY NEXT DAY the price collapsed. I watched bitcoin slide to $50 in a state of complete and utter devastation. I felt so stupid. I decided not to sell, and just considered the loan to be a write-off. Point being, you should assess the quality of your investment in years, no…

Should a currency be an investment?

Currency speculation is a risky but thriving market

Re: Bitcoin Value Sinks After Chinese Exchange Move

#15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Should a currency be an investment?

Currency speculation is a risky but thriving market

Speculation is not the same as investing.

You can speculate in currency fluctuations in any currency, but to refer to a currency as an investment is a huge red flag for it as a currency, and for investment assets you should prefer slow appreciation over wild fluctuations and speculative moves.

Re: Bitcoin Value Sinks After Chinese Exchange Move

#16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Currency speculation is a risky but thriving market

Speculation is not the same as investing. You can speculate in currency fluctuations in any currency, but to refer to a currency as an investment is a huge red flag for it as a currency, and for investment assets you should prefer slow appreciation over wild fluctuations and speculative moves.

[deleted]

Re: Bitcoin Value Sinks After Chinese Exchange Move

#17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Currency speculation is a risky but thriving market

Speculation is not the same as investing. You can speculate in currency fluctuations in any currency, but to refer to a currency as an investment is a huge red flag for it as a currency, and for investment assets you should prefer slow appreciation over wild fluctuations and speculative moves.

investment and speculation are two sides of the same coin (pardon the pun). all investment has risk. bitcoin speculation is a high risk investment. this may not be good for everyone but its an investment nonetheless.

Re: Bitcoin Value Sinks After Chinese Exchange Move

#18

In April, I watched the price of bitcoin every day. When it approached $200 I said "f*ck it," took out a student loan and bought in at $225. The VERY NEXT DAY the price collapsed. I watched bitcoin slide to $50 in a state of complete and utter devastation. I felt so stupid. I decided not to sell, and just considered the loan to be a write-off. Point being, you should assess the quality of your investment in years, no…

Should a currency be an investment?

Wrong question, I think. This thing is barely a currency. It has built-in deflation, which makes it a great long-term store of value (assuming it isn't killed somehow) in a world of depreciating alternative stores of value, but a bad currency. If you want a currency for day-to-day use, USD is what you want. If you want to hedge against USD depreciation, BTC is one option.

Re: Bitcoin Value Sinks After Chinese Exchange Move

#19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Should a currency be an investment?

Wrong question, I think. This thing is barely a currency. It has built-in deflation, which makes it a great long-term store of value (assuming it isn't killed somehow) in a world of depreciating alternative stores of value, but a bad currency. If you want a currency for day-to-day use, USD is what you want. If you want to hedge against USD depreciation, BTC is one option.

>It has built-in deflation, which makes it a great long-term store of value

It also has a very large risk premium, which makes it inferior to other options for solely a long-term store of value.

>If you want to hedge against USD depreciation, BTC is one option.

Bitcoin is an imperfect hedge against U.S. dollar depreciation. There are valid reasons for investing in Bitcoin, but this should not be one of them.

Re: Bitcoin Value Sinks After Chinese Exchange Move

#20

In April, I watched the price of bitcoin every day. When it approached $200 I said "f*ck it," took out a student loan and bought in at $225. The VERY NEXT DAY the price collapsed. I watched bitcoin slide to $50 in a state of complete and utter devastation. I felt so stupid. I decided not to sell, and just considered the loan to be a write-off. Point being, you should assess the quality of your investment in years, no…

There's a few things weird about this story. Are you really proud you have a leveraged position in bitcoin? Isn't that among the riskiest positions you can take on a very volatile, illiquid, and possibly illegal asset? That's totally a personal choice, but it's certainly not one I would or a typical retail investor should ever take. Your decision to buy-and-hold during a sell off in the Spring is at best an anecdote and certainly should not be used as any evidence on what behavior to do now.

Government intervention is just one of a few significant black swans: blocksize changes, verification (i.e. mining) fragmentation (effectively doubles the money supply for each split), and SHA collision attacks becoming practical. None of this should ever happen, right?

However, this line should be clarified in every context:

> took out a student loan and bought in at $225.

In the US, this is generally _not OK_. To everyone else in the US, do not read this as a positive example. Do not use student loans for bitcoin or any other investment.

What can I use my federal student loan money for? You may use the money you receive only to pay for education expenses at the school that awarded your loan. Education expenses include such school charges as tuition, room and board, fees, books, supplies, equipment, dependent child care expenses, transportation, and rental or purchase of a personal computer. Talk to someone at the financial aid office at your school if you need more details. [1]

[1] https://studentaid.ed.gov/sites/default/files/your-federal-s...

(Of course you may have been one of the small percentage who took out an unregulated private loan, but the principles behind those are generally the same).

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