71–80 of 167 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Investing always is a gamble.
Gambling is when the game is purely driven by luck. Investing is when the instrument has measurable properties and explanations for why it will become more valuable - i.e. you invest in making your factory larger, so it can produce product more cheaply. Betting on completely unregulated currency markets (which have good reasons that they shouldn't have any value at all) is gambling, because you're entirely depending…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Some of these altcoins are the epitome of the greater fool theory, where most participants are perfectly aware that it is a rationally poor decision to invest in them but do it anyway because they think someone will buy it for more later. It turns out people can make huge returns even from investing in known scams - certainly not guaranteed, but it's better odds than gambling.
Really? Only "altcoins"? They have the exact same mechanics, structure, and backing as Bitcoin...
Imagine you started XorNotBux, announced you were planning to sell a billion of them in a few months, then inflated the price with a much smaller supply in circulation. Some people will buy this (and possibly profit) fully knowing that you plan to obliterate it in the near future.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Right now the prevailing attitude is that it's legal and nobody will get prosecuted for it. It's certainly possible for this to change, but premined altcoins (creators mine a % before making it public) and other alleged scams such as Quarkcoin (Max Keiser & Bill Still) have happened repeatedly. My statement was from the angle that if you get ripped off in a situation like this, there is no recourse for you, and not l…
I wouldn't expect premines to legally qualify as fraud, since by their nature they can't be done in secret. If someone releases a coin and you see it already has a long blockchain, you know it's premined and can make your investment decision accordingly.
I'm not sure why it's on HN, but it's real. It was originally happening in the public channel #dogecoin-market on Freenode but was then moved to the private channel #marketmakers, which seems to have spurred people to start sharing it everywhere since now it's private. Wolong is the guy who brought the Dogecoin price to where it is now by investing a ton of money into it, and due to that and some charisma he's attrac…
Which leads to an interesting thought: has someone figured out how to judge when an emerging crypto currency gains enough traction to start attracting sharks to the pond of early adopters?
I'm not sure why it's on HN, but it's real. It was originally happening in the public channel #dogecoin-market on Freenode but was then moved to the private channel #marketmakers, which seems to have spurred people to start sharing it everywhere since now it's private. Wolong is the guy who brought the Dogecoin price to where it is now by investing a ton of money into it, and due to that and some charisma he's attrac…
There was a Dogecoin thread on here the other day that reeked of trying to inflate the prices - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7114813 . There's so many people trying to pump these different coins that I can't see any efforts being too successful. Sounds from the pastebin content that they weren't really managing to coordinate even a small group?
I'm not sure why it's on HN, but it's real. It was originally happening in the public channel #dogecoin-market on Freenode but was then moved to the private channel #marketmakers, which seems to have spurred people to start sharing it everywhere since now it's private. Wolong is the guy who brought the Dogecoin price to where it is now by investing a ton of money into it, and due to that and some charisma he's attrac…
Not having skin in the game, this is fascinating to follow. It's like watching primitive HFT algorithm battles slowed down to meatspace actor speed. I think it's safe to say that there are some participants in crypto currencies making massive percentage gains using lessons learned on Wall Street. Which leads to an interesting thought: has someone figured out how to judge when an emerging crypto currency gains enough…
Understatement of the year and it's only January. ;) That's pretty much everything of crypto coins right now, especially alt-coins(any coin that isn't bitcoin). The inexperienced people prone to fear-driven reaction are getting fleeced.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Investing has a luck component to it as well. The way I like to think of it is, it's gambling when your expected rate of return is negative or zero. It's investing when it is positive. This is why a gambler is gambling, but a casino is investing/running a business.
Good point, but an even better definition would take variance and risk of ruin into account. If you just look at expectation, then buying insurance would qualify as a gamble. I think most people would say it's more of a gamble to skip insurance. Betting all your money on one hand of blackjack is a gamble, even if you've been counting cards and know the odds are in your favor. A casino spreading its money over million…
The market is about buying low and selling high, or selling high and buying low. If you trade with out an edge you're a moron. I really hope no one trades actual markets believing they can 'pick' equities.
> I really hope no one trades actual markets believing they can 'pick' equities. I do and make a lot of money doing it. It's not about picking equities per se, it's about finding good trading opportunities - every equity provides good and bad trades, depending on a multitude of factors. You can play any stock both long and short....