Speculation significantly influences the price of gold. But, as you say, it has many practical uses beyond wealth storage and jewelry. Bitcoin, or any cryptocu

Speculation significantly influences the price of gold. But, as you say, it has many practical uses beyond wealth storage and jewelry. Bitcoin, or any cryptocurrency, is built on the ashes of burnt electrons. The cost of burnt electrons to make a Bitcoin is slightly variable as the blockchain puzzle gets harder and new minting engines come online. Therefore, the cost of Bitcoin should not fluctuate as it does. This leads me to the conclusion that price fluctuations are solely driven by speculation. I believe the same principle applies to stocks. A stock's fundamental value is the sum of all the company's assets divided by the number of shares. Every price variation is a psychological projection of fear or desire. It has nothing to do with reality. The expectation of a x percent increase in the market over time is similarly based on projections rather than reality. Yet, we base our retirement funding on such insubstantial speculation. Many people think of the stock and cryptocurrency markets as casinos. I think of them more like three-card Monte. You play, you get fleeced.