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I wanted to buy right when it hit $850 a few days ago. I redeemed my $11k mutual fund, but the wire transfer took until Friday to go trough. By the time I was a

I wanted to buy right when it hit $850 a few days ago. I redeemed my $11k mutual fund, but the wire transfer took until Friday to go trough. By the time I was able to buy bitcoins, they were $1111 on coinbase. Bought anyway. Got 9.89BTC. Just lost $2k of that investment, according to the markets. Though it seems to be recovering somewhat. Ow. Anyway, I'm long on bitcoin. Maybe it will crash and I'll lose everything. Twice it's crashed, then the recovery has eclipsed the previous peak by several X. So I don't know. I do know that if banks hasn't been so slow, then I would currently be telling the story of "I was able to grow $11k into $13k." One problem BTC solves is moving money around instantly. It doesn't close for Thanksgiving holiday. Mtgox needs to become wiser as well. There's currently no trade fees, because they wanted to participate in BTC Black Friday. That kind of thing encourages people who are holding onto $15k coins to sell all of them if they think the market will go down. An extra 0.4% on that much money is significant. Mtgox really shouldn't be so willy nilly.

nkuttler 13y ago
I hope those 11k aren't all your savings. I have coins, am bullish long term, but buying bitcoin is speculation, and bitcoin can fall back to $0.01, even if I don't think it's likely.
- sillysaurus2 13y ago
  It is indeed all my savings. But I was saving it anyway, so I won't be out in a doghouse if it vanishes. I guess I'm dumb, but at this stage in my life I'd rather have 9.89BTC than $11k. My theory is, everyone's expecting it to crash. So therefore it's more likely to do the opposite. Not much of a theory, but it seems to have been historically true.
  - alaskamiller 13y ago
    I spent all my savings back in 2011 on bitcoins. I get what you mean. Good luck.
  - notdrunkatall 13y ago
    All I can say for certain is that you're in for a hell of a ride. Good luck.
  - huherto 13y ago
    > My theory is, everyone's expecting it to crash. If the market is efficient, the collective expectations is what gives the price at a given moment. It is what people are will ing to pay for it and what people are willing to sell for.
  - pbhjpbhj 13y ago
    >My theory is, everyone's expecting it to crash. // That's how a crash happens isn't it? It's not driven by any wider economic reality beyond the conviction of "investors". If the investors can be convinced that it's crashing then it crashes. That certainly appears to be how manipulative exploitation of short positions occurs.
    - deleted 13y ago
      [deleted]
    - XorNot 13y ago
      That's because short positions are defined by using borrowed money. Not only will they lose money in a crash, they will be bankrupted into unrepayable debt by a crash. So if they think it's crashing, they have to sell before a certain price because they do not have the money to cover their position.
  - sliverstorm 13y ago
    everyone's expecting it to crash I think your sample is too small. Old-world finance looks at the charts and expects a crash, but everyone who actually holds BTC seems to have a target price of $1M
  - deleted 13y ago
    [deleted]
Udo 13y ago
> Though it seems to be recovering somewhat. Ow. As with most investments, you need to think medium and long term. Barring some kind of final(!) crash, there isn't anywhere to go for BTC but up. Mainstream media and ordinary people are just now starting to talk about it. Stay with your investment, and don't sell before it at least doubled. If it crashes temporarily, that's fine too: chaos is a ladder. Within reasonable confidence, I'd say: Whatever you do, do not sell at a loss. That's the moment when it becomes a loss. Don't lose your nerve. Personally, I had a bit over 100 BTC. When it reached $20 the second time, I sold it because I could use the money and also because I became nervous. While it wasn't the biggest money mistake of my life, it's certainly a whopper in retrospect. Don't be like me ;)
- CamperBob2 13y ago
  While it wasn't the biggest money mistake of my life, it's certainly a whopper in retrospect. Don't be like me ;) I have a problem classifying random things like this as a mistake. You didn't have enough information at the time to predict that BTC would exceed $1000, and you don't have enough information now to predict what it will do, either. It's just a game of musical chairs. The only "mistake" is to play. Some mistakes we pay for, while others ultimately benefit us.
  - marvin 13y ago
    You could make the same argument about investing in the stock market. It is not a mistake to participate, but know the risks before you do.
  - Udo 13y ago
    I think the decision to sell what would now be quite a nice Christmas bonus is, as you say and as I said above, a mistake only when viewed in retrospect. Now, however, I do have more information to go on. Yes, it's still a gamble.
  - behold- 13y ago
    IMHO it would be a huge mistake not to invest a few days worth of income in bitcoins . Most likely you'll loose them, but there's a reasonable chance you'll get 100x back in a few years. I invested $2500 in the summer of 2012 and just last week cached a small part to buy a Citroen C5 saloon.
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
jakejake 13y ago
welcome to the roller coaster ride! i was playing the bitcoin market with a small amount of money and had automated orders buying at $90 and selling at $120. It kept accumulating coins fairly consistently for a few months. My "sell everything" order kicked in at $140 but the value just kept rocketing up to $1000! Even though I made money obviously I'm a bit sad about it. But it just shows that nobody can see into the future. I thought at the time that $140 would be a ridiculous profit. My advice if you plan to go long is to just resist watching the value because it will drive you crazy and you'll make stupid moves as you try to guess which way the graph is going to go.
kingnight 13y ago
I'm curious how people plan on paying Capitol gains taxes on profits or reporting losses.
throwaway9848 13y ago
For the love of god, be sensible - sell half on Monday and put it back into a traditional retirement investment. You'll still do well if BTC goes up. There is no reason to put 100% of your retirement funds into any single asset.
- sliverstorm 13y ago
  There is no reason... What about insanity? ;)
brown9-2 13y ago
It scares me that not a word in here has anything to do with wanting to own units of this "currency" for any sort of utility or actual use, but just blind belief that the "value" will continue to go up.

nkuttler 13y ago

I hope those 11k aren't all your savings. I have coins, am bullish long term, but buying bitcoin is speculation, and bitcoin can fall back to $0.01, even if I don't think it's likely.

sillysaurus2 13y ago
It is indeed all my savings. But I was saving it anyway, so I won't be out in a doghouse if it vanishes. I guess I'm dumb, but at this stage in my life I'd rather have 9.89BTC than $11k. My theory is, everyone's expecting it to crash. So therefore it's more likely to do the opposite. Not much of a theory, but it seems to have been historically true.
- alaskamiller 13y ago
  I spent all my savings back in 2011 on bitcoins. I get what you mean. Good luck.
- notdrunkatall 13y ago
  All I can say for certain is that you're in for a hell of a ride. Good luck.
- huherto 13y ago
  > My theory is, everyone's expecting it to crash. If the market is efficient, the collective expectations is what gives the price at a given moment. It is what people are will ing to pay for it and what people are willing to sell for.
- pbhjpbhj 13y ago
  >My theory is, everyone's expecting it to crash. // That's how a crash happens isn't it? It's not driven by any wider economic reality beyond the conviction of "investors". If the investors can be convinced that it's crashing then it crashes. That certainly appears to be how manipulative exploitation of short positions occurs.
  - deleted 13y ago
    [deleted]
  - XorNot 13y ago
    That's because short positions are defined by using borrowed money. Not only will they lose money in a crash, they will be bankrupted into unrepayable debt by a crash. So if they think it's crashing, they have to sell before a certain price because they do not have the money to cover their position.
- sliverstorm 13y ago
  everyone's expecting it to crash I think your sample is too small. Old-world finance looks at the charts and expects a crash, but everyone who actually holds BTC seems to have a target price of $1M
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]

Udo 13y ago

> Though it seems to be recovering somewhat. Ow. As with most investments, you need to think medium and long term. Barring some kind of final(!) crash, there isn't anywhere to go for BTC but up. Mainstream media and ordinary people are just now starting to talk about it. Stay with your investment, and don't sell before it at least doubled. If it crashes temporarily, that's fine too: chaos is a ladder. Within reasonable confidence, I'd say: Whatever you do, do not sell at a loss. That's the moment when it becomes a loss. Don't lose your nerve. Personally, I had a bit over 100 BTC. When it reached $20 the second time, I sold it because I could use the money and also because I became nervous. While it wasn't the biggest money mistake of my life, it's certainly a whopper in retrospect. Don't be like me ;)

CamperBob2 13y ago
While it wasn't the biggest money mistake of my life, it's certainly a whopper in retrospect. Don't be like me ;) I have a problem classifying random things like this as a mistake. You didn't have enough information at the time to predict that BTC would exceed $1000, and you don't have enough information now to predict what it will do, either. It's just a game of musical chairs. The only "mistake" is to play. Some mistakes we pay for, while others ultimately benefit us.
- marvin 13y ago
  You could make the same argument about investing in the stock market. It is not a mistake to participate, but know the risks before you do.
- Udo 13y ago
  I think the decision to sell what would now be quite a nice Christmas bonus is, as you say and as I said above, a mistake only when viewed in retrospect. Now, however, I do have more information to go on. Yes, it's still a gamble.
- behold- 13y ago
  IMHO it would be a huge mistake not to invest a few days worth of income in bitcoins . Most likely you'll loose them, but there's a reasonable chance you'll get 100x back in a few years. I invested $2500 in the summer of 2012 and just last week cached a small part to buy a Citroen C5 saloon.

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

jakejake 13y ago

welcome to the roller coaster ride! i was playing the bitcoin market with a small amount of money and had automated orders buying at $90 and selling at $120. It kept accumulating coins fairly consistently for a few months. My "sell everything" order kicked in at $140 but the value just kept rocketing up to $1000! Even though I made money obviously I'm a bit sad about it. But it just shows that nobody can see into the future. I thought at the time that $140 would be a ridiculous profit. My advice if you plan to go long is to just resist watching the value because it will drive you crazy and you'll make stupid moves as you try to guess which way the graph is going to go.

kingnight 13y ago

I'm curious how people plan on paying Capitol gains taxes on profits or reporting losses.

throwaway9848 13y ago

For the love of god, be sensible - sell half on Monday and put it back into a traditional retirement investment. You'll still do well if BTC goes up. There is no reason to put 100% of your retirement funds into any single asset.

sliverstorm 13y ago
There is no reason... What about insanity? ;)

brown9-2 13y ago

It scares me that not a word in here has anything to do with wanting to own units of this "currency" for any sort of utility or actual use, but just blind belief that the "value" will continue to go up.