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BTC volatility is nothing compared to the bloodbath that just occurred in CHF: http://www.bloomberg.com/quote/CHFUSD:CUR http://www.bloomberg.com/quote/CHFUSD:

BTC volatility is nothing compared to the bloodbath that just occurred in CHF: http://www.bloomberg.com/quote/CHFUSD:CUR http://www.bloomberg.com/quote/CHFUSD:CUR Yeah, it's "only" 20-30% move (depending on currency cross) but in highly leveraged FX markets even 1% can wipe people out. Personally I never cared about Bitcoin "value". In my mind it is a great medium of settlement and not a store of value (which it might also be; given long enough outlook). First we need to grow the Bitcoin economy to a decent size and then we can talk about "price stability". Transaction volume at the moment grows rather slowly. The rest is just speculators.

moe 12y ago
but in highly leveraged FX markets even 1% can wipe people out The CHF spike did wipe people out. For example the world's largest currency broker FXCM; http://uk.businessinsider.com/fxcm-currency-broker-news-2015-1?r=US http://uk.businessinsider.com/fxcm-currency-broker-news-2015... (okay they're not entirely wiped out, only $300MM in the red...)
- m52go 12y ago
  To clarify, the CHF spiked in value. People who lost had bet against it.
  - moe 12y ago
    Apologies, you are of course correct. Round here it is referred to as "EUR drop" (relative to CHF) and I mixed that up. (I fixed this in the original comment)
  - malka 12y ago
    People who bet against it were careless. The money was under evaluated by the BNS for years. This was bound to happen.
    - deleted 12y ago
      [deleted]
getsat 12y ago
That surprise EURCHF move was the largest single day G10 currency movement since the gold standard was dropped in the 1970s. The main difference between this and bitcoin volatility is that this was the direct result of a central bank's action. Bitcoin has no central bank, yet still manages to have extreme volatility.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
justincormack 12y ago
fx markets are not generally highly leveraged, other than the retail companies designed to fleece delusional punters.
- walshemj 12y ago
  quite a few eu countrys have a substantial number of citizens with home loans dominated in Swiss francs.
rtpg 12y ago
That is extremely different. Basically what just happened was 3 years of price changed bottled up into 2 days, because the Swiss stopped pegging the price. Bitcoin is way more volatile than that on many more periods. As someone mentioned, there was a 20% change in value over a few hours in BTC. Considering that transactions are not instant, that is enough movement for price to change significantly just while validating your transaction.

moe 12y ago

but in highly leveraged FX markets even 1% can wipe people out The CHF spike did wipe people out. For example the world's largest currency broker FXCM; http://uk.businessinsider.com/fxcm-currency-broker-news-2015-1?r=US http://uk.businessinsider.com/fxcm-currency-broker-news-2015... (okay they're not entirely wiped out, only $300MM in the red...)

m52go 12y ago
To clarify, the CHF spiked in value. People who lost had bet against it.
- moe 12y ago
  Apologies, you are of course correct. Round here it is referred to as "EUR drop" (relative to CHF) and I mixed that up. (I fixed this in the original comment)
- malka 12y ago
  People who bet against it were careless. The money was under evaluated by the BNS for years. This was bound to happen.
  - deleted 12y ago
    [deleted]

getsat 12y ago

That surprise EURCHF move was the largest single day G10 currency movement since the gold standard was dropped in the 1970s. The main difference between this and bitcoin volatility is that this was the direct result of a central bank's action. Bitcoin has no central bank, yet still manages to have extreme volatility.

deleted 12y ago
[deleted]

justincormack 12y ago

fx markets are not generally highly leveraged, other than the retail companies designed to fleece delusional punters.

walshemj 12y ago
quite a few eu countrys have a substantial number of citizens with home loans dominated in Swiss francs.

rtpg 12y ago

That is extremely different. Basically what just happened was 3 years of price changed bottled up into 2 days, because the Swiss stopped pegging the price. Bitcoin is way more volatile than that on many more periods. As someone mentioned, there was a 20% change in value over a few hours in BTC. Considering that transactions are not instant, that is enough movement for price to change significantly just while validating your transaction.