To ask if anyone dabbles with bitcoin?

[MollyWantsACracker]

Disclaimer: I am totally clueless

I bought a few euro worth today, just for fun really

Anyone else?

Tulip bulbs/ bitcoins are virtually the same thing.

In what way @larrygrylls? I;m genuinely interested.

I guess the bulb/ coin comparison is because they are highly volatile investments.

Tulips, South Sea Bubble, Bitcoins - all the same thing. As more people pile in, the price increases so early adopters make a mint. Eventually saturation point is met, and the whole thing collapses, it's inevitable. This is easily provable: if everyone stopped work and just spent their time speculating we'd all rapidly starve.

The idea behind it is interesting, blockchains and all, it could well be a way of holding conventional cash in the future. I'm aware that fiat currency is also based on a myth, but as the entire global financial system is based upon it there will always be support for it (such as in 2007), certainly for most of our lifetimes.

I suppose it depends on when you think it will all implode. The CFTC has just ok’d two futures contracts in the US and on the back of that I’m betting there will be at least a couple more decent years. I think there will be some extraordinary crashes (over 50%) over that period, but I don’t think we’re near complete collapse yet. Having said that, I’m not buying more unless it crashes to £1500 and do have Ethereum and Litecoin as well for a bit of diversification.

It's been a bit shit today, have made £60 but I dare not buy anymore at the current price - I got burnt like that a few days ago and lost £70

Now is not a good time to buy. It has already peaked.
It will continue to fall then everyone will buy at the bottom and it will start to climb again.
You have to watch it really carefully and cash out just before the top.

Noofly Thanks for the explanation about mining - that is obviously way out of the league of anyone sitting at home with a laptop so I can presumably ignore it.

Still wading through info - from the last few posts should I assume I've left it too late to even take a modest punt in bitcoins? If the bubble hasn't burst, do you think it's imminent? Does it mean those owning bitcoins will lose everything or just the profit they may have made? If you were starting now would you give it a try - I could loose a couple of hundred pounds without too much pain?

Apologies for so many questions.

Hmm having just read endofthelinefinally's last post it sounds like a bad time :(

It's been a bit shit today, have made £60

In what way do you feel you have made £60? How is that different from the fractional banking trick played by conventional finance organisations?

A typical female Bangladeshi garment would take over 2 months to earn that.

I mean I bought low and sold high making a profit of £60. I don't get why that is so difficult to understand? Or is it me misunderstanding what you're asking?

Silvery Honestly, I don’t know. Human nature makes want to buy as prices are rising in the fear of missing out and then sell as things are crashing because we’re in a panic- obviously the opposite of buy high/sell low which is what we generally ought to do.

The thing about Bitcoin is that it’s like the stock market on steroids. It’s open for trade 24/7 (so many times over what the FTSE is open on a weekly basis), and is hyper sensitive to news both positive and negative. So if you are like me and thrive on the ups and downs it’s so so much fun, but if 20%+ drops/rises within a few hours stress you out, it’s a terrible gamble.

I genuinely don’t know if I would buy just now. You’d need to be happy to potentially sit through some really really big crashes and not panic and sell at a loss. I’m much better at talking through how it all works than whether or not I’d be buying now if I didn’t already own.

I'm guessing LouPeru isn't a typical female Bangladeshi garment so that's ok then

Lou so is it important to keep an eye on what is happening to bitcoins pretty much full time and buy/sell accordingly? Or can you buy and hope they increase in value or a bit of each?

That's a fair answer Noofly thanks. It reminds me a bit of gold and silver trading. The price goes up and up and up and it's a huge gamble to decide to buy and see it go higher or buy and it crashes. I never dabbled in that but am intrigued enough to try with bitcoin. Maybe I need to read some more. The big thing is whether the bubble is near to bursting, if so, let it burst and buy low or if the bubble doesn't burst and should be buying now. Decisions, decisions.

No idea what Bangladeshi women have to do with anything - an genuinely confused!

SilverySurfer - I would buy. As I said I put £600 in just over a week ago and that is now sitting at £1040. You can draw it out at any time so I don't see it as such a gamble personally.

What you have to remember is that the more money you have in it, the more you will make.

So for example if you have £100 in it you might make £10 a day. With £1000 you can make £100 a day. Some days are shit and you might only make £20 (or even lose money) but other days might be really good - DH made £330 yesterday (on the £1600 that was already in there).

If you buy and trade for small amounts and want the constant gain/loss interaction you do need to be it on and off all day but it is fun, and very addictive!

Haven't RTFT, but I saw a great quote online today from someone whose job is trading in bitcoins. "When my landscaper starts asking me about bitcoin, it's time for me to stop." In other words, by the time the average person on the street has heard about it, it's no longer a money-maker. You might be lucky and cash out at just the right time, but you may as well put your money on a horse, as all you're doing is gambling. Fine if it's just for fun, but not if you're investing your life savings because you know an early-adopter who's now a millionaire!

Another good way to look at it (something else I read today) is this: You don't know enough about bitcoins to beat the market. If you did, you'd have bought in years ago. Again - the point is that the price is going up right now because everyone is speculating that prices are going to keep going up. At some point (probably soon) people will start getting unsure about that, and prices will fall. See also - beanie babies, houses, and tulips.

Just to add in case it's not clear, I'm talking about people considering putting lots of money in thinking they're going to make a fortune; not people who are just having some fun with money they can afford to lose should it all go belly-up. Nothing wrong with that

Argh, we should buy low and sell high, not the opposite which I wrote! I’m not that stupid, honest!

Yeah to be fair I wouldn't put loads of money in now and wait for it to rise as it probably won't. But on s day to day basis you can make a lot of money from the daily ups and downs

I have a friend who is obsessed with this. It definitely requires research. He spends most of his time on it. It is a niche world and needs a lot of study.

From what I can tell the insiders are pretty sneery about the MLM based coins (if they even notice them) because they fall into a lump with all the other scam coins.

It's a bit like the gold rush- lots of crooks looking to prey on the unsuspecting.

You've only made money if you cash out though.
Otherwise it is only numbers on a screen.
A bit like your bank statements.

I can cash out right now if I want too though, same with my bank?

From my point of view I have no life saving to put in but it seems interesting to put 50 or so pounds in and see what happens..

Of course you only make money if you cash out. It’s just like the stock market- people will say they are up X or down Y but it’s paper profits or paper losses. Surely everyone understands that?

I've just gone to the Coinbase website to register and it says it's down for maintenance. If this happens regularly, does it interfere with your buying and selling? Maybe I'll try Usi Tech instead.

Can you turn them into cash?
One of the threads linked above said that they can only be spent in businesses that deal in bitcoins.

Yes of course you change them into $. That is how people buy them. You can buy and sell in any currency but they tend to be valued against $.