Bitcoin Forum

Why not just bet for it?

Look at the charts, draw a line going into the future that shows where you want the price to go (within reason, so "gently sloping up" sounds like a good starting point, maybe rising $0.50 to $1 per month). Put in Bids below the limit that you're happy with, and Asks above the limit that you're happy with. Like they say, buy low, sell high.

If enough people do this and do it consistently, the price will stabilise.

Instability is created when there's a positive feedback loop. In other words, people (or is that sheeple?) see the price falling so they panic and sell, causing the price to drop even further. Or they see the price rising, jump on the bandwagon, and cause it to rise unsustainably.

Surely it's not that hard? Have confidence in what YOU think Bitcoin is worth.

No.

Once this prate thing is over and we gone past the block reward halving prices should be very stable.

I think we will stay between 32 and 2 for several years and between 4 and 15 for at least a few months.

I always have a low bid and a high ask on the table.  On days when I wake up to see both of them filled, it brings a smile to my face.

Depends on your definition of stable. If you mean, pegged to a fiat currency that's constantly losing value, then hell no. Why would anyone want that?

This range is completly arbitary, price used to be less than 1c, lets get up to $30 or $40 then stabalise untill the next increase.

Bitcoins money base is still growing faster than current inflation and if the bitcoin economony stagnates at any point it would be better to still hold fiat.
Added to that in the last 2 years we were deflating.

Bitcoin need a stable deflation rate. The more the market will grow, the more it will be true.

Sure, you can "stabilize" bitcoin by merely pushing the bid wall every day, but when we reach the bubble price again ($15 - $30), there will be massive sell off, including from the large holders and the bubble will burst again there, people know that.
So, people will start massive selling before the bubble price point reached when there's event that inspire them.

That's what happened now, people are waiting for the pirate pay day before the massive sell off event announced.

No.

I want good sized highs and lows, that i can ride up and down, as the long term never ending bull run persists.

 :D

offer futures and options. being able to hedge adds to stability, i think. Find a way to do allow short selling on borrowed bitcoins and margin calls, doesnt that also support stability?

As was the case at numerious price ranges up to the current one, tens and hundreds of times lower than today, with equally real seeming upper limits.

That is not only a good strategy for speculators, but also for savers, esp. early adopters, who want to realize a fraction of their bitcoin investment but are not in a particular hurry.

Instead of selling off an entire tranche of BTC at once, you do the thing described by the OP.

Assuming that sooner or later you will make an incorrect range forecast, only two things can happen:

a) Eventually you run out of BTC. Great, tranche has been successfuly converted to USD, plus you made a profit above average exchange rate.

b) Eventually you run out of USD. No problem. Just return the BTC (+profit) into your long term savings wallet and wait for future selling opportunity.

is there an ebay equivalent that accepts bitcoins?

bitmit.net

This.

Just visited... be warned there is a porn dvd on the front page with female nudity.

No, not this. This is a zero sum game. Negative sum, actually, if you deduct the fee of the exchange.

My mtgox account would disagree with you.

 I make plenty of profit on wild swings (even after exchange fees).

 However, I stay out of the market when trading is flat (or "stable") because the margin after fees is so slim, and its harder to predict price trends. So, I definitely prefer volitility over stability.

I do the same. I usually have orders that have no chance to get filled if the market acts reasonable. Turns out that once in a while my orders do get filled. And when I check my email some time later, I can usually just place the reverse type of order.

Now it seems to me if I buy low and sell high, someone must make a loss with that.

It is a zero sum game if you insist that participants gains only count if they are in money units. And imo there is a lot more types of gain than units.

If the market wasn't helping people to get security, or excitement, or fun or -something- then it couldn't continue to exist.

When people trade they do it to get better off. It is totally possible that someone buy coins at $11 sell them at $9 and have benefited both times. Maybe once they got to do something new and fun and the other time they got to sleep better at night.

Fear and greed are strong emotions. The rational part of your brain will have a hard time controlling these two. Ever try to touch a spider?

I'm terrified of spiders. I know for fact they wont hurt me (at least the spider existing around where I live are completely harmless), but I can't for the love of my life bring myself to touch one. Take this as an counter-example when you say "surely it's not that hard?".

It is hard and knowing most people will indeed be "irrational" and "panic", it is also much more lucrative to panic yourself. This makes panicing rational in turn.

It's sad really, but it's the case.