Bitcoin Forum

http://mashable.com/2011/06/17/rimm-stock-price/

"As of 1:30 p.m. ET [Friday], shares of RIM were down more than 20% to less than $28 apiece. The decline represents more than $3.5 billion in market value and sees the company trading at a fraction of the $140+ high it reached in 2008."

So 20% price fluctuation in one day is no big deal.  ;)

Comments?

Market cap. is arbitrary and fluid.

Many big companies have billion dollar swings in their total stock value over a few days or weeks and their life goes on.

BTC has an advantage though; It doesn't have to pay dividends, and it doesn't have to please investors by making changes.
Only supply, demand and scarcity determine it's value, not mass layoffs, firing a CEO etc.

Not 20% swings.  That's 1/5th of their entire valuation.

Volatility is cool!

Sony stock melted over 2.08 billion dollars since the data leaks.
http://s3.postimage.org/9ty1p6tpq/sony.png

Sure, not overnight, but from the high of $33 a few months ago, $24 is almost a 30% drop in a short timeframe.

Volatility like this is bad if you want bitcoin to be an actual currency (like I do). No big company is going to risk using bitcoins if they lose half their money overnight because of market variations.

You mean like all of the shareholders in RIM?

RIM ≠ BITCOIN

It'll smooth out after Bitcoin is more broadly adopted.  Adoption jumped, leading to a huge rally, so a correction was to be expected.  It had been pretty stable for a long time before that jump, and it will be again after a while.  However the market is not saturated yet, so I expect several more sharp rises and falls before it really settles.

I guess most folks missed the point of my post.

I was implying that the volatility of Bitcoin's value is no different than the volatility of a publicly traded stock.  So, there's no reason to keep discussing it, or to try and use volatility as an excuse for why Bitcoin may fail.  There are real world financial stocks that display the same issues, yet millions of people trust their money to them.

This is a fucking moronic post because I do not regularly go and purchase a load of stocks then go to a clothes store and expect to be allowed to use my penny stocks to purchase goods. If I invest in stocks it is because I want to risk money upon making a return, not becuase I want an alternative currency. Bitcoin is currently being treated as a stock/commodity rather than as a currency and that is why it (might) fail.

Here's an idea for a new currency: RIM stock ! It's nicely deflationary, can't be printed by the government, and it's backed by a thriving technology company. It's just like Bitcoin, only with dividends ! We'll call the new currency the RIM. The payment mechanism is 100% secure provided by the Stock Exchange, and in due time a portable device will be available to transfer rims for the average user. The device will be manufactured by RIM !
One caveat: don't be jealous on the early adopters that saw the great potential of rims early on. If you want your own rims, you have to work for them, you need a job that pays in rims (a rim job).

A company can issue more stocks at any time they require financing from investors, or they can do stock splits etc...

Bitcoins can't be arbitrarily created in the millions overnight. It's production is capped at 21m and the production target is 6 blocks per hour, or 7200 bitcoins per day (which will halve to 3600 in roughly two years).

Also, bitcoins require resources to create (whether you pay for them or not).
Stocks are practically unlimited and can be issued through a bank like Goldman Sachs at any time, in as large quantities as the board desires.

Bitcoin will become more valuable when/if it becomes more useful
Bitcoin will become more useful when/if it becomes more stable
Bitcoin will become more stable when/if speculators but when supply is high and sell when demand is high
Speculators will profit if they correctly guess supply and demand and lose money when they don't.
Successful speculators make Bitcoin more stable. Unssuccessful speculators make it less stable.
Unssuccessful speculators go broke or quit. Successful speculators remain, creating added stability.
Bitcoin will become more stable over time.
Bitcoin will become more useful over time because of increased stability.
Bitcoin will become more valuable because of increased utility.

Bitcoin has to please investors by finding mass appeal and getting more widely used. Not a trivial challenge.