Bitcoin Forum

Any other newbies out there that bought high and have still held strong?

I truly believe that cryptocurrencies are the way of the future, and that in all likelihood, Bitcoin will be the one to rule all, but I have to say, these recent developments and subsequent crashes have me a little worried.

I'm sure some will take advantage and cultivate the fear here by posting some FUD, but any positive comments would be much appreciated!

Do you think we have reached the low yet?

Do you think we can recover from this? Even without the large chunk of daily trades that China brought to the table?

I bought in when it was near the top but not at the top. I'm not too worried though as I always saw it as more of a longer term investment than as some sort of get rich quick scheme.

I'm really hoping I'll be able to use it as a currency and not just for speculation.

I've also been going some scrypt mining and have found it to be a very fun / interesting hobby. There's a lot to keep track of and if things start going up again and I can make a profit, that's just a bonus!

I didn't buy in at top, I'm planning to buy soon though since the prices are very low.

$1080.00 seems high, like the other poster said, see it as a long term investment.

If you are thinking of buying more of the currency it may be worth waiting to see if it falls back to the $150-$250 level and buy there.

You didn't choose a great entry point, but just don't try to fix it by selling at a lousy exit point, too!

I think people with deep pockets are taking advantage of the confusion in China by dumping and pushing the price lower, and getting the weaker hands to do the same.  There are a lot of false rumors floating around.  Fairly soon they will be on a buying spree, and we'll see a nice rally.

I cannot call the low point because I'm not privy to their plans, but we will definitely recover.  We'll be back over $1000 by the end of January 2014, and perhaps a lot sooner.

Bitcoin is the only cryptocurrency that matters.

Just hang in there!

Thanks all for the comforting words. I do plan on holding - I told myself when I got into this that I was going to treat it like a long-term investment and leave it for at least 6 months (which is hardly 'long-term' in the real world, but in 'Bitcoin world' it sure is!).

Mostly I'm kicking myself because if had held off just a week or two, I could have bought 14 coins, not 7.7 (hindsight is a bitch ain't it).

"Anyone else bought high? Worried? Still holding strong?"

"I'm not too worried though as I always saw it as more of a longer term investment"

These statements tell me we are in the anxiety/denial stage on this chart.  The quote on the chart even matches up exactly w/the quotes on this board. "Temporary set back. I'm a long term investor."  Long way to go to the point of maximum financial opportunity.  Still have to go thru fear, desperation, panic, capitulation and despondency stages.

https://twitter.com/YachtsOnTheReg/status/410326529634103296/photo/1 (https://twitter.com/YachtsOnTheReg/status/410326529634103296/photo/1)

You'll only lose money if you sell for less than you bought it for.

At least the little chart you posted goes back up...

Hmm time will tell.

JulieFig problem is that when the price keeps dropping people panic and sell.  That's what the capitulation phase is.  People capitulate and sell their holdings.  You should be buying when everyone else is panicking. And selling when everyone else is buying and all excited (eg when btc was 1k+). 

Its the old saying "buy low, sell high" or the warren buffet saying "be fearful when others are greedy and be greedy when others are fearful."

There is just no need for me to keep monitor the daily price, because I am doing a long-term investment.

That's the definition of denial.  ""Temporary set back. I'm a long term investor."

I bought in at 885 or so, I paid in AU dollars plus fees.

I only bought 0.5 BTC, I have a bit more money to buy if the price drops.

Is it a good idea to sell if it drops and buy lower? Is there anywhere to discuss trading tips etc?

Buy Low, Sell high..........!!! ;D

I am looking to buy in the $150-$250 range...... Be patient, then be brave.

I agree mine always, wait, watch, follow, wait more...  then attack when you think it is best to buy and go after it all you want.  Never rush but do not wait to long.   

Them are the strategy to live by in any trade. 

I am new here on forum and to bitcoin and I do not know or fully understand the full history of the market of bitcoin so I am still in the mining stage to fully understand how the basic structure works.   Once I become fully aware of what I will be doing then I will think about investing my currency into this currency, but until then I participate as a 3rd party viewer learning everything I can.


Research all you can and only trust your own personal results of your own findings.  If they fail then you are only to blame no-one else.  Never blame others for your own losses when you choose to follow others advise.

double down?   that will lower your cost beverage analysis

Yesi agree , I used to do that when I traded stocks. If you liked it at over 1000 then you should like it now  in the 400s buy more to reduce your average buy in price
1 coin at 1080 and 1 at 480 equals an average price of 2 coins at 780...thats not too bad eh

Before buying you should look detailed at historical price graph and ask what you will do if 1080 is local top and it falls to 300 the same week, because there are few examples of over 70% crash already, but Bitcoin always recovered after this (longest period about 18 months)

I think given large periods of time we will see an eventual upswing to over $1000 but as to when it happens that is really quite unpredictable. Personally, I'm hoping to buy in somewhere on the way down so I can profit by hoarding over the long term, my advice would be to do the same. You may wish to keep the coin you recently bought, but my advice is to try and avoid buying at the ceiling (esp when it's been there for a while) as in all probability it's going to fall back down for a bit.

In market you can never be sure if the entry point is wrong. Look at this April and entry point of 40 when under 20 was long time price

wow today was a huge drop in value... low of 423 :o

People which bought at 260 last time at the second bubble high are in profit even today after 3 bubble burst. There is no point for you to sell now. Just wait and you will be fine. If we fall to $260 and you have some spare money to spend buy some more

yea guys btc and ltc are too big to just go away forever. they will last

These responses all warm the heart. It's almost as if you sensible guys see every bump in the Bitcoin road as just an opportunity to weed out those who really don't believe (for lack of a better word - perhaps 'understand' would be better) in its long term viability. I think it's been referred to as swapping from weaker hands to stronger hands.

Averaging my cost per coin does seem like the smartest strategy. I'm in Australia though and have a good 11 hrs before the banks open... whether we'll still be at the bottom then is another story. This ride is absolutely crazy, that's for damn sure.

It will go down to $160 wait until then

When the bubble @ 32 happened, tons of people bought in and watched it go all the way down to $32. It seemed an impossible task to get back up to that level, but low and behold, only 2 years later, people would kill to have bought even at that price.

To have any peace of mind, you need to view bitcoins as a long term investment.

I am also in Australia, what is your strategy? I recommend you buy some more at these rock bottom prices.

Why do you think this? Assume, that Cryptos will be a future currency .. it will not be BTC, just because we have no "global order" and US will not accept to have no full control over their currency. Easy like that. So IF cryptos were used, each continent at least will have its own one. But actually .. looking at the current warfare against money laundry .. no .. don't believe, that big entitites will accept a cryptocoin.

If that happens, BTC value suddenly drops to zero.

But I am sure, at the moment someone can still made good money with BTC Bubble, just because so many people are believing in it. Believe is the only value, BTC has at the moment.

There is no point of having centralized cryptocoin, banks already doing this job with online banking. And no government will be able to control decentralized currency, so there is no point creating something different than Bitcoin

I sympathize with the OP, I just had a massive learning experience myself. I bought in at about $415 for Bitcoin and Litecoin at $2.90 and held onto those as a "Long Term" investment. Then I started trading daily with "New Money". When it reached its peak at about $1220 and then started dropping I bought more as it was falling, thinking that it would recover again. Unfortunately it never did and I began to be in a loss situation with my New Money. So I kept on buying when the price dropped, thinking "This must be it" and it never was and was in a total loss with my New Money to the tune of $40k. (This included Bitcoin, Litecoin and Peercoin)

Last night I had to make a huge decision. Hold the faith that the coins will rise again or sell everything and still make an overall profit with my "Long Term" coins and then buy in again when it reaches near the bottom. So, I decided to sell and ended with a bit of an overall profit but totally gutted that I have sold my babies.

However, I do believe that it will eventually climb back up again, may just take some time. A few positives like new countries accepting it as currency will make it stronger and new large operations taking it on will strengthen it.

Average down and try to bring your price as low as 600$ :)

Best investing advice ever and it works most of the time.

I hope you spent money you don't need to live. bitcoin is highly rewarding as speculative and manipulation happens all the time. if you can, and you still believe it, buy some more near the bottom to average your unit cost.
we will be back at the top. don't worry :-)

china will probably create their own version, that's what they do when they cannot control people
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Aurora

I bought .0.55 btc at the value of 1000 USD. Still holding on. Hopefully they will rise again  ;D

You cant say where is bottom, only after price rise enought you can say bottom was there
But every crash is good opportunity to buy

What this is going to do is really whipsaw those people who paid good money for miners delivered "someday". If you bought in bitcoin then it doesn't matter what the USD price does, it's all bitcoin/bitcoin.

But I expect another wave of people trying to get refunds, the fun part will be if they paid in bitcoin and want their refunds in USD. :-)

C

Hold tight, all will be fine.  ::)

just have a look~~

Looks like it's rising fast now! Time to buy?

I entered into bitcoins when they are at 130$ they reached 1000. Good luck to you

Price is very volitale now, could go down next hour as well

Look deep into yourselves, and ask the following question:
"Why am I in Bitcoin?"

HONESTLY.

If the response is "I read this awesome cypherpunk article in 2009 about a new libertarian, totally free currency, and I've been an advocate since", my hat's off to you Sir, even though I personally think you're full of it. ;)

If the response is, however, "I read about it in the news, and realized that if I were an early adopter, I could be a focken millionaire by now, so I'm here because it's better late then never", then realize the following:
99% of all the people here, of all the people you're trading with, are here for the SAME REASON.

Be honest with yourself. You want to be part of the next big thing that will make you wealthy. That's your SOLE reason for being here.

There's only one problem with that. Bitcoin is not the next big thing, it's the latest big thing. It's already happened. You can't duplicate the success of early adopters. It's mined dry. The price has been to heaven and back. Once everyone has realized that, and the inherent flaws of the system become apparent, things will just wind down.
All these people will take their money and buy penny stocks or real estate in the asteroid belt or whatever. The miners will take their rigs offline because they won't even pay for their own upkeep anymore.

I'm not saying the idea of cryptocurrency is dead, but I'm certain that if a crypto will in fact make it to widespread adoption, it will not be Bitcoin. Bitcoin has several horrible flaws.

I wouldn't worry.
Most of the naysayers are spineless liberals who can't stand the idea do a currency that is not subject to the whims of beaurocrats.

as many other I made a mistake a few years back when I fist tried mining.I didn't realize the potential and dumped everything after a while.
Than this year when BTC was @100 usd checked again but again didn't give it much importance....work and life took over.....so when the price got high (830euro) I bought in telling myself I can't miss the 3rd time

LOL now with the price drop and situation doesn't seem like a great move but Im mining and keeping my much payed coins and hope things get better :)

http://bitcoincharts.com/charts/mtgoxEUR#rg60zigDailyztgSzm1g10zm2g21zxzi1gMACDzv

nope still going down fast.

Well if you care for the bigger trends..

Okay, answer me this.

Who has both the resources AND the motivation to take absolute control over bitcoin through implementing a 51% mining takeover?

The... government, maybe? Bingo!

Hello,

I also noticed massively pricedroppings, thanks to China.
Fortunately, i only had 1 BTC and 1 Litecoin for which i diidn't pay. However, on a Dutch forum some people where panicking over the massive drops.
Lots of the members either went Short or just hang on to their BTC for live.  ;D

I think there's no need to worry. Price's might go back up again, as it looks like it's doing now.
I just wish that i went into the mining when i first read about BTC, which was back in 2010 or 2011.

Name the flaws, I dont see any.
Your dreamer if you think some altcoin magically take over Bitcoin. Most devs working on Bitcoin software, and the software is so reliable only because of them. If not Bitcoin, no decentralized cryptocurrency will succeed

Sigmoid, according to several questionnaires, most Europeans and Americans even haven't heard of Bitcoin yet. For a global bubble that you suggest BTC is now, its market cap of $10Bn magnitude seems way to small. BTC hasn't yet really happened. No major institutions got involved, not enough money has been made, from a global perspective... My view is that cryptos is more like a religious/social movement, and can still reappear from weakness to new strength in the coming years. True, even if BTC is not the one to succeed, for now it remains the biggest and most important, so will be in use even for those looking to diversify into different crypto projects, which will likely cure the horrible flaws...

Bitcoin will not go under 300 in my opinion, so no worries.

I bought all my Bitcoins at $1050 on Coinbase.  A few days later the "China Announcement" was released, I was still awake at 4 am and saw the announcement 1 minute after it was released.  Knowing the value was going to plummet fast, I logged into Coinbase to sell my coins before they started dropping.  However, despite taking the money out of my bank account days prior, Coinbase hadn't actually given me my Bitcoins yet.  So all I could do is watch in horror as the price crashed from $1200 to $500 before Coinbase finally gave me the coins.  

Since then I've tried to buy more coins at the bottom of the two latest crashes, but despite coming out of the same bank account as my 1st purchase, Coinbase keeps cancelling them for being "high risk".  *which is absurd, my credit score is over 800 and I've never cheated a single person out of $1 in my entire life*  

Coinbase is the ultimate scam, as of last week they have cost me $4,000, and as of this week almost $8,000.  They've left a bitter taste in my mouth, I am about done over the whole Bitcoin craze.  I think at this point I'm going to hope they get back up to the $1,000 range, so I can sell and go do something else with my money.

You should have enabled instant buy for Coinbase.

For all those who bought high,
It is December and many people are taking their profits and coming home with loads of cash so this should be normal for the end of the year.

And with China, that's a temporary set back by the market but the price should have held at least $700 for the announcement.
Losing bank support from China isn't that bad-- By law, they have to get rid of their bitcoins now so they're dumping it. After that, hopefully more bitcoins can be in circulation.

And if it decreases even more, it's is just a way for bitcoin investors to buy at a lower price.

-Still holding 11 bitcoins since $200.

Me thinks you should start hodling (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=375643.0;topicseen) on to your coins from now on!

Sorry to hear that! I have bought some coins at the recent top, however not with a view to sell 500$ higher or lower. Whether BTC goes to 5000$ next year or not, possessing this option and participating in the community is a decent risk/return profile in my view. Perhaps you are a skillful trader, but even skillful traders have losing streaks. So with the benefit of hindsight, your buy decision was wrongly timed, and your good timing decisions were screwed by coinbase. Get over it, sh-t happens, and with some luck all long-term holders will be rewarded for staying put. :)

Bitcoins have a trend of going up 1000% a year.
Hope that makes you feel better.

Bitcoin also hasn't hit the S curve all big tech things eventually hit.
The S curve is where the price shoots way up and pretty much stays there.

Best bet is to diverge funds into altcoins that are losing value but that will go back up

Forget the USD value and start thinking about how to turn your bitcoins into more bitcoins

Hope you did not max buy over $1k.  Let it just be a lesson to keep some powder dry in the future, so that if the price goes down you have some money/ammo to buy and lower your cost average.

Whatever you do don't get married to BTC.  It is not the only coin that matters by a long shot.  Don't believe what anyone tells you about price predictions as they know almost nothing.  What you can do if you believe in the longer term prospects is average yourself into the market and bring your average price down.  Especially now that the price is lower it would be a good time to do this.  If you are skittish, then hold out and wait, if you still like it, do not wait for overconfirmation.  This is a hallmark of newbie trading.  

Start looking at other alt coins now as one will likely displace the bitcoin protocoll at some point in the future (or at least become a viable competitor).  

Wish you luck friend

Well, in the same vein, in the 80s you could have argued that if one day everyone will have a computer in their pockets, it will be made by Commodore.
Where is Commodore today? ;)

As for the flaws, there are three major ones (to rule them all and in the darkness bind them):

Deflationary model.
It's a horrible idea, and a defunct system purposely discarded in the early 20. century. The problem with today's fiat currencies isn't stable inflation, it's manual control by governments in form of easings and tightenings. A currency with a stable, fixed rate of inflation would be preferrable. Deflation favors the lender (stockpiler) as opposed to the borrower (innovator / producer). For example, you buy a farm. The value of the farm will drop with time due to deflation, while the borrowed capital debt will stay constant (and accrue interest). It was bad enough a hundred years ago, believe me you don't want it back.

Messed up mining rewards system
The mining infrastructure, due to the borked rewards system, is ultimately self-destructive, leading the network toward centralization and eventually evaporation.
I've already written about this extensively. It pretty much counteracts all the big pretty words that were said in the manifesto, like "independence" or "decentralization".

Disproportionate holdings of early adopters
Due to the mining curve, the majority of Bitcoin is held by a few early adopters, and this will not change. Unless the goal is to create a new evil financial elite / illuminati to replace the current one, I don't see what good Bitcoin can do for us.

The USD's most important risk factor are tapering concerns.

If QE remains then you should see BTC going back up with a weaker dollar.
Also vice versa, lower bitcoins with more faith in the dollar.

Start thinking about the bigger picture when you want to play cryptocurrencies.
If the Eurozone of US show signs of weakness in their currency, albeit anything really -- btc's value will go up.

A good way to keep track of US dollar's trend is by looking at the Dollar Index vs. 6 major currencies.

The best way to make money mining is to make your own coin
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=364076.msg4021727#msg4021727

There are already at least 20 other cryptocurrencies, with just number changes and variable changes in the original code of bitcoin or litecoin.

Many new ones now will not gain popularity unless it has support, credability and uniqueness.

You are making a very big assumption... That Bitcoin itself can be considered stable ground with a stable value that will reflect in changing price as fiat currencies are debased. ;)
That's a pretty large leap of faith.

(The word on gold is that an ounce of gold has always been about the right price for a gentleman's suit. You could dress up for it in Ancient Rome, and you can dress up for the same amount of gold in XXI. century New York. It's not entirely exact, but mostly it stands true. That's why you can speculate with gold against money supply - even though irregularities happen, like what happened in the last few years. However, Bitcoin has no agreed upon value. Over the last few years, a Bitcoin could buy anything from a can of Coke to a used car.)

I was talking about the USD relation alone.

One strategy is to buy in thirds...

Example:  If you wanted in with $10,000 when it was at $1000, then you should have only bought 3.333 @ $1000... now you might have ended up seeing your next threshold as $1200 hit and buying more (2.777 @ $1200), but then you would have still had money left over in the $600 range (5.556) to buy more and your average cost (~$857) would be lower. 

It certainly can help, especially if you buy and then immediatley see a large crash.  Like if you were to have bought your first third in the $800 range on the down-slope, and then ended up seeing sub-$500 last night and getting more. 

The easiest investment is to buy bitcoins to invest in a bitcoin ASIC miner. You'll break even in about 3 months.

What's the CoinBase bank?

just hang on buddy.

check out my pages, it will help you through this btc madness...

https://twitter.com/100KBTC

or just search us 100KBTC

Like us on Facebook too!

https://www.facebook.com/100KBTC

Though not a newbie, been watching Bitcoin for more than two years, I last bought at 1060 to get some altcoins. I would not be worried at all, just wait.

Most coins have no reason to exist If you made a coin with your city, school, team or group theme it would automatically make more sense than most of the coins people are already spending thousands of dollars on

Just hang in there.
I'm not worried at all.  Bitcoin will be at several thousand dollars by next summer.  You'll regret it if you sell out in the 1,000 range.
     There are, IMO, two reasons for volatility.
1.  There are still people with thousands of bitcoins that attained them with minimal effort.  These individuals
     can still have a big impact on the market when they sell off.
2.  It remains difficult to buy bitcoins, especially when the prices are dropping. 

Both of these problems will gradually evaporate with time.
You need to also consider that it costs about $700-750 to mine one bitcoin.  Thus, bitcoin is currently way undervalued.  Those who are selling now are just individuals in panic mode... And that will not last.  I expect another 24 hours or so of volatility... Then the price will start marching up.

 ??? You may receive the ASIC miner in 3 months if lucky, but you never mine the Bitcoins back, unless you find person selling the ASIC miner extremly cheap

We'll hit 2k soon :)

I wouldn't be worried about holding $1080 coins.

Not sure if soon, but probably late next year if the long trend is right

I am worried we are holding the derp bag.

Buy high, sell low! It is the perfect plan!

You doing it wrong  ;)

Hmm some should read the "hodling" topic.

I bought 2 coins at 120, then 3 at 230, then 2 at around 900.

Would do again.

One bit of trading advice. If you bought higher than the present value you may want to consider holding. Unlike a company stock bitcoin does not need your money and can withstand wild swings. It wont drop to zero unless it is truly broken. If you sell for less than you paid you are locking in your loss. Considering bitcoin has historically lost 70-80%+ then recovered, your chance of realizing the price you paid is very real. All this assumes you are risking money you do not need. Which is all you should be speculating with anyway.

Also creating a coin that your co workers or class mates can mine for fun and getting in at the beggining is a good way to offset loss

That's the plan. Do you use exchanges? In the past, I used BTradeAustralia.

Works most of the time?  It WORKS all of time, but 99% of humans can't follow this advice b/c the reptilian part of the human brain is wired to buy or hold at the top out of excitement and greed and sell at the bottom out of fear.  It is extremely difficult to sell at the top when profits are huge b/c the brain greedily expects/wants more and conversely its hard to not sell when something is plunging and losses are piling up b/c the brain fears losing all and just wants to get out at any cost.

For example see Uncle Monty's post earlier in this thread.  In retrospect he did not sell at $1,220 when he had huge profits and when should have b/c he thought it would go higher even tho it had an incredible run up from $100 to $1,200.  And yet he sold after he lost $40k when he was the most fearful and when that was prob a good time to buy.  If he had sold at $1,200 then he could have bought a lot more at $400 or $500 when everyone else was fearful.  See this chart regarding human emotions and the point of maximum financial opportunity and maximum financial risk.

https://twitter.com/YachtsOnTheReg/status/410326529634103296/photo/1 (https://twitter.com/YachtsOnTheReg/status/410326529634103296/photo/1)

Not trying to single you out Uncle Monty.  Just showing a real life example of Warren Buffet's strategy.

most of us veterins just think to ourselves "meh" when we see the price crash. we have seen it before over and over again. but for a newbie to be hodling strong is pretty impressive i must say.

You can not know $1,200 is top, predict top before price crashes is not likely.

I didn't say *the* top, I said *a* top.

Much appreciated Anon136. It's been tough... to part with $14k - basically all of my fiat savings - on my measly salary? Ouch. But 12.7 bitcoins are better than no bitcoins.

As a 'veteran', I bet you are really looking forward to the day when there may be no more fiat-B transfers, and you're able to make transactions solely with Bitcoin. It sure as hell beats the wait time... trying to get some fiat out of my account and into an exchange seems to take forever, especially when you compare this wait-time with the fluctuations in Bitcoin price. It's a bit of an ironic slap in the face - to have this obstacle preventing you from getting the cheapest coins when Bitcoin's biggest advantage over fiat is arguably its instantaneous transfers.

You probably won't get that chance. I mean who knows, but your chances are slim.

Buy for 50% now. Or 30% if you are really convinced we will go lower.

Always buy in chunks.

After following gold and silver's bull run starting back in 2002, I feel like I learned something about buying/selling/holding.  Trying to predict high and lows is a sucker's game, and trying to trade highs and lows is really stressful.  I learned that the best thing to do is establish a position, whatever the price.  After that, only add when it hits the 200 day moving average.  It will get there at various times over the next 10 years or so.  Go back and look at the charts of gold or silver during the run up.  the price would revert to the 200 dma and then bounce back up.  bitcoin may move faster than gold and silver so i rec maintaining a position - don't sell - and add as the price hits the 100 dma and more if it hits the 200 DMA.  this takes all the stress out and you'll be better off in the long run.  bitcoin is one of the greatest ideas of all time, and we are very very early in this bull run.  Good luck to us!!!!!!!

That worked for a while, but gold and silver have broken and been below the 200 day for most of 2012/2013.  What have you done during that time?

Yes, but if everyone followed this strategy it would not work.

Same reason you can't wish you had bought bitcoin instead of a miner: If you had and everyone had then the price of bitcoin would have skyrocketed while you were buying and miners would fall.

Weird that people don't understand this.

IF bitcoin becomes a legitimate currency, which it's well on its way to - the market cap will be massive, so buying in at even $1200 will seem like a major bargain.  Forget about this current price drop.  China is irrelevant to Bitcoin's long term success.  The Chinese were trying to dump their money into it as a way to get it out of the country more easily, so of course China was going to put an end to that.  The huge run to 1200 had to do with investment and not value being created by bitcoin being used in commerce.  Every time a new merchant starts to accept bitcoin, the TRUE value goes up a little bit.... the die hards will ignore the swings due to investment caused by hype and will hold.

The only thing this does kind of mess up (at least temporarily) is mining worthless coins and trading up for bitcoins and litecoins due to all the hype and ignorant newb investors buying anything that says crypto on it.

Any clueless positive comments are as bad as clueless fud imho.

I bought higher than you

 ;D  ;D  ;D  ;D  ;D

I had the opportunity to write a little bit about how I personally view BitCoin and crypto-currency two days ago when asked about it by somebody who knows very little about it. It's a long read but I think it's relevant here because the market price is determined directly by the attitude of the buyers. If you have BitCoin hold onto it.

I'll just copy/paste the email I sent out.

To understand the market I think it's important to understand the circumstances behind its value... I'll separate it by category for you in case you already know.
 
So from the top starting with some history...
 
=============================================================
The foundation.
=============================================================
 
To understand BitCoin you first need to understand a little bit about the Dollar and the Gold Standard that precedes it...
Starting with the Dollar; it's surprising how very few of us actually understand how it works despite our attachment to it. Every single US Dollar is owned by a very small group of private international bank owners called "The Federal Reserve Bank." This banking cartel is not a government agency, nor is it subject to the demands of the US Government or the people of the United States barring an Act of Congress. This business is privately owned and operated for profit by several prominent banking families who gained power in 1914 with back-room politics and shady deals. The Dollar has ABSOLUTELY NO VALUE aside from what the people and Nations who accept it as payment are willing to trade it for. The value of the Dollar has been manipulated with international deals like the Petro-Dollar to stave off the imminent collapse of its value. (Every nation in the world must obtain US Dollars by exporting goods to the US. If a Nation were to stop trading USD, that Nation would not be able to purchase oil from any OPEC nation. The US pledges the full force of the military to protect Middle Eastern Oil interests in return for accepting ONLY USD as trade for oil.)
 
Before the Dollar came around there was the "Gold Standard" where every piece of US currency contained precise amounts of Gold or Silver and each paper note was a certificate verifying that the face value of that note was available on demand from the local treasury. A Gold Standard is based on REAL value and held its value no matter where in the world you would travel because the World's Gold Reserve only contains so much gold. The price of one troy ounce of gold was equivalent to $18.93 from 1833 until 1913. It was only after the ratification of the Federal Reserve Act that the price of gold became unstable.
 
After the enactment of the Federal Reserve, the new organization immediately flooded the economy with paper money to encourage debt. They set the stage for the Great Depression and then one day silently pulled the trigger.
 
The Great Depression was manipulated as can be seen by the fact that the Federal Reserve restricted the money supply in 1929 and then remained neutral on monetary policy after the stock market collapse. The Fed simply wouldn't loan money to non-Federal Reserve banks but was quick to buy what remained for pennies on the dollar. During the Presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt, a deal was struck to end the Great Depression by declaring that the National Debt will no longer be an "unsecured" loan. The Federal Reserve agreed to inject a fixed number of new Dollars which were to be issued for each American citizen alive and each new American citizen to be born. The debt is therefore secured by the life, labor, and property of every American citizen. Nearly every American citizen alive today was born into debt. President Roosevelt had no choice as part of the deal with the Fed but to confiscate and make it illegal to possess gold unless its purpose was solely for use in manufacture or industry. It was illegal to own gold for several decades. The Federal Reserve Bank acquired practically the entire National Gold Reserve of the US. After this a large portion of the world's gold reserve was forever off of the open market and the price of gold skyrocketed.
 
Here comes the interesting part. It's taken 100 years for the people of this country to catch on to what happened to us. With the invention of the internet and the instant availability of information you can now do research and connect the dots in an instant. You can also spread ideas through social media...
 
Regardless of the accuracy of this information, the market consists of people who are driven by emotion and speculation. This is the single most important factor in BitCoins' fate as well as the reason that MANY in this country as well as around the world have lost faith in the US Dollar, which we all know is backed by nothing more than the "Good Faith in Credit" of the US Government.
 
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What is BitCoin?
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1 BitCoin is simply the electronic equivalent of 1 unit of a type of currency, the same way you would look at 1 dollar as 1 unit of currency, or 1 Euro as 1 unit of currency. The differences between BitCoin and other “normal” modern currencies is in the way BitCoin is created and the way in which it's transferred from one person to another; that’s where it sets itself apart. BitCoin isn't “owned” by an organization, rather it’s “mined” or a better word might be “found” the same way somebody might have found a nugget of gold in the past when it was the world reserve currency. There’s a FIXED number of BitCoins available to be found much in the same way that only so much gold is present in the Earth’s crust. To find a BitCoin you must use a computer or device to de-crypt a long and complicated equation and the answer must be verified for accuracy. The difficulty of the equation is directly correlated to the amount of processing power working on identifying the solution and will increase or decrease as the network fluctuates. If the network speed doubles, it becomes twice as hard to find a BitCoin.
BitCoin is born with ZERO intrinsic value just the same as the Dollar. BitCoin is given value by the people who are willing to trade it for goods and services, as well as by those who believe that one day it will be widely accepted for such a purpose.
 
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Why so much interest in BitCoin?
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BitCoin has a tremendous appeal to a large section of the world’s population because in a sense BitCoin represents freedom. Freedom is the single strongest desire in mankind and people tend to view BitCoin as an opportunity to trade more freely. BitCoin is decentralized so its value cannot be manipulated by the “owners.” It can be traded anywhere in the world without a currency exchange much in the same way you can trade a gold piece straight from one hand to another. You can send currency instantly without fees to anybody in the world. For merchants who accept BitCoin they no longer have to wait two business days for the money to become available in their account and without the middlemen the transaction is direct and painless.
 
The interest in BitCoin is driven by people who believe that BitCoin offers a better way to trade than in other widely used currencies. Imagine you were an international corporation and needed to transfer the equivalent of $500 million USD from your National HQ in China to your International HQ in the US. Imagine the burden and cost of currency exchange, fees, accounting, not to mention time.
 
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Is it safe?
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Every transaction that occurs is recorded in a digital record known as the “block chain” which is public record. There are no names linked to BitCoin wallets but anybody can look at the ledger in real time making it impossible to hide BitCoins.
 
Some have postulated that once the network has been “mined out” that the number of “miners” will decline leaving the network open to attack. However, they fail to understand that the block chain isn't secured by the “miners.” The block chain is reinforced by every BitCoin user or client who has a BitCoin wallet. Even if mining halted and the network hash rate were to cease down to 0 the block chain would be secured by the cumulative records of millions of daily users making it incredibly difficult to trick.
 
The highest risk of losing BitCoin is completely 100% preventable. Make a backup of your wallet and use the “encrypt” feature of your wallet. You can use Google Drive, a USB stick, a CD, any data storage device. Just don’t forget your passphrase!
 
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How do I get it?
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The easiest way right now is to buy it on the open market. You can use several different exchanges. I personally use CoinBase.com to buy BitCoin. If you can somehow find a way to make it past the captcha without knocking your monitor off the desk and stomping away in anger then I suppose you've passed the test and are now qualified to become a BitCoin owner. But seriously, CoinBase has an attractive interface that's easy to understand.
 
If you want to mine BitCoin you'll need to spend some serious cash on hardware with the current network difficulty. I would suggest mining LiteCoin rather than buying personally.
 
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What is LiteCoin?
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LiteCoin is a product of BitCoins’ success. Coincidentally the most attractive thing about BitCoin will also be the one thing that prevents it from absolute market domination. When industry stepped in it resulted in a sharp increase in the BitCoin network difficulty. It got to the point where the “common” person could no longer mine BitCoin; at least profitably without a large scale effort. This isn't so much of a problem because there was no way to stop the underlying currency revolution that BitCoin had inspired. This revolution is unfolding right before our eyes and resulted in the creation of LiteCoin and later followed by a number of alternate coins.

The proverbial “Pandora’s Box” had been opened and the major attractor behind LiteCoin is that the devices which allow corporations or large scale mining operations to flood the BitCoin network won’t work to mine LiteCoin. LiteCoin offers some small advantages over BitCoin, but the one thing that sets this currency up to flourish at the moment is the ideology in that it's designed for the people and by the people.

Both coins are extremely promising in the current world environment.
 
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What will happen to LiteCoin and BitCoin?
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It’s been said that “LiteCoin is like silver to BitCoins’ gold.” This is in no way an accurate statement. If somebody were to ask me I would likely reply "LiteCoin would be like Google checkout if BitCoin were Paypal." BitCoin currently holds a much larger market share to LiteCoin but the factors that make BitCoin desirable are equally available in LiteCoin. I expect both coins will find a market share and price balance proportional to the number of coins available. The same market mentality which is currently driving BitCoin will also drive LiteCoin in the same manner. It also helps that every business establishment who accepts BitCoin can also accept LiteCoin without any major modification or learning curve.
 
I see no price ceiling to either currency because the value of both coins is derived from an underlying desire to escape the bonds of existing currency limitations. Both coins will satisfy the same hunger equally tastefully.

The largest threat to BitCoin poses the same threat to LiteCoin, which also happens to be the most powerful organization in the world; the Federal Reserve. The Federal Reserve holds no direct authority to regulate or control the trade of BitCoin or LiteCoin. But "Whosoever controls a nations currency or system of credit thereby controls the nation." Right now BitCoin and LiteCoin combined are small potatoes but given the market mentality and the numerous benefits offered by these coins its only a matter of time.

Lol that sucks :P

Did you not read my post?  It is physically impossible for everyone to follow that strategy of buying when the price is very low and selling when the price is very high.  B/c the human brain is ruled by emotion and people get greedy and excited when the price is high and fearful when the price is low. 

Its b/c of this that only a very small number of people who invest their money actively in bitcoin or the stock market can make money on a consistent basis.

lot of false rumors pushing the price down as well as some pump and dump action. I would hold if I bought in that high

If you talk about the Chinese ban it's not a rumor anymore and it's not false.

Go with 50/50 rule.

If something goes to a price point where you think it's a high perhaps sell 25-50% of your holdings. Buy low.

I would hold atleast 50% of it long term, the rest for live trading.