or this:

It's also throwing buy orders in to the fresh space cleared in the ask wall after the drop. Some ill timed, some opportunistic, some dumb, some panic.

Life as normal, if you're trading anything under the hour you're either HFT or looking to throw your money/coin away...

Fuck manual trading... if you don't trade with a system you're going to lose.  If you're trading with a system, and you don't stick to it, you're going to lose.

If you have to trade with a system and you have to stick to it, use a bot.

with https://github.com/yrral86/rubybot if I want to sell, I send the bitcoins to the exchange.  I will either not trade(price goes down, no usd yet), have a profit in terms of bitcoin (if it goes up and then down), or I get better than the current price for my bitcoins.

With my current round, I started it at $125/bitcoin.  I'm just using play money right now, but I'm currently short 1.52 bitcoins with a base price of $142.  Sure, I'm behind a bit same as you, but my bids are in place at bitcoin-denominated profit points in case it dips.  I've got enough I'm holding, so I'm willing to reduce my exposure a bit and add liquidity to the market so that when the dips come I can help soften them.

Yes
It is a pain in the @ss for not having bitcoins during an uptrend

I suppose. I'm actually in limbo right now and will be moving soon. I'll be able to find work where I'm going... hopefully. See, I'm not the average sap so I understand exactly why and how my country has fallen to shambles due to the perverted corruptions of humanity.

Growing up my only ambition was to make the world a better place and to help people. I'm one of "those" fools. Heh, heh....

We spend our lives chasing money in order to survive. We trade our lifespans for it. We take on debt and trade the future as insurance. There is no such thing as a land of freedom. Freedom must be bought. life must be bought. Everything has a price. Anything, can be bought.

It seems like we cannot even earn the fruits of our labors. Parasites are taking as much bounty as they can, sucking everyone die.

My own survival relies on my own twisted sense of happiness and narcissism. Even now I am bubbly with joy. Death, failure, all of these things are do not matter. I have faced them before and will face them again. I see a lot of things. Deep down I know I was born to be a king... ha. But people like me, pfft. We aren't meant to succeed. In real life the bad guys always win.

I've gone off on a soliloquy, back to bitcoin. I'm sure it's too early to tell. I'm sure its going to rise, and I'm sure its going to fall. I'm sure a technical attack could send things all over the place at any moment. I'm sure the market could naturally go anywhere.

I'm learning as much as I can at the moment. I'm enthralled by bitcoin out of genuine affection. I see it's value. Compared to the currencies of natures today it is a tantalizing entity.

What do you think?

Thank you for the advice. That makes a lot of sense and I hadn't even considered it. In fact that is a beautiful strategy. I thank you for your insight.

Now all I need is a job! All hail America! All hail inflation and unsustainable trillions in debt that seems to be rising after some of the worst financial decisions in U.S. history created monstrous financial corporations into supreme power furthering the degradation of capitalism and death of the American dream!

Ah... I miss work.... working 7 days a week.... making less than a part time worker.... what a beautiful world. 

I actually agree with the sentiments of the more seasoned investors, traders, buyers and sellers here, but I have a problem you see.

I am poor.

Because I am new to this I've missed every dip and smart decision that would have multiplied me some hefty (at least for me) gains. I don't want to make the same mistake again so soon. So I'm just going to see how the current market trend pans out over the next week or so.

That's even scarier and more consistent with a bubble.

I believe some individual or small group with millions of dollars is manipulating the market, starting rallies that are so convincing that everyone piles in, believing the climb won't stop until we hit $1 million per bitcoin, then flash crashes so devastating that people sell everything in a panic.  The manipulators profit by doing most of their buying early in the rallies, when prices are low, and massive selling at the start of the crashes, while prices are still high.

Their moves are sufficiently random that the only way to accurately predict the tops and bottoms is to be privy to they plans of the manipulators.  However, we can expect them to keep doing the things they have been doing.  They tend to create 1 or 2 small flash crashes each week, varying in size from 15% to 40%.  I also suspect that they will invoke another major crash within the next few months.  

Even though I cannot predict the tops and bottoms, I believe it is possible to profit from this artificial volativity by placing limit orders to automatically sell on the way up, and then to re-buy on the crashes.

For example, every time the price goes up 5% you could sell 1% of your holdings.  As soon as that sell executes, you place a buy order for more coins at a 15% lower price.  When that re-buy executes during a small downturn, you re-place the sell order at the higher price.  I currently have 21 sell orders placed between $162 and $222, and 11 buy orders between $109 and $139.  Every time a sell/buy pair executes, I gain 15% more bitcoins.

I think it's a safe bet that the price will rise again to $250 or more, suffering several flash crashes on the way, and then crash again to less than $100.  My system makes money every time I get out and in, and when we crash back to $100 again, I should have considerably more coins than when I started.  Also, by selling into rallies and buying into corrections, I help stabilize the price a bit.  If more people would adopt this system, we might foil the manipulation scheme entirely.

Your case is different, since you're starting with fiat.  I think I would place buy orders ranging from about $100 to perhaps 10% below the current price.  As the price rises, keep adding more buys.  When we hit the next flash crash, you will certainly hit some of those buys.  Immediately place an order to resell those coins at a 25% profit.  When those sells execute, use the proceeds to place buys 15% lower.

Or if that's too much work, you could wait for the next major crash.  It could take several months, and there's no way to call the exact bottom.  But you could wait until 24 hours after a devastating crash, buy in, then gradually sell as the price starts going up again.

The key is to avoid panic buying when the price is high and panic selling after the price drops!

So.. What's the dotted line?

The first sell of was in 2011 and teh big  one was two weeks ago so obviously we're at return to normal.
This shit is going to fall hard within the next few days. Bitcoin hangs from the thread that is mt. gox. If anything at all bad happens to them, the whole market is fucked.

That's true. What scares me is what will happen when those who bought at $80ish to $100ish are going to cash out at $160 to $200. As I said earlier, the feeling is not any more "buy and hold" (which lead to parabolic growth), people is much more cautious now.

the point of the big hands, which i suppose i didn't make very clear is that this will destroy bitcoin, everyone loves a rally, i love a rally, however due to the cyclical pumping and dumping it will not only affect bitcoin as a reliable  currency, it will kill its credibility, therefore as long as there are big hands causing these erratic price jumps, the hsort term memory of bitcoins price history will begin to transgress into a longterm occurence making it very diffiult for bitcoin to succeed and actually prosper, and being a ffree market with a low capital, there is absolutely nothing that can be done about it, which is why i'm sceptical confidence in the currency will allow the bitcoin to ever reach 1000 $

Agree with #1.

Agree with #3 & #4 if sender already holds Bitcoins but not to purchase BTC simply to make transfers within the US. I hate Paypal, but one can send money transfers (not purchase related) free of fees for both sender & receiver. If one already holds BTC as an investment, it makes sense to make intra-border (US) purchases and transfers.

Disagree with #2. Because of Bitcoin volatility, 99.9% of merchants can only accept it through BitPay. This will likely never change due to foreign exchange risk. BitPay charges 1%. The spread to purchase BTC is usually 0.5% to 1% and much higher (5%) during period of high volatility. The merchant price through BitPay must account for spread. So all things being equal and assuming instantaneous transactions, the USD-BTC-USD transaction would cost 1.5% to 2% at the minimum. And this doesn't include the substantial foreign exchange risk assumed by the purchaser, which could certainly dwarf a CC fee in a matter of seconds.

One case for USD-BTC-USD is for very niche, privacy related reasons that likely involve international sites (gambling, etc).

only you dont have to write it, plus coins? wheres the serial there

1. cross border transactions- faster/cheaper than cash or digital fiat
2. internet transactions- faster/cheaper than digital fiat
3. person to person transfers- faster/cheaper than digital fiat