OK.. so on the front of pure unsubstantiated speculation [ about a fund's strategy ]....
1) buy OTC, sell on market to drive price down, setting artificially low "opening price"
2) "open fund"
3) buy on market for 30 days driving the price up
4) produce slick marketing campaign: " GABI UP 50% IN FIRST MONTH !!!! "
5) open fund for trading
6) profit.
I can only begin to imagine all the ways that a fund operator could make money, besides charging fees. Indeed, that seems to be one of them.
But a fund will probably start with a stash of very cheap coins that the founders own. Or moderately cheap coins that they got at an auction. Creating a fund would be a way of selling them at market price, without imediately depressing that price.
Creating a fund also allows the owner to "sell" his bitcoins without losing control over them. Then some "anonymous hacker" may break through the "professional" security barriers and steal all the coins. Such an event may be highly profitable, depending on who the hacker is and who will end up taking the loss. (Are any of the existing bitcoin funds insured against that?)
Mt gox really did a number on confident in third party's ability to secure bitcoin
and for the same reason, all entities which hold customer bitcoins these days, have multi sig cold offline storage, attackers would need to hit several physical locations in a every short time window to have a chance.
stop being so paranoid
god damn it Jorge buy a bitcoin.
you said you would!
http://dcmagnates.com/newegg-offers-10-discount-on-bitcoin-purchases/