Try saying that after your computer gets pwned by a zero day exploit because you just happened to visit the wrong web site.  No need to download and install dodgy software, no need to click anything.  Software makers need several days to patch the hole while anyone is free to exploit it.  It doesn't happen often, but it most certainly happens.

I think people who blame stolen bitcoins or a guy running bots for the falling value are clutching at some very short straws.

17,000 bitcoins were allegedly stolen (mybitcoin says everything is back, btw), and that's meant to cause a crash in a market of almost 7 million?  It doesn't seem very logical.

One guy running bots to corner the market?  Maybe if he has several hundred thousand bitcoins to play with, otherwise that doesn't make sense either.

The only logical reasons for the falling value are the current state of the world economy (can't pay investment losses or taxes in bitcoins), panic (price is falling, which makes others sell before it hits zero), and the usefulness of bitcoins in the real world (currently, not very useful).

Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

Some analysts say the USA is about to encounter a massive bout o deflation.  Japan has been trying to reinflate its economy for over 20 years, often with 0% interest rates.  Hasn't worked, won't work.  When debt is too high people won't borrow money even if it's free.

Some commentators such as at The Automatic Earth state housing in the USA will fall about 90% from peak to trough.  Only a quarter of the way there so far.

If US leadership does go nuts and has the Fed monetize all the debt, I would be invested in gold, silver and weapons.  No use holding a USB stick when hungry, angry, riotous hoards come visiting your middle class abode.

Any bounce back from lows (sub $6) to highs (anything over $8) is likely to get the sellers active again.  There's over 20% in gains to be made in under a day.  Not selling now and waiting for the next lows next weekend would be leaving free money on the table.

A warm hearty 'thank you' to the traders that sold at $6.  Cashed in a 20% profit within hours.  Not often you can do that.  Viva la volatility!

"Time to buy back in", the cry went out when bitcoins were at $10.  Now they're over 30% lower, in 3 days.  Time to buy back in?

It's strange that people hang onto the theory of the "bot guy" placing order walls and then taking them away.  Who is this mysterious "bot guy", is he alone and how many bitcoins does he have?  It all sounds a little conspiracy theorist like.  Anyone who has been around the share market for a while knows bids tend to clump around nice even numbers in penny stocks.  There will be more orders at $0.10 then $0.09 for example.  It's not a "bot guy" doing it, it's human nature.  If there really is one "bot guy" out there with enough bitcoins to lower the price of bitcoins, then the whole concept of bitcoins is broken.  One person shouldn't have that much power to set the price for everyone else.

The fact that the bid walls disappear as bitcoin's price approaches them is logical too.  If you saw the price of a share plummet, would you stay at your old bids or lower them in anticipation of an even lower price?  It's pretty logical.

I'm sure merchants are lining up to adopt bitcoins as their currency.  Why use US dollars where the volatility is maybe 3% in a bad week and credit card merchant fees eat a whopping 2.5%, while bitcoins can drop over 25% in a week.

Bitcoin is not dead, but it is suffering many flesh wounds.

To be honest, I'm surprised we took this long to reach single digits.  I thought we were going to hit sub $10 in less than 2 weeks after the $30 bubble (dead cat bounce), and then the Gox hax came around and I was sure sub $10 was right around the corner.  I was wrong, and it took quite a lot longer.  But it still got there.

If it hits $6.66 Bernanke's head will spin 360 degrees

The above is a very important point to remember.  I have read many times on this forums claims that bitcoin's value cannot fall below production cost (about $4 to $8, today).  This nonsense of course, for the above reason.  The cost today is much higher than the cost 6 months ago, or 12 or 18.  Bitcoins were produced at cents per bitcoin at the beginning.  All these are still floating around.  If early adopters believe 'this is the last gasp' of bitcoin, watch out.

A wise word to investors: don't go throwing good money after bad. 

People won't do that, for this reason:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_commons

Brilliant.  You either pump money into bitcoins or are a troll.  I need to suggest that on other forums where I have a vested interest in the price of my investment rising.

Long term it's going down, so I'm not being a pessimist, I'm being a realist.

$9.30 at the moment and getting close to that $9 wall that inevitably disappears as the price approaches that level.  Bitcoin has been in a slide since the $30 intra day high several months ago.  I have yet to see anything that would cause that trend to reverse.

Its often been said that bitcoin's price goes down on weekends.  We've had one hell of a long weekend so far.

The last sale price determines the value of gold too, but unlike bitcoins, gold has a proven track record of several thousand years and does not rely on the Internet nor on a mass of miners to process transactions.  From a wealthy investor in the USA, to a farmer in India to a factory worker in China, all would prefer a bar of gold over a USB key with a wallet.dat.

You're right that if Mt Gox is crippled or fails then bitcoin's utility and value plunges.  Sure, there is Tradehill and other exchanges, but it's a little like saying the NYSE, FTSE, and Nikkei closing don't matter because the stock exchange in Australia is still up and running.

Don't forget about competing with someone who doesn't pay for power (they do, indirectly, but ignore the costs) and those mining with stolen power (at work, for example, where the employer pays).

Bitcoins are a commodity.  There's enough out there already that even if all miners gave up tomorrow there would be more than enough bitcoins to keep speculators happy.  It's so self evident that I don't know why more people don't get it.  Miners are no longer required and the cost of mining is irrelevant to bitcoin's price.

So, you're saying the following:

Bears are bulls in disguise.  They want to drive the price down so they can buy on the cheap.  Bears are wrong.

Bulls are right as naturally they want the price of bitcoins to go up.

The posts and responses I've read over the past few months have been interesting.

Anyone posting a negative opinion about bitcoin is labeled as someone who wants to drive the price down so that they can buy them on the cheap.

Even the bears are labeled as bulls in hiding by the bulls.  Bitcoin has enough cheerleaders to be able to sustain the impact of negative opinion and debate.

There is still Liberty Reserve.  Keep your money safe in Costa Rica.

$7.50 to create one bitcoin worth $9.50 here.  I won't post the maths, as I've posted it here many times before.  People paying 10c/kwh are the only ones capable of producing a bitcoin for $3.50.  Some people can do that, a lot can't.

There are a couple of differences here.  Investing in the shares of a company is not like investing in bitcoin: the company does something and creates value.  Bitcoin is just a commodity.  Graphics cards are essentially worthless after 2 years.  Increasing DirectX versions make previous card version obselete.  A card may pay off itself in 4 months, but don't forget the case, PSU, CPU, ram, storage, and motherboard required to make that card work.  Payoff time is now much longer.