I am about to do something massivley stupid

[bowen151]

TEFL is another one

[cdb000]

My wife and I have different ways of seeing this.

I spent an amount of cash on buying GPUs two years ago when the Bitcoin was worth about £0.20 - my original set of computations suggested that, with the cost of mining kit and power and given the probable difficulty increases, I could make a small profit... at least get the mining kit paid for. (I still have the notes I made, and laugh at them now)

Bitcoin values rose, I bought more GPUs and currently have a good stash of Bitcoins and my mining kit and power are paid for.

My wife took a much simpler path. Some months back she draw £5000 from her savings account and bought Bitcoins. She now has Bitcoins worth approximately £17500.

Arguably, she is taking the bigger risk - if Bitcoin crashed to 0 tomorrow she would be light by £5000 and I would have some awesome machines for playing games or bragging about BOINC RAC.

Neither of us would have lost so much that our lives would be seriously damaged.

All this goes to show that there is no One Best Way to look at making some money with Bitcoins, but I might suggest that you make a plan which assumes that whatever Bitcoins you buy will drop in value to zero and be certain that whatever debt you take on is not going to seriously damage your lifestyle if this happens. Seriously - make a plan that assumes that the Bitcoin will be worth exactly Zero and that you still have to pay off borrowed fiat. Borrow only what you are comfortable with on that assumption and buy. I wish you luck - I personally think there will be some hairy moments, and the temptation to sell at the wrong time will be there, but that Bitcoins ultimately will do well.

[Rygon]

I'll add to that. As far as plans go, just because you go "All in" with a loan doesn't necessary mean that you need to stay all in with the BTC, regardless of price fluctuations. There are a number of ways to lessen the risk such as steadily selling the BTC, regardles of price. Or setting selling points, both on the high and low side, to take profits or limiting the impact of a crash. I recommend figuring out your strategy early on for managing that risk so you won't have a problem sleeping at nice.

[byronbb]

Its posts like these that show the top of the market cant be far away.

I made an identical post at about $20.

[grondilu]

Its posts like these that show the top of the market cant be far away.

I made an identical post at about $20.

It's indeed a legend that during any speculative bubble, whenever the peak was close, we were hearing stories about some people having sold all their belongings and borrow tons of money to buy the speculation asset.   And indeed it was often interpreted as a sign that the crash was close.

One difference is that I'm not sure all these stories happened in the internet age.  We live in a sea of information and the story of the OP pops up very easily.  We would never have heard of him so fast, had we used only telephone and physical mail to communicate.

Now, does this thread nevertheless mean we are near a major correction back to 20$, 10$ or even less?    I don't know.   You tell me.

[cedivad]

It really is easy money. Take it.

This thing doesn't exist.

[byronbb]

MOST of the time, nay almost ALL the time, such an idea is pure stupidity; but bitcoin really is something never seen before.  Check out my poll:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=150690.0

[gmiwenht]

Nice thread. Just wanted to let you know, I did the same thing 6 months ago. I took out 6k and invested. Worked out pretty well for me

It's not stupid. Just don't play SD with it. If you are not trading you can auto-lend on bitfinex, and still get a better APR than your bank is charging you.

Do you believe in Bitcoin? If you do, then do it. You are already in the 1% simply because you have heard of Bitcoin and post here. It really is easy money. Take it.

PS. just remember, it's not as if your money is going to disappear overnight. So the price might tank a little, and you will owe a little more. Bitcoin is not going to die overnight. Or to put it another way, sure it can die overnight, but that would be a catastrophe. It would be just as much of a catastrophe as your bank going bankrupt. It's a risk, but it is an educated risk.

[the joint]

My first entry into Bitcoin made utilizing student loan funds.  Was it risky?  Oh yes.  Was it worth it?   

[rpietila]

Now, does this thread nevertheless mean we are near a major correction back to 20$, 10$ or even less?    I don't know.   You tell me.

I think it is a hallucination that it would drop below $20 ever anymore. Nothing points to that outcome.

However, it may very well tank to $25-$35 area for several months, and I actually think it will, and should, do just that.

My prediction is conditional - if the price stays over $42 this weekend, then I don't think it will drop significantly any more after that. But if we see it fall below, the correction is here.

(I don't think this should affect long term plans such as taking loan to invest in BTC however...

[RodeoX]

Investing is little more than a fancy word for gambling. Borrowing money to gamble is a bad idea. You don't want to find yourself here in a few weeks asking for a loan to "win it all back". Remember only speculate with what you can loose.

[evolve]

Investing is little more than a fancy word for gambling. Borrowing money to gamble is a bad idea. You don't want to find yourself here in a few weeks asking for a loan to "win it all back". Remember only speculate with what you can loose.

This.

[byronbb]

Investing is little more than a fancy word for gambling. Borrowing money to gamble is a bad idea. You don't want to find yourself here in a few weeks asking for a loan to "win it all back". Remember only speculate with what you can loose.

Dead wrong.

[justusranvier]

Taking on student loans to buy bitcoin only sounds stupid because you're not using the right terminology.

It's called a carry trade. Because of the long time between when you take the loan and when you are required to start making payments it might even be less risky than most carry trades in the forex market because the bitcoin exchange rate can drop suddenly without causing a cash flow problem, provided that it recovers before it's time to start making payments of course...

[byronbb]

Taking on student loans to buy bitcoin only sounds stupid because you're not using the right terminology.

It's called a carry trade. Because of the long time between when you take the loan and when you are required to start making payments it might even be less risky than most carry trades in the forex market because the bitcoin exchange rate can drop suddenly without causing a cash flow problem, provided that it recovers before it's time to start making payments of course...

Yes, the nay sayers frame it in a worst case scenario where bitcoin suddenly goes to zero. 

[justusranvier]

Yes, the nay sayers frame it in a worst case scenario where bitcoin suddenly goes to zero.

I consider that scenario to be extreme enough that extreme responses are on the table as backup plans, such as relocating to a different country, but YMMV.

[nanopene]

Investing is little more than a fancy word for gambling. Borrowing money to gamble is a bad idea. You don't want to find yourself here in a few weeks asking for a loan to "win it all back". Remember only speculate with what you can loose.

For people who didn't make their homework, yes, it is gambling.
For people who do their homework, it is never a gamble.

If you put money in a company knowing that they have a good product, you confirmed that their management is experienced, and checked that their sales team is sharper than a knife, then why on earth it would be a gamble? You project their potential earnings and weight them out with their the potential risks.
If you put money in this case, it is investing.

If you put money in a company you know nothing about, you don't know about their business model, don't know who they are or how experienced they are in whatever they claim to do. You don't know how much money your investment will make, and what are the potential risks.
Then that is plain suicide.
If you put money on it, certainly it will be a gamble. A stupid gamble.

And yes, if you put money based on Technical Analysis, it is also a stupid gamble.

[Spaceman_Spiff]

For people who do their homework, it is never a gamble.

How about  'the butterfly effect' and 'chaos theory' ?  No matter how prepared you are, you are never 100% sure.

[byronbb]

For people who do their homework, it is never a gamble.

How about  'the butterfly effect' and 'chaos theory' ?  No matter how prepared you are, you are never 100% sure.

Better not go outside today, might get run over.

[nanopene]

For people who do their homework, it is never a gamble.

How about  'the butterfly effect' and 'chaos theory' ?  No matter how prepared you are, you are never 100% sure.

That kind of questions makes me think that most people here are just high schoolers.
For you guys making any kind of investment is a gamble.

Why do I think you are a high schooler? You could have said, "how about risk and uncertainty", but no, you have to jump all the way to terms that are way out of topic, but common to find in youtube.