Think about real resource miners: gold, silver, copper, etc. Do they mine it and then wait for the price to go up? They in fact do the opposite: they short sell it before they even start to mine it, so they would know exactly how much their operation would cost and how much profit they will make. I think short selling (hedging) of digital currencies is coming as well, so be ready for it.
Mining and trading are two different things, which are very independent from each other.
Millenia after the "invention" of gold, silver, copper, sure.
But back in the day when someone proposed a newfangled shiny that they speculated might catch on?
Heck even just going out trying to short sell it likely would let competitors realise a new shiny was on the horizon, they might go out and mine it all while you are busy doing your market-research aka trying to sell it, short or otherwise...
New "fools gold" is being found every day around here, wanna pre-order some of the next one up in case it turns out not to be pyrites afterall but an actually new metal?
-MarkM-