What percentage loss have you taken speculating on bitcoin so far?

[HappyFunnyFoo]

We all know by now that the bitcoin bubble is slowly deflating - new interest is directly proportional to bitcoin's value, and the vast majority of interested individuals have already adopted the early beta of this digital currency.

What percentage loss have you taken converting assets to bitcoin?  What keeps you from converting your currency back to paper money?

Disclaimer:
I personally believe that people that buy into things like bitcoin and gold are destined for the looney bin or early divorce when they wipe themselves out, so I may not take your response seriously and you may be made fun of.

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[Fakeman]

I'm guessing there a lot of people here who mine bitcoins to sell but have never bought any, which of course relates to the price decline. Spending a big chunk of 'real' money on bitcoins was always a stupidly risky move but I guess it paid off for a few people. Gold on the other hand can be very low risk if you don't subscribe to the much-maligned 'buy high, sell low' school.

[castlegoat]

I'm guessing there a lot of people here who mine bitcoins to sell but have never bought any, which of course relates to the price decline. Spending a big chunk of 'real' money on bitcoins was always a stupidly risky move but I guess it paid off for a few people. Gold on the other hand can be very low risk if you don't subscribe to the much-maligned 'buy high, sell low' school.

I think "buy high, sell low" deserves to be maligned at every opportunity; one should never do that unless out sheer desperation to raise liquid capital.  What are you trying to say here?

[tacotime]

I lost about $14, or 0.05% of total investments

[YoYa]

I've lost minus 18%

[Fakeman]

I think "buy high, sell low" deserves to be maligned at every opportunity; one should never do that unless out sheer desperation to raise liquid capital.  What are you trying to say here?

Only that putting money into gold is not a very likely way for someone to "wipe themselves out" financially unless they make some very bad moves subsequently out of desperation or panic. It was in reponse to this quote:

I personally believe that people that buy into things like bitcoin and gold are destined for the looney bin or early divorce when they wipe themselves out, so I may not take your response seriously and you may be made fun of.

If gold prices tank, it's pretty safe to just buy more because it's virtually guaranteed they will recover eventually. Bitcoin prices on the other hand could go down and never really come back up.

[Minsc]

48%

[tvbcof]

I've been accumulating since somewhat North of $15.  A driving force for me is that I wanted to be sitting on some BTC obtained before any potential legislation against doing so came into effect.  The price decline of BTC puts me in the red on a majority of my holdings, but I have not computed the exact percent.  It's a sunk cost and thus not worth wasting much energy over.  Getting $$$ to the exchanges has cost me about %1 (a bit more early on when I was testing the waters) and, what, .5% in trading fees.

Since I will not play in paper instruments as long as the SEC is 'regulating' them, my main alternatives are property, $$$, and PM's.  PM's have been good to me since the early 2000's but I want to diversify.  I can afford to  speculate in BTC.  I see an outside chance that they will pay off in the event that there is a $$$ crisis and/or that BTC becomes illegal (noting what becoming illegal did to the value of an easily grown weed as one of countless examples.)

[fcmatt]

No losses yet but I am pretty chicken when it comes to taking risks with money I made via mining.
Gains have been very very slim since I decided to trade.
So you could basically say, for all intents and purposes, I am even on trading speculation. No loss, no gain.

Oh Hai Look! I found a quarter on the ground. I am up now.

[im3w1l]

I'm making a profit. Granted, my positions are pretty short lived

[ruski]

I've made $2k riding the ups and downs, so about 30%. 

[doktor99]

The prevailing assumption seems to be that 'mining' does not equate to buying BTC with money, but I think it's really the same thing. The only practical difference is that when mining, you're 'buying' your coins at a discount to the current market value (at the current difficulty and 0.10 / kWh electricity, you're effectively paying something over $2/BTC). That does not account for the cost of capital required to commission the mining rig in the first place, which increases the effective risk further.

The closer the value of the BTC comes to the underlying cost of energy required to mine the coins (if profit margins get very low due to some unforseen price decline), the more 'speculative' mining operations become. In that sense, they are just like a buy-and-hold approach to buying with cash on Mt. Gox or any other open market.

[Cluster2k]

I did a bit of trading.  Buy in and wait until the market rises 10% before selling.  Not sure about the percentage, but I made some money.  I am not buying any bitcoins at the moment however.  Whatever I mined was sold in the $20s and teens.  Ah, good times.  Fondly remembered.

[evolve]

loss?  im up about 20%           

there is still plenty of profit to be made daytrading (and i use a bot for that), doesnt matter if the price goes up or down...as long as it moves. it requires exactly 0 effort on my part.

as an added bonus, btc got me interested in forex...since btc trading is automated for me, i can focus on learning that now (while still scalping profits on btc).

[Lumpy]

I lost a bunch, gained a bunch, and now am better than even with all of my machines paid for in full.

[RyNinDaCleM]

I've made about $1k profit from market volatility! More recently though, every time I would get further ahead, I would have a buy high sell low moment and I would be back where I started! So I gave up on the whole daytrader thing! 
I'm now just waiting for a low to buy back in! Right now, is NOT it!

[Litt]

Why is everyone here responding they made money and not lose it? You are not helping the op trying to have members participate in giving disinformation on our own forum..  

[pennytrader]

I've been in stock market for a while and one thing I learned is nobody would admit their losses in an online community. OP is basically wasting his time

[rebuilder]

Bought most of my BTC when they were under a dollar. Do the math.

[Lumpy]

I've been in stock market for a while and one thing I learned is nobody would admit their losses in an online community. OP is basically wasting his time

Most likely it's those who lost who don't care to post. Those who made money don't mind saying so.

I think it depends on when you started. If you started speculating/mining in June... good luck! Earlier, you're probably in good shape. I started before the run-up and I wish I had bought more machines then instead of playing it safe and buying a few at a time. But then there are those people who spent $20000 in June...