Adventures in Bitcoin

[RenoJay]

I stubbornly sat out the dotcom bubble (refusing to buy stocks from about 1998 - 2001) and the housing bubble (selling my house too early, renting, and not buying again til the bubble had popped.) So I decided for kicks to buy some Bitcoin and enjoy a bubble for a change, since I find the atmosphere at casinos too full of cigarette smoke. In any case, it was a lot of work to buy bitcoin. I needed to set up a wallet on one site, and buy on another. They required a lot more personal information than I'd have expected for a supposedly anonymous currency. The place where I bought (Coinbase) put a cap on how much I could buy, but offered a much higher cap if I was willing to give them my banking log in information. (Fat chance!!!) And everyone charged a commission, so I was instantly down about 5.5% from the amount I was trying to buy.

For anyone who's wondering, I'm buying an amount which will be unnoticeable vs. my net worth, and this is purely for adrenaline, not any rational investment thesis. The strategy is that if it goes to nothing, I'll have a laugh. If it doubles, I'll sell my original investment, and then play with the house's money and let it run up as far as possible.

 

[aaronc879]

The one thing I know about Bitcoin is that as soon as I invest in it it will tank. That's just how my life works. Therefore I will sit it out.

 

[RenoJay]

The one thing I know about Bitcoin is that as soon as I invest in it it will tank. That's just how my life works. Therefore I will sit it out.

Please contact me the day before you buy.

 

[FUEGO]

Wait, you missed out on losing money in the past bubbles so you decided to lose money in this one?

 

[aja8888]

How do you sell a bitcoin when the market for it starts to tank? Will the original seller buy it back?

 

[donheff]

I took an online college course on the blockchain a while back and was tempted to buy a $100 worth of Bitcoin for shits and giggles. But then I realized I would never use it so why bother.

 

[mrfeh]

I stubbornly sat out the dotcom bubble (refusing to buy stocks from about 1998 - 2001) and the housing bubble (selling my house too early, renting, and not buying again til the bubble had popped.) So I decided for kicks to buy some Bitcoin and enjoy a bubble for a change, since I find the atmosphere at casinos too full of cigarette smoke. In any case, it was a lot of work to buy bitcoin. I needed to set up a wallet on one site, and buy on another. They required a lot more personal information than I'd have expected for a supposedly anonymous currency. The place where I bought (Coinbase) put a cap on how much I could buy, but offered a much higher cap if I was willing to give them my banking log in information. (Fat chance!!!) And everyone charged a commission, so I was instantly down about 5.5% from the amount I was trying to buy.

For anyone who's wondering, I'm buying an amount which will be unnoticeable vs. my net worth, and this is purely for adrenaline, not any rational investment thesis. The strategy is that if it goes to nothing, I'll have a laugh. If it doubles, I'll sell my original investment, and then play with the house's money and let it run up as far as possible.

I've done something similar (buying back in June). Tiny investment (compared to our portfolio), prepared for 100% loss if that should happen. Have a target where I will recoup our original investment, and then will be playing w/ house money.

Obviously, this is all purely speculative, but it's been interesting.

PS - for your next transaction, use gdax.com instead of coinbase. Much cheaper.

 

[Big_Hitter]

is it possible to short bitcoin?

not sure how it has any value, js

 

[Carnage]

We're going to invest. I think the OP has it right, it has to be an amount you're willing to lose. The swings are that wild, but I also think it has the ability where if you invested a dollar today, it could be worth 10 in a year or two.

 

[DrBrisket]

is it possible to short bitcoin?

not sure how it has any value, js

It is possible to do so right now, but it is a bit cumbersome.

That all changes on December 10 when Bitcoin futures start trading on the CBOE.

Have at it!

 

[97guns]

I have a buddy that put around 5k into it and doubled up, he has tried to get me in a few times but too complicated for my liking.

My only dabbling is in stock, a company that mines bitcoin and some others

 

[Big_Hitter]

We're going to invest. I think the OP has it right, it has to be an amount you're willing to lose. The swings are that wild, but I also think it has the ability where if you invested a dollar today, it could be worth 10 in a year or two.

so you are investing in bitcoin because you may lose money if you dont?

 

[RenoJay]

so you are investing in bitcoin because you may lose money if you dont?

Not at all. This is essentially a small, hugely speculative bet where my downside is limited to what I put in, and the upside may be pretty high.

 

[RenoJay]

I'm the OP. I was just checking bitcoin price on my laptop at a restaurant (up about 15% from when I purchased earlier this week), and my server saw me and started a convo of how he's bought bitcoin. Talk about the proverbial "stock tip from the shoeshine guy!!!" This is a super-bubble, but definitely fun so far. My total investment is equal to about what I spend in a week, so not a life-changer either way.

 

[Big_Hitter]

Not at all. This is essentially a small, hugely speculative bet where my downside is limited to what I put in, and the upside may be pretty high.

Vegas is nice too

 

[Teacher Terry]

We bought some 4 years ago. We took out our initial investment a few years ago. We usually cash in a few when it gets high. We invested a small amount we could afford to lose. We still have 10. We have taken 4 really nice cruises on the profits.

 

[kgtest]

no thanks. I'll take the traditional equities elevator up and seya at the top!

Its funny one of my friends on fb was looking for advice for buying bitcoin, I suggested the age old "buy low, sell high." methodology and he basically told me to move along.

Seems like a fad, but people do accept bitcoin as a currency

 

[RenoJay]

Vegas is nice too

Too smoky.

 

[RenoJay]

I'm the OP. For anyone interested in how my bitcoin adventure turned out here's the summary. Since 99.99% of my portfolio is in things where I can sleep at night, I decided to risk a tiny amount on cryptos (pure speculation) and a tiny amount on a mall REIT (deep value play.) I found I wasn't thinking about the mall REIT at all, but I was constantly checking prices on the crypto stuff. I made my investment in bitcoin in early December at around $11k per bitcoin. I watched it quickly surge to around $19k per bitcoin. Then lots of volatility set in. Then the price came down and hovered in the $15k range, and I decided to sell my entire position since it wasn't worth the adrenaline. Even though I made a gain, the taxes and obscene trading fees will eat most of it. Anyway, with cryptos now crashing and people putting posts on message boards about how they took out big loans to buy cryptos and are now contemplating suicide, I'm pretty glad I had this fun little adventure in the casino. Now back to a completely sensible and sustainable long term financial plan.

 

[Texas Proud]

Glad you got out with what little gain you have... I was wondering what all the people on this board who kept telling us how great it was and how it was going to keep going up and up was going to say, if anything...

So, I praise you for telling us...

BTW, how is the REIT?

 

[NYEXPAT]

I had a short hedge on GBTC for about a week, that was closed out on/about Dec 22nd for about 6k profit. Only 1/2 the profit was mine and I did not want to file a tax return this year so I told him to keep it. With the split coming up on Monday, the premiums of about 53% now could explode again and I would definitely take that free money.

 

[Teacher Terry]

I don't mind reporting what happened for us. Since we bought really low, 4 years ago we cashed out some of ours like we always do when it gets high. We cashed out close to 20k. We are now doing what we always do and are just holding the rest we have left. Financially, we are way ahead of this game. When we first bought 4 years ago it was purely speculative so did not spend more then we wanted to loose. My son and his wife have cashed out about 100k profit and still own some and we are at about half of that.

 

[Spanky]

Do you really want to support money laundering via bitcoin?

 

[Teacher Terry]

Spanky, you are being ridiculous. I am not doing anything illegal and we have made some serious $. Nothing to not like about that.

 

[NYEXPAT]

Do you really want to support money laundering via bitcoin?

Most money laundering is in $USD. I understand there is a crypto (forgot the name) that has replaced BTC for money laundering as it is truly anonymous.