When you have something as volatile as Bitcoin, opportunities are there to trade it profitably from both the long and short sides.
Man..oh..man... Reading 9 pages of this thread, it's so clear that the "negative posters" don't understand what Bitcoin actually is. ...and this is the only reason why its price is still not 10.000 dollars or more...(because when every one would understand it, they should value it on its merits). Bitcoin is NOT JUST a currency, it's a Protocol (like HTTP) with many innovative and high valued opportunities (we are just in the pre-Internet-time of 1995, not yet grasping what the future will bring, like innovations as Google, Facebook, Youtube...etc...). Bitcoin will change the Financial world (it's a disruptive technology), like the Internet did. And will bring huge fortunes for those early adopters (it's just starting right now). To all, that don't have any idea what Bitcoin actually is and can bring, you SHOULD watch all the 101-blackboard-videos. There are 12 video's now and each few days new ones will keep you informed: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4QFErOdTag&list=PLzctEq7iZD-7-DgJM604zsndMapn9ff6q&index=1 Don't miss this Bitcoin opportunity...you might regret it later.
The mania increases. Like others before it, the inherent flaws and terminal hype will all seem so obvious in hindsight after the end. The "articles" and media postings all contain quotes and data from bitcoin supporters and those promulgating and holding the stuff. The vast majority of those involved are simply speculators wanting a quick buck. Some will make fortunes...many others will lose great sums. It's not real and has no backing of the Fed or any other entity with authority to make it so. The only way any of this can be traded for actual, real cash is if there is a human being out there willing to give you their cash for the bitcoin. For now, that continues...but one day that carousel will stop. The more people that the hype-sters can get frothed up by this hysteria, the higher the price and the more they can make. At least the tulips you traded your house for looked pretty in the garden for a few years.
I couldn't believe BTC last night when I was at dinner. I would check it every 10 minutes and it seemed to go up $15 every time I looked at it. It was around $750 when I left, but eventually hit $900 at some point, and now back down to $580. A trader's dream!
The high difficulty in arbitraging between exchanges means that not there a huge difference between the USD price at Mt Gox and the USD price at Bitstamp. Not only that, but the USD equivalent of recent CNY prices of Bitcoin have been much higher - I think it reached over 1,000 USD (when converted from CNY to USD) in China earlier today, despite Mt Gox only going as high as $900 or so. www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-11-18/b...tc-china-exchange-crashes-promptly-thereafter
In what way is it not real? Or alternatively, you could buy goods and services with your Bitcoin. It's just another currency.
You might have not read this...., even the Fed thinks it might have value: http://www.businessinsider.com/ben-bernanke-on-bitcoin-2013-11
Dollars are not "real" (whatever that means) and the Fed or any other central bank is not God and cannot impart "reality" on something. The perceived "value" of dollars or euros is wholly dependent on the psychological confidence of the currency's users. Look at the example of the old Soviet-bloc states. Their currencies did not have the confidence of its subjects. As a result, a flourishing black market existed where USD and Deutsche Marks were the base currency. "Value" and "backing" are relative, subjective terms based purely on beliefs, not reality.