I am, and it wasn't difficult at all to deal with Mt Gox. All they asked for was a scan of my DL and a utility bill. The concern is that it will spawn copycat bitcoins (like PayPal entering the biz).
You are one of the guys I respect a lot as far as trading knowledge and experience is concerned. So, how did you structure this long exposure - just buying bitcoins directly or through some other means? May I ask how much you have risked on this trade - either in USD terms or in % of your net worth terms? If BitCoin does touch 1000$, what would be the pay-off for you?
Dont know if this was previously posted but its an interesting read..... Bitcoin Bubble: How 'Geeks' Sent Prices Parabolic Published: Wednesday, 3 Apr 2013 | 12:29 PM ET By: Jeff Cox CNBC.com Senior Writer With the price surging more than 50 percent in just the past three days, even Bitcoin supporters acknowledge that the digital currency is unofficially in bubble territory. Widespread chatter about the alternative money has sent values parabolic, with one Bitcoin fetching $93.04 at daybreak Monday, then zooming to $141.32 nearing midday Wednesday, according to trading on Mt. Vox, the most popular Bitcoin exchange. (Click here for a Mt. Gox chart) "There is a little bit of a bubble. I'm not happy about prices going up as fast as they have," said Alan Safahi, CEO of Zip Zap, which bills itself as the largest cash payment processor of Bitcoins. "For any commodity it's normal to have price adjustment, to test new lows and new highs. It's not good to always go up." Yet that is exactly what Bitcoin has done, swelling from $34 on March 3 all the way up to an intraday high of $147 a month later. (Read More: Bitcoin Bonanza: Cyprus Crisis Boosts Digital Dollars) Bitcoin is an open-source digital, highly encrypted currency that is bought and sold online. Buyers give cash and receive a code that allows them to make purchases at a growing number of online retailers. What's a Bitcoin? And How Did It Break $1 Billion? Jeff Berwick, Bitcoin ATM co-founder, explains how his company uses digital currency that allows consumers to use peer-to-peer connections for monetary transactions, with CNBC's Rick Santelli. Lest anyone think they live strictly in the domain of underground computer geeks, no less a source than Art Cashin, the well-respected market veteran and director of trading floor services at UBS, addressed the craze in his morning note to clients. "It is rare that we get to see a bubble-like phenomenon trade tick for tick in real time. Usually it's kind of regional aggregate pricing like real estate reports," Cashin said. "But, all that may be changingâbefore our very eyesâquite literally. The bubble du jour may be something called a 'bitcoin.'" (Read More: Bitcoin Shows 'Aggressive Bubble' Behavior: SocGen) There are several events that could be tied to the recent surge in Bitcoin trading. Financial media outlets have glommed onto the trade; the price surged 13.5 percent a week ago, coinciding with a CNBC.com report on the phenomenon. At the same time, the trade got a huge boost when the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network on March 18, without mentioning Bitcoin specifically, said it will not prosecute those issuing what it deemed "virtual currencies." Also, Western Union recently said it will begin experimenting with digital currencies for customer convenience. Throw into the mix geopolitical turmoil, such as the tax imposed on private depositors in Cyprus to stave off the nation's banking crisis, and the stage has been set for a meteoric Bitcoin surge. "It got traction because it's decentralized, it's not subject to government meddling, it's considered safe and there's limited supply. So that drives value in kind of a commodity-type perception," Safahi said. "We now have a whole new generation of geeks who are willing to accept open-source as reliable." Whether the Bitcoin craze ever spreads beyond those "geeks" is dependent on several factors. One of the primary issues is securityâcritics worry that a clever hacker could plow into a Bitcoin system and pilfer accounts with aplomb. Some were concerned that volatile Wednesday trading, which saw a range from $147 at the high to $107.08 at the low, suggested the system is subject to a "Hack Crash" similar to the stock market's 2010 "Flash Crash" that sent major averages plummeting in a matter of minutes. "It's impossible to ignore, because everybody is tweeting me about it. It's on everybody's radar displays," said Boris Schlossberg, managing director at BK Asset Management. "As far as a viable currency, it's a fantasy in most people's eyes, but it's definitely emblematic that there's a huge amount of anxiety among the investment class." Schlossberg figured the enthusiasm w`ill last as long as it takes for the government to decide Bitcoin use has become too widespread not to be regulated. "At the end of the day if the government decides to regulate it one way or the other you may wind up with just a bunch of code in your hands and nothing else," he said. "It doesn't really have any value other than it's socially acceptable."
From CNN.money: "And do not be like the Litecoin trader with seller's remorse. One guy wrote a sad tale about how in January he bought 80,000 litecoins at $0.068 and sold them at $0.20. Litecoins are selling for about $5 today. So he took a 194% return, or $10,560, but missed out on a 7,250% return, or $394,560. and is feeling seller's remorse."
1. Are you just investing and holding, or actively trading it (using the huge fluctuations)? 2. Can you short it with a let's say 10K size? Or you can only sell what you have? Edit: This article says shorting is pretty complicated: http://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-short-bitcoins-if-you-really-must-2013-4
I've logged in to respond responsibly to this thread. IF I get any $hit from cretins here I will NEVER post here again. Max Keiser has been the strongest supporter of Bitcoin on radio interviews and his RT show. The word on the street is he is behind Bitcoin and was directly accused of it on Alex Jones show which he carefully sidestepped and did NOT deny. I don't know if you are aware aware but before he retired and moved to London he created some software in CA (I believe) and holds many patents for trading of some sort which made him a lot of money in addition to his trading profits. For background, Max is a severe critic of J.P. Morgan and its CEO Jamie Dimon. He's a fervent bull for Gold and an even more aggressive bull for Bitcoin- claiming many will become Bitcoin millionaires. BTW, why is it necessary to get involved in this obvious bubble rather than merely trade for a living? Seems to me greed is the driver here and usually leads to disaster for most... I for one am happy to stay with what I know and can reliably depend on. I prefer to step in AFTER the bubble bursts and buy for a fraction like I did in Vegas 2 years ago in RE. Today Vegas RE up 25% total in one year. I bought a lot and I mean a lot of single family houses @ $45/sq ft now worth $100 sq ft. And now I am distributing them in a rising market to the "greater fools" before the inevitable dead cat bounce. Did the same in '83 in San Diego and also in Phoenix/Scottsdale 2000. Isn't that easier and safer place to put excess trading profits? In a sure thing? Woody
Ok I heard about bitcoins a few years ago, never looked into it. For me the big issue is : how do you buy stuff with it, sorry but I haven't seen a place like eBay or Amazon allow bitcoin . Secondly, in case the system collapses, maybe there won't be any internet in your area anymore, so your money is on the internet but what do you do if you have no internet, beside you don't buy groceries on the internet. what's more likely is the govt will try to stabilize the system and probably that will spell trouble for "alternative" currencies, they may be outlawed or rendered useless. Today I read about this FT article and then saw the CNBC one, if this thing went from 100 to $145 in one day, then there is no doubt in my mind it's a bubble. It boggles the mind that traders would get caught up in this craze. And I would see this as an indicator in my trading, confirming what I see elsewhere. The fact that the gold bug crowd is big on bitcoin is not a good sign either.
Millions of dollars are globally transacting everyday, via bitcoin. That's a tonne of money swapping hands totally outside Government capital and regular banking controls. These transactions are near totally private - the only identifier to an "account" is an open pgp key. Users can destroy and create as many new pgp keys (read: accounts) as they wish. There is virtually no way of knowing who is identified to anyone particular key. Essientially, Bitcoin is open-source, debt-free banking. That is revolutionary. What underwrites it, are its relative disctinctions to fiat. In many ways, bitcoin is "the cleanest dirty shirt" (where have we heard that before?). Government issued fiat and precious metals are subject to all kinds of transfer controls, have zero anonymity, and, in todays world, aren't immune to confiscation, nationalization or bankruptcy. Bitcoin is transferable to the extreme, totally private, and immune from bank runs and other confiscatory efforts. And its designed to be scarce. That's what underwrites its value - superior intangible value relative to the competiton. Pretty amazing.