Money, Investments and the Economy

Away End - General Chat
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I actually believe Musk is a fan of Crypto, his investment bumped the price up but then it dropped big time, reducing Teslas value.
Obviously, Musk is a big influencer on any share/product like Dogecoin. I do question his comments on Bitcoin being over priced but how can I question one of the worlds richest men?
Regarding Bitcoin, its energy consumption in solving algorithms to create Bitcoin is ridiculous, more than a lot of developed countries if taken as a collective. This was seen by some as Musk being hypocritical in terms of his commitment to more environmental products.

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102

Put it this way, my first post on TAN would be worth shit loads of money. Yours, not so much.

:stuck_out_tongue:

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103

Crypto is just another part of the speculative bubble and will crash and burn when the bubble crashes and burns. Not saying it will go away completely, but let’s be serious. Currencies by their very nature crave stability so people can have confidence in them. Something that can go up or down 15% - 25% in a single trading session is not a currency.

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104

I understand your point of view, but I do feel its a bit different. Although, they are volatile it is not as bad as the 15/20% swing you suggested.
I will be completely honest, its a weird investment to get your head around. What actually is it? However, Bitcoin is now viewed as a commodity like Gold, and their values have actually become more aligned. There will only ever be 21m bitcoins, so like Gold and other precious metals there is a limit to its availability.
Even if it is not here to stay, it still should not be discredited as a potential investment. Bitcoin in particular obviously hold enough clout/potential for finance services like Visa to consider accepting it.

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Here is a chart comparing bitcoin year to date against gold, all expressed in dollar terms. Bitcoin has more than doubled in price just in four months, and look at the volatility along the way. Now look at gold’s slow and steady movement. This is my point. It’s not a currency. It’s a speculative instrument.

from Imgflip Meme Generator

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106

Interesting short article from the Motley Fool on why Bitcoin may not be a good investment.

MF focuses on long term investing, so that doesn’t mean that people looking for short term speculation can’t benefit - just that it is unlikely we will see a revolution in its favour which would justify looking to buy and hold

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107

Are MF actually any good?

Came across them a few weeks back but not yet joined up, still undecided

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A lot of their stuff is free. I miss their community boards. The US site still has some but much reduced in number.

I think they often give discounts to join their various newsletter services. Once you join you may get inundated with emails inviting you to join the more expensive services. The basic service does seem to get good reviews - (Stock Advisor in US, Share Advisor in UK I think) but like anything it depends on what your expectations are going in. SA gives you 1 monthly recommendation for ‘growth’ type stocks and one ‘value/defensive’ type stock. Also, you get a monthly reminder as to which of their recommended stocks are currently best choices. They don’t do target prices, just recommend whether its a buy, and then when they think the price is too high will list it as a sell or hold in a future newsletter. Depending on where you are on your investing journey I think it is fairly reliable and relatively inexpensive place to start.

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109

Out of interest, which country’s shares would you be looking to buy?

110

From a Wall Street Journal article this morning. A funny quote paraphrasing the thoughts of an individual investor.

“He is optimistic about stocks, particularly after seeing the tech behemoths report record profits last week. But he does worry about a market crash in the future and has bought some cryptocurrencies, which he views as a hedge against a downturn.”

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111

Mix of UK, and US with a scattering of Asian/Aus

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116

I do wonder if others will follow chinas lead

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117

What’s a state without a currency. There’s no control or structure if you can’t control your currency.

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I don’t think that is quite accurate. A number of countries have given up control of their currencies, either by pegging it to another (such as to the dollar) or by introduction of a shared currency (the Euro) for example.

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Just picked up one of the many articles since yesterday. Mr Goxx has been a sensation a few months ago being written by major news outlets. Now you can watch its trading.