rkbabang

For me it's: 1's and 0's (I'm a digital guy). As for investing... I'm just winging it like almost everyone else. "one of the most fundamental yet still under-appreciated truths of human existence, which is this: everyone is totally just winging it, all the time." https://www.theguardian.com/news/oliver-burkeman-s-blog/2014/may/21/everyone-is-totally-just-winging-it

I don't think you are the only one. I expect the stock to tank on that day and I expect to back up the truck if it does.

“How about a nice game of Chess?”

You can buy bitcoin and ether with a cc on Coinbase. Or you can link your bank account. Or you can use cash at a bitcoin ATM, there is probably one near you.

I don’t know when it will happen, but I think this is what will trigger the first major panic. When one or more of these guys decide to do some selling in a big way it is going to be ugly for a while. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-12-08/the-bitcoin-whales-1-000-people-who-own-40-percent-of-the-market

:)

Just curious, at what age and price point would this move from being tulips to being an actual store of value ala gold? Ignore volatility, bc it seems obvious to me that at a certain market cap volatility will be similar to that offild today. This was written in April/2013: ( https://fee.org/articles/bitcoin-for-beginners/ ) "As of this writing, a Bitcoin is trading for $88.249. Just three years ago, it hovered at $0.14. Many people look at the current market and think, surely this is a speculative bubble. That could be true, but it might not be. People are exchanging an unstable, fiat paper for something with a real title that cannot be duplicated. Everyone knows precisely how many Bitcoins exist at any time. Anyone can observe the transactions taking place in real time. A Bitcoin’s price can go up and down, and that’s fine, but there is no real speculation going on here that is endogenous to the Bitcoin market itself. Is it a pyramid scheme? The defining mark of a pyramid scheme is that more than one person has an equal claim on the same money or good. This is physically impossible with Bitcoin. The way the program is set up, it is a strict property rights regime with no exceptions." Do you believe that this parabolic spike up is driven by the world suddenly realizing the fundamental value of bitcoin? What is that fundamental value? Every other knucklehead on the planet is picking up a little bc right now to play the rush. They have no clue how the technology works or what its intrinsic value is. I'm not saying bc is valueless, its actually has some neat uses. So do tulip bulbs, they can grow lovely flowers. Please show me an example of an asset that has spiked in value like this that wasn't a bubble. People all over the world (rich and poor, dumb and smart, educated and ignorant) use the USD every day. Do you think 1 in 10 has a deep understanding of the Federal Reserve system and how it works? Even if Bitcoin replaces all money on Earth the average person won’t understand the technology behind it anymore than they have a deep understanding of how the cellphone in their pocket works. As an American resident or citizen, if you don't use USD you go to federal prison. That's a good reason to use USD that smart/dumb people should both be able to understand. My point was that you don't need to know how something works to use it. You give a 9 year old a dollar to run into the store and buy a candy bar and it doesn't work any different for him than a 45 year old with a PhD in Economics buying a candy bar. You only need to know how to use it. It is the same with any technology. You can drive a car without understanding how the engine works and you can use a computer without understanding solid state physics. Your point about force is a good one though. People accept the dollar because they have to, they value things like gold, silver, or bitcoin, because they want to.

That's why I try not to go to reddit too often. Once you start reading the comments you can't stop. It's like a train wreck, you can't look away. And hours can go by in seconds. Talk about time dilation.

And another 2986 days to decelerate from that speed.

Just curious, at what age and price point would this move from being tulips to being an actual store of value ala gold? Ignore volatility, bc it seems obvious to me that at a certain market cap volatility will be similar to that offild today. This was written in April/2013: ( https://fee.org/articles/bitcoin-for-beginners/ ) "As of this writing, a Bitcoin is trading for $88.249. Just three years ago, it hovered at $0.14. Many people look at the current market and think, surely this is a speculative bubble. That could be true, but it might not be. People are exchanging an unstable, fiat paper for something with a real title that cannot be duplicated. Everyone knows precisely how many Bitcoins exist at any time. Anyone can observe the transactions taking place in real time. A Bitcoin’s price can go up and down, and that’s fine, but there is no real speculation going on here that is endogenous to the Bitcoin market itself. Is it a pyramid scheme? The defining mark of a pyramid scheme is that more than one person has an equal claim on the same money or good. This is physically impossible with Bitcoin. The way the program is set up, it is a strict property rights regime with no exceptions." Do you believe that this parabolic spike up is driven by the world suddenly realizing the fundamental value of bitcoin? What is that fundamental value? Every other knucklehead on the planet is picking up a little bc right now to play the rush. They have no clue how the technology works or what its intrinsic value is. I'm not saying bc is valueless, its actually has some neat uses. So do tulip bulbs, they can grow lovely flowers. Please show me an example of an asset that has spiked in value like this that wasn't a bubble. People all over the world (rich and poor, dumb and smart, educated and ignorant) use the USD every day. Do you think 1 in 10 has a deep understanding of the Federal Reserve system and how it works? Even if Bitcoin replaces all money on Earth the average person won’t understand the technology behind it anymore than they have a deep understanding of how the cellphone in their pocket works.

Just curious, at what age and price point would this move from being tulips to being an actual store of value ala gold? Ignore volatility, bc it seems obvious to me that at a certain market cap volatility will be similar to that offild today. This was written in April/2013: ( https://fee.org/articles/bitcoin-for-beginners/ ) "As of this writing, a Bitcoin is trading for $88.249. Just three years ago, it hovered at $0.14. Many people look at the current market and think, surely this is a speculative bubble. That could be true, but it might not be. People are exchanging an unstable, fiat paper for something with a real title that cannot be duplicated. Everyone knows precisely how many Bitcoins exist at any time. Anyone can observe the transactions taking place in real time. A Bitcoin’s price can go up and down, and that’s fine, but there is no real speculation going on here that is endogenous to the Bitcoin market itself. Is it a pyramid scheme? The defining mark of a pyramid scheme is that more than one person has an equal claim on the same money or good. This is physically impossible with Bitcoin. The way the program is set up, it is a strict property rights regime with no exceptions."

It is the exact opposite. https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/autism-and-vaccines

<deleted> Feeling grumpy today. I should take my own advice sometimes. :(

I too have been taking D3 in about the amounts you have for almost 10 years. I take 10K UI 5-7 times per week. I always take it on work days where I spend the whole day in the office. I always take it everyday in the winter (not much sun in NH) and I'll take it or not on the weekends in the summer depending on what I am doing. If I'm going to be outside all day in August I'll skip it that day. Also I look for the gell caps packed in olive oil or coconut oil rather than high omega-6 oils. These are the two brands I've been using: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00JGCBGZQ http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0032BH76O I've also read somewhere that Vitamin K2 helps with the absorption of D3 (and vice versa) so I take K2 with it as well: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0771YC3GQ

I just ordered these two books on sale today: Good Profit: How Creating Value for Others Built One of the World's Most Successful Companies by Charles G. Koch $2.99 Out of My Later Years: The Scientist, Philosopher, and Man Portrayed Through His Own Words by Albert Einstein $1.99

Interesting that he doesn't mention the tech crash in 2000. "The Panic of 1907: When the Knickerbocker Trust Company failed, after a brazen attempt to manipulate the stock market led to a disastrous run on the banks, the Dow lost nearly half its value in weeks. Only billionaire J. P. Morgan was able to save the stock market. Black Tuesday (1929): As the newly created Federal Reserve System repeatedly adjusted interest rates in all the wrong ways, investment trusts, the darlings of that decade, became the catalyst that caused the bubble to burst, and the Dow fell dramatically, leading swiftly to the Great Depression. Black Monday (1987): When “portfolio insurance,” a new tool meant to protect investments, instead led to increased losses, and corporate raiders drove stock prices above their real values, the Dow dropped an astonishing 22.6 percent in one day. The Great Recession (2008): As homeowners began defaulting on mortgages, investment portfolios that contained them collapsed, bringing the nation’s largest banks, much of the economy, and the stock market down with them. The Flash Crash (2010): When one investment manager, using a runaway computer algorithm that was dangerously unstable and poorly understood, reacted to the economic turmoil in Greece, the stock market took an unprecedentedly sudden plunge, with the Dow shedding 998.5 points (roughly a trillion dollars in valuation) in just minutes."

LOL. I'm sure the IRS will be blown away by these arguments. This sounds like the morons who claim to be sovereign citizens in court before they are summarily taken to prison. Exactly. Those people who think they have some argument based on the text of this law or that law are idiots. It helps to look at the government as a gang of thugs who take what they want and are perfectly willing to use violence against you if they don't get it. It doesn't matter who is right and who is wrong. They have the power to take what you have, and you don't have the power to stop them. And most importantly, 99% of the people in society are sufficiently brainwashed to believe that the government is always right and you are a criminal if you say different. So you will have zero help from anyone if you resist. This is why I say it is worse than organized crime, because if you resist the mob at least your friends and neighbors won't look at you as the criminal. Government is the mob with a child brainwashing system. Long story short...pay your taxes.

SD, since you are fine trusting governments with your money: http://www.businessinsider.com/venezuela-launch-cryptocurrency-called-petro-2017-12

+1 This is why the left is having more and more difficult time understanding the world. What is obvious to everyone else is simply inexplicable to them. Thus they think it must be hatred or racism or ignorance or something.

Horrible book. There is nothing Warren Buffet about it - they suck people in with the title. They aren't even tracking real returns, everyone is tracking play-money accounts. Save your money. Someone on the amazon reviews said this here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/R4PU77352NP89/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_ttl?ie=UTF8&ASIN=0470573783 And someone else commented on the review: "This reviewer is flat out wrong. 1) While some of the results were first based on verifiable online portfolio returns, virtually all of the Warren Buffetts Next Door are investing real money in their brokerage accounts that mirror these virtual trades. This has been verified by the author. 2) It's easy to be lucky over a year or two or even three. All of the Warren Buffetts Next Door have verifiable track records ranging from six to nearly 11 years. Most mutual fund managers become stars after just five years of great performance. Furthermore many of the investors in the book, investing their real money, have been investing for more than 20 years and many in the book have achieved enviable wealth. 3) Book never writes off Mr. Buffett, in fact it sings his praises." That said, reading the other reviews I get the impression that the book is a profile of people who happened to get lucky, but don't have any real lessons to teach. Sort of like a reading profile of lottery winners. They won't be able to teach you how to win the lottery too.

"virtual currency is treated as property for U.S. federal tax purposes" https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/irs-virtual-currency-guidance

I don't wave flags or have any love for any country, but I also don't try to avoid taxes. I follow the laws in the place I choose to live even though I disagree with many of them (taxes included). The point of the last few posts isn't that taxes are good or bad it was that some people are claiming that the IRS going after crypto investors for taxes is a part of a bear case against crypto-investing. But the IRS wants its cut in absolutely everything you invest in, so how is that a negative only for crypto-currencies? It is a negative for people who choose to break the law (and get caught), but it has no effect on people who keep good records and pay their capital gains same as they would with stocks, or bonds, or real estate, or gold, or diamonds, or cattle futures, or anything else people invest in. It's bearish for cryptocurrencies because equity traders know they have to pay taxes on gains so they plan for the continual liquidity needs of taxes. Many bitcoin traders are anarchists who laughingly believe that the US government is simultaneously a tyrannical state and incompetent/incapable at collecting taxes, so they haven't planned to pay taxes on their gains. This is clear from how few coinbase accounts pay any taxes on their bitcoin gains. Further, the IRS will tax bitcoin realized gains as ordinary income, creating a larger liquidity needs than securities which pay lower cap gains rate. If the IRS comes after $10B in bitcoin related taxes, that will create a large amount of selling pressure on bitcoin. Where did you get that the IRS will tax it as ordinary income? What I understood was that it was treating it as an asset (same as stocks) so it would be a capital gain. Only mining income would be treated as an regular income. EDIT: This link explains what I have read in multiple other places: https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/040515/are-there-taxes-bitcoins.asp "every US taxpayer is required to keep a record of all buying, selling of, investing in, or using bitcoins to pay for goods or services (which the IRS considers bartering). Because bitcoins are being treated as assets, if you use bitcoins for simple transactions such as buying groceries at a supermarket you will incur a capital gains tax (either long-term or short-term depending on how long you have been holding the bitcoins). When it comes to bitcoins the following are different transactions that will lead to taxes: Selling bitcoins, mined personally, to a third party. Selling bitcoins, bought from someone, to a third party. Using bitcoins, which one may have mined, to buy goods or services. Using bitcoins, bought from someone, to buy goods or services. Scenarios one and three entail mining bitcoins, using personal resources, and selling them to someone for cash or equivalent value in goods and services. The value received from giving up the bitcoins is taxed as personal or business income after deducting any expenses incurred in the process of mining. Such expenses may include the cost electricity or the computer hardware used in the mining of bitcoins. Thus, if one is able to mine 10 bitcoins and sell them for $250 each. You have to report the $2500 as taxable income before any deductible expenses. Scenarios two and four are more like investments in an asset. Let’s say bitcoins were bought for $200 each, and one bitcoin was given up in exchange of $300 or equivalent value in goods. The investor has gained $100 on one bitcoin over the holding period and will attract capital gains tax (long-term if held for more than one year, otherwise short-term) on $100 earned by selling/exchanging the bitcoin."

I don't wave flags or have any love for any country, but I also don't try to avoid taxes. I follow the laws in the place I choose to live even though I disagree with many of them (taxes included). The point of the last few posts isn't that taxes are good or bad it was that some people are claiming that the IRS going after crypto investors for taxes is a part of a bear case against crypto-investing. But the IRS wants its cut in absolutely everything you invest in, so how is that a negative only for crypto-currencies? It is a negative for people who choose to break the law (and get caught), but it has no effect on people who keep good records and pay their capital gains same as they would with stocks, or bonds, or real estate, or gold, or diamonds, or cattle futures, or anything else people invest in. Dude, that wasn't aimed in ANY way at you & was prob totally uncalled for anyways. Humble apologies if u thought it was (I love all the thoughts u post here.) I was waving the flag in my own way (and I was also being a bit of a douche by derailing the thread.) No offence taken, I didn't think it was being aimed at me, but you did say "fire away" :) Probably belongs in the politics section though.

I don't wave flags or have any love for any country, but I also don't try to avoid taxes. I follow the laws in the place I choose to live even though I disagree with many of them (taxes included). The point of the last few posts isn't that taxes are good or bad it was that some people are claiming that the IRS going after crypto investors for taxes is a part of a bear case against crypto-investing. But the IRS wants its cut in absolutely everything you invest in, so how is that a negative only for crypto-currencies? It is a negative for people who choose to break the law (and get caught), but it has no effect on people who keep good records and pay their capital gains same as they would with stocks, or bonds, or real estate, or gold, or diamonds, or cattle futures, or anything else people invest in.

So it will be taxable? Kind of like stocks? Yes the IRS declared years ago (2012 or 13 maybe?) that it was going to treat bitcoin as an asset and selling it is a taxable event, like stocks. My comment was made in jest. Those pointing to the IRS wanting taxes as bearish is utterly absurd Oh OK, I thought everyone knew that by now. I agree. For those who are limiting their investments only to those things for which you do not have to pay taxes on the gains, what are you investing in?