Your 2017 Best Ideas

[roughlyright]

Same here. My best investments this year have been in Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin.

[LC]

Best investment in 2017 was 3M (+40%) and PM (+30%). Those are like 1.5 year returns, not 2017 YTD.

 

Going forward I don't see much. Took a small position in DVA. Larger positions in CMP and C.

[DocSnowball]

Paratek pharmaceuticals PRTK - successful drug trials for the first new once daily iv and oral drug for pneumonia in over a decade. Up 30% year to date for me, and on the block for an auction like buyout by big pharma.

 

Undervalued still because 1) FDA killed a competitor drug earlier this year (Solithromycin from Cempra) which scared the market but actually will benefit this company in the long run. 2) higher than expected nausea and vomiting rate in the latest oral only skin infection trial, but very very few patients needed to stop the drug and no increased serious side effects

 

Baupost is second largest institutional investor and the CEO is positioning the company very well to survive any scenario. Heads you win another 50% plus this year if buyout by big pharma, tails this at least doubles over a longer multi year horizon from cash flows it brings back to the firm.

[TheAiGuy]

My best investment this year has been JD.com.

 

All the bitcoins investors here, though, wow.

[Guest FFHfan]

My best investment is Wirecard. It's up 112%. It's a close to two year old holding.

 

[Gregmal]

If we're talking about current 2017 investments that have performed the best, NVTR. Although I hate talking about things like performance on the internet because not only is it unverifiable, but its completely useless to me going forward. Telling someone I made x%, or someone telling me they did the same does nothing for anyone. I'd almost prefer hearing from people with losses cuz at least you know they are being honest.

 

Future ideas, which are much more productive discussions, I'd say GEOS and MSGN are things I like. MSGN just because they have one of a kind assets and a motivated seller. Not huge upside, maybe 30%, but I think it's dirt cheap with limited downside. GEOS I think is at an inflection point and with a slight uptick in the sentiment around oil markets, ready to double, at least.

[gurpaul88]

My best investments this year haven't been stocks at all. It has been Ethereum (ETH) and Monero (XMR), my cost basis in both is in the single digits $USD.  Not to mention BTC which has done well too.

 

As far as stocks I'm currently accumulating WFCF and POEFF.

 

Curious to what you use (and others) to trade these crypocurrencies. Is there not an inherent cash out risk?

[rkbabang]

My best investments this year haven't been stocks at all. It has been Ethereum (ETH) and Monero (XMR), my cost basis in both is in the single digits $USD.  Not to mention BTC which has done well too.

 

As far as stocks I'm currently accumulating WFCF and POEFF.

 

Curious to what you use (and others) to trade these crypocurrencies. Is there not an inherent cash out risk?

 

I've only used $USD to buy Bitcoin at Coinbase and using cash at Bitcoin ATM machines.

I've then traded Bitcoin for all the others using shapeshift, poloniex, and bittrex. 

 

Yes there is cash out risk, Coinbase is probably the best way to convert back to $USD, but I've never done so.

 

I'm planning on holding long term until I can spend the cryptocurrencies themselves.

 

[Nebraska]

Shopify +74%

 

and

 

Alibaba +66%

 

Have been the best performing stocks in my portfolio so far this year.

[hillfronter83]

It was GSOL for me for last a few years. The deal to sell the company closed yesterday.

[Paarslaars]

If we're talking about current 2017 investments that have performed the best, NVTR. Although I hate talking about things like performance on the internet because not only is it unverifiable, but its completely useless to me going forward. Telling someone I made x%, or someone telling me they did the same does nothing for anyone. I'd almost prefer hearing from people with losses cuz at least you know they are being honest.

 

In that case:

 

- DEST: - 80%

- FELP: - 40%

- PWE (OBE): - 50%

- BTE: -50%

 

Have not been having a good year, my best performers were NVTR and CDU, though they barely make a dent in the losses.

To think I almost bought crypto's in the beginning of the year.  :-\

[clutch]

If we're talking about current 2017 investments that have performed the best, NVTR. Although I hate talking about things like performance on the internet because not only is it unverifiable, but its completely useless to me going forward. Telling someone I made x%, or someone telling me they did the same does nothing for anyone. I'd almost prefer hearing from people with losses cuz at least you know they are being honest.

 

In that case:

 

- DEST: - 80%

- FELP: - 40%

- PWE (OBE): - 50%

- BTE: -50%

 

Have not been having a good year, my best performers were NVTR and CDU, though they barely make a dent in the losses.

To think I almost bought crypto's in the beginning of the year.  :-\

 

I also owned / own DEST, OBE, and BTE. Not a good year for me so far.

 

Another thing that bites me is that I sold NVDA at around 100. I had it for two years since I bought it at mid 20s...So, very happy with the return but am thinking I should have just held it for the long run.

 

The good: I bought a lot of FFH around 560. I traded around BRY.TO between 0.50 and 0.70 for a couple of quick gains. I also bought some crypto, but I'm treating that as complete speculation anyways.

[Aberhound]

I sold all my tax free savings account stocks in January and bought Bitcoin then added all new savings to Bitcoin and Ethereum since then mostly whenever there were big dips.

[rkbabang]

I sold all my tax free savings account stocks in January and bought Bitcoin then added all new savings to Bitcoin and Ethereum since then mostly whenever there were big dips.

 

Wow.  I didn't even come close to going all-in like that.  I'd have to go and figure it out, buy I've probably invested about $10K total in my entire basket of cryptocurrencies in the last 2 years, maybe a little less.  That small amount is in the 6-figures now. Had I done what you did, I'd be retiring now.

 

[SnarkyPuppy]

I sold all my tax free savings account stocks in January and bought Bitcoin then added all new savings to Bitcoin and Ethereum since then mostly whenever there were big dips.

 

Wow.  I didn't even come close to going all-in like that.  I'd have to go and figure it out, buy I've probably invested about $10K total in my entire basket of cryptocurrencies in the last 2 years, maybe a little less.  That small amount is in the 6-figures now. Had I done what you did, I'd be retiring now.

 

If you guys don't mind-

 

- What are both of your thoughts on cryptos going forward?  Which specific cryptos are you most bullish on?

- How are you storing your crypto assets?  I have been holding btc, eth, and lc but I keep them in coinbase which I understand isn't without substantial risk.  Moving outside of coinbase seems somewhat complicated and messy

 

[rkbabang]

I sold all my tax free savings account stocks in January and bought Bitcoin then added all new savings to Bitcoin and Ethereum since then mostly whenever there were big dips.

 

Wow.  I didn't even come close to going all-in like that.  I'd have to go and figure it out, buy I've probably invested about $10K total in my entire basket of cryptocurrencies in the last 2 years, maybe a little less.  That small amount is in the 6-figures now. Had I done what you did, I'd be retiring now.

 

If you guys don't mind-

 

- What are both of your thoughts on cryptos going forward?  Which specific cryptos are you most bullish on?

- How are you storing your crypto assets?  I have been holding btc, eth, and lc but I keep them in coinbase which I understand isn't without substantial risk.  Moving outside of coinbase seems somewhat complicated and messy

 

 

The risk is of course tremendous, I think this is about the riskiest space you can invest in right now.  Like internet stocks in the 90s.

Of course when all is said and done I think there will be a great shakeup and crash, and tremendous value will come out the otherside equal or greater than the internet itself.  There will be many pets.com's and a few amazon.com's which change the way the world does certain things.

 

Because of this my strategy has been and is a shotgun approach.  I will buy and hold what I see as the best candidates to survive then sit back and see what happens.

 

I currently own Bitcoin (BTC), Bitcoin Cash (BTH), Ethereum (ETH), DASH, Monero (XMR), NEO, GAS, Polybius (PLBT), and Tezos.

 

I don't hold any of them at exchanges like Coinbase.  I have used Coinbase to buy Bitcoin, but I then transfer it out to wallets where I own the keys.

 

For Bitcoin I have a small amount in the Bread Wallet IOS app, a small amount in the Jaxx IOS app, and most in a paper wallet.

 

To create a paper wallet go here:  https://bitcoinpaperwallet.com/

Make sure that you disconnect your computer from the internet before creating the wallet at that site or any other.  After printing multiple copies, power down your printer to remove it from memory. Then delete your browser's cache.

 

To create a paper wallet for Ethereum go here: https://www.myetherwallet.com/

Take the same precautions.

 

For Monero I use: https://mymonero.com/

 

For NEO/GAS: https://neowallet.cn/

 

I only hold a small amount of DASH and I keep it in Jaxx.

 

Polybius is just a ETH token, so you hold it in an etherium wallet.

 

And Tezos you can't buy yet, because the ICO is over and it hasn't started trading on the exchanges yet.

 

One of the reasons cryptocurrencies are still a fringe type thing is the difficulty in figuring all this stuff out.  That is pain, but it is also an opportunity.

 

Coinbase is probably fine for the time being, but if you don't control your private keys, you don't really control your assets in the case of something happening to Coinbase.  They could go out of business.  They could be hacked.  I don't think they will go out of business in the near future, but as far as being hacked, you can't discount that as a real possibility.

 

[Guest Cameron]

I sold all my tax free savings account stocks in January and bought Bitcoin then added all new savings to Bitcoin and Ethereum since then mostly whenever there were big dips.

 

Wow.  I didn't even come close to going all-in like that.  I'd have to go and figure it out, buy I've probably invested about $10K total in my entire basket of cryptocurrencies in the last 2 years, maybe a little less.  That small amount is in the 6-figures now. Had I done what you did, I'd be retiring now.

 

If you guys don't mind-

 

- What are both of your thoughts on cryptos going forward?  Which specific cryptos are you most bullish on?

- How are you storing your crypto assets?  I have been holding btc, eth, and lc but I keep them in coinbase which I understand isn't without substantial risk.  Moving outside of coinbase seems somewhat complicated and messy

 

Its nothing more then a ledger, a means to transfer money, the only think I can equate this to is if everyone ran out and purchased checkbooks with the hope the price of them would go up significantly. Bitcoin has shifted from the minority of people who used it for its actually purpose to people buying it with the hope they can sell it to someone else for more. This has happened to bitcoin before and the only thing of value in any of this is the blockchain. Going forward I see this as nothing more than a fad much like fidget spinners and Pokemon Go.

[SnarkyPuppy]

I sold all my tax free savings account stocks in January and bought Bitcoin then added all new savings to Bitcoin and Ethereum since then mostly whenever there were big dips.

 

Wow.  I didn't even come close to going all-in like that.  I'd have to go and figure it out, buy I've probably invested about $10K total in my entire basket of cryptocurrencies in the last 2 years, maybe a little less.  That small amount is in the 6-figures now. Had I done what you did, I'd be retiring now.

 

If you guys don't mind-

 

- What are both of your thoughts on cryptos going forward?  Which specific cryptos are you most bullish on?

- How are you storing your crypto assets?  I have been holding btc, eth, and lc but I keep them in coinbase which I understand isn't without substantial risk.  Moving outside of coinbase seems somewhat complicated and messy

 

Its nothing more then a ledger, a means to transfer money, the only think I can equate this to is if everyone ran out and purchased checkbooks with the hope the price of them would go up significantly. Bitcoin has shifted from the minority of people who used it for its actually purpose to people buying it with the hope they can sell it to someone else for more. This has happened to bitcoin before and the only thing of value in any of this is the blockchain. Going forward I see this as nothing more than a fad much like fidget spinners and Pokemon Go.

 

Not sure I think the future is knowable here.  One thesis is it simply replaces gold as a store of value - probably unlikely but +EV under most scenarios

[Guest Cameron]

I sold all my tax free savings account stocks in January and bought Bitcoin then added all new savings to Bitcoin and Ethereum since then mostly whenever there were big dips.

 

Wow.  I didn't even come close to going all-in like that.  I'd have to go and figure it out, buy I've probably invested about $10K total in my entire basket of cryptocurrencies in the last 2 years, maybe a little less.  That small amount is in the 6-figures now. Had I done what you did, I'd be retiring now.

 

If you guys don't mind-

 

- What are both of your thoughts on cryptos going forward?  Which specific cryptos are you most bullish on?

- How are you storing your crypto assets?  I have been holding btc, eth, and lc but I keep them in coinbase which I understand isn't without substantial risk.  Moving outside of coinbase seems somewhat complicated and messy

 

Its nothing more then a ledger, a means to transfer money, the only think I can equate this to is if everyone ran out and purchased checkbooks with the hope the price of them would go up significantly. Bitcoin has shifted from the minority of people who used it for its actually purpose to people buying it with the hope they can sell it to someone else for more. This has happened to bitcoin before and the only thing of value in any of this is the blockchain. Going forward I see this as nothing more than a fad much like fidget spinners and Pokemon Go.

 

Not sure I think the future is knowable here.  One thesis is it simply replaces gold as a store of value - probably unlikely but +EV under most scenarios

 

I had an older friend who I have no talked to in a while call me a couple days ago and tell me to put money into cyptocurrencies because it will be worth millions in a year, there are videos on YouTube of people daydreaming about what they will do with all the money they are going to make from bitcoin, ether etc.  Yet I have had no one tell me what value the actual bitcoin adds. I'm pretty sure China banned these things this week, so if the thesis is that people will use bitcoins instead on gold there goes your biggest market.

[SnarkyPuppy]

I sold all my tax free savings account stocks in January and bought Bitcoin then added all new savings to Bitcoin and Ethereum since then mostly whenever there were big dips.

 

Wow.  I didn't even come close to going all-in like that.  I'd have to go and figure it out, buy I've probably invested about $10K total in my entire basket of cryptocurrencies in the last 2 years, maybe a little less.  That small amount is in the 6-figures now. Had I done what you did, I'd be retiring now.

 

If you guys don't mind-

 

- What are both of your thoughts on cryptos going forward?  Which specific cryptos are you most bullish on?

- How are you storing your crypto assets?  I have been holding btc, eth, and lc but I keep them in coinbase which I understand isn't without substantial risk.  Moving outside of coinbase seems somewhat complicated and messy

 

 

The risk is of course tremendous, I think this is about the riskiest space you can invest in right now.  Like internet stocks in the 90s.

Of course when all is said and done I think there will be a great shakeup and crash, and tremendous value will come out the otherside equal or greater than the internet itself.  There will be many pets.com's and a few amazon.com's which change the way the world does certain things.

 

Because of this my strategy has been and is a shotgun approach.  I will buy and hold what I see as the best candidates to survive then sit back and see what happens.

 

I currently own Bitcoin (BTC), Bitcoin Cash (BTH), Ethereum (ETH), DASH, Monero (XMR), NEO, GAS, Polybius (PLBT), and Tezos.

 

I don't hold any of them at exchanges like Coinbase.  I have used Coinbase to buy Bitcoin, but I then transfer it out to wallets where I own the keys.

 

For Bitcoin I have a small amount in the Bread Wallet IOS app, a small amount in the Jaxx IOS app, and most in a paper wallet.

 

To create a paper wallet go here:  https://bitcoinpaperwallet.com/

Make sure that you disconnect your computer from the internet before creating the wallet at that site or any other.  After printing multiple copies, power down your printer to remove it from memory. Then delete your browser's cache.

 

To create a paper wallet for Ethereum go here: https://www.myetherwallet.com/

Take the same precautions.

 

For Monero I use: https://mymonero.com/

 

For NEO/GAS: https://neowallet.cn/

 

I only hold a small amount of DASH and I keep it in Jaxx.

 

Polybius is just a ETH token, so you hold it in an etherium wallet.

 

And Tezos you can't buy yet, because the ICO is over and it hasn't started trading on the exchanges yet.

 

One of the reasons cryptocurrencies are still a fringe type thing is the difficulty in figuring all this stuff out.  That is pain, but it is also an opportunity.

 

Coinbase is probably fine for the time being, but if you don't control your private keys, you don't really control your assets in the case of something happening to Coinbase.  They could go out of business.  They could be hacked.  I don't think they will go out of business in the near future, but as far as being hacked, you can't discount that as a real possibility.

 

Thank you very much for this.  I guess one concern w/ holding on paper is any impact that future forks would have and whether a paper private key would factor those in? 

[SnarkyPuppy]

I sold all my tax free savings account stocks in January and bought Bitcoin then added all new savings to Bitcoin and Ethereum since then mostly whenever there were big dips.

 

Wow.  I didn't even come close to going all-in like that.  I'd have to go and figure it out, buy I've probably invested about $10K total in my entire basket of cryptocurrencies in the last 2 years, maybe a little less.  That small amount is in the 6-figures now. Had I done what you did, I'd be retiring now.

 

If you guys don't mind-

 

- What are both of your thoughts on cryptos going forward?  Which specific cryptos are you most bullish on?

- How are you storing your crypto assets?  I have been holding btc, eth, and lc but I keep them in coinbase which I understand isn't without substantial risk.  Moving outside of coinbase seems somewhat complicated and messy

 

Its nothing more then a ledger, a means to transfer money, the only think I can equate this to is if everyone ran out and purchased checkbooks with the hope the price of them would go up significantly. Bitcoin has shifted from the minority of people who used it for its actually purpose to people buying it with the hope they can sell it to someone else for more. This has happened to bitcoin before and the only thing of value in any of this is the blockchain. Going forward I see this as nothing more than a fad much like fidget spinners and Pokemon Go.

 

Not sure I think the future is knowable here.  One thesis is it simply replaces gold as a store of value - probably unlikely but +EV under most scenarios

 

I had an older friend who I have no talked to in a while call me a couple days ago and tell me to put money into cyptocurrencies because it will be worth millions in a year, there are videos on YouTube of people daydreaming about what they will do with all the money they are going to make from bitcoin, ether etc.  Yet I have had no one tell me what value the actual bitcoin adds. I'm pretty sure China banned these things this week, so if the thesis is that people will use bitcoins instead on gold there goes your biggest market.

 

Nobody on this board is going to argue against the fact that this is highly speculative.  But the fact that this has attributes consistent with other bubbles (internet daytrading) is not evidence that this is a bubble.  To the extent it becomes a widely accepted store of value (i.e. gold) the price movements over the past year are very immaterial.  What value does gold add that bitcoin doesn't?  Bitcoin is decentralized - nobody cares what the China government says. 

[rkbabang]

I sold all my tax free savings account stocks in January and bought Bitcoin then added all new savings to Bitcoin and Ethereum since then mostly whenever there were big dips.

 

Wow.  I didn't even come close to going all-in like that.  I'd have to go and figure it out, buy I've probably invested about $10K total in my entire basket of cryptocurrencies in the last 2 years, maybe a little less.  That small amount is in the 6-figures now. Had I done what you did, I'd be retiring now.

 

If you guys don't mind-

 

- What are both of your thoughts on cryptos going forward?  Which specific cryptos are you most bullish on?

- How are you storing your crypto assets?  I have been holding btc, eth, and lc but I keep them in coinbase which I understand isn't without substantial risk.  Moving outside of coinbase seems somewhat complicated and messy

 

Its nothing more then a ledger, a means to transfer money, the only think I can equate this to is if everyone ran out and purchased checkbooks with the hope the price of them would go up significantly. Bitcoin has shifted from the minority of people who used it for its actually purpose to people buying it with the hope they can sell it to someone else for more. This has happened to bitcoin before and the only thing of value in any of this is the blockchain. Going forward I see this as nothing more than a fad much like fidget spinners and Pokemon Go.

 

Not sure I think the future is knowable here.  One thesis is it simply replaces gold as a store of value - probably unlikely but +EV under most scenarios

 

Even intelligent people have a hard time assessing the impact new technology will have on the future.

 

“The growth of the Internet will slow drastically, as the flaw in ‘Metcalfe’s law’—which states that the number of potential connections in a network is proportional to the square of the number of participants—becomes apparent: most people have nothing to say to each other! By 2005 or so, it will become clear that the Internet’s impact on the economy has been no greater than the fax machine’s.”

--Paul Krugman, 1998

 

Because they can't be censored (solves google, FB, twitter censorship issues) or changed (solves people creating fake media with false attributions to discredit/destroy someone), and you can verify what you said/posted and when you said it, allows micropayments, etc, blockchains of one type or another will replace youtube, facebook, twitter, music streaming apps, podcasting apps, and will have other applications we haven't thought of quite yet.  Money is just the obvious 1st app, sort of like email was with the internet.

 

[rkbabang]

I guess one concern w/ holding on paper is any impact that future forks would have and whether a paper private key would factor those in? 

 

That is another good reason to hold your own keys.  When there is a fork your keys are automatically valid on both chains going forward.  But if you hold a balance at an exchange it is up to the exchange whether or not to give you access to both currencies or not.

 

[rkbabang]

What value does gold add that bitcoin doesn't?  Bitcoin is decentralized - nobody cares what the China government says. 

 

The only advantages that I can think of that gold has over bitcoin is that it is physical, which means two things.  1) In a total TEOTWAWKI situation with no more electricity you can still trade your gold for stuff.  And 2) You can't fondle your Bitcoin.

 

 

[Cardboard]

POE

 

It has been de-risked with the presence of hydrocarbons and within a few days or max one year, you are looking at a 10 to 100 bagger potential. If not your money back minus 10% from here?

 

Cardboard