New sub-board for cryptocurrencies?

dunstonh

No

This is a consumer board aimed at the average person. Not a speculative gambling board.

Cryptocurrencies may well have some use in the future but the current media fad is very similar to all the other fads that have come before. Anyone remember the dot.com crash when the media started telling people to get out their investments and go into tech funds. IIRC, the Daily Mail was the worst as it encouraged pensioners with fixed interest bonds to switch to tech funds at a point that was over 90% of peak and within a year it was worth 1/10th of its value.

Bitcoin is making it media flavour of the month. That is fuelling the price rise but when the inevitable crash comes, it will go quiet again.

There is not enough traffic in the subject to warrant a new sub-forum. Even the existing ISA and tax free savings sub-forum barely gets any posts and don't get me started on the ghost town that is auto-enrolment. Replies in that section tend to be to tell the poster to repost in the main section.

A sub-forum should be added when the posts start to swamp the section.

BananaRepublic

I wasn't aware the Daily Mail made such recommendations, I hope your memory fails you, but it wouldn't surprise me were it accurate. I recall the tech boom. Bitcoin is gambling.

The fools will pile in, then the insitutional investors will pile out en masse, leaving the fools nursing a
pile of worthless Bitcoins. It's like Robin Hood, but in reverse. A tax on stupidity.

Browntoa

No

I think one thread on bitcoin is enough ,it only looks like a big subject now as people open new thread's about every new news articles about bitcoin rather than Post it in the existing thread

Don't see the point in a sub board

onomatopoeia99

Yes

dunstonh wrote: »

This is a consumer board aimed at the average person. Not a speculative gambling board.

Which is a sound principle if applied to other speculative gambling, such as purchasing shares or funds that hold shares.

dunstonh

No

onomatopoeia99 wrote: »

Which is a sound principle if applied to other speculative gambling, such as purchasing shares or funds that hold shares.

Except they are not gambling. There is a difference between investing and gambling and making speculative punts.

Aegis

No

onomatopoeia99 wrote: »

Which is a sound principle if applied to other speculative gambling, such as purchasing shares or funds that hold shares.

dunstonh wrote: »

Except they are not gambling. There is a difference between investing and gambling and making speculative punts.

This is actually a really important distinction. Buying shares and holding them for an indefinite period is (or should be, for sound investing) a positive sum game. In other words, holding the asset should in itself generate returns from an external source in the form of dividends paid from operating profits. Investing in traditional currency is a marginally negative sum game due to the costs of trading (i.e. there are usually no external factors generating income for you directly as a result of you holding that currency - this may be affected by holding shares or cash accounts in said currency, but then you're not just investing in currency any more), hence currency speculation is generally not considered an investment.

Gambling is a negative sum game, in that the house always has a small edge. When making the comparisons to the above, investing in currency is closer to gambling due to being a negative sum game.

Obviously there are times when share investing becomes negative sum, i.e. when companies go bust or suffer major losses, which is why investment advisers generally recommend diversification of assets to minimise the chances of single companies suffering major losses and turning the game into negative-sum. Overall, though, a good investment strategy should be positive sum, meaning you can buy assets, receive an externally-provided income whilst you hold them and still sell them at a profit to someone else who should also be able to consider their purchase good value.

onomatopoeia99

Yes

dunstonh wrote: »

Except they are not gambling. There is a difference between investing and gambling and making speculative punts.

Both are buying something that could collapse in value overnight. Less likely with funds where the risk is distributed across multiple holdings, I'll give you, but it's not without precedent for a company listed on a major exchange to collapse without warning rendering their stock worthless.

sabretoothtigger

Yes

dunstonh wrote: »

Except they are not gambling. There is a difference between investing and gambling and making speculative punts.

Crypto isnt investing, any more then we talk about going to invest in some dollar notes.

I could gain on my dollars but its just speculation, my guess on various rates.

So I concur, except I think a sub forum might be best to stop the unaware believing crypto is ok. We arent vietnam yet, you can just use sterling and/or (over)pay your mortgage

unfortunately I got to tell Martin :money: off here for using the word invest.

Incidentally in last 4 years of being in crypto, its very driven by gambling and various laws. China doesnt like its free movement or any revenue they may miss from Macau. So it really is for that kind of person, ready to lose all

Thrugelmir

Yes

No need for a sub board. As just a fad that in due course will burst and simply fade into an entry in the history books. With another generation learning a hard lesson.

onomatopoeia99

Yes

sabretoothtigger wrote: »

Crypto isnt investing, any more then we talk about going to invest in some dollar notes.

I could gain on my dollars but its just speculation, my guess on various rates.

Forex trading is about as close an equivalent for crypto to a "traditional" investement / gamble (I will wait for the experts to tell me if forex trading is "investing" or "gambling") .

That assumes your interest is only buying and selling though.