BITCOIN

Linton

Scottex99 said:

Agree, there are no right or wrong answers. But a large number of people would consider investing most of your portfolio in one share, coin etc as 'gambling'.
You might have 100% conviction on the 4.20 at Aintree, but others will call it gambling.

Fair, but only Reddit kids or people with insane risk tolerance would do it that way. Most people would try to diversify through various types of assets at least. There’s still people holding half of their NW in crypto who laugh in disbelief as some 18 year old kid turns 20k into 10m on dog money.

I guess the beauty of it is the pro crypto people are generally sub 40 so don’t care if they blow up their accounts a few time. Horses for courses

This is key.  As this is a Savings and Investment forum the comments I make are purely on the basis of using crypto as a sensible way of changing one's life - "serious" investing.  If it's done for fun with  money whose loss would not change your life then you are in a different ballgame.  As a hobby, I can see quite a few advantages of crypto beyond simple fun and excitement, particularly educational ones. A  basic understandiing of finance is becoming essential for many people by the time they reach the age of 40.

Scottex99

Yep, agreed.

I started with $200 each in about 5 coins that were listed on eToro in Dec 17.

Was just a fun punt back then but it’s also completely changed my life now, both financially and what I do for a living

Adyinvestment

Pretty big week for Bitcoin news


The 2nd US Bitcoin ETF launches today

US RIA's (I think the US equivalent of our IFA's) can now offer their clients crypto

The world's largest retailer Walmart is putting Bitcoin ATMs in their shops


Being able to have Bitcoin in their pensions and seeing Bitcoin machines when you do your grocery shopping feels a very long way away for the UK, but from an American point of view Bitcoin has got to be getting to the point that it is considered mainstream.

RolandFlagg

Today's news (stolen from Coin Bureau newsletter):

American supermarket giant, Walmart has announced plans to install a full 8,000 Bitcoin ATMs in its stores and has recently completed the introduction of an initial 200, as a pilot project.

These ATMs will allow customers to purchase and claim BTC via a redemption code but will not, for the time being, facilitate the withdrawal of BTC based funds.

Although some users have voiced concern over the transaction fees involved in utilizing these ATMs, I see this as a great step toward mass adoption. Even those who spend little-to-no time on the web, will now be exposed to cryptocurrency…

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-10-21/walmart-shoppers-can-now-buy-bitcoin-at-200-kiosks-in-its-stores?srnd=cryptocurrencies

eskbanker

Seems a bit disingenuous to describe these as ATMs, as the available functionality (at this stage at least) would seem better labelled as 'vending machines'....

Thrugelmir

Scottex99 said:

The only problem with doing 4-5 years of crypto investing, when you go back to traditional it feels like an absolute bore. Of course more money is the only aim of the game but you switch back into gold or some stock that does 2.39% in a year (up or down) and it's... boring.

My best investments over the years have been boring. Endlessly grinding out cash profits to distribute to shareholders. 

Adyinvestment

eskbanker said:

Seems a bit disingenuous to describe these as ATMs, as the available functionality (at this stage at least) would seem better labelled as 'vending machines'....

They are big machines with Bitcoin plastered all over it, giving you the ability to buy Bitcoin (and also send it all over the world)

That's good enough for me 

eskbanker

Adyinvestment said:

eskbanker said:

Seems a bit disingenuous to describe these as ATMs, as the available functionality (at this stage at least) would seem better labelled as 'vending machines'....

They are big machines with Bitcoin plastered all over it, giving you the ability to buy Bitcoin (and also send it all over the world)

That's good enough for me 

Anyone used one of these Coke ATMs recently?

Adyinvestment

I can't think of many better ways to advertise/legitimise/build a brand name for CocaCola than them ATM's lol

RolandFlagg

I just want to give an example of how adding 2% of BTC in the past can produce big upside in the years it does well, but doesn't give much more downside on the years it does badly with this chart:

https://snipboard.io/9hVOFR.jpg

The boxes to look at are the White AA box. This is standard 60% stocks, 40% bonds portfolio.

And the Grey box that says AAw/2.0%. This is 58% stocks, 40% bonds, 2% bitcoin.

For example:

Bitcoin good year 2017:
Standard 60/40 (white box) up 14.6%
58/40/2 allocation (grey box) up 40.6%

Bitcoin bad year 2018:
Standard 60/40 (white box) down 5.6%
58/40/2 allocation (grey box) down 6.8%

When Bitcoin goes up in a year, it often goes parabolic.

But yet in 2018 when it crashed 72%, it would have given you only a 1.2% extra loss to a standard 60/40 portfolio.