So my question is what caused the sudden raises and falls? Especially back in August, over a few weeks the market skyrocketed, and then in a day or a few days went rock bottom. why? and what causes the bitcoin to raise and raise in price today?
Read up on the Pirate fiasco. He was offering 7% interest per week for deposits into his scheme, and there was a sort of frenzy as people tried to get money into his scheme, buying more bitcoins so they could invest at the great rate. Then in August he suddenly closed shop and made off with his victims money, and so the price dropped as uncertainty filled the market.
Recently there have been mentions of bitcoin in several high profile publications, and more people have been exposed to it. The more people use bitcoin, the higher its value will be.