Re: The Bullish Media Center (The 1 stop Bullish BTC news source)
Regarding your first point above, sometimes you may not realize that something is an issue until someone else raises it, and a lot of us are juggling a variety of things, so I think that in the end, you handled it well.. and sometimes preemptively striking is too much.
Totally agree. Sometimes, I have to learn the hard way unfortunately. However, I'm honest to admit it when I'm wrong and make apologies when it calls for it. I've done so several times on bitcointalk.org. Sometimes, it takes more of a man to admit when we are wrong. I've had to learn that the hard way in the past. I've found doing so is more profitable for both parties and encourages more profitable discussion for both parties.
Regarding your second point above, even though arguably we have had various periods of lower levels of bitcoin price volatility, it really seems that bitcoin is going to remain considerably volatile for several more years into the future, and so various individual investors in bitcoin need to consider these volatility matters in order to better protect their own investment in BTC, which is maybe a bit more work than some people want to employ to buy on the way down and to sell on the way up...
Totally agree. Which brings a point into play you mentioned below: "1) your bitcoin portfolio moves so far into the green that it does not really matter so much to you if BTC prices change by 10 or 20% or even more. Personally, I still believe that these kinds of BTC investors can still profit from BTC trading, but I recognize that it is less of a concern when most if not all of the investment is pure profits."
A bitcoin investor does not need to trade in really high quantities in order to achieve some BTC portfolio protections by buying on the way down and selling on the way up.
Totally agree with this statement as well. This is usually the case for me with BTC/USD trading for me. Usually smaller amounts with the occasional swing trading. My trades involving large amounts have pretty much occurred with alt coins (LTC/BTC and ETH/BTC).
There are a couple of ways to lessen concerns about bitcoin volatility:
1) your bitcoin portfolio moves so far into the green that it does not really matter so much to you if BTC prices change by 10 or 20% or even more. Personally, I still believe that these kinds of BTC investors can still profit from BTC trading, but I recognize that it is less of a concern when most if not all of the investment is pure profits.
2) the market cap of BTC rises to such a degree that manipulation and volatility becomes much more costly to achieve. This is almost so far into the future that we cannot quite imagine it. I personally believe we need at minimum about 100x increase in the market cap, but 1000x would be quite a bit safer in terms of lessening bitcoin's volatility. Yeah, sure I could be wrong, and possibly we could achieve 100x in a couple of years.. though I am thinking 4 years or more would be more likely - if it does occur (I hope to be wrong about my 100x BTC timeline idea, here).
1) your bitcoin portfolio moves so far into the green that it does not really matter so much to you if BTC prices change by 10 or 20% or even more. Personally, I still believe that these kinds of BTC investors can still profit from BTC trading, but I recognize that it is less of a concern when most if not all of the investment is pure profits.
2) the market cap of BTC rises to such a degree that manipulation and volatility becomes much more costly to achieve. This is almost so far into the future that we cannot quite imagine it. I personally believe we need at minimum about 100x increase in the market cap, but 1000x would be quite a bit safer in terms of lessening bitcoin's volatility. Yeah, sure I could be wrong, and possibly we could achieve 100x in a couple of years.. though I am thinking 4 years or more would be more likely - if it does occur (I hope to be wrong about my 100x BTC timeline idea, here).
It's hard for me to fall into the #1 category. Maybe it's my age (49) and concerns about retirement with a desire to take advantage of as many opportunities as possible. Every little bit over time adds up over time. Especially, if one considers compounding growth. If one always traded in small amounts [5% of their BTC bankroll for example] with the majority of trades being big winners with small losses, their BTC bankroll increases. Which means that 5% of their BTC bankroll on trades is increasing as well.
As for your #2 category; I totally agree with you. There will come a time where manipulation will become impossible. Just as hacking the bitcoin network to double spend is not worth it. As for volatility, I believe that will always be there.
Can you Imagine the following:
If bitcoin was 1,000 x the market cap what it is now, that would be approximately 7,000,000,000,000 USD. If we were to say we have 17,000,000 BTC in circulation 4 years from now with a 7 Trillion market cap, this would put each BTC at $411,764 USD.
Do you realize it would be common place to have $2,000 USD swings daily with BTC at that amount? Could you imagine how many people would be on exchanges trading with those kind of swings? I cannot imagine what kind of stress may or may not be involved with those kind of swings.
EDIT: The reason I say BTC will always be volatile; I consider $2,000 USD swings volatile. Yet, the price of BTC is so high, those of us with holdings of BTC in whole numbers and not decimal points will not be as concerned about the volatility. Those with decimal points would be more concerned. Those with decimal points would consider $2,000 USD swings as volatile while those with multiple whole numbers will not view it as very volatile.