Post
Topic
Board Securities
Re: Advice for a beginner please?
by
AccountManagement
on 27/12/2013, 16:01:39 UTC
Obviously I wont divulge figures but Im good at analysis thats my forte. I totally understand about contributing to the community but before I can do so I must become a part of it which is what Im trying.  Im not sure I understand the concept of flipping real estate but will read up on that.  If I can invest xbtc and make 2xbtc in y time then have I not doubled my holdings in btc regardless of fiat valuation?  It goes without saying your advice suggests such a return is unachievable right now.  Its starting to look as though Ive missed the boat and perhaps I should just stick buying and holding btc which Im more than happy to do just had a dream that I could buy shares and watch their value soar.

Forget real estate, let's talk widgets.
Imagine a widget that is selling today for one dollar.  You know that this widget will be worth two dollars in a year's time.  The widget is an excellent investment, offering you 100% ROI.  You invest one dollar and get two dollars back in a year's time.

Now imagine that you bought the same widget with bitcoin, which appreciates by 300% per year (it's doing better than that now, but let's be conservative).  Let's assume, just for the sake of simplifying the math, that at the time you invest, 1BTC=$1.  You buy your widget for 1 BTC, and in a year's time it appreciates -- it is worth $2.  But at the same time, BTC value has quadrupled, so when you sell the widget, you get 0.5BTC.  You have *lost* half of your bitcoin.


This is a definite concern with BTC investments that pay dividends in USD converted to BTC. Once you have some BTC denominated investments, it's not a bad idea to include some fiat dividend investments as a hedge against a falling USD/BTC rate. For a beginner though, yes, it's a good idea to take this risk into account.

This could be simplified to "BTC investments make sense only when the underlying asset appreciates at a greater rate than BTC itself."  BTC is the unit of account here, so any investment has to appreciate more rapidly than bitcoin itself to show a profit.  Betting that anything appreciates faster than bitcoin is currently a sucker's bet.

It's irrelevant what the dividends are paid in -- bitcoin or fiat.  Profiting in fiat will happen at the same rate, regardless of what the dividends are paid in -- dollars, BTC or vestal virgins.  If you have invested 1BTC when it was worth $10 and now your investment is worth $100, you have lost $776 dollars.  Paying dividends in fiat is not hedging, unless the money invested was also fiat.

Of course, if BTC tanks, this reasoning gets reversed.
TL;DR:  By investing BTC into any enterprise with fiat exposure, you are simply divesting from BTC.