I remember like 3 months ago they were like 25$. I almost bought some then for the fuck of it. Then I would probably not have sold out yesterday, and then I probably would've wanted to kill myself today. Poor people who hopped on the bandwagon yesterday (there were like 8 reddit threads)
There was a kid on Reddit who put $4,000 of his savings in and bought at $270, because all the kids over there are saying it's going to hit $2,000/BTC by the end of the year... even if it did hit that, it's not because that's the value of the coin, it's because pump-n-dump firms road it up that high only to take everyones shirts and make ridiculous profits on something that has a value somewhere at or below $5 at best.
That's awful. Stuff like this needs to be taught in school. I cannot think of any instance where there was widespread speculation about a bubble, and it not eventually being revealed as one. If there is no clear rationale for a steep price increase, the price will fall just as easily. That really needs to be taught. It's awful that those that get burned the worse are often those that can afford it the least. I think its because bad financial decisions are driven by emotion, and if you are at great risk, it was probably an emotional decision that got you in that situation. The poor kid probably fell asleep dreaming about what he'd do with his $400k.
I advised him against it and told him "Only put in what you are willing to lose 100% of, if this is MOST of your money, you shouldn't be buying something you know so little about."... and I was heavily downvoted. Poor kid knew nothing about it, just saw everyone else talking about "how rich they have gotten" on bitcoin, which is probably mostly just made up BS anyway, and he decided to jump in because everyone on there yesterday was convinced that $270 was "just the beginning". Poor guy bought into it. But hey, maybe he'll stay in it for the long haul and be successful, but if he panicked and sold today he's out over a grand in under 24 hours. People need to be careful, and for fucks sakes don't take investment advice from a circlejerk forum like /r/bitcoin! You can make money on bitcoin, yes, but only if you know what you're doing and understand it's volatile. If you listen to the "ONLY GOING UP!" people you won't have two twenties to rub together a month or a year from now.It's awful that those that get burned the worse are often those that can afford it the least. I think its because bad financial decisions are driven by emotion, and if you are at great risk, it was probably an emotional decision that got you in that situation. The poor kid probably fell asleep dreaming about what he'd do with his $400k.