Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler Cryptocurrencies, anyone playing in this market?

I've been trying to ignore this market for a couple years now.....

I'm not risk-averse, but not a big risk taker either. Risk verse reward kinda guy really. The potential upside is too alluring to ignore.

I started studying this market about three months ago, and decided to jump in. Only enough money that I could stand to lose. I was lucky enough double my initial investment in 48 hours, so I moved 50% of that out to a secure fund. Now I'm playing with pure earnings.

My gut tells me this market will eventually go mainstream, and now is the time to get in on the ground floor. Payback could be substantial. It could also tank in a moment though too. This is definitely not a market to jump into unless you can stomach the huge swings.

I don't like this because it's so alien to me. It's incredibly volatile, and the markets never sleep. I don't understand blockchain either. I've read a few different articles on the internet and am trying to get more informed on this. Problem is, I don't know what to believe, or if there is a good unbiased place to learn.

Might anyone here have some suggestions? I'm betting some of the 'tech' guys here have been playing this market and have some advice?

Not for me.

You can go into related markets that are not as volatile. Simple example - NVidia who's stock has been largely fueled by Bitcoin mining in recent history, however they also have a bright future in other ventures such as AI, self driving cars etc... Standard investment stuff - spread the risk around.

Congrats on jumping into Cryptocurrency directly and quickly reaping the payoff! Risk can lead to reward.

And of course there's the about to be booming marijuana industry in Canada.

Cheers,

The pot market is an interesting one to watch.
Everyone I know that's wants it already has a reliable source or is the reliable source.
Pretty sure most of them won't be standing in line anytime soon.
Might be the first bubble to burst on its opening day. Just my $0.02.
That said it'll be neat to see where this goes.

I bought Nvidia in 16. Had no idea they were in AI.

Mike, as I quickly scanned the post titles, yours caught my interest because of my own investing and my practice in estate planning and investing. I have no crypto-currency speculations and my general attitude toward the area is well-expressed by Steven Johnson writing in the New York Times Magazine that it's been taken over by "a veritable goon squad of charlatans, false prophets and mercenaries"(reminds one of certain areas of audio selling, as well).

The blockchain technology supporting it, among other areas, may be more promising and less hazardous, however, as this article discusses. As Dan wrote, investing in the technology rather than the currency may be a better way to go. You already own NVDA, which has some direct activity in the area, and three ETFs have just been started which invest in such companies(LEGR, BLOK, and BLCN). Interesting to note that the SEC has denied approval to cryptocurrency ETFs and even "suggested" that the three above remove the word "blockchain" from their titles before submitting them for approval(which was done).

That type of ETF may be worth it with a small part of your portfolio. My overall investment suggestion would be for a broader ETF focus on growth equities, such as the "pure growth" RPG which has performed well for a number of years. It correctly uses the factors of growth in sales, earnings and share price rather than the high PE ratios, etc. which many academic studies use in claiming that "value" beats "growth" in the market.

Thanks, John!

I would rather invest in the tech, verse the crypto funds. I like where you are going with that and I totally agree.

I'm certain that most of the crypto companies are shady at best. The manner in which one has to acquire shares is really clunky too. Makes me nervous. But like I mentioned, I'm using pure earnings now.

I added those three ETFs you noted to my watch list. Thank you. I might just buy a few shares of each and go long. Another one that I did buy is BIG (BBKCF). I'm going long with it.

That RPG you noted is a nice fund. It's on my watch list now too....

I have my personal portfolio, plus my 401k. Both with Fidelity. I'm too close to retirement to get risky with either. But I do set aside about 20% of my personal account for high risk/high return options and the remainder is much lower risk mutual funds, Morning Star ratings of 4 and 5. In retrospect, the high-risk portion of my portfolio has not ever really worked out for me. It stays pretty flat between the wins and losses.....

I work in a very "green" conscious university, and one of the issues that is always raised when this topic arises is the environmental impact.

I'm new here and I want to mention that I'm a risk-versus-reward kinda guy and I figured that the last year was time to jump in. I was lucky enough to double my initial investment in 48 hours and so I moved half of it out to a secure fund before I started playing with pure earnings. Now I'm just trying to figure out the best time to trade. I've been doing some research and it seems that the best times to trade Forex are when the markets overlap, such as during the London and US session. That's when the market is most active and liquidity is at its highest. If anyone has any other advice, I'm all ears!

Look at the self-fuleing model of crypto ("value" created by money coming in to buy the profit margin of earlier buyers), then compare it to Ponzi's scheme. Do the math...
Will be sad when it implodes and affects even the people who did not get involved.