Slashdot Mirror
Nearly a Third of Millennials Say They'd Rather Own Bitcoin Than Stocks (bloomberg.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: A survey by venture capital firm Blockchain Capital found that about 30 percent of those in the 18-to-34 age range would rather own $1,000 worth of Bitcoin than $1,000 of government bonds or stocks. The study of more than 2,000 people found that 42 percent of millennials are at least somewhat familiar with bitcoin, compared with 15 percent among those ages 65 and up. Bitcoin rose more than 6 percent Wednesday to as much as $7,545, helping to push the value of the total cryptocurrency market above $200 billion for the first time, according to CoinMarketcap. The digital asset has soared more than 600 percent this year, compared with gains of 15 percent for the S&P 500 Index -- which might explain millennials' attraction.
Don't run with the herd if you want to make real money..
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
Millennials in tech are also a scam, so they deserve each other.
And this is how the unknowing are separated from their wealth. Buy high, sell low, boys.
This. They see the stock market as being controlled by Wall Street; they can't get in on the game, so they turn towards another game that lets them do nothing while they imagine they're accruing value somehow. Nobody ever went broke offering people something for nothing.
I was originally going with "It's because they're stupid. That's why. That's why everybody does everything." - Homer Simpson
BitCoin are unregulated investment instruments. They can't keep climbing indefinitely and some people will lose their shirts.
Not you of course. No, you're special.
The most dangerous words in finance are 'this time is different' and no, no it's not different. Investments are regulated so that people are protected from the Bernie Madoffs of the world and it's necessary to do so.
---- The above post was generated by the Turing Institute. Maybe.
Yet, they think they are smarter if you talk to them. I remember when I was dumb too, so I guess I cannot complain that much about the young skulls full of mush not listening to my sage advice born from the wisdom of experiences brought about by both success and failures. They will learn, the hard way, just like I did.
Fredrick Brooks was right, there is no silver bullet.
Investing in BitCoin? Yep, it's a big fat ugly bubble and folks will be slaughtered when it pops. Some will get rich, but only some, and at the expense of others but how can ANYTHING that has literally *nothing* to back it but the perception that it is worth something going to be a good investment in the long term? The Dot.Com bust was this, except, in some cases there actually was the POSSIBLITY of a profit for that stock, albeit a remote one. A BitCoin is only a collection of data bytes that some machines made up somewhere, and that's all it will ever be. That somebody is willing to trade you something of value for it is all that gives it value.
My advice? Speculate in BitCoin if you like, but don't treat it like an "investment" and absolutely DO NOT bet money on it you cannot afford to lose. And Remember, the folks who can play the BitCoin market faster or better will make all the money, so if you are serious about this, work out a way to be the guy that makes money, if not, stick to things with intrinsic value.
Now you may get off my lawn please...
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
Well the pound is weak right now due to brexit, but I think you could buy more grams of lead for a pound than you could feathers.
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
Perhaps millennials are too young to remember what a bubble is?
Tech stocks? Sure, but there are actually a lot of traditional stocks that actually pay dividends. Banks, and the traditional industrial set come to mind. They're not sexy, but they are one of the reasons why Warren Buffet is as wealthy as he is.
...si hoc legere nimium eruditionis habes...
It's too late to jump in the bitcoin market now. The run is nearly over and everyone and their dog are now jumping in - which is a pretty good sign that a drop in price is imminent.
The suckers are lining up and the people with all the amassed bitcoin will likely sell it off to the suckers at the top of the market.
Then the price will fall out of the bottom as demand is saturated.
Economics has everything to do with value and what people are willing to pay, and especially in the case of currency trading, which prices the orders and money sits at and NOTHING ELSE. Sure, news may influence people's positions, but at the end of the day - money talks and BS walks.
You never try to chase after a quickly falling or rising price by jumping in the market going in the same direction.
Where people see a dropping market, you have to be thinking as a buyer.
You buy at the low prices and sell at the high prices, and never EVER the other way around.
As the bitcoin price goes up, those holding bitcoins will be thinking of selling and taking profits.
READY.
PRINT ""+-0
1/3 of millennials don't understand risk, volatility or liquidity.
I'm a consultant - I convert gibberish into cash-flow.
Bitcoin has essentially nothing in common with stocks. Stocks are ownership in a real world corporation that, ideally, pays regular dividends to share holders. The corporation has actual assets. Bitcoin is just numbers on a computer. It is effectively a currency, and while currency trading does occur, the currency markets are a great way to lose money. Bitcoin has no intrinsic value, but rather maintains its value by the utility it offers and the number of people who hold Bitcoin. This makes it very similar to any fiat currency, actually. At least investing in metals gives you something with intrinsic value.
But, whatever. Millennials can be as stupid as they want, it just means better returns for me. You do you, I've studied how rich people build and maintain their wealth, and I'm going to do that.
"The study of more than 2,000 people found that 42 percent of millennials are at least somewhat familiar with bitcoin..."
2,000 people didn't read anything and just clicked "I Agree".
Yup, there it is, on page 37 of the Investing 101 EULA...the definition of volatility...
There is a perception out there that Wall Street has lost touch with the idea that out there beyond the Hudson there are factories which make things, retailers who sell them and IT people whose data installations keep it all coordinated. Instead the glamour boys of Wall Street are the faceless people who dream up derivative financial "products" that have replaced analysis of the real economy with manipulating paper.
A third of millennials would rather own bitcoin than stocks.
Forty-three percent of millennials prefer socialism to capitalism.
Discuss.
https://thefederalist.com/2017...
https://legalinsurrection.com/...
You are welcome on my lawn.
Every other bitcoin holders who desperately need it to keep going up in price.
HFT is a scam, but it has little impact on people over the long term. If you're holding a stock for a number of years, the difference between what you make and what you would have made without the HFT is tiny.
HFT ought to be illegal because it uses future prices to steal a few cents here and there from a large number of people. But, individually, small investors aren't going to notice the difference as those couple cents are nothing compared with what you make over the long term.
Bitcoin is just numbers on a computer.
All bits, no coin.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
I'd thought the money was in trading them, not owning them. There's a book called "Where are the Customer's Yachts" that talks about all this.
Active traders who get lucky make big money. Those who don't lose big money. For the typical investor it's better to buy a diverse basket, anchored by blue chips, and just accept the 10-12% average annual return -- with occasional periods of much better results and occasional periods of much worse results.
Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
100% of millennials have never been personally affected by a commodity bubble bursting.
Sometimes people have to learn lessons the hard way.
Bitcoin has no intrinsic value, but rather maintains its value by the utility it offers and the number of people who hold Bitcoin. This makes it very similar to any fiat currency, actually. At least investing in metals gives you something with intrinsic value.
As bitcoin does offer a service, I think the main threat to bitcoin is competing cryptocurrencies. Not surprisingly, this is the same threat to other fiat currencies which is why most countries outlaw competing currencies and many even outlaw or restrict precious metals for the same reason. On the other hand, there are no laws preventing someone from creating hundred or even thousands of competing cryptocurrencies but cryptocurrencies do benefit from having a sufficiently large mining pool so it seems like bitcoin and all the cryptocurrencies should eventually stabilize at the price needed to maintain a sufficiently large mining pool to keep it secure. I have no idea what this price point would be but it might be interesting to try to calculate.
When they were kids, they were the generation that would rather own Beany Babies than stocks. Since the bottom dropped out of the Beany Baby bubble, they are looking for something else.
1. They were kids
2. The ones that "invested" in Beanie Babies were adults at the time and not Millennials
Except that Bitcoin is a first of it's kind decentralized trustless way to transfer value and has the most concentrated network effect of all Cryptocurrencies. It's a technological marvel. It can replace money, bank accounts, stock certificates, contracts.. it's revolutionary, deflationary and its still not widely dispersed which means increase in value. The millennials are not dumb here.
Do you know why inflation is built into currencies? Why should I buy something today if my money will be worth more tomorrow? Why would I produce a good today if it will be cheaper to produce it tomorrow? Deflation encourages saving, discourages spending and reduces the velocity of money. It's not that the millennials are dumb, it's that they don't fully understand money and investing.
"What the American public doesn't know is what makes them the American public." -Ray Zalinsky (Tommy Boy)