Big time sale on Stocks going on.

[pinzgauer]

Crypto (OG type like Bitcoin) as a fiat currency alternative with large scale adoption and a rational market could be workable.

The problem is speculators move in and run the price up into stupid valuations and then it crashes at the least bit of news.

People need to think of it like speculating in the currency markets. Crypto is not going to grow on its own, it produces no value and does not appreciate.

Any perceived appreciation is only its relative value to other currencies at that instant. It is like gold in that aspect, you put one Bitcoin in the safe and come back in 10 years you still have one bitcoin. What that one Bitcoin will buy will fluctuate based on speculation, other currency devaluing, etc.

In a rational market it would fluctuate relative to the dollar similar to other fiat currencies, based on long-term trends.

So you would need to think of it like speculating exchange rate dollar to Euro or US dollar to the Barbadian dollar.

But if artificial demand hits and people start hoarding (taking it out of circulation) it in large amounts relative to the supply, it turns into a bubble type speculation. Which is what we've seen even on bitcoin. And all the new currencies which are competitors/clones/alternatives are even more speculative as they're starting with essentially zero value.

The other problem is too many new companies trying to get into the crypto infrastructure Business without appropriate hardening, etc. It takes more than just writing code, it has to be seriously reviewed and constantly checked. Literally billions of dollars of people's crypto has evaporated from coin exchanges and wallets due to vulnerable programming.

The original Bitcoin block chain and successors are pretty robust from a cryptography perspective. It's the coin exchanges and wallets that have had hacks. That and people practicing poor key hygiene.

Somewhere on a hard drive I have some Bitcoin as I set up mining within the first few months of it being announced. This was before mining became as hard it is as it is now. I got bored with it cuz you couldn't buy anything with it at the time and stopped running it.

I know I haven't thrown it away, the question will be can I find it. :-)

[utahjeepr]

Stocks are literally having a fire sale. I'm tempted to go all stupid and invest my emergency reserve. I know it's a bad idea, but I wanna.

Scrounging through the couch and under the car seats for "capital".

[gsd2053]

Stocks are literally having a fire sale. I'm tempted to go all stupid and invest my emergency reserve. I know it's a bad idea, but I wanna.

Scrounging through the couch and under the car seats for "capital".

I say go for it!

[sndt1319]

One of the guys at work was saying he plans to use covered call ETF’s to generate monthly income as part of his retirement plan. How do those compare to the saving bonds you guys were talking about?

[TomMcC]

One of the guys at work was saying he plans to use covered call ETF’s to generate monthly income as part of his retirement plan. How do those compare to the saving bonds you guys were talking about?

Tom's wifey here...I do a lot of trading.
Think of an ETF like a mutual fund...a collection of stocks. The difference is they trade during the day, like a stock, and not just after the market has closed, like a mutual fund.
ETFs come in all varieties. Some are focused on particular industries, some are a general basket, some follow an index. There are thousands of different indexes.

Comparing making money from bond to covered calls is comparing apples to oranges. Treasury bonds, the I bond is getting a lot of attention (the I is for inflation), is very secure and needs little to no maintenance. You know the terms and your return. It will be adjusted as inflation is adjusted. The return is Fed interest + Inflation rate.
Covered calls on ETFs takes knowledge and ability to absorb losses. Not every call will be successful. There are many techniques he might use, and he will probably focus on the SPIDERS or SPY and QQQ. (SPY is an ETF that represents the S&P 500; QQQ is an ETF that represents the Nasdaq 100).

"Losses" is a key word. You can't lose money with a treasury bond. It is a higher paying savings account. You can make more money with covered calls, but when you are in the stock market (including ETFs), all money is at risk.

[Bluto]

So as I’ve mentioned before I make my living day trading stocks and for this reason I have not held anything long term since 2020.

Today I had an experience and I just need to vent a bit.

I had one of my best days trading today. I made more than most people make in several years and for that I am supremely grateful. I was done trading by 2pm after which I went with my wife to a closing on a property her client just bought. It was a modest home, nothing fancy. We met the sellers. The male is 78 and his wife is 82 with dementia. They were selling their home of 50 years and he is placing her in a home and he is buying a small apartment for himself.

This was not their plan at all. They were planning on hiring a care taker so that they could live out the rest of their days in their home.

Because of the stock market situation they basically lost everything. He watched his portfolio lose little by little and he explained to me that each day he thought it would recover. When he lost 60% he panicked and sold everything. Now instead of spending their last few years together they are just hoping to get by. I asked him about the house sale and he explained that their son convinced them to get a home equity loan to fund his business, which failed, so they walked away with almost nothing.

Honestly I went from super elated at my good earnings to feeling just awful for these two. My wife will be sending them her commission check and I believe their agent will do the same.

There are likely many more in similar situations and I can’t help but thinking “There but for the grace of God go I”.

Anyways that’s all. Take care and I hope everyone comes out of this mess intact.

[Coal Dragger]

How the hell did he lose 60%?

Why was he invested heavily in equities at 70+ years old?

[gsd2053]

Just look at the digital money like Bitcoin and Ethereum.

LoL, I thought they were supposed to be strong against the weakening dollar.

Anywho, things are going further Biden's way again today.

[Adrenaline_6]

Bitcoin has punched through the 28K-30K support and away we go. Very small support at the current 24k mark. Might stay there for a small bit. After that, down to the 16K-17K mark where there is a little more support, then it heads down to the 9k-11k. Crypto head hodelers heads are exploding right now.

[The_War_Wagon]

Scrounging through the couch and under the car seats for "capital".

I bought a killer Tesoro de Leon metal detector years ago, & have hardly played with it. been wanting to coin shoot some potentially rich locations I frequent but have never gotten around to it. Figured it to be a good money MAKING hobby!