Originally Posted by Mrfriendly (Post 2162563)

Take a $100 bill out of your wallet, look at it and say, “wow I just lost 8% of my money to inflation in only one year.”
If you don’t invest then you just lost money

Originally Posted by jimjamuser (Post 2162745)

The stock market details and ups and downs can NOT be predicted / "understood" in the short term. An investor can NOT pick an Individual stock and invest ALL their money because they got some TIP from a TV financial show or a friend who knows someone high up in some company or industry. That amounts to gambling, not investing. People get TIPS on long-shot stocks and act on them. That is a good way to lose hard-earned money.

There is a way (a method) to use the market to accumulate wealth over TIME. You MUST have 20 or 30 years of TIME. Which most seniors do NOT have.......but their GRANDCHILDREN do! The reason having TIME works so well is because the US stock market and that of most western countries have a graph that (OVER TIME) goes from lower left to upper right. Barring a nuclear holocaust over TIME the market ONLY goes IP
........to be continued

Originally Posted by jimjamuser (Post 2162745)

The stock market details and ups and downs can NOT be predicted / "understood" in the short term. An investor can NOT pick an Individual stock and invest ALL their money because they got some TIP from a TV financial show or a friend who knows someone high up in some company or industry. That amounts to gambling, not investing. People get TIPS on long-shot stocks and act on them. That is a good way to lose hard-earned money.

There is a way (a method) to use the market to accumulate wealth over TIME. You MUST have 20 or 30 years of TIME. Which most seniors do NOT have.......but their GRANDCHILDREN do! The reason having TIME works so well is because the US stock market and that of most western countries have a graph that (OVER TIME) goes from lower left to upper right. Barring a nuclear holocaust over TIME the market ONLY goes IP
........to be continued

Originally Posted by formerheadhunter (Post 2162607)

how crypto currency works… an analogy in layman’s terms.
Not long ago a merchant found a lot of monkeys that lived near a certain village. One day he came to the village saying he wanted to buy these monkeys. He announced that he would buy the monkeys at $100 each.
The villagers thought that this man must be crazy. How can somebody buy stray monkeys at $100 each?
Still some people caught some monkeys and gave it to this merchant and he gave $100 for each monkey.
This news spread like wildfire and people caught monkeys and sold them to the merchant.
After a few days, the merchant announced that he will buy monkeys at $200 each.
The lazy villagers also ran around to catch the remaining monkeys. They sold the remaining monkeys at $200 each.
The merchant then announced that he will buy monkeys for $500 each.
The villagers start to lose sleep. They caught six or seven monkeys which was all that was left and got $500 each.
The villagers were waiting anxiously for the next announcement.
Then the merchant announced that he is going on holiday for a week, but when he returns, he will buy monkeys at $1000 each! He also said that his employee will be in charge, and would take care of the monkeys he bought pending his return.
The merchant went on holiday.
The villagers were frantic and very sad as there were no more monkeys left for them to sell at $1000 each as was promised by the merchant.
Then the merchant’s employee contacted them and told them that he would secretly sell them some monkeys at $700 each.
The news spread like wildfire. As the merchant promised on his return that he would buy monkeys at $1000 each, they would achieve a $300 profit for each monkey. The next day the villagers queued up near the monkey cage.
The employee sold all the monkeys at $700 each. The rich bought monkeys in large lots. The poor borrowed money from money lenders and bought the rest of the monkeys.
The villagers took care of their monkeys and waited for the merchant to return. However nobody came! Then they ran to find the employee. However he was not to be found.
The villagers then realized that they have been duped buying the useless stray monkeys at $700 each, and were now unable to sell them.
This monkey business is now known as bitcoin!

Originally Posted by PJackpot (Post 2162614)

Once I read Warren Buffett said "he wouldn't purchase all of the Bitcoin in the world for just $25 if he had the opportunity"....that was enough for me to stay far away.

Originally Posted by jimjamuser (Post 2162745)

The stock market details and ups and downs can NOT be predicted / "understood" in the short term. An investor can NOT pick an Individual stock and invest ALL their money because they got some TIP from a TV financial show or a friend who knows someone high up in some company or industry. That amounts to gambling, not investing. People get TIPS on long-shot stocks and act on them. That is a good way to lose hard-earned money.

There is a way (a method) to use the market to accumulate wealth over TIME. You MUST have 20 or 30 years of TIME. Which most seniors do NOT have.......but their GRANDCHILDREN do! The reason having TIME works so well is because the US stock market and that of most western countries have a graph that (OVER TIME) goes from lower left to upper right. Barring a nuclear holocaust over TIME the market ONLY goes IP
........to be continued

Originally Posted by jimjamuser (Post 2162774)

So, here is how it works. You get your 20-year-old grandchild to start investing because they have the KEY ingredient in a method to use the stock market to build wealth. It can be called the Warren Buffet method or some call it "buy and hold". To use this method you need time (20 or 30 years) and patience and investible funds. Then, what you CAN'T do is pick only one stock to buy and hold for 20 years. Won't work - the chance of loss is too great. You can't even buy 10 stocks - the chance of loss is still too great. You must buy ALL the stocks in the market, actually MOST all.

So how the He__ do you buy most of the US stock market? Before 1993 you could NOT. Then Electronic Traded Funds ETFs were created to mimic the S+P 500, which was basically the WHOLE US stock market.......available for purchase at a low overhead cost to investors big or small. There are several call letters for different companies that cover the S+P - (SPY), (VOO), and (IVV).............. (google those)
........You can't beat the market, but you can buy the market and go with it............upward.........over time

Originally Posted by Boston-Sean (Post 2162898)

Once I read that Warren Buffet said that technology companies like Apple were risky investments and he didn't understand the business.

Luckily I ignored him or I'd still be working today.

Originally Posted by jimjamuser (Post 2162774)

So, here is how it works. You get your 20-year-old grandchild to start investing

Originally Posted by ithos (Post 2162716)

The Bitcoin maximalists hate the exchanges and all other crypto. They have to since the only way they can rationalize it as a store of value is that it can not be replicated. But of course it can because it is a virtual asset. There is no law or force of nature to prevent it unless you can convince all of mankind to think like you do.

But if you are a true believer then know that they are advocating keeping it on a cold wallet. So what does that entail?

Per CNBC

1. Plug your cold storage device into your computer.

2. Download the software provided with your cold storage wallet.

3. You’ll be given a seed phrase or backup code.

4. To access your device, you’ll have to set up a pin. Once you have a pin, you’ll be able to add your crypto to your cold storage wallet by clicking receive, which will show you your cold storage wallet’s address.

5. Keep your cold storage somewhere safe and remember, if you lose it along with your seed phrase, your money can’t be recovered.

Originally Posted by PJackpot (Post 2162924)

But he does understand the world of finance.

As far as Apple goes....."Buffett started as an AAPL skeptic, stating that technology was a risky field, and he didn’t understand the business well enough to predict its future potential. He later changed his mind, explaining that he now views the company more like a consumer or fashion brand with a huge amount of brand loyalty. By 2018, he had completely reversed his position, and declared that he’d buy the company outright if he could." Berkshire Hathaway currently owns 5% of Apple's stock.

Originally Posted by spinner1001 (Post 2162929)

For reasons similar to why people don’t put all their cash under their mattress (or wherever in their home), most people holding crypto will not use cold storage devices. Inconvenient, risk of loss, etc.

Originally Posted by spinner1001 (Post 2162929)

For reasons similar to why people don’t put all their cash under their mattress (or wherever in their home), most people holding crypto will not use cold storage devices. Inconvenient, risk of loss, etc.

Originally Posted by PJackpot (Post 2162924)

But he does understand the world of finance.

As far as Apple goes....."Buffett started as an AAPL skeptic, stating that technology was a risky field, and he didn’t understand the business well enough to predict its future potential. He later changed his mind, explaining that he now views the company more like a consumer or fashion brand with a huge amount of brand loyalty. By 2018, he had completely reversed his position, and declared that he’d buy the company outright if he could." Berkshire Hathaway currently owns 5% of Apple's stock.

Originally Posted by collie1228 (Post 2162991)

Here is how Wikipedia explains blockchain: "The bitcoin blockchain is a public ledger that records bitcoin transactions. It is implemented as a chain of blocks, each block containing a cryptographic hash of the previous block up to the genesis block[ in the chain. A network of communicating nodes running bitcoin software maintains the blockchain.:  Transactions of the form payer X sends Y bitcoins to payee Z are broadcast to this network using readily available software applications." Now that you understand what it is, you can invest your life savings with confidence!

Originally Posted by ithos (Post 2162716)

the bitcoin maximalists hate the exchanges and all other crypto. They have to since the only way they can rationalize it as a store of value is that it can not be replicated. But of course it can because it is a virtual asset. There is no law or force of nature to prevent it unless you can convince all of mankind to think like you do.

But if you are a true believer then know that they are advocating keeping it on a cold wallet. So what does that entail?

Per cnbc

1. Plug your cold storage device into your computer.

2. Download the software provided with your cold storage wallet.

3. You’ll be given a seed phrase or backup code.

4. To access your device, you’ll have to set up a pin. Once you have a pin, you’ll be able to add your crypto to your cold storage wallet by clicking receive, which will show you your cold storage wallet’s address.

5. Keep your cold storage somewhere safe and remember, if you lose it along with your seed phrase, your money can’t be recovered.

Originally Posted by JMintzer (Post 2162902)

Except when it crashes...

Originally Posted by ithos (Post 2162716)

The Bitcoin maximalists hate the exchanges and all other crypto. They have to since the only way they can rationalize it as a store of value is that it can not be replicated. But of course it can because it is a virtual asset. There is no law or force of nature to prevent it unless you can convince all of mankind to think like you do.

But if you are a true believer then know that they are advocating keeping it on a cold wallet. So what does that entail?

Per CNBC

1. Plug your cold storage device into your computer.

2. Download the software provided with your cold storage wallet.

3. You’ll be given a seed phrase or backup code.

4. To access your device, you’ll have to set up a pin. Once you have a pin, you’ll be able to add your crypto to your cold storage wallet by clicking receive, which will show you your cold storage wallet’s address.

5. Keep your cold storage somewhere safe and remember, if you lose it along with your seed phrase, your money can’t be recovered.

Originally Posted by Normal (Post 2162900)

Congress has the push now to to regulate all cryptocurrencies as nothing more than a fancy. After the crash too many are complaining and something will be done to stifle it into nothingness.

Originally Posted by JMintzer (Post 2162966)

Only took him 30 years to change his mind... Well after Apple had far surpassed anyone's expectations...

A bit late to the party, if you ask me...

Originally Posted by jimjamuser (Post 2163028)

I can't see this as a PUTDOWN of Mr. Buffet. It shows that he stuck to his investment principles for 30 years (note he is the world's greatest LONG TERM investor). He merely waited for Apple to get out of the dangerous high growth period for any company and become large and stable and diverse enough to meet his high standards. It is NOT like he was falling into poverty by not investing in Apple for 30 years. I believe his LIFETIME track record speaks for itself.

It also proves that he is FLEXIBLE enough to change to meet new conditions. Also not let his EGO get in the way!
Look at all the anguish that BitCoin investors are going through. Berkshire Hathaway investors can sleep more soundly at night than their counterparts, the cryptocurrency investors (gamblers)!

Originally Posted by ithos (Post 2162948)

100% agree. But that is one of the dilemmas that owners are faced with. The other option is also risky. Look at how many people have lost their crypto by letting third parties control them.

But since crypto has been glorified by so many traditional news outlets including CNBC, many folks have been completely oblivious to many of the risks. I guess ratings and advertising revenue are far more important to them than objective reporting.

Cramer called SBF the JP Morgan of this generation.

Originally Posted by ithos (Post 2162948)

100% agree. But that is one of the dilemmas that owners are faced with. The other option is also risky. Look at how many people have lost their crypto by letting third parties control them.

But since crypto has been glorified by so many traditional news outlets including CNBC, many folks have been completely oblivious to many of the risks. I guess ratings and advertising revenue are far more important to them than objective reporting.

Cramer called SBF the JP Morgan of this generation.

Originally Posted by jimjamuser (Post 2163028)

I can't see this as a PUTDOWN of Mr. Buffet. It shows that he stuck to his investment principles for 30 years (note he is the world's greatest LONG TERM investor). He merely waited for Apple to get out of the dangerous high growth period for any company and become large and stable and diverse enough to meet his high standards. It is NOT like he was falling into poverty by not investing in Apple for 30 years. I believe his LIFETIME track record speaks for itself.

It also proves that he is FLEXIBLE enough to change to meet new conditions. Also not let his EGO get in the way!
Look at all the anguish that BitCoin investors are going through. Berkshire Hathaway investors can sleep more soundly at night than their counterparts, the cryptocurrency investors (gamblers)!

Originally Posted by sowtime444 (Post 2162620)

Sure there are a lot of scams in cryptocurrency. But saying they all have zero value is also like saying the SWIFT network has zero value, the Moneygram network has zero value, the computer networks that keep track of stock market trades and execute them in the right order have zero value, and the spreadsheet software on google docs has zero value.

Originally Posted by jimjamuser (Post 2163050)

I believe that I saw a show on TV that reported that the servers required to make all the cryptocurrency trades are located in HUGE WAREHOUSES that require LARGE amounts of electrical energy. I don't know any details about this, but if someone could write a post about this, it might be interesting to myself and others.

Originally Posted by JMintzer (Post 2163051)

Originally Posted by JMintzer (Post 2163048)

Or, trying to save face (due to his ego perhaps?)... Anyone with a pulse would have said that Apple was a great company in 2018...

Originally Posted by jimjamuser (Post 2163050)

I believe that I saw a show on TV that reported that the servers required to make all the cryptocurrency trades are located in HUGE WAREHOUSES that require LARGE amounts of electrical energy. I don't know any details about this, but if someone could write a post about this, it might be interesting to myself and others.

Originally Posted by jimjamuser (Post 2163069)

I must have had a pulse years ago (not sure today) because I bought Apple (AAPL) at about $ 25 and sold it at around $ 50. I bragged to everyone about how smart I was. Then, it began doubling and I was no longer smart.

Originally Posted by jimjamuser (Post 2163069)

I must have had a pulse years ago (not sure today) because I bought Apple (AAPL) at about $ 25 and sold it at around $ 50. I bragged to everyone about how smart I was. Then, it began doubling and I was no longer smart.

Originally Posted by Aces4 (Post 2163024)

Just for clarity, are you talking about crypto currencies or the American dollar? The premise for both is the same. :shrug: Something for absolutely nothing.

Originally Posted by Boston-Sean (Post 2163102)

Not the same when it comes to Bitcoin. There is a limit to how many Bitcoins will be created.

Originally Posted by Boston-Sean (Post 2163072)

It's the mining that takes up all the energy. Not the trading. Once all of the bitcoins have been mined (about 120 years from now) most of that disappears. FYI, only 2 million more bitcoins will ever be mined. 19 million have already been mined.

El Salvador is working on mining bitcoins using thermal energy from volcanos. They are close to issuing Bitcoin backed bonds referred to as "volcano bonds".

More and more mining is done using excess energy that gets wasted otherwise. Flared gas from drilling, excess hydro power that can't be used, etc.

No doubt it uses a lot of energy though.

Originally Posted by tophcfa (Post 2163129)

Please explain, how is something that doesn’t physically exist get mined? I get mining materials such as metals from the earth, but not a digital entry?