the market: stocks, bonds, options, whatever

[Achten]

New in this subsection of the forum, and to stocks and the like in general. Mostly here to learn!

But i also have a question : any europeans here having trouble buying (and even finding) certain companies? Take "Pharmadrug inc" for example (cnsx: buzz). Cant seem to find it on my platform, at all. Anyone has any tips regarding which apps to use to access these stocks/markets? Currently im using "bolero" which is an app by a bank here (kbc).

My first buy was seelos therapeutics (SEEL) and it shot up 7% since i bought it 5 days ago . Mostly a moral win, i know. But good for my confidence anyway

 

[thujone]

Retail trading is heavily regulated in EU, mostly via a framework called MiFID

MiFID II is a legislative framework instituted by the European Union (EU) to regulate financial markets in the bloc and improve protections for investors.

...

MiFID II extends the scope of requirements under MiFID to more financial instruments. Equities, commodities, debt instruments, futures and options, exchange-traded funds, and currencies all fall under its purview. If a product is available in an EU nation, it is covered by MiFID II—even if, say, the trader wishing to buy it is located outside the EU.

MiFID II: Definition, Regulations, Who It Affects, and Purpose

MiFID II is a European Union packet of financial industry reform legislation instituted to regulate financial markets and replace MiFID.

www.investopedia.com

 

[TheInvisibleStoner]

Man market has been ripping these past few days. Unreal.

BTC back on the slide. Gold back pumping.

None of it makes sense.

 

[TripSitterNZ]

investing into eth really looking into etherum it seems to have strong fundmentals and some massive gains some experts say it could hit 10k by the end of the year its been on a massive climb over the last 6 months.

 

[Xorkoth]

No way ETH will hit $10k this year unless BTC breaks out real hard again. The price of ETH (and all crypto besides BTC) is based on BTC. They are valued in satoshis, ie, they are valued in bitcoin. So the price of bitcoin is what determines the price in fiat currencies. That said, ETH is the least "alt" of the altcoins. All of the functionality of crypto besides store of value is built off of Ethereum's platform (not all of them actually, but much of them).

Personally I bought real hard into the altcoin hype in 2017, but I'm a bit leary of the actual real-world usage of crypto for anything but store of value, while it is still attached to trading/monetary value. A lot of those applications can use blockchain technology and it's not necessary to attach value to the tokens. I'm not saying none of the altcoins that claim to be aiming to be used for other applications are bogus, but seems like in the end, the vast majority of them end up being pie in the sky FOMO scams to get people to buy in so that the people who started it out can get rich.

Careful with the altcoins. In the 2017 crypto craze, altcoins were getting people rich overnight, my buddy turned $6K into $120K in like a month. I went 90% altcoins in my crypto portfolio and then I held because I wanted to believe... in the end I cashed out my $3500 investment for $500 and bought some AL-LAD and ETH-LAD with it (ETH-LAD, I just saw the irony).

Glad I got out of my little stock play by breaking even. I'm just watching the market, trying to get a sense of what and when to jump on. Trying to find some stuff to hang on to for some years.

 

[TheInvisibleStoner]

Right. And ETH hasn't gained a single sat all year.

Ethereum price today, ETH to USD live price, marketcap and chart | CoinMarketCap

The live Ethereum price today is $3,494.15 USD with a 24-hour trading volume of $15,892,865,573.74 USD. We update our ETH to USD price in real-time.

coinmarketcap.com

We would need to see ~400k BTC prices to see ETH at 10k. Unlikely. Also there is an unlimited supply of ETH. Unless tokens are burning ether like they thought, there will be too many. More and more fake tokens are being exposed daily.

Only a few cryptos make sense. Currency ones. Anything that releases a shit ton of tokens right away (xrp) is like a scam.

That is what sucks about crypto. Too much nonsense in it. Very unregulated. The price isn't common (each exchange has their own). And tell me about this crypto based browser, or vpn, or file storage lol. Makes no sense. Premine scams on so many. Hopefully the BTC keeps pushing, though.

 

[TripSitterNZ]

Im just hoping that ETH2 and it phase releases drives prices up. Everything will be left there long term. But for now its only small amounts

 

[Xorkoth]

And tell me about this crypto based browser, or vpn, or file storage lol. Makes no sense.

Lol, yeah. There are some proposed applications (like trucking ledgers, I had one for that once, can't remember now what it was called), stuff where the blockchain transactions facilitate record-keeping or some other computation, and the miners are the computers powering the transactions. But it's also a problem that doesn't require blockchain to solve. And could be done in a blockchain system that doesn't involve money at all, too.

 

[TheInvisibleStoner]

Those guys are getting rich, though. Expert programmers and scammers. But it only goes so far. ETH been mentioned many times the lead dev sucks and slow. Can't make deadlines, etc. He is halfway to billionaire. Perhaps he is now these past 2 months. So he seems to be doing fine to me Looks like a druggie. Probably living the life.

 

[MyBodyMyMindOurUniverse]

I personally did great with Uniswap, bought some sub $1 and sub$4. Got a bit of ETH pre $600 as well, and LTC, XRP and GRT making up the portfolio as well. just sold my uniswap when it busted its ATH so I'm on the prowl for more sexxy alt coin opportunities. I'm definitely interested in the crypto market, stock market too but just not as much.. as since when this thread was started crypto largely was not a thing, what about a new Crypto speculation/education thread?

 

[TheInvisibleStoner]

Oh shit. 2 points down and bears come running out. Haha.

BTC might get crushed. The thing is I cannot see anything that moves 25% down in a week any kind of store of wealth. People that bought at 40k just lost 25% of their cash.

Still holding whatever my small portfolio has. Expecting some correction before march. Gold up. Then will be adding to all longs. If BTC falls under 20k may get some. 40 is the new 20 with btc. Just what if we don't see those prices again for years. Which means 20 is the new 10. And would of usually been a solid price to buy at. Unless the s&p gets crushed. Then BTC will get crushed for sure.

 

[Xorkoth]

BTC might get crushed. The thing is I cannot see anything that moves 25% down in a week any kind of store of wealth. People that bought at 40k just lost 25% of their cash.

Yeah that's what happened to me in 2017, I bought near the top and immediately got smashed. I kind of agree, BTC is going to need to become more stable to be a viable store of wealth, but you would think as institutional money comes in, we may see it steady out. But then, at the moment it looks like it's heading for another long dip. Whenever it hits bottom or seems like it has, I'm going to buy a chunk, though. And hope in a year or two it does 5-10x again, as has been its pattern.

 

[thujone]

That is what sucks about crypto. Too much nonsense in it. Very unregulated. The price isn't common (each exchange has their own). And tell me about this crypto based browser, or vpn, or file storage lol. Makes no sense. Premine scams on so many. Hopefully the BTC keeps pushing, though.

I think utility coins make the most sense because it's established that they are backed by real resources. Properly decentralized, it would work well to have participants serving spare storage space or compute capacity instead of having to mine value wastefully via PoW algorithms.

My guess is that as the cryptocurrency ecosystem matures more, it will move away from the primitive coin concept and towards ephemeral smart contracts tied directly to the provisioning of services.

The big hurdle is that even Bitcoin, the simplest cryptocurrency to understand, is already complicated. Pretending it's as simple as exchanging coins doesn't make it so. Smart contracts are even less likely to be broadly understood by the layperson so it might not become mainstream ever.

 

[~kira~]

I just saw this after making my post. Lol. Anyway, there's a new kind of cryptocurrency on the horizon that has 0 risk and a potential for a lot of reward! Its called pi coin (Google it if you want to know more about it)

Basically, it's in the development stage, but it always people to download the app and their phones "mine" coins from the app. It doesnt drain battery, doesnt costanything, and doesn't waste mobile data. You don't even need the app open! It's supposed to be in circulation later this year. Once its able to be bought, a old or traded, it will be worth money. Some people think it could skyrocket like bitcoin did. Either way, there's no risk. If you join through my link and put my username, you'll be added to my circle and can start earning coins! You can also add other.people to it via your link (everyone gets added to the same circle)

I am sending you 1π! Pi is a new digital currency developed by Stanford PhDs, with over 10 million members worldwide. To claim your Pi, follow this link https://minepi.com/Colton24 and use my username (Colton24) as your invitation code.

 

[Xorkoth]

If I had a nickel for every altcoin that is "the next big thing", I'd have, at last count... 8,305 nickels.

For real though, I just goggled a bit and every single post about it is actually an attempt to solicit someone to join using them as an affiliate. All repeating very similar lines. Kinda like a crypto cult.

 

[~kira~]

If I had a nickel for every altcoin that is "the next big thing", I'd have, at last count... 8,305 nickels.

For real though, I just goggled a bit and every single post about it is actually an attempt to solicit someone to join using them as an affiliate. All repeating very similar lines. Kinda like a crypto cult.

Yeah I noticed that to lol.if you look up the reviews in the play store everyone has their referrals codes there lol. I mean, to me it's worth a shot. If it blows up I'll have a lot ofmoney. If not, then I at least didn't lose anything. I'm in a small circle with some friends (4 of us) and I mean we are gaining some good coins for sure. The more that are added, the better. But, if it gets big I'm grateful for what we have now.

 

[TheInvisibleStoner]

I think utility coins make the most sense because it's established that they are backed by real resources. Properly decentralized, it would work well to have participants serving spare storage space or compute capacity instead of having to mine value wastefully via PoW algorithms.

My guess is that as the cryptocurrency ecosystem matures more, it will move away from the primitive coin concept and towards ephemeral smart contracts tied directly to the provisioning of services.

How would this work at a lower level, though? For example how could something like a vpn, file server, or browser work better than ones normally in use. They are backed by real resources too. Servers. Not to mention the cloud services we have today are insane. What if I want a vpn with failover? Or what if I want all my files replicated as soon as they are placed to locations around the world my users are located? And what if I am moving 8 million+ files every 24 hours.

Hell, lets make the "cloud" coin then lol. Fork some random coin. 100 billion coins. With 99 billion for us. 1 billion in the exchanges. We just have to maintain some random service / coin and then we can sell a few anytime we need cash for drugs. Kinda how I look at most coins.

Just using those as an example since the services I brought up. It just doesn't seem logical. I know I should probably actually read about them. But they all sound silly.

Currency based coins make the most sense. Of course we need to have other ways to pay without a credit card or name. Or playing poker online for crypto. Or all kinds of fun games you can gamble crypto on or win crypto.

 

[thujone]

How would this work at a lower level, though? For example how could something like a vpn, file server, or browser work better than ones normally in use. They are backed by real resources too. Servers. Not to mention the cloud services we have today are insane. What if I want a vpn with failover? Or what if I want all my files replicated as soon as they are placed to locations around the world my users are located? And what if I am moving 8 million+ files every 24 hours.

Maybe you just need a few minutes of access to a VPN, and the smallest interval the usual providers offer is a month. Or maybe you just need 25kbps and don't want to pay for oodles of unnecessary bandwidth. Niches that current providers don't serve, or overcharge for, are where smart contracts could offer good utility.

Hell, lets make the "cloud" coin then lol. Fork some random coin. 100 billion coins. With 99 billion for us. 1 billion in the exchanges. We just have to maintain some random service / coin and then we can sell a few anytime we need cash for drugs. Kinda how I look at most coins.

I think that's pretty much what Storj is now. There are a lot of buyers for S3-compatible redundant storage at a price that undercuts Amazon, and that's what you can potentially get with Storj.

Just using those as an example since the services I brought up. It just doesn't seem logical. I know I should probably actually read about them. But they all sound silly.

Currency based coins make the most sense. Of course we need to have other ways to pay without a credit card or name. Or playing poker online for crypto. Or all kinds of fun games you can gamble crypto on or win crypto.

Think about it this way: Bitcoin is a utility coin for anyone who has only ever used it to buy drugs.

The problem with Bitcoin is its success has made it hostile to new users. Thinking about it, who in their right mind wants to pay $30k+ for a string of text all so they can buy goods and services denominated in the fiat they used to pay for the Bitcoin?

Bitcoin was practical as a replacement for e-Gold or Liberty Reserve, another black market MoneyGram. But now that it's an unstable speculative asset that rises and falls without warning, it's much less useful as a currency because anyone trying to start doing business in it today is exposed to major downside risk.

 

[TheInvisibleStoner]

I think that's pretty much what Storj is now. There are a lot of buyers for S3-compatible redundant storage at a price that undercuts Amazon, and that's what you can potentially get with Storj.

Yeah, that was the coin I was thinking about actually. Was just reading about it. Makes sense somewhat. If I were to tell my boss lets move our files off s3 and into Storj, I would most likely get fired. Maybe for some applications I could see it. But it will never take off enterprise. How would you even troubleshoot latency? Or troubleshoot anything? Also that blockchain would be MASSIVE over time.

I could see this kind of stuff for things that should be immutable. Shipping, logistics, health records, etc.

I remember reading an article some time back and it gave an example app. They ran it in AWS, and also blockchain. It cost over 100x more to run in blockchain over AWS.

If we look at Storj -

The service charges $45 per terabyte, or 45 cents per gigabyte, of download bandwidth consumed. (Storj does not charge for upload bandwidth.)

Then s3 -

$0.023 per GB

No comparison. S3 wins hands down. ~20x cheaper. It also has 10000000000 more features. Storj just a scam like the rest imo.

But also speed. When you upload a file to s3 it is indexed and replicated in less than a second. This won't be happening in blockchain. Even 15 second block times would be ridiculous for file storage. So now you are paying 20x more for a service that is inferior. Makes no sense....

Will believe it when I see it in a real world application

EDIT: Would actually have to confirm how they are actually charging. Some older articles claim they are cheaper. Perhaps they increased the price, and s3 got cheaper since? Either way. Very much a gimmick. There is absolutely no way anything blockchain could compete with a company that has a phone number you can call to get help. Along with millions of additional features.

 

[thujone]

$45/TB is only $0.045/GB and AWS S3 pricing is currently $0.09/GB from 1-10TB, so exactly double the cost of Storj. AWS also charges $0.04/GB to serve from edge nodes, and other nickel n dime stuff that Storj doesn't charge for.

It remains to be seen how successful Storj will be long-term, but the point was mainly that there are many niches in the online economy, some of which we don't even know yet, that can be filled by smart contracts and utility coins.

OTOH there's Bitcoin, which has lost ground to Tether in trade volume, demonstrating that economic activity favours stability. Litecoin and Monero are still chugging along at a pretty stable price, AFAIK Monero has already been replacing Bitcoin for a lot of darknet commerce, maybe we're not too far from Bitcoin being phased out altogether.