SMALL INVESTORS FORUM

Bitcoin won’t replace gold… here’s why you should still own it Tama Churchouse Bitcoin is frequently compared to gold. But it’s not an either/or proposition… and I’ll tell you why. Indeed, gold and bitcoin are the only two widely distributed, decentralised methods of exchanging value as currency. There is no central authority issuance like there is with U.S. dollars or any other fiat currency. Likewise, neither bitcoin nor gold can just be “printed” at the push of a button by an anxious central banker. You have to either earn your gold by mining it – which is also what you do to get bitcoin, but with computers instead of picks and shovels – or you can pay cash for it. But there’s one big difference between the two… Gold is the  very opposite  of new technology Gold is a physical, tangible and  real  asset. You can pick it up and feel its satisfying weight in your hand. It can’t be altered. Gold is gold. Once I own it, that’s it. I don’t need to rel...

Become a blockchain expert in 1,384 words Tama Churchouse The blockchain revolution is coming… And it’s going to fundamentally change how businesses operate. Make no mistake… this revolution is  at least  as significant as the one brought about by the Internet. It will disrupt every single business on the face of the earth. That’s why it’s vital that you learn to understand this technology. It will offer countless investing opportunities in the years ahead… and it will play a central role in future years in how you (and, without question, your children) work, do business, play, and operate in society. Understanding blockchain “Blockchain” is one of those words that has the power to confuse even the smartest people. And the media is completely clueless about how this technology actually works. For starters, blockchain is the technology behind cryptocurrencies like bitcoin. The Bitcoin blockchain allows us to transfer the bitcoin currency person to pe...

The blockchain war is coming… what you need to know to arm yourself… There’s a revolution brewing in how companies – any business entity, doing anything, anywhere in the world – operate. I’m not exaggerating. Let me explain. The way it is now For hundreds of years, the way that companies are structured and operated has changed little. Investors provide capital to a centralised management hierarchy, which is overseen by a board of directors. The goal of these executives is to increase shareholder value by extracting the maximum possible value out of their customers. Just to be clear: Profit-seeking companies exist to generate as much value from you, the customer, as they can. Pick any company or service you use or interact with, and think about how it looks to extract value – as much as possible – from you. I’m not just talking about the obvious upsells… the “would you like fries with that?” As a customer, your interests are not aligned with the company providin...

This is how I analyse crypto assets Cryptocurrencies are often referred to a “Wild West” for investors. You see, equity markets are regulated. Not only is the buying and selling of securities highly controlled, but companies themselves are required by law to share information with investors and potential investors. Auditors examine the books. Stock market regulators require strict criteria be adhered to in order to access public markets… like annual reports, quarterly earnings reports and other updates. Companies have shareholder meetings, boards, meeting minutes and a relatively high degree of transparency. There are tens of thousands of high-paid equity analysts and institutional investors covering stocks and quizzing company management. The media constantly probes and asks questions. Practically NONE of this exists in the cryptocurrency space. Not only is the general mainstream media coverage of cryptos very poor (I’ve seen articles from the  Wall Street Jo...

This is your key to crypto profits There’s a “sweet spot” in investing in crypto assets… I’m talking less about bitcoin, but more about some of the other, smaller cryptos. This spot is where the initial hype around a crypto’s initial coin offering (ICO) has worn off… but the big gains are still to come. (An ICO, or “intial coin offering” is when a token is sold into the market in exchange for crypto capital, usually bitcoin or ethereum.) You won’t find these types of gains in any other asset class on earth. But they’re possible if you  invest in the right cryptos and the right time … How to find the “sweet spot”… The “J-Curve” is  applicable across a range of disciplines , from economics and private equity to political science, as a means of correlating the level of a country’s stability and openness. It can also be applied to the crypto asset investment process as a means of identifying potentially undervalued cryptos that have the potential to deliver huge...

This is what futures will mean for bitcoin Bitcoin has spent the past eight years on the sidelines of international finance. It’s been mocked and ridiculed by some of the biggest financial minds out there. And now, bitcoin is going mainstream as bitcoin futures contracts on some of the largest U.S. exchanges (the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and Chicago Board Options Exchange) begin trading this week. The key question on everyone’s mind is this: how will the launch of bitcoin futures affect both the volatility and price trajectory of bitcoin? This is a future First, what is a futures contract? A futures contract represents an agreement to buy or sell an underlying asset at a given point in time in the future. In most cases, futures are cash settled which means you don’t actually have to exchange (i.e. deliver or take delivery of) the underlying asset. For example, if a 1-month oil futures contract is trading at US$50 and you go long (i.e., buy) a futures contract, ...

What are Cryptocurrencies? As investors we can no longer ignore the existence of the new asset class that is taking the world by storm... Bitcoin has shown us it can turn just a few bucks into a fortune, but its dips and rips are more volatile than in any other market in history. That, combined with the mysterious nature of the cryptocurrency, and we're all a little more confused and a little less comfortable with this phenomenon than we'd like to be...  Question:  Is bitcoin real money? Answer:  The fundamental characteristics an asset must have to be considered money are: Uniformity:  In other words, every "dollar" or bitcoin is the same as the next one. When you're talking about using seashells or cows as currency, uniformity is hard to achieve. Divisibility:  Dollars and bitcoin need to be divisible, broken up into small increments to cover a wide range of value transactions. Cows? Not so much, unless you're hosting a barbecue. ...