Jason's Notes About Stuff

"Should I buy Bitcoin?" This is a question I've heard a lot the past few weeks, so I'd like to quickly answer it in a public forum. My official answer is: "You should spend no more on Bitcoin than you'd be comfortable putting into a Vegas slot machine." As far as I'm concerned: Bitcoin is  not an investment . Bitcoin is a speculative, risky commodity gamble . If you do choose to put some chips down, remember that Bitcoin (BTC) can be subdivided up to 8 decimals places. Although fees make it difficult to trade very small amounts, you can easily trade down to 0.001 BTC, which at publishing time is worth about $15 US Dollars (USD). So at least you're not required to put a large amount of money at risk to play the game. Coinbase, one of the largest Bitcoin exchanges (where you can trade "real money" for Bitcoins) recently sent out an email: "Please invest responsibly." This might as well read: "Pleas...

Stocks have been on a major upswing for the past five years, but haven't gained quite as much as the big 1990's bull market: But the big question on investors' minds is: When will the next crash happen? This article about bull markets shows us how the current market compares historically. We're at about the median time length, and not quite the median gains. So although it's quite possible stocks will keep increasing for another year or two, it's unlikely to go much further than that. Another unique factor with this market is that it is being infused with money by something called " quantitative easing ", a large financial experiment with unknown side effects. Meanwhile, corporate profits are doing very well, but earnings ratios are starting to get high. And interest rates continue to stay extremely low . It will be interesting to see what direction the stock market takes in 2014/2015. More reading: How Does Our 5-Year-Old Bull ...