It reminds me of Apple going up to $700 per share and then dropping back to $400. Which made people who sold at the top really happy as they can buy back lower.
AAPL is a bargain under $400 - EPS around 40 is healthy, but the kicker is the MASSIVE pile of cash they are sitting on. 140+ BILLIONS. With a B.
To put it in perspective, Google has around 50 Billions, and that's already considered massive.
The problem in finance (and in politics) is that too many focus on the group consensus, which usually has little to do with the actual details of the company being looked at. "Steve Jobs died!" & "Apple has lost its touch!" have led too many investors that were just going with the flow to jump ship.
Apple could buy all of Tesla right now, and it wouldn't dent its pocket. Let that Sink in - Tesla, even with the tripling of current share prices past few months - is worth
(corrected) 12 Billions.
Now that was an extensive tangent and I apologize. But there is no doubt that we are in a similar type of boat right here with ASICMINER: Half of us have probably never invested in stocks before and are "going with the flow." Great learning experience rest assured. If rumors or hearsay keep scaring you away, then go rest in the shade. There is no doubt BFL has started shipping and others will soon too with better tech even, but AM has shown no sign of faltering and has been CRUSHING the network distribution on every scaling up. 20%+ and they appear to have blades waiting to scale further. They bet on maximizing older tech and won, and I'm sure this has something to do with their decision of not going into 28nm chips. Currently you can see that they've stepped out of the sheer mining game, and are moving more into retail by selling equipment. Even better with the headstart they have. Sure, they had to slash price and it appears they were pressured in doing so. But this will be a learning experience for next time - meanwhile I think the USB miners will sell ok, maybe would have been better to reduce the price to .7 even. AM is grossly undervalued. A "Bubble" might appear with unsure investors doubting, but it doesn't really matter to the ones who look at numbers.
The things that worry me:Tax status
in China - Will the government just blindly let this go on forever? I think not...
AM regulatory status as a company in China - Is AM remotely legal? Classified as a manufacturing plant? What could go wrong there?
scaleability vs. efficiency - friedcat has shown he could deliver. The scaleability is a problem of its own and one different from efficiency.
BTC itself - While we look at AM to keep busy, we forget to see the decline of BTC/USD happening - We need to promote Bitcoin and show the world it is a viable currency for all.
Risk - friedcat could disappear from one day to the next, and there's nothing you could do about it. (NB: Valid for all Exchange/PT holders)
So the discount we see in the share price likely takes some of these into account.
Warren Buffet said it best:
"To refer to a personal taste of mine, I'm going to buy hamburgers the rest of my life. When hamburgers go down in price, we sing the 'Hallelujah Chorus' in the Buffett household. When hamburgers go up in price, we weep. For most people, it's the same with everything in life they will be buying -- except stocks. When stocks go down and you can get more for your money, people don't like them anymore."
*edit*
TLDR - It might drop in value, but like Apple, value of the investment goes beyond surface.
