Ok I get the idea of getting cheap coins. But why ensure their shorts? You mean to say there are people who still go short in FCT? That is like betting against it. If they manipulate it to go down at the same time then surely their bet will win. What do you think?
Yeah, I personally think it's mostly the other possibility—whales suppressing the price to accumulate cheaper coins. If the price weren't suppressed (assuming I'm right that it is), then the only people selling would be the "natural" sellers looking to lock in a profit. Without price-suppression, I believe FCT's price would jump quite a bit, attracting new investors ... until, ultimately, an accelerated price rise would give way to a bubble. Not sure how far the price would go, but I believe it would be considerable.
But in regards to shorting ... If you look at lending rates on Poloniex, for instance, you'll see that over the past week, the daily lending rate for FCT has been jumping to 0.2 - 0.4, which is very high. The lending market is a free market, and when rates jump, it means the borrow-side pressure is more significant than the lending-side (which generally remains more stable). So basically: there's been a jump in borrowed funds, for the purpose of shorting FCT. Again, there's no telling what the intentions or long-term-play of people shorting FCT are, but IMO there are much better cryptos to short if that's all you're going after.
Generally the best cryptos to short are the ones with the weakest buy walls, which create the least resistance to price suppression. But FCT's buy wall has been growing increasingly large over the past few weeks, so ... if the intention is simply to short a crypto and make profit that way, it doesn't really make sense to choose FCT. Which is why I believe the whales currently shorting FCT have another motive—namely, to accumulate cheap coins from dispirited sellers.
Looked at another way, FCT being shorted so aggressively can be seen as a (somewhat ironic) vote of confidence for FCT ... Whoever's shorting+accumulating really wants to collect a lot, which raises the question: Why, exactly? Because they've done the research, realized the potential future magnitude of FCT, and are collecting as part of a long-term plan.
One strategy in all this: Be a lamprey. By this I mean: you can basically have the whales short for you, and simply accumulate at the lower price just as they are. But without having to deal with lending, margin, and the associate risks.
But the hardest part in all this is the psychological/emotional part—not getting caught up and demoralized by temporary price drops, but instead to see them as opportunities to "shadow" a whale's strategy. Easier said than done, especially if you have significant money on the line, but to quote Buffett: "be fearful when others are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful." When the price drops, you can either see it as an indication of the quality of the crypto, or as a temporary buying opportunity. The better you understand Factom and its potential, I believe, the more you'll see it as the latter.
Caveat: This is crypto, and there are no guarantees. What I've written above are my own beliefs, based on my own research, but ultimately they're nothing more than unprovable theories. Trust your own judgment, and always remember—and make sure to follow—the crypto perma-disclaimer: Never invest more than you can afford to lose.
