Wonder how many others are thinking the exact way that I am thinking, and whose next BTC transaction will involve them getting all of thier funds off the exchanges?
I remain more optimistic. The activity on some of the exchanges does look rigged indeed but if you look at China and BTC-e they seem to support my main count:
BTC-e 
Huobii.e. staying above ~380 with the simple moving average acting as support.
Indeed.
The FU extraordinaire moves occured on Bitfinex (and Kraken but on fraction of volume). Both the pump, and the dump was initiated on Bitfinex. Both times, around 4 Million USD worth of margin trades were liquidated in both directions. Obviously that doesn't equate with bears having lost 4 Million USD worth of capital on the pump, or bulls having lost 4 Million USD worth of capital on the dump, but it does equate with a lot of angry pissed off traders who are out of pocket, the majority of which will also be casting dubious aspersions on the integrity of the exchanges and on what, or who, really drives the whole BTC market.
You may well prove to be correct in your analysis. Your track record of calling BTC of late has certainly been excellent. No doubt about that. But I for one, have taken my $5K out of Finex. Have it now sitting on Stamp, where it will remain until the USD has risen again against the EUR and GBP, at which point I will be fully cashing out from all BTC exchanges.
The market won't miss my capital much, but perhaps if their are a few thousand of me, or even just a few hundred, then that has surely got to mean something. In the absence of any real fundamental drivers in Bitcoin giving investors beyond the usual suspects, reason to actually move capital into Bitcoin, that has got to equate with liquidity leaving the market.
Been a long time since anyone could truly claim to be a 'beleiver' in Bitcoin as a force of good. This game is all about putting pennies in ya pocket...someone else's pennies at that. Bitcoin has dicked around here on this trendline far too long now. If 'they' were gonna ramp it, then 'they' wouldn't have pumped BTC, and then brought it right back down just as fast. This is exactly the sort of thing that wrecks confidence in markets...........even if 'they' did pump it to $400, I suspect that there will be an increasing number of traders who just won't buy it. $450. Not interested. $500, don't trust it. $600, too late now, no point in running in and being dumped on.
Bitcoin needs a reason for new capital to feel encouraged and/or safe to go long. That has to either be much lower prices and market structure that just screams that she can't sink no lower (and I don't see how that can happen b4 the Halving....was Nov 2015 indeed the Halving pump?), or some fundamental driver pushing capital into Bitcoin. China stocks have already crashed, CNY has already devalued a lot. Probably Chinese equities will countertrend rally a bit from here, as will Western equities markets......at this point in time, I just dont see where the impetus for another BTC pump is coming from, save for another whale manipulation, but I think an increasing amount of BTC investors are getting wise to how these play out.....perhaps that is why Bitcoin 'zigged', but did not 'zag'? Mr Whale creates the 'zig', but Joe Public has to create the 'zag', but maybe Joe Public just didn't have the appetite?
