So far it's been amazing how accurate the general sentiment on this forum (I mean the general sentiment of the relatively oldtimers and some other astute ones) has been been on this surge. Between the markets' shrugging off the SR shutdown, plus China, plus the BIT, plus intense and way more positive media coverage, a big rise was very very predictable and many were predicting it (
including me myself).
On October 14th I posted the following reasons why the price was about to surge:
14 big reasons:
- China
- Second Market Bitcoin Investment Trust delayed effect
- SR had 100,000 users engaging in active commerce, proving Bitcoin is a very real medium of exchange
- SR shutdown caused only a flash crash, proving the current price level is solid*
- SR shutdown generated a lot of Bitcoin publicity, the trial guarantees more, plus feds have Bitcoin wallet
- DPR's huge cold wallet is reportedly untouchable; off-shore account holders' ears are perking up
- SR shutdown proved SR was not a critical part of the Bitcoin ecosystem, not even for price support (see above)
- SR shutdown cleaned the image of Bitcoin up in many people's minds, even though others like it will sprout
- Global financial market turmoil coming to a head; Jim Rogers: "this Fall is probably the beginning of the end"
- US government shutdown silliness, people are worried and the US is showing serious signs of imminent meltdown
- China-EU agreement to cut out USD in trade, a huge blow to USD reserve currency status - one of many
- Ultra-loose Janet Yellen appointed as next Fed chief, QE to infinity!
- 6 months since last bubble, dust settled, now finally clear to people that it was a legit price correction (upwards)
- Talk of more Cyprus-style "haircuts" on depositors, taking the Keynesian "hoarding=bad!" to its logical endpoint
*Remember March 11? Slow orphan blocks, hard fork, double-spend --> FLASH CRASH --> price ultimately unaffected, proving in people's minds that the growth from January through March 11 wasn't just silly speculation and vapors but real support, so then people threw caution to the wind and piled in without reservationTo me it was the easiest call ever, and I said as much. Many people who I recognized from the early 2013 bubble were similarly confident in an imminent price rise.
Surging up toward $1000 was considered quite bold but many here predicted it nonetheless, with a correction back toward around $500 then settling in between, and that looks like exactly what is happening.
Then now, by looking at the log charts and seeing when the moves look exponential even on the log chart, when they start curving upward, most of these same people have been able to anticipate the imminent correction this week.
One thing about a market with more mature, experienced investors is that it is less volatile. They are waiting to damp the tops and catch the bottoms. Now with the newbie China investors here it still gets dicey, but I feel like the oldtimers are doing pretty well holding the fort down.
As to where we'll go from here, since we had a nice big correction now it seems we'll do the familiar dragon/alpaca pattern, which is basically oscillating in the triangle SlipperySlope drew above and then maybe some steadiness before going higher. I think there is yet more steam in this run-up, but double exponential growth cannot be tolerated, not even in Bitcoin. Bitcoin likes exponential growth, which is insane enough already.