I am not the owner of bitcoincharts. I am independent. tcatm is the owner and has asked my if i would post my analysis there which I happily accepted.
Ah. Sorry for the confusion; I will edit that post to prevent this wrong information from spreading. I should have read more carefully.
I really like your comments, and I did not want to create the perception that you are not credible. After seeing you posting more than the first thread, I see that you have expertise and I like the discussion. For perspective, we had a couple of newbees there trying to create scam-type of threads very often. But you are not one of them. I have revised my blog to not put you in the wrong spotlight. Hope this is fine now.
Thank you, I really appreciate that! It's very refreshing to talk with someone who can calmly discuss even when criticized. Possibly, our differences are subjective in nature; the question being how much expectation of a new large increase in price "shimmers through". I don't doubt your analysis or data on the past charts. The problem lies with what people think who currently possess BTC. In the end, this might be more of a psychological question, since nobody has given probabilities for any predicted outcomes. And I don't dare do that right now, the situation is just too unpredictable.
(...),
we are on the same page. Currently, the market is in a sideways range and it might not be very wise to buy now within this congestion area. You may wait for a clear breakout. If a breakout happens, the upside is quite big, because as you say, the market is tiny and if significant funds flow in, it is not irrational to say that 2,5,10$ can be reached fast (10x higher). Recall when prices were in the 0.065$ congestion area in September 2010: Within 6 months, prices increased 15x.
I, too, believe that this
could happen again, but just like the first time, it needs an external effect and a certain market condition. I think the requirements on these are much harder now, but can be met if either BitCoin can reach a wider audience or someone throws money at it. I would very much prefer the first case, as I find it less dangerous.
As I see it, the first massive rise happened after BitCoin popularity rose very suddenly due to Slashdot reporting on it for the first time; this kind event even has it's own name, the Slashdot Effekt:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slashdot_effect My interpretation of the first rise is that the rise in popularity created a fast rise in demand, which sellers were slow to realize. At the time, the exchange market was still smaller in terms of non-BTC currencies. The first spike comes from people who want to jump on the new trend early; the following decline is caused by miners who noticed the price rise with a delay and decide to sell -- partially caused by most of them waiting whether the price might increase even more, only beginning to sell after some time passed.
My point of view is only slightly different from the one you take, it aims at the same events. In fact I just know too little about experienced effects on young markets to make statements from price charts. But this simple model of demand and effects of sudden changes therein is very powerful. Large-scale speculators will not accept a steady, predictable development for fear of concurring traders, and jump in as fast as they can to accelerate it until the predicted final state is reached. This is probably what you mean when you say "clear breakout", as opposed to the stagnation due to the current lack of another such event.
But, looking at it this way, the trouble of low trade volumes with constant creation of BTC should make the market nervous, because right now, large quantities of BTC remain unsold. The possible effects of trades by both big miners and rich investors grows large in such a situation, because the trading market is not accustomed to large trade quantities. This is bad because people are reluctant to raise prices at the risk of a sudden, steep drop. And, independent of who moves first, prices might bounce like a rubber ball if fear enters the game, and nobody knows who might end up winning or loosing after things settle again -- or where the real price would turn out to be.
Constant trade activity can serve as a buffer against such anomalies. That is why I think a higher trade volume is crucial for stability, and that holders of large amounts of BTC should consider the entire market depth rather than just a daily price that currently cannot be upheld for big sales. Of course, persuading buyers to accept the higher value demanded might serve the same purpose, as long as sellers don't just continue the game at the new price level.