So why aren't they presently taking those actions?
A good friend of mine serves as a case study. He's a very successful businessman in the multi-millionaire category. I convinced him at the beginning of the run up last fall to buy a sizable chunk of btc, at average buy-in price just below $400. His only bitcoin-related comment to me during 2014 was to take note of the fact that the bitcoin price was "in the shitter." He sold a few months ago (against my advice) at about $600, for better than 50% profit. The timing of the sale had more to do with the fact that he needed the cash for a new business venture than for anything related to bitcoin. But the fact is that despite his favorable experience investing in bitcoin, he still isn't interested enough to dig into bitcoin fundamentals.
It takes a LOT of time, energy, and research to be confident enough that you are a better judge of bitcoin's long term viability than the market. Most people still don't have the incentive to do that; and if they are not tech-savvy, they will continue to doubt bitcoin until the moment they can see it in action, up close and personal.
What would it take for my friend to buy into it again? I'm not sure. But if I could take him and his wife out to dinner and pay for it in bitcoin -- that might do it.
my landlord is a multi-millionaire. i got her and her sons convinced to invest in btc last may/june. first thing that happened was we were 50% down ( i invested at the same days ) when october came and price went 10% above the price we went in, they wanted to sell. they wanted to sell almost every day through november and i strongly advised them every time to hold.
when their investment had 10-folded they sold. I didn't. they don't care about bitcoin as a technology. it was just a funny investment. I may be too much in love with bitcoin to ever sell, but next run up, i try to perform a little bit better.
There is another friend in the millionaire category that i got interested in. he invested in october/november, average about $ 250, never sold and heute is actually interested in the tech, but even services like bitstamp he cannot comprehend, it is all way too complicated for him.