My firm analysis is that bitcoin is overvalued:
I constructed a trendline based on daily prices, and calculated through the last and current bubbles.
It is helpful to know what a logarithmic scale means. Basically it means that every 0.1 difference equals to 26% (compounding). Ten times 0.1 compounds to 1.26^10 = 10.
We express the relative undervaluation/overvaluation in logscale, where 1.0 means that the actual value is 10.0x trend and -1.0 means that it is at 0.1x the trend. That extreme valuations we did not see, though.
Spring
At the low point in 14.1., we started the rise from -0.46.
The trendline was crossed in 21.3., at 0.00 (66 days later)
The peak was reached in 9.4., at 0.45 (19 days later)
The low was reached in 7.7., at -0.30 (89 days later)
Autumn
At the low point in 3.10., we started the rise from -0.34.
The trendline was crossed in 9.11., at 0.00 (37 days later)
The peak was reached in 30.11., at 0.46 (21 days later)
The low was reached in TBD
After spending the whole week so far pretty much with these calculations, I can say that I mostly subscribe to the scenario where bitcoin's exchange rate is currently overvalued by more than 100% (0.32 in log scale). Because the overvaluation is so gross and the delusion of fair value so pervasive (I even personally "turned bull" at the ATH after making my initial bearish call in 20.11. at a lower price), it will take 1-3 months to reach the healthy low in relative valuation. It is not guaranteed that the relative low coincides with the absolute low (the cheapest intraday opportunity to buy in April was only 2 days after the bubble pop, whereas the final capitulation happened at a little bit higher level).
Because I am now so sure of this, I will seek the opportunities to trade the downtrend, sell up to 50% of my bitcoins with the intention to buy them back at the trendline, and to instruct the ones in their bitcoin accumulation phase to buy only very limited amounts when there is still air in the price.
Bitcoin is going to the moon, but it is not going to the moon overnight. I watched it go as close as possible to the moon from 0.25 to 32 and then to 2, which was my entry point. Realistically the following 6 months will not see similar development (going from 1000 to 128,000 per bitcoin, without stopping). If they do, then the other half of my bitcoins is worth so much that it gives me enough to think about.
The trendline (which I constructed anew from daily data) is now at 420, indicating that there is not much point to buy anything over 500 from the flashcrashes that will certainly continue during the following days and weeks.
If we allow 60 days of downtrend from the bubblepop (30.11.) to the final capitulation (est. 29.1.), the trendline is approximately at 590. The characteristic of a low is about -0.20...-0.30 relative valuation. To be on the safe side, we take -0.20, which corresponds to the target price of 372. To add some safety margin, the highest bids should be at 450 or so.
So now it's the time to be right and sit tight (this time with the fiat of your choice). Objectively bitcoin is now expensive, and speculative selling at prices above 800 is a very good proposition. If you have been thinking where I've been the last few days, the answer is: selling. And running excel calculations. and selling some more.
I believe that bitcoin can reach 1 million dollars in 2016, but not now.
Selling now a large percentage of bitcoins with the intention to double the stash by buying at half the price 1-3 months from now has more than 50% probability of success, therefore is a +EV move. It would have been possible both in 2011 aftermath and at the top of the spring 2013 dcb. The only time it would not have been possible was after the 2010 "bubbles" that never popped and just went on. I think I have way better than 50% chances here - especially as the "negative" scenario is that I will be one of the richest people in the world
![Smiley](https://bitcointalk.org/Smileys/default/smiley.gif)
http://physics.ucsd.edu/do-the-math/2012/06/ruthless-extrapolation/Once again, trend-fitting is excellent at predicting the past, but is useless for predicting the future unless your trend is a product of the analysis of fundamental growth mechanisms instead of past data. You are simply fitting data.
Look at these adoption curves:
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_D9-JNTtRKgs/TBuFe2NvKHI/AAAAAAAABBE/Z3mDC6xW_aE/s1600/Picture+99.pngNone of them were a perfect logistic, despite the fact that none were nearly so frictionless as Bitcoin adoption. The Internet, being the most recent and probably the most rapid, didn't pay much attention to exponential growth expectations.
It is not reasonable to expect that the adoption rate (and therefore the exponential trend) will remain constant throughout Bitcoin's rise. Media attention feeds off media attention in a self-reinforcing fashion that should logically
accelerate the growth as a percentage of current users. Exponential growth is constant growth (in a percentage sense). It helps adoption, too, that the utility of a Bitcoin is increasing alongside the value - the much-vaunted "network effect".
This is more about predicting when and if the attention will slow than trying to force-fit exponential curves.
My bet stands, by the way, in case you really believe all this and aren't just trying to reverse the mistake you made by selling out at $700.
Breaking out of that triangle in a big way. Anyone want to place bets on recovery or bull trap?
You mean an actual bet? Yeah, sure. I feel we will go visit the exponential trendline.
I am game. 10 BTC that we don't touch your exponential trendline in December?
The one that projects $428, not one that incorporates data up to Dec. 9.