Subject to change of course, and I realize many will disagree, but right now my long term price estimate is $2341, based on M2 calculations and my subjective take on utilization and velocity. I think most analysts that I have read overstate velocity massively by including mining transactions in velocity calculations.
With my current cost average, that means I am hoping for about a 5x total return. Not sure how long it will take, but I am guessing between 5 and 7 years. So for me, bitcoin is not likely to represent life-changing money, but just another long-term investment with a great ROI.
That said, there is certainly potential both to the upside and downside of my current estimate (read: guess). I am wide open to new information.
What are M2 calculations and would they have accurately have predicted today's price if they were used three years ago?
M2 is a measure of the supply of money. M1 measures the most liquid supply of money--basically physical money and demand deposits. M2 is a slightly more broad measurement of the money supply that would include examples of money being used as a store of value, for example, in a money market fund. M3 is even more broad, still, and accounts for other assets that bitcoin doesn't represent well. Personally, I think bitcoin compares most favorably to the M2 money supply measurement. I'm not certain of this, but I think m2 is usually 4-5x M1 at any given time.
You may have seen this article:
http://honestnode.com/bitcoin-fair-value-a-first-assessment/I think it's pretty good, but I don't agree that all of the different items he brings up should be additive. I think they are mostly components of the global M2. I also think his velocity calculation probably includes mining transactions. I thought he treated the whole m2 of some random country a little carelessly, but again, I think his thought processes were mostly in line with the way I was trying to track value and growth.
The last time I ran the numbers, I performed a similar exercise to what the author of the article did. After making a bunch of guesses and assumptions (I'm used to doing that because I'm a CVA--Certified Valuation Analyst, which is very microeconomic, not macroeconomic...I value small businesses. That DOES NOT make me an expert in this kind of macro valuation!!!) I came up with a percentage of the M2 that I thought bitcoin could likely command in the next 5 years. That number, divided by the number of coins that would be mined at the time I was forecasting, was $2341.
I can't stress enough that I am definitely not an expert. I could be very, very wrong. I do have an MBA and my CVA, but I honestly don't know how much that helps for something like this.
So would I have made appropriate calculations three years ago? It's hard to say, because a lot of the work is pretty subjective. Would I have been able to guess reasonably well about the adoption rates, the businesses who are using it, the pending ETF? And if I had, would I have accurately converted that to bitcoin's current share of M2? Maybe not. But with every year of maturity, those predictions get a little easier to make. But I'm open to being wrong.
There are plenty of people who have made 100x or 200x return on bitcoin...or more. Last time I calculated my cost average, it was $476. I have bought more in the last 10 days on the dips, so my cost average is up, but I'll have to refigure again to know how much. My opinion is that I was too late of an adopter to make ridiculous gains. I missed out, obviously, on huge potential gains. But I still think there is opportunity out there. At 46, I'm probably older than most in this forum. My financial path to a comfortable retirement is pretty much set. So I'm only risking a small percentage of my net worth on bitcoin. If I can get a 5x return, I'll be thrilled with that. That is a HUGE investing success, contrary to what one might think. Life-changing money doesn't happen to most of us. As information becomes more available, I may revise my opinion, buy more, hope for a better return, or even sell (although I don't see that anywhere NEAR the horizon right now...I'd almost rather HODL to zero, because even if I lose everything, this doesn't impact my personal plan).
As always, your mileage may vary.