[sureaboutthis]

This is so strange to me because I was unaware bitcoin was a real financial instrument any country would care about. I've had three financial advisors, from Edward Jones, Stifel Nicolas and a little guy around the corner, all tell me to stay away from bitcoins. One even told me that, in two years, bitcoin would be dead.

So this is all strange to me.

[celticninja]

To be fair almost every financial advisor ever would have told you to stay away from bitcoin because it was an unknown quantity and very high risk. In hindsight everyone of them was wrong if you bought in at any point between 2009 and mid - 2017 and sold in the last 6 - 8 months.

Also they have been calling bitcoins death since about 2009 when it was created so I would not put too much faith in those predictions. If anything this sort of thing could help bitcoin, either price manipulation is identified, the culprits prosecuted and bitcoin goes on as it is. Or no manipulation (or not significant manipulation) is identified and bitcoin carries on as it is but with a govt. seal of approval (up to that point).

[Cthulhu_]

They would've been right if it was the Zimbabwaean dollar if you bought it in the 80's, or one of Bernie Madoff's financial products.

They could still be right, given time. They've been right for Bitcoin Gold, for example. They were right when MtGox crashed.

[bripeace]

What market have you been watching where you think the statement 'Investing in bitcoin is extremely risky' has been proven wrong?

In one day in Nov 2017 bitcoin went up 15% in early trading then was down 21% later in the day before rebounding to close near even.

Whether bitcoin will be some like long lasting actual useful thing remains to be seen, but one thing that is undeniable is that investing in bitcoin is extremely risky.

This hold true just focusing on the general market behavior alone while ignoring all the issues such as getting money into and out of exchanges and hacks.

[celticninja]

My point was more that as a regulated individual a financial advisor should never have advised an investment in bitcoin. Even if the market proved them wrong (as it has up to now) it doesn't make them wrong for not advising you to invest in it.

[bfuller]

Not necessarily "should never have advised an investment in bitcoin", that would depend on the investors risk profile.