| > If you want to engage me in a proper discussion I did try to engage in the discussion. "I'd not be here wasting my time talking", "You go ahead and educate yourself", "we shall never talk again." are hardly a proper response. > Why don't you explain more about how easily accessible those traditional financial instruments are for normies? Define "normies" first. Or better still, drop this condescending pejorative. > I'm interested in that information, can you provide links? I have no links, as it's a service often provided directly by your bank. Right now I have some money invested in risky assets that in the past two months sank 10% due to the way the world is right now. There are multiple lists of "best books about investment", so you could start there. You know why? The absolute vast majority of "innovation" and "knowledge" in crypto space falls roughly into: - scams - currency speculation which is indistinguishable from Forex trading except that it's running on "smart contracts". Forex trading was huge in some countries (Moldova and Turkey among those I know about) in early-to-mid 2000s. I had friends at university heavily invested in it. It probably still is quite popular (and it's very popular in "defi" which is rarely anything but currency speculation and unsecured loans). - asset hoarding + speculation. "Buy cheap, hype, hope for the price to go up, sell". Indistinguishable from anything traditional (from stocks to bonds to Ponzi schemes): you buy an asset, wait for the price to go up, sell. What crypto is busy discovering is why "traditional finance" has all these things in place: KYOC, fraud protection and prevention, reversibility of transactions, deposit insurance, functional courts and laws etc. And is just as busy re-inventing all those, poorly. |
Go back and read it. I'll give you the benefit of the doubt now, but you did not. You threw barbs and used the word "scam" as often as you could, and told me I'd be likely disappearing in a few minutes. Then someone showed up to comment on how disappointed they are I didn't really disappear like I promised. Can't win for losing. This is exactly like every crypto discussion on the internet today, it's very frustrating. I hope you know how difficult it is for me to be this patient. (It actually reminds me a whole lot of doing Ruby evangelism in almost the same circles...)
> how easily accessible those traditional financial instruments are
> I have some money invested in risky assets that in the past two months sank 10% due to the way the world is right now
I'm talking about deliverable perpetual futures. If you had seen this coming, you could have done some short-selling to hedge your risks. Price goes up, you deliver and sell for a profit. Price goes down, you still have your asset and can cash out for a profit. Is that a service offered by your bank? Not mine...
But maybe your bank offers it ...maybe only to qualified/accredited investors? How do I get that?
Now perhaps you see what I am getting at? It's not accessible, no matter how many books you read. Go out and get a million dollars today, through some act of God, and you still won't be a qualified investor next week or next year. Or you can wait for SEC approval, and then you can go get them through your broker I guess.
Some people read books, others are not well-served by book learning. I looked for a book that could explain it to me, but ultimately I only learned by getting hosed using these instruments flatly incorrectly until I figured out what I was doing wrong, by using them, and observing the outcomes, then also asking for help. Lovely people answering questions to help others learn. (It was the friends we made along the way!)
Is there some reason the system is the way it is? Yes, I'm sure there is. Does it protect people how it was really intended, or does it actually mean it just remains inaccessible to most people? This is how crypto levels the playing field.
Does that mean you cannot cut yourself when working with the sharp object? No, it definitely is not safe to go alone here. There are a million and one ways to lose all your money, plus a million new ones that weren't possible before. And soon a new technology will come, and everyone who understands the current landscape will know immediately what to do with it, (and everyone who has had their head in the sand will wait for the SEC for guidance, and eventually begrudgingly accept the improvement, maybe, once all the life has been sucked out of it by bureaucrats.)