
Bitcoin plunges as much as 20 percent as Chinese yuan soars - artsandsci
http://www.reuters.com/article/uk-global-markets-bitcoin-idUSKBN14P1IB
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21
I think all financial journalists should be required to trade real money for a
year.

Then we'll stop seeing these bullshit causations.

Bitcoin's today drop was nothing else than a normal reaction after the
incredible recent runup.

If gold surged today instead of the yuan, the article would have stated that
gold was the reason.

I remember a day during the hectic days of the 2008 meltdown, when in a single
day DOW dropped 5%, but ended 5% up (thus a 10% swing). In that day I've seen
two articles in the same source, with titles like this "Dow plunges on Fed
decision", later "Dow surges on (same) Fed decision", instead of a more
realistic "the market is crazy because everybody is scared shitless"

~~~
eridius
AIUI there's been a lot of speculation lately that the price of bitcoin was
propped up by Chinese investors, so if bitcoin drops 20% at the same time that
the Chinese yuan soars, I don't think it's much of a leap to speculate that
the former was caused by the latter.

~~~
21
I have a question for you. Have you ever traded? This is not meant as an
insult.

Just for scale, yuan soared 1% today, bitcoin dropped 20%. Yes, I know there
is leverage in the forex markets. But more importantly, compared to the yuan
market, bitcoin is a spit in the bucket ($300 bln yuan daily volume vs
whatever the bitcoin daily volume is)

What you're (or the article) is basically saying is that the investors which
were into bitcoin wet themselves today by the amazing yuan soar and suddenly
decided to move theirs money from bitcoin to the yuan, even if these two are
completely different financial things (even if both are named currencies), and
one who invests into bitcoin does so for completely different reasons than one
investing into the yuan.

~~~
patmcguire
The other option is that the price of bitcoin is largely propped up by Chinese
investors evading capital controls or using it trade yuan for other currencies
at non-official rates. If bitcoin is largely driven by avoiding government
controls changes around it could have big effects.

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jpatokal
There was one (1) trade at $881. At time of typing, BTC is above $1000 again,
meaning it's back to the value it had in the dim antiquity of Jan 3rd, 2017.

[https://bitcoinwisdom.com/markets/coinbase/btcusd](https://bitcoinwisdom.com/markets/coinbase/btcusd)

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empath75
When you start seeing posts from people who aren't into cryptocurrencies
talking about buying bitcoin, that's when you sell bitcoin.

~~~
zeroer
Yea, but I saw that years ago.

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j_koreth
This large change based on another currency may paint a dark picture in its
future as a stable cryptocurrency

~~~
modeless
Actually, as Bitcoin's value and "market cap" has increased it has become more
stable. The current fluctuations are small compared to what used to happen. If
the value continues to go up (it is still up 30% over 30 days), stability is
likely to increase as well. If not, it won't.

I'd also like to point out that "real" currencies experience large
fluctuations sometimes too, despite their much larger "market cap". The pound,
the Swiss franc, and the ruble have all seen large fluctuations in recent
years. And of course there have been many cases of hyperinflation in the past
and we have a current one in Venezuela.

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zik
There's been a bit of an unusual spike of about 30% in the last couple of
weeks due to a sudden influx of Chinese investors. Now it's returning to
something closer to its normal value.

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DoodleBuggy
What a stable store of value!

~~~
27182818284
No, you shouldn't put your lifesavings in it, but as others have pointed out,
the Dow has gone down %5 and up %5 in the same day.

~~~
DoodleBuggy
Down another 10% today, stable as ever!

