Anatomy of a "pump and dump" scheme
Updated: May 3, 2022
Jeff Hulett, February 23, 2021
I recently saw a wise quote from Bill Gates. This came during an interview about his new book, How to Avoid a Climate Disaster.
“Elon has tons of money and he's very sophisticated so I don't worry that his Bitcoin will sort of randomly go up or down,” he said “I do think people get bought into these manias who may not have as much money to spare, so I'm not bullish on Bitcoin, and my general thought would be that if you have less money than Elon you should probably watch out.”
Said another way, don’t be on the wrong side of a pump and dump scheme .... and the right side is akin to catching a falling knife!
This reminds me of the classic pump and dump schemes in history. Whether it is tulips, dubious dot coms, real estate, or bitcoin. The symptoms are classic and often ignored. We tend to be blinded by our emotions and are like a fly to light, wanting to believe "This time it is different." I do hope crypto currency and block chain are different, but more time is needed to tell the story. Crypto has significant challenges. It needs to become a "real" store of value and the underlying "proof of work" algorithms need to become much more efficient. Smart people are working on it, including central banks. It will take time and likely after the Bitcoin mean reversion.
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17. Investment thoughts for my children
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10. Anatomy of a "pump and dump" scheme
21. The Time Value of Money Benefits the Young
22. How Would You Short The Internet?
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