GBTC trades as a premium to BTC-USD.

Swollen Thumb said:

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aggies4life said:

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What's the best way to get into/play Bitcoin?

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Interested to hear thoughts on this as well. I'm not very familiar with the crypto world, exchanges, mobile wallets, etc, so not sure how involved and/or secure it all is to buy bitcoin outright and would prefer something I could trade within a normal investment account.

We are familiar with MARA on this thread, and someone earlier mentioned GBTC...profile:

Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (BTC) is an exchange traded fund launched and managed by Grayscale Investments, LLC. The fund invests in Bitcoins. It invests through derivatives such as futures, swaps, and other CFTC-regulated derivatives that reference digital currencies. The fund seeks to track the performance of the TradeBlock XBX Index. Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (BTC) was formed on September 25, 2013 and is domiciled in United States.

This has my interest as a more direct investment vehicle than say MARA, but curious if there are any downsides to this approach vs buying bitcoin outright? Are there other similar ETFs that anyone is familiar with?

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Great Question that I have as well

aggies4life said:

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What's the best way to get into/play Bitcoin?

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I literally do not know.

FJ43 said:

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oldarmy1 said:

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FJ43 said:

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Calling OA - Do you have a Bitcoin play for the clan here?

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You know my MARA exposure is pretty big with a lot of covered calls involved too.

Really that's it.

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Just looked at MARA and running about $3.40 now. You can sell $5 covered calls for Jan at .90 and March at a 1.35. Why wouldn't you do that if you didn't even have Mara now. I wouldn't care if I got called out on them.

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Yup....two things on covered calls this time of year.

1) In two part: If you get called out using Dec calls you will have a capital gains to report. If you use a Jan forward then you push the tax for an entire year, so your capital can be used fully for a year.

2) Depending on what happens in Georgia runoffs capital gains on trading accounts could stay static or go back to Obama era, or worse. So you need to consider what profits you want to lock into 2020 for avoiding potential increases or roll the dice on the Jan 5th outcome. Also, even if you make the decision to sell some stocks in 2020, to avoid potential gain increases it might not even matter because should Georgia flip the Senate I can guarantee you not only capital gains but 2020 income taxes will be retroactively increased with the easy passage of the Administrations policies.

Qd closed at 1.5. Tossup if the 1.5 calls i sold expired worthless or got exercised?

Mvis pumped hard into the close, wonder if things are happening

aggies4life said:

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What's the best way to get into/play Bitcoin?

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You can buy Bitcoin. I used coinbase app but now having to change. It's safe and secure. You don't have to buy a full one. You can buy any part of it. It moves just like a stock.

to get into bitcoin - you can trade futures or you can buy actual bitcoin through an exchange like coinbase.

oldarmy1 said:

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FJ43 said:

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oldarmy1 said:

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FJ43 said:

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Calling OA - Do you have a Bitcoin play for the clan here?

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You know my MARA exposure is pretty big with a lot of covered calls involved too.

Really that's it.

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Just looked at MARA and running about $3.40 now. You can sell $5 covered calls for Jan at .90 and March at a 1.35. Why wouldn't you do that if you didn't even have Mara now. I wouldn't care if I got called out on them.

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Yup....two things on covered calls this time of year.

1) In two part: If you get called out using Dec calls you will have a capital gains to report. If you use a Jan forward then you push the tax for an entire year, so your capital can be used fully for a year.

2) Depending on what happens in Georgia runoffs capital gains on trading accounts could stay static or go back to Obama era, or worse. So you need to consider what profits you want to lock into 2020 for avoiding potential increases or roll the dice on the Jan 5th outcome. Also, even if you make the decision to sell some stocks in 2020, to avoid potential gain increases it might not even matter because should Georgia flip the Senate I can guarantee you not only capital gains but 2020 income taxes will be retroactively increased with the easy passage of the Administrations policies.

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Thanks OA. I have been thinking through this capital gains issue given the political climate and who will ultimately be in control. At present I feel safer taking capital gains now than chancing higher tax rates ahead. Decisions, decisions....

You can buy, hold, and sell Bitcoin on PayPal now and they've suspended transaction fees for the rest of the year.

On $ALPP.

Something to think about, but I'm really not sure if it means anything at all. (In fact, it probably does not).

Last Nov 1, 2019 it also shot up to .24. Then the following Monday it went to .43. Again, take that with a grain of salt but it would be wild if history repeated itself.

Sad I got out of the alpp ride!!! GOOD luck!!

Really like gmgi.. Slow bull run for weeks and weeks... Popped today on news of major partnership in electronic gaming space. Annoyed bc I've kept missing on buys of it the last few weeks (weren't filled)..

Also, really like uavs... Amazon rumors circling.. Kinda a tangential play off alpp too- as they are much farther along in the drone space.

I have a very strong urge sell and be cash heavy for a while. Is this irrational? Biden managing the helm scares me.

I've been thinking the same. Lots of up coming headwind. Covid should go ape **** after turkey day. I may sell/hedge pretty heavy next week.

Philip J Fry said:

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I have a very strong urge sell and be cash heavy for a while. Is this irrational? Biden managing the helm scares me.

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Not sure I would ever say being heavier in cash is irrational. A number on this thread are in that position right now. In the event Biden takes the helm there are far more unknows and uncertainties. The one known is taxation will go up.

Hedging in todays climate is always wise.

I have already made a heavy move to cash (around 60% now from 10% or so a couple of months ago). I just think there is way too much uncertainty, and we could see some economic consequences with covid sometime in the next couple of months.

FJ43 said:

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Philip J Fry said:

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I have a very strong urge sell and be cash heavy for a while. Is this irrational? Biden managing the helm scares me.

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Not sure I would ever say being heavier in cash is irrational. A number on this thread are in that position right now. In the event Biden takes the helm there are far more unknows and uncertainties. The one known is taxation will go up.

Hedging in todays climate is always wise.

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It won't with a Republican Senate. Pretty sure the tax cuts sunset in 2025.

Philip J Fry said:

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I have a very strong urge sell and be cash heavy for a while. Is this irrational? Biden managing the helm scares me.

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I went heavier cash today. Just a gut feeling about the weekend.

Done. Placed an order to sell tonight for Monday morning. Averaged around 100% growth this year. Time to sit it out for the next shutdown.

Mostly Foggy Recollection said:

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FJ43 said:

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Philip J Fry said:

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I have a very strong urge sell and be cash heavy for a while. Is this irrational? Biden managing the helm scares me.

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Not sure I would ever say being heavier in cash is irrational. A number on this thread are in that position right now. In the event Biden takes the helm there are far more unknows and uncertainties. The one known is taxation will go up.

Hedging in todays climate is always wise.

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It won't with a Republican Senate. Pretty sure the tax cuts sunset in 2025.

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Don't know how much you follow politics but I do extensively. There's an undercurrent of Republican boycott for the GA runoff. Trump supporters are feeling abandoned by this whole process and may not come out in the runoff, especially because establishment Republicans are begging for their support. This is a very real issue and will affect the markets. Just something to consider.

Prognightmare said:

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Mostly Foggy Recollection said:

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FJ43 said:

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Philip J Fry said:

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I have a very strong urge sell and be cash heavy for a while. Is this irrational? Biden managing the helm scares me.

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Not sure I would ever say being heavier in cash is irrational. A number on this thread are in that position right now. In the event Biden takes the helm there are far more unknows and uncertainties. The one known is taxation will go up.

Hedging in todays climate is always wise.

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It won't with a Republican Senate. Pretty sure the tax cuts sunset in 2025.

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Don't know how much you follow politics but I do extensively. There's an undercurrent of Republican boycott for the GA runoff. Trump supporters are feeling abandoned by this whole process and may not come out in the runoff, especially because establishment Republicans are begging for their support. This is a very real issue and will affect the markets. Just something to consider.

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I do follow, and the odds are heavily tilted to the Rs in this race.

Ds would need to make up a 600K vote delta in Georgia. In Texas that *might* be achievable, but not in GA.

If you aren't comfortable with it, you stand to make a good amount of coin placing a bet on the Ds.

I follow but I don't bet on politics, especially now with what has transpired.

Mostly Foggy Recollection said:

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For you Aggie football lovers, this is about the normal money line of an A&M-Bama game.

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Now that is funny because it's true.

Why fight for a party that doesn't have a backbone?

Question for you guys more familiar with the tax stuff. I think I know the answer from some quick googling, but thought I'd confirm with you smarter types.

Since I do most of my trading in Roth and 401k I usually never worry much, but this year is different due to some substantially large gains I have in taxable account. Here's what I have to sort out in the next month:

• large gains in stocks bought in the last few months July - Aug mostly. I want to sell at least some of these before holding for a year to get down to long term cap gains. 3 options: sell as short term gains in 2020, wait till 2021 to sell as short term gains or wait till >1 year hold (out 8+ months)
• large gains in stocks that I've held >1 year. I think I need to just hold these since I don't really want or need to sell them (AMZN for example)
• fairly large losses in stocks held >1 year that aren't as much as my 2020 short term gains if I sell them all. (some speculative plays from a few years ago that didn't work out)

My main question is to confirm that I can offset short term capital gains with long term losses. If that's true, I think my best route is to sell all of those long term losers, and then sell an equal gain amount of the short term 2020 buys.

For a quick example assuming I was exactly breakeven on all other trades this year. Let's say I have $50k gains in ROKU from an August buy. I also have $25k gains from AMZN bought in 2018, and $25k in losses from a stock bought in 2018. So I'd sell half my ROKU and all my old loser to breakeven? And just keep holding my long term AMZN? And keep the ROKU half essentially net free at least until a year since I bought it? And if I really want to keep my full ROKU position, I can just buy that half back at any time?

TIA!

Mostly Foggy Recollection said:

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Prognightmare said:

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Mostly Foggy Recollection said:

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FJ43 said:

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Philip J Fry said:

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I have a very strong urge sell and be cash heavy for a while. Is this irrational? Biden managing the helm scares me.

---

Not sure I would ever say being heavier in cash is irrational. A number on this thread are in that position right now. In the event Biden takes the helm there are far more unknows and uncertainties. The one known is taxation will go up.

Hedging in todays climate is always wise.

---

It won't with a Republican Senate. Pretty sure the tax cuts sunset in 2025.

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Don't know how much you follow politics but I do extensively. There's an undercurrent of Republican boycott for the GA runoff. Trump supporters are feeling abandoned by this whole process and may not come out in the runoff, especially because establishment Republicans are begging for their support. This is a very real issue and will affect the markets. Just something to consider.

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I do follow, and the odds are heavily tilted to the Rs in this race.

Ds would need to make up a 600K vote delta in Georgia. In Texas that *might* be achievable, but not in GA.

If you aren't comfortable with it, you stand to make a good amount of coin placing a bet on the Ds.

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I don't bet on politics- but I would pound the Democrat side with those odds. They just won the state at the top of the ticket. Now only focused on those two races- they could easily win one or both of those with their funding and media narrative advantage (Soros, Hollywood, Corporate America).