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Press Release: Bitcoin IRA Adds Digital Gold To Its Self-Trading Retirement Platform

LOS ANGELESFeb. 13, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — BitcoinIRA.com, the world’s first and largest digital asset IRA company that allows customers to purchase cryptocurrencies and other digital assets for their retirement accounts, has announced it is adding Digital Gold (DG) to its platform. Digital Gold is the first-of-its-kind to be offered in a retirement setting and it is eligible for purchase today on its proprietary self-trading IRA platform.

Digital Gold is an innovative, proprietary solution that allows customers to instantly buy and sell investment-grade, pure physical gold 24/7. Digital Gold combines the stability of gold with the speed of ETFs, and customers have 100 percent direct ownership of their physical gold. The product is the most cost-effective physical gold IRA asset now available on the market because it removes the large markups and transaction costs found with traditional gold sellers.

Customers always maintain the title to their real gold through a cryptographically-secure blockchain database that investors can utilize to verify ownership. Their physical gold is securely stored in the vaults of the Royal Canadian Mint and is fully deliverable upon request at any time. The product is insured, cost-effective and has a fully transparent, 24/7 settlement process.

BitcoinIRA.com’s Digital Gold is developed in a strategic alliance with Dillon Gage Metals, one of the world’s largest precious metals wholesale firms and leading technology innovator in the industry.

Mark Furmanek, chief operating officer at Dillon Gage Metals said, “I am excited to provide strategic support to BitcoinIRA.com‘s newest product, our 40 years of experience in physical precious metals and our investment into technology has the making of a strong alliance.”

BitcoinIRA.com’s COO and co-founder Chris Kline added, “We are proud to expand our product offering with the launch of Digital Gold and to have Dillon Gage Metals as our strategic provider. Before this innovation gold buyers had to choose between dollar-derived proxy ETF certificates or slow, expensive physical gold. We are disrupting the industry by offering the best of both products and making them tradeable 24/7 on our propriety IRA platform.”

Digital Gold joins 8 other digital assets available on BitcoinIRA.com’s platform including Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Ripple (XRP), Litecoin (LTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Ethereum Classic (ETC), Stellar Lumens (XLM) and Zcash (ZEC).

Consumers can self-trade Digital Gold and cryptocurrencies inside the BitcoinIRA.com platform today by visiting bitcoinira.com/digital-gold.

About BitcoinIRA.com

BitcoinIRA.com is the world’s largest and most secure technology company that allows customers to purchase cryptocurrencies and other digital assets for their retirement accounts. The company offers full-service and self-service options which include setting up a qualified digital asset IRA account, rolling over funds from an existing IRA custodian, executing a live trade on a leading exchange and then moving funds into an industry-leading multi-signature digital wallet.

Since 2016, BitcoinIRA.com has processed over $300 million in investments, gained nearly 5,000 customers and received more than 400 5-star customer reviews. The company has been featured extensively in the media, with coverage in Forbes magazine, CNBC, and The Wall Street Journal, among other publications.

BitcoinIRA.com is a fintech service provider and as such is not a financial adviser, cryptocurrency, exchange, custodian, wallet provider, initial coin offering (ICO), or money transmitter. BitcoinIRA.com is privately funded and based in Los Angeles.

Learn more about BitcoinIRA.com at https://bitcoinira.com or call 877-936-7175.

About Dillon Gage Metals

Dillon Gage Inc. of Dallas (DillonGage.com), founded in 1976, companies include:

Dillon Gage Metals (www.DillonGage.com), one of the world’s largest precious metals wholesale trading firms. The firm is an authorized purchaser for all major world mints and maintains inventory in over 20 countries around the world. Additionally, the company provides advanced tools and technologies that enable market participants to be more successful in their businesses, allowing electronic trading and offering cloud-based solutions for the physical precious metals marketplace. 800-375-4653

FizTrade Online Trading (www.FizTrade.com) offers a real-time bid/ask trading platform for gold, silver, platinum and palladium. 800-375-4653.

Dillon Gage Refining (www.dillongage.com/refining/why-dg), professional assayers and refiners of precious metal scrap, from low grade to karat scrap. Stone removal services and diamond experts on staff. 888-436-3489.

CONTACT: Mike Schrobo, [email protected]

SOURCE Bitcoin IRA

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How can I invest in Bitcoin Profitably? – Part 1

Bitcoin has showed great character during 2016 and the start of 2017 as an investable asset providing good returns to its investors. Its high non-correlation with other commodities made it a very important portfolio diversifier which found its place in the portfolios of even institutional investors. With growing adoption levels, predicted potential and rising prices people have moved on over the question on whether they should be investing in Bitcoin. Rather, they are now exploring for ways to invest in Bitcoin and reap the benefits of steady increase in value and short term volatility. People have indeed stumped me with questions on how the investing procedure is different from currency trading or about its similarities with commodity trading. Given Bitcoin’s analogousness to Gold and its defined characteristics of mimicking a currency, it often becomes difficult to understand how to treat the digital asset in terms of investment. To clear out the uncertainty and let know people of various investment methods in Bitcoin, I decided to chalk out few means that might help everyone to the best of my knowledge. I broadly classified them into long term and short term basing on the time frame to expect returns.

Direct Investment – Long Term (Buy and Hold):

As stated already, Bitcoin acts both as commodity and currency. You can own Bitcoin as an asset or spend it as any other currency. This means that Bitcoin would be influenced by a unique set of fundamentals that might affect currency and commodity markets respectively. But more importantly, Bitcoin fundamentals relate to the increase in the adoption of the digital asset, venture capital movements, implementation of disruptive technology and Chinese market dynamics.

A long term investment in any market would involve investment of heavy capital with heavy reward expectations. In Bitcoin market, with the prices moving more than 150% in an year, a long term investment for good returns might range somewhere between just a few weeks to an year depending on the market momentum. For taking a long term position in the market, it’s always imperative to get a clear idea of the existing market trend. Since Bitcoin market is bullish in the long run and with the adoption levels always on the rise, it is wise to only go for buy side investments in the market. Shorting wouldn’t reap long term profits and might backfire if the market becomes heavily bullish. Therefore, with a good entry position having strong support and good risk to reward ratio, one can reap good amount of profits from the trade. More often than not, price targets would be a better judge of exit positions than the time period in volatile markets.

Direct Investment – Short Term (Algorithmic Trading):

Bitcoin markets are blessed with volatility that will attract automated trading practices which contribute to the dense volumes observed in the digital currency recently. Short term trades that help in quickly scalping money from Bitcoin markets can be done algorithmically. While these trades are very effective in making money in quick time, strict safeguards have to be placed for quick shift in market dynamics that might lead to losing heavy money if caught in the opposite direction of the market.

These trading soft wares have to be updated regularly to adjust to the changing market dynamics and updated compliance regulations.

Further investment methods to be revealed in consequent parts of the posts.

Global markets tank, Bitcoin’s uncertainty lets Gold regain its stature as ‘Safe Haven’

The global markets slumped on January 12, 2017 after a news conference by President-elect Donald Trump. Assets declined across the globe with European, Asian shares and S&P 500 futures all falling, while the dollar slumped against most currencies. The conference disappointed the institutional investors with reveals to very little details as to economic and trade plans. This element of uncertainty resulted in a major slump in US dollar trading after recovering from a three week low. Surprisingly even after so much market commotion, the Bitcoin price remained unaffected despite so much market activity. Let’s look into why Gold reigned while Bitcoin was left behind during the latest market collapse:

Bitcoin stagnant as uncertainty looms:

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The year had a lot of surprises that came as backlash for Bitcoin’s Bull Run which neared the all-time high start of this year. Firstly when the prices approached all time high, panic associated to Chinese policies led to the first stage of the collapse. After briefly trading at $900 range for quite some time the next collapse occurred a couple of days later. This was majorly due to the news that Peoples Bank of China has acted on Bitcoin regulation in 2017. They have contacted exchanges to monitor the process in order to avoid currency getting out of the country.

Following the second crash, Bitcoin has formed some kind of support around $750 and has been trading in the area ever since. It remained unaffected during the Yuan’s fall and the global market’s pandemonium since the investors are looking at it cautiously now. After trading sufficient volume and building a strong support, it might finally take off and adhere to the conventionally observed fundamentals.

Gold returns as the only ‘Safe Haven’:

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Gold spiked up to over $1,200 after Wednesday’s shift in market dynamics. The price jump for a mere market scare can be attributed to Bitcoins unavailability during this time. The fact that Bitcoin rallied upto the high but wasn’t able to breach it significantly has left an element of doubt in the minds of institutional investors. Hence the general inflow of funds has been redirected to Gold, retaining its status as  reliable asset. Whether Bitcoin would be able to displace Gold again as a security asset or Gold will continue to dominate this sector, only time will tell.

 

Is Bitcoin turning out to be better than Gold?

‘Safe Haven’, ‘Digital Gold’, ’Backup Asset’ are all the adjectives used to describe Bitcoin in 2016. The reason behind these is fairly simple and intuitive. In the face of Geo-Political crises, which led to economic turmoil across the globe, Bitcoin came to the rescue for many investors. Traditionally Gold has been the safe haven for such kind of market turmoil. The primary reasons for it are the scarcity of Gold and its non-correlation with other assets. With the cryptocurrency’s limited supply and ease in transactions, it has literally gained the name and status of ‘Digital Gold’.

Interestingly in ‘2015’ Bitcoin was the best performing asset class that outperformed traditional index funds and complex portfolios. The trend has continued in 2016 and Bitcoin still remains unbeaten when it comes to returns. Infact it has been performing better than Gold, making investors wonder if it can actually replace Gold in their portfolios. Let’s look into the aspects which make Bitcoin better than Gold:

Ease of Transaction:

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Major investments in Gold do not actually result in handling of the commodity. Investors generally move the funds invested to reap their profits after a period of time. When it comes to bitcoin, it’s an investment that you can actually transfer, spend and utilize in day to day life thanks to the growing adoption of the currency. The ease with which funds can be moved in and out of the currency has always attracted big time investors for short term hedging. This one advantage Bitcoin has over Gold, Gold cannot be used in day to day life for various transactions directly.

Greater Extent of Non-Correlation:

Non-Correlation with other asset classes is a very important parameter which makes an asset a hedge balancing portfolio diversifier. As scarce and untouchable Gold is, it takes a dive along with other metals when the oil markets are collapsing. Fundamentally that is expected of any commodity as oil prices have a direct bearing on the transportation cost. The cost of a commodity also factors this cost and hence the commodity becomes cheaper when oil prices drop. Bitcoin being a digitally programmed asset, has no direct correlation with any of the physical commodities as the fundamental markets driving the price are totally different. This makes it an ideal hedging component in traditional basket of commodities.

Performance till date:

This year, Bitcoin has beaten Gold by a big margin and is still enjoying a healthy uptrend. While Gold gained 8.73% and outperformed S&P 500 and Twenty-year US Treasury Bonds, it still couldn’t match Bitcoins 100% overshoot.

Fund YTD Performance
SPDR Gold Shares (NYSE:GLD) 8.73%
Bitcoin Investment Trust Shares (OTCQX:GBTC) +107.42
SPDR S&P500 +8.27
iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond -0.59

With a known 21 million limited supply, perceivably it is being considered further scarcer than Gold and will surely see a significant rise in value in the years to come.

Can Royal Mint and CME Group revolutionize Blockchain Gold Trading?

When it comes to trading of commodities, there are few key issues like holding, exchanging and transporting the product. Major exchanges stand as an authenticator between the buyers and sellers, ensuring the timely transfer of money and goods. While this is the standard procedure, it takes a lot of time and effort  to ensure that the contract execution is appropriate. When it comes to spot exchanges this process becomes highly difficult to handle or monitor. This is consequential to the fact that spot exchanges require immediate transfer of goods/contracts and keeping a track of the same in real-time makes it difficult.

When it comes to precious metals like Gold, it becomes even more complicated due to security concerns. Royal Mint of England and CME Group came together over an initiative to reduce the hassle in this process. For the same purpose they have employed blockchain technology. Let’s look into how they plan to execute the same:

 Gold Spot Trading:

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A spot trade is the purchase or sale of a foreign currency, financial instrument, or commodity for immediate delivery. Foreign exchange spot contracts are the most common and are usually for delivery in two business days, while most other financial instruments settle the next business day. The spot foreign exchange market trades electronically around the world. It is the world’s largest market, with over $5 trillion traded daily; its size dwarfs the interest rate and commodity markets. With such heavy volumes, it becomes difficult to keep a track of spot exchanges accurately.

The Blockchain initiative:

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The Royal Mint and CME are planning to build a gold market using nascent blockchain technology. This will perceptibly transform the way market participants will be able to trade, execute and settle gold. The new product will launch in 2017 and will see the state-owned Royal Mint issue a digitized gold offering called Royal Mint Gold (RMG). This will act as a digital record of ownership for gold which is stored at its highly-secure on-site bullion vault storage facility. CME will develop, implement and operate the product’s digital trading platform. This platform is to provide a new service that will offer an easier, cost-effective and cryptographically secure alternative to buying, holding and trading spot gold.

Digital Trading Platform:

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CME will launch the digital trading platform which will operate 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. The traditional physical spot cost model for investing in gold involves management fees and ongoing storage charges levied. These RMGs will offer ownership of the underlying gold with the option for conversion to physical gold by The Royal Mint with zero storage cost. The initial amount of RMG at launch could be worth up to $1 billion of gold. How this initiative would transform other commodities markets is to be seen.

 

Why you should invest in Bitcoin?

Disruptive technologies have the potentiality to transform existing traditional set ups in a more efficient way. Bitcoin and other digital currencies are primarily for acting as a medium of exchange without the limitations of fiat currencies. But due to their numerous applications and quick adoption, they have become a viable option of investment. Bitcoin has been very successful so far in 2016 with the currency experiencing great adoption and returns. On a parallel scale it has been one of the best performing entities of the year. Let’s look into whether we can actually treat Bitcoin as an asset class and invest profitably:

Good Liquidity:

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For any asset class, ample liquidity is an important factor to make profitable investments. Without good liquidity it would be difficult to understand and study market dynamics. After seven years of very organic development Bitcoin ecosystem has consistently gained good volumes. Currently the volumes have started surpassing $1 billion in a day on an average. At this rate, it is almost as liquid as Gold is and far more liquid than heavily invested assets. It is also very secure owing to the infrastructure built around the peer to peer network of the currency. Hence Bitcoin offers good liquidity to investors for heavy investments.

Qualities of the asset:

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Qualities of the asset refer to how the asset holds value and how it might change with time. This in totality refers to all the qualities that are related to the asset that might govern its value. In this respect, Bitcoin follows Gold and other precious metals. The major correlation is the fact that the supply is limited. With Bitcoin, we have a definite time frame in mind and it doesn’t have the uncertainty factor like in the case of Gold. This makes it even more valuable and the prices are sure to tend higher. Apart from this, adoption and ease of transfer make it a better store of value than Gold. Hence given the above mentioned factors this makes it a very viable asset class to invest.

Correlation with other asset classes:

To transform into a mainstream asset class that is suitable for investments, Bitcoin’s correlation has to be low w.r.t other asset classes. This would then enable it to be a worthy portfolio diversification component. It is this quality that keeps a diversified portfolio safe from losses.

Credits: Grayscale.co

Bitcoin has little or no correlation with any of the existing asset classes. The maximum correlation, that bitcoin exhibited with each of the other assets is the minimum correlation that any of the other paired assets displayed with each other. This means it would be one of the safest asset classes to invest in as the fundamentals governing this market are totally different.

Is Bitcoin the New Gold: Similarities and Contrasts for Investors Seeking Stability?

Investors are always on the lookout for ways to preserve their wealth, increase ROI, and grow their wealth. However, wealth preservation now seems to top the list as the U.S. Presidential elections draw near and the realities of the Brexit vote starts to sink in. Hence, investors tend to seek refuge and stability for their investments in safe-haven assets and alternative investments. Interestingly, gold and Bitcoin are two alternative investments that tend to attract the most attention.

Gold is a naturally occurring element that has been behind civilization, government, war, and trade for thousands of years. Bitcoin is a modern digital cryptocurrency that provides a virtual peer-to-peer platform to facilitate electronic trade. This article seeks to compare and contrast gold and Bitcoin in order to help investors make educated decisions for wealth preservation.

Similarities between gold and Bitcoin

1. Both are gold and Bitcoin are mined

Both gold and Bitcoin are mined by “miners” even though they use different skills and equipment. The changes in the supply of gold of gold are often determined by the discovery of new gold deposits and the development of more efficient mining techniques for extracting gold from ores. Likewise, powerful algorithms determine the volume of Bitcoin in circulation. The said algorithms determine how Bitcoin miners are rewarded when they add new Bitcoin transactions to the blockchain.

2. Finite supply but infinite demand and application

Another similarity between gold and Bitcoin is that they both have a finite supply but a practically infinite demand, use, and application. Gold is mined from the ground and the amount of gold available in the world is finite between 120,000 to 140,000 tons (above ground) at an estimated worth of $1.8 trillion). Likewise, Bitcoin is finite because the total number of Bitcoin that can be mined is 21 million Bitcoin.

However, the demand, usage, and applications of gold and Bitcoin is practically endless. Gold and Bitcoin offer a safe haven in times of financial instability. Gold has some industrial applications and Bitcoin meets the security and transparency needs of a digital economy. More so, some countries have started considering minting physical Bitcoin in order to endorse it as currency.

3. Neither gold nor Bitcoin is tied to a government currency

Another interesting similarity between gold and Bitcoin is that they are both free from direct government influence because neither asset is tied to a government currency. Hence, the government can’t make a move to set their exchange rate, devalue them, or determine how much of either gold or Bitcoin are in circulation.

The fact that neither gold nor Bitcoin is tied to a government currency makes them a good hedge against economic and geopolitical instability. Gold and Bitcoin will always be a legal tender irrespective of country, religion, nationality, or language barriers. Hence, if any world government runs into a mess leading to economic instability, both gold and Bitcoin are unlikely to lose their value; rather, they’ll tend to record an increase in their value during periods of economic instability.

4. Both gold and Bitcoin have a mutual enemy in central banks

Central Banks do not like the fact that gold could render their fiat currencies useless and they always try to undermine the yellow metal at every possible opportunity. The chatter about U.S. Federal Reserve’s plan to raise interest rates in order to reduce the safe-haven appeal of gold is a point in case. Interestingly, these central banks have started transferring their distaste for gold to angst for Bitcoin.

The emergence of Bitcoin as a world currency could potentially erode the necessity of central banks in the global economic landscape. For one, Bitcoin is an electronic money; hence, there’s little need for a national money supply. More so, the low transaction cost associated with Bitcoin transactions will eliminate the need for the interest rates that central banks set in line with economic trends.

Differences between gold and Bitcoin

Despite the interesting similarities between Gold and Bitcoin, it is important to point out some stark contrasts. To start with, gold is physical whereas Bitcoin is purely electronic; hence, Bitcoin is more suitable to the digital economy than gold. The physical nature of gold attracts the attendant risks of theft, being misplaced, and being destroyed (highly unlikely but plausible nonetheless). Bitcoin is digitalized and it would require a serious intent to steal Bitcoin – it could happen but you are not likely to be the only victim.

Secondly, Bitcoin could potentially be a better investment than gold because of the fundamentals of demand and supply and the effect of market forces. The price of gold is subject to many factors such as demand and supply, U.S. interest rates, USD Exchange rates, government policies, and geopolitical tensions. Hence, you can never really know what to expect and gold is an unstable way to seek stability in periods of economic and political uncertainty. Bitcoin has once surpassed gold when it traded for $1,242 and the factors are still much in place to make Bitcoin a more valuable alternative currency than gold.

Is Bitcoin Destined to be the World’s Reserve Currency?

Bitcoin has been the fore-runner amongst the stream of digital currencies that are set to disrupt Fintech. With growing popularity and adoption, the Bitcoin ecosystem has developed rather quickly owing to its underlying technology. Major financial institutions trying to exploit Blockchain technology has called for drafting legislation on this front. While all this looks positive, let’s look into if the cryptocurrency can actually replace fiat currencies:

Evolution of means of Exchange

Historically Barter system has been a strong medium of exchange; gold coins, beads and feathers later replaced it. Finally we have arrived upon fiat currencies or paper cash. As such the paper cash doesn’t have a value of its own. Backed by Gold reserves with central banks, they have served as store of value for a long time.

money-evolution

The ‘Gold Standard’ collapsed with the ‘deflationary’ Great Depression of 1930. Then on, the backing of currency by Gold slowly disappeared into shadows. The fiat currencies started to run mostly on backing of central banks. From an exchange of value, the monetary system shifted to an exchange of confidence issued as currency by the government.

Bitcoin vs Ideal Currency

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An ideal currency should stand good on these three important characterstics:

  • Easy and convenient means of exchange
  • Should serve as a unit of account
  • Act as a viable store of value

Bitcoin would fulfill the first criterion with flying colors as it has been one of its major selling points. It is a borderless, zero fee peer to peer transaction network. In the second criterion, unit of account implies being able to get goods and services in exchange. Bitcoin can serve as a better unit of account on the basis of having uniform value across borders. For the third criterion, Bitcoin faces some challenges due to high volatility currently. But with better adoption, the currency will achieve stability and can transform into a safe store of value. Hence Bitcoin looks good on all criteria for an ideal currency.

Why Bitcoin will win

As an alternative to the current monetary system, we can fall back on Barter System or exchange through solid Gold. But barter system is highly inconvenient owing to unequal valuation of goods and services. While Gold can hold value, it is difficult to carry the same securely at all times. Hence the technological alternative in the form of cryptocurrencies would be best fit solution for replacing fiat currencies.

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Contrary to people’s speculation, this change wouldn’t be so hard to accommodate. This is because all the transactions today are carried out electronically over wires, net banking, paypal and other means. Roughly about 10 % of the transactions are actually dealt in hard cash. Adopting a system that would make these dealings easy and peer to peer would be a welcome change. It is just a matter of time and fluid adoption after which Bitcoin would become primary means of exchange. All it needs is people’s confidence similar to what they currently have in paper currencies.

The New Bitcoin Portfolio Diversification Strategy

Successful investing, like many endeavors, is often discussed simplistically, as though it were an either/or activity.   Either you store your nest egg in an FDI-insured bank account and let it gradually accumulate a return at a paltry rate of interest.  Or you do something highly speculative with your cash — like play the futures market or slap money down on momentum stocks – with an eye towards a quick and luxurious return on your investment.

There’s something to be said for both extremes.  It certainly makes sense to keep cash on hand in case of an emergency.  Having enough cash available to cover six months’ worth of your basic expenses is a good rule of thumb.  But keeping the bulk of your portfolio in cash, especially at current reduced rates of interest, is foolhardy.  A portfolio consisting solely of cash in the bank can never grow enough to fund you in your retirement years.

Still, highly aggressive investments in vehicles like momentum stocks or the futures markets can wipe out an unseasoned investor in months or even weeks.  But a diverse portfolio that allows for ample protection as well as a bit of rapid growth is a good way to go.

Towards this end, a portfolio consisting principally of gold – physical gold – and a moderate quantity of bitcoin can work very well for a lay investor.   Here’s why. Gold has been around for thousands of years.  As former U.S. Mint Director, Ed Moy, has observed, “Gold is the undisputed king of longevity for being in use since the dawn of civilization.”

What’s more, gold is a tangible asset that routinely serves as a safe haven for investors fleeing the negative effects of equities markets and a declining dollar.  Central banks store physical gold to hedge their inventory of world-reserve currency (dollars) and the devaluation of their home currencies.  Because of gold’s limited above-ground supplies, investors can feel reasonably confident their own stash of physical gold will hold its value and stabilize their portfolios.

If gold represents a balanced portfolio’s stabilizer, bitcoin can serve as its primary growth additive.  The new electronic currency, bitcoin, has ranged in value (in dollars) from zero to $1,230.00 and is currently around $416.00.   Target, Subway, Paypal, Amazon, Victoria’s Secret and Zappos are just a few of the many businesses that now accept bitcoin.  The cryptocurrency stands only to grow in value as its circulation base expands.  As such, it represents a splendid opportunity for robust growth in a balanced portfolio.

The question remains why invest in bitcoin, and why not invest in momentum stocks or even value stocks for rapid growth?  There are several reasons – mainly having to do with the current challenges of publicly owned stocks.

According to a recent poll by FactSet, analysts anticipate first-quarter earnings per share in the S&P 500 will decline by 8.7 %.   If they’re right, this will be the fourth consecutive quarter of a decline in earnings.  This decline would also mark the first such four-in-a-row series of declines since the 2008-2009 financial crisis.

Clearly, if S&P stocks are this vulnerable to decline, momentum stocks – smaller speculative stocks – will be even more vulnerable.

Also, many of the stock purchases we’re now seeing are originating from company stock buybacks. This kind of stock purchase, if handled in sufficient quantity, can reduce the number of outstanding shares and make a stock appear more attractive to outside investors.

If you happen to know someone in a company and have intimate knowledge of its markets, as an investor, you might have a leg up.   But lacking such knowledge, you’d best steer clear of a momentum – or so-called “hot stock” – in the current market environment.

For an alternative approach to a balanced portfolio, then, you might want to consider a mix of bitcoin and physical gold.  Bitcoin represents a new form of investment.  So be sure to use your own tolerance for risk and your available resources as guidelines to the respective percentages of gold vs. bitcoin you choose to invest.