BITCOIN COULD MAKE YOU RICH; BUT … bitcoin futures traders may be the “King’s men”

Dialogue between a True Believer and a Skeptic

True Believer: “Bitcoin is off to the moon!”
Skeptic: “Oh boy, I need to give you a lecture designed for Dummies.”
True Believer: “No, you’re the one who needs a lecture! Here’s the scoop. A handful of people are holding a high percentage of the total number of bitcoins already created. And from that total it is reported that about 1 million coins are being actively traded. So, if millions of people around the world want to buy the actively traded coins, the price must go to the moon. Is this simple fact beyond your peanut-sized brain?”

Skeptic: “Okay, okay, calm down and listen up. Since you can split one bitcoin into as many tiny pieces as you wish, somewhere on the way to the moon the price will be high enough that there will be as many of those tiny pieces as are needed to sustain the economy of a certain “Large Country” that we all know well. At that proximity of the price to the moon, and speaking realistically, the official money could be swapped out, while bitcoin with all its tiny little pieces could be swapped in to put the official money more or less out of its job.

When you approach the point where you could swap in bitcoins and swap out the official money, what do you think officials are going to do? I suppose you think they're simply going to roll out the red carpet for bitcoin to come in and wash the official currency out to sea. If that is what you think, you are dreaming in Technicolor, my friend.
As a matter of fact, it is a reasonable hypothesis that the officials have already begun to manage the situation.”

True Believer: “What on earth are you talking about? You must be crazy!”
Skeptic: “No, I am not. I invite you to go and have a quick lunch with the leader of the CME Group. He or she just might open your eyes to a few realities of our short lives on earth.”
True Believer: “Will you get out of here, you silly person?”

Skeptic: “Okay smarty pants. What do you know about futures trading and the capabilities of using it to manage the situation?”
True Believer: “Oh boy, you have truly gone around the bend. How did we come to talking about futures trading? Futures trading has no relevance to this conversation, you dummy!”

Skeptic: “Stay cool, my friend. Look in the text that follows. It talks about how futures trading in a currency can become a partial determinant of price movements in the actual currency itself!”
True Believer (sigh): “Are you serious?”
Skeptic: “Why don't you read on, so as to learn a few of the basics about bitcoin futures trading, and when you are finished, come back and let's resume this conversation.”

Here’s the text given to the True Believer

Where would you like to find abstracts of the “best” posts, videos or podcasts that focus on the ways in which futures trading are likely to affect the future price pattern of bitcoin?

You will get a quick overview of the contents of the articles and videos by inspecting their lists of main points (their abstracts). Beside the text of each abstract, a link takes you to the original source document.

The abstracts are classified under the following subject headings.

1. Basic education about bitcoin futures contracts at the CME
2. The relative frequency of selling versus buying futures contracts
3. How can the actions of futures traders affect the spot price of bitcoin?
4. Impact of futures trading on bitcoin’s price volatility

You have all these closely related documents nicely “curated and collected” at the same Internet URL, and the collection will be increased periodically. So, this URL will be a “go to” place for those who wish to find a helpful assembly of abstracts and links to the most useful published thinking about key aspects of the impacts of bitcoin futures trading on the price pattern of the underlying bitcoin asset ( the pattern of the so-called “spot price”).

Where is that place? To go there right now, click here. However, read on and you will be introduced to the collection of “best articles and videos” as of December 17, 2017.

It is worth noting that the word “best” has a special meaning here. A human rater has selected what he believes are the most useful articles for persons who feel that are mostly Newbies to futures contracts in currencies, and the trading of same.

Here are the titles of the best articles and videos that I have found published in Steemit and elsewhere. I heartily invite you to suggest items that you feel deserve to be abstracted and held within the collection just cited.

• “Bitcoin futures – how they actually work” a video by one of the TenX founders.
• “Bitcoin Futures: How they work and what it means for you” by @cybermechanic
• “Bitcoin futures: CME contract specs …” a video by tastytrade
• “On the Record w/Richard Heart - Bitcoin Futures ... “, a video by Tone Vays
• “Gregory Mannarino - Bitcoin Futures …”, a video by Greg Hunter
• “What do the introduction of Futures Products really mean for the price of Bitcoin?” by @jrcornel
• “Webinar: big coin futures – a game changer" by dailyFX.
• “Bitcoin Futures, Explained” by Chrisjan Pauw

So, to enjoy access to a quick overview of the key ideas in these contributions click here .

Prepared by Le Statisticien (your friendly “knowledge curator and rogue whale”), Adjunct Prof. University of Montreal and Scholar in Residence, University of Toronto.