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The Something Awful Forums > Archives > General Bullshit > Bitcoin is hilariously broken in 2016
 
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Three-Phase
Aug 5, 2006

by zen death robot

gnarlyhotep posted:

Those were heady days indeed



Man that is one upset furry businessman.

I want to find the photos of that hilariously dangerous Chinese mining operation, with open-air 400V busbars over all the equipment racks.

Three-Phase fucked around with this message at 23:13 on Jan 19, 2016

* # ¿ Jan 19, 2016 23:11
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# ¿ May 15, 2024 23:34
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Three-Phase
Aug 5, 2006

by zen death robot
Oh man I almost forgot about Dank. What a top-shelf crazy. I think he also wanted to ride a motorcycle across the ocean or some crazy crap like that.

What ultimately ended up getting him banned?

* # ¿ Apr 2, 2016 14:02
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Three-Phase
Aug 5, 2006

by zen death robot

Moridin920 posted:

He shorted a penny stock which then skyrocketed. It later crashed to bankruptcy (meaning he woulda made money) but his brokerage margin called him because he was -$100k and closed out the account haha.

When you short you borrow stocks, sell them, then hope later the price is lower than you sold it for. Later you need to 'cover' your short by buying the stock back and returning the shares to the person you borrowed them from (usually your broker). This is pretty much all automated nowadays but that is what happens. That's why your broker needs to have the stock in their 'inventory' (or get them from a clearing house or whatever) for you to short it.

So, what happens if you borrow stocks and sell them for $0.50 each but suddenly they are worth $80/ea and your broker is going 'hey I want that back now before the price goes up anymore because we have no confidence in your ability to repay us and we aren't going to absorb this loss anymore?' You're hosed that's what.

Dude was an idiot for shorting a penny stock and for not having a stop loss set up (not that it'll save you if the price moves fast enough). Generally it's a moronic idea to short penny stocks for exactly this reason but ofc that doesn't stop lazy 'get rich quick' people from doing it.

Does the broker get left holding the bag if he just declares bankruptcy?

* # ¿ Aug 5, 2016 21:18
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Three-Phase
Aug 5, 2006

by zen death robot
Regarding that honey butane oil stuff:

http://youtu.be/3KHRxe9LAiU

POP!

* # ¿ Sep 3, 2016 02:52
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The Something Awful Forums > Archives > General Bullshit > Bitcoin is hilariously broken in 2016