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Comment by crowbahr | Hacker News Reader

Just pointing out 1 dogecoin is still worth 1 dogecoin.

Wow!

(Also 100% agree on the compassion thing: schadenfreude for ostriches who thought sticking their head in the sand would make the objections false is only natural.)

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I know you're being flip, but this is exactly my point. If you needed doge to go out and buy an NFT (if that's your cup of tea) you can still go convert your money into doge to buy an NFT!

The usefulness of the commodity doesn't change, just like apples or steel, it's something you can go out and buy with your savings. Just don't buy apples because you think the value of apples is going to skyrocket forever! At best, apples will go up for a temporary period and then find equilibrium.

> Just don't buy apples because you think the value of apples is going to skyrocket forever

This is terrible advice. People speculatively trade commodities all the time, including agriculture commodities. They are just as valid of an investment as equities are.

Your advice that commodities are “not an investment vehicle” is simply wrong, and can be proved wrong with very minimal effort. I wonder how everybody you convinced using this rationale is going to feel when they discover it is nonsense…

What you're saying makes zero sense. What is this commodity that you think will skyrocket forever, that people should perpetually hold as an investment vehicle?

“Skyrocket forever” is clearly a hyperbole. But commodities can and frequently do go on sustained rallies.

Commodities can be part of a general portfolio. They can be a reasonable hedge on inflation and, if you are well aware of their markets, reasonable to speculate on. I would surely explain this to anyone i talked to.

That said. "Buy bitcoin/eth/avalanche/shitcoin" is not a nuanced understanding of commodities, and the people i was talking to were not asking if "a responsible percentage of their portfolio should be dedicated to commodities."

These are multiple people in my life, people with no equity positions asking if they should put some of their precious savings into bitcoin or etherium, period, and asking which one. After that we had long talks about investment philosophy.

I think you need to get better at explaining your philosophy then, because the entire basis of your parent comment is that commodities are “not an investment vehicle”. Advice that we now seem to agree is not correct.

I am extremely precise when i explain it. If you're going to espouse a position that commodities are something that laypersons should be fine investing in, then i'm going to say we have very different points of view.

“You are not knowledgeable enough to invest in commodities” is probably good advice for most people. It is also honest and clearly demonstrates the way in which you’re being (perhaps rightly) judgemental.

“Commodities are not an investment vehicle” is incorrect, and the way you are presenting it in this argument is intentionally deceptive.

The first quote seems to be the advice you mean to give most people. The second one seems to be the advice you are actually giving, with the implication that you think it will be more effective when it’s presented deceptively?

I would highly recommend you change your approach here. Because all of these people will one day figure out you lied to them, which will taint the credibility of what should fundamentally be good advice.

> People speculatively trade commodities all the time, including agriculture commodities.

Nobody HODL's avocados, there isn't an expectation for bananas to go to the moon eventually.

Trading != speculation != investing

Is that you Do Kwon? Is this me?

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