It happens regularly, and yes, people do notice, lol

Get used to it. All part of the fun of the rollercoaster. A rollercoaster that only went up would be no fun 

There is also the aspect of relative value - LTC is staying relatively more valuable (on a mining basis) than BTC, while FTC and, to a lesser degree MNC, has skyrocketed.  See - http://www.coinchoose.com/

I think its down to about 60% now, the figure mtgox boast on their homepage is from 2011.

I actually believe the huge volatility is more to do with a relatively large % of bitcoins still being owned by a very small number of people. However many exchanges open up will not change that, people can switch which market they trade in very easily, and soon there will be "market aggregators" (coinsetter etc) that will allow people to trade across multiple markets at once.

With any market, its relatively easy to manipulate if you own a large % of whatever is being traded.

Over time, more new players will enter the market, the distribution will become wider and volatility reduced.

How long that will take, who knows.

I am not new to Crypto currency and currently I have a lot of several.  I squandered so many coin in the beginning by panic selling or "day trading" BTC it would blow your mind.  Just hold your coins sir......it's all a roller coaster and it will rebound to new levels that we can even imagine someday.  I wish I had all the coins that I have made major mistakes selling.  Hold on Spartan.

Based on that link it looks like feathercoin is the most profitable?
I haven't seen many exchanges for it though. Also btc-e doesn't even trade FTC for usd. Only btc if I'm not mistaken? If I'm wrong let me know and I might setup a miner for the hell of it. Why not right?

Vircurex, BTC-e, Cryptonit and I think BTER all accept Feathercoin but my calcs are based purely on Vircurex.

If you put your life savings in bitcoin your asking for trouble, anyone who puts their life savings in only 1 thing is asking for trouble no matter what that thing is.

Bitcoin is a great place to but your un-needed money, but life savings... oi, I hope people arn't doing that yet.

meanwhile Mr Miagi teaches Daniel son about bitcoin

"no no no Daniel son bitcoin like painting fence, it go UPP, DOWWWN UP, DOWNNN"

slowly increasing in value (painted panels) as time moves on

If you dont have your life savings in btc you have no faith in btc


The more people that have their money in btc the more the demand will be for places to accept it.

Also un needed money? What is this? If it's un needed i know plenty of people who need it.

It's not about faith it's about being prudent with funds may need liquid in the short run, someone young like me without many obligations can afford to take the risk of toeing up income in accumulating bitcoin.

If your a senior living on a fixed income or got kids to put through college I wouldnt go overboard, there is a lot potential upside but a lot of potential upside generally means a lot of potentials risks.

We don't want people over adopting because one bad turn will sour their impression of bitcoin, we want a healthy gradual natural rate of adoption.