The parabolic, chart-breaking, insane rise of Bitcoin has rendered one of our favorite words – “staggering” – obsolete. Staggering is in the rear view mirror – just yesterday, we screenshotted (that’s a verb) a Coinbase chart, then that chart, too, became obsolete.

Tweet One:

I took this screenshot. Then the price went up $150. pic.twitter.com/AwqP6q8Pxk

— Dave Van de Walle (@Area224) December 6, 2017

Tweet Two:

My #BTC13K screenshot needed to be replaced by a #BTC14K screenshot. pic.twitter.com/qb0Z9o5d6H

— Dave Van de Walle (@Area224) December 7, 2017

Why $20,000 Could Happen Next Week

The Great Bitcoin Futures Race of 2017 is the big reason you’ll see more parabolicism – that’s a word – sooner as opposed to later. It’s because institutional money is waiting patiently (more like salivating) for the opportunity to use lots of money to start trading futures.

December 10: That’s the date the Cboe will start trading Bitcoin futures. Cboe chose this date to prove they can hustle and muscle past the CME Group, another Chicago-based market, which announced its Bitcoin futures would start trading on December 18.

One theory – and Lord knows there are dozens of theories as to what might happen – is that Bitcoin will keep rising in anticipation of the futures launches, then rise some more as institutional money flows into things like BTC 50K options or whatnot. Then, just as rapidly, the same theory suggests a severe pullback; this will mostly be from big money managers that are trying to make money on both sides of a trade (something futures and options people do regularly).

The odds of this roller coaster just beginning are pretty high.

Started working on a #BTC20K blog post, which should be obsolete in an hour or so. pic.twitter.com/b24unOQJqE

— Dave Van de Walle (@Area224) December 7, 2017

What To Do, What To Do…

All right, the first thing I’d suggest – and know that this isn’t investment or trading advice, do your own research, don’t invest more than you can afford to lose, and seek professional guidance on things like taxes and accounting – is to take a deep breath.

via GIPHY

If you’ve spent any time trading anything, you know that your guess is as good as anyone’s as to what really comes next. Heck, just Google any of your favorite market-moving events: “Black Swan,” “Financial Crisis,” “Dutch Tulips,” “Dot-Com Bubble.”

You’ll find a wealth of knowledge on things like Sir Isaac Newton getting “rekt” by some sort of stock investment, or the fact that the only companies that really emerged from the Dot-Com Bubble were named Amazon.

I’ll tell ya what I’m doing, for what it’s worth:

1. Watching my BTC, and adding to my stake where I can (selling off some winners and taking profits, really)
2. Bulking up on some alts that haven’t done as well as I would have hoped (see same blog post above; I’m long on all of those listed)
3. Really bulking up on ultra-cheap coins like POW (which you can still get for free with this link, which throws off some bonus POW for us here, so thanks)
4. Even buying some more of all the Big 3 on Coinbase – if you’re one of the 15 people in the US who haven’t signed up for Coinbase, use this referral link and we’ll both get a bonus
5. And moving them to a variety of storage systems and devices – we still recommend the Trezor, that’s an AFFILIATE LINK.

Craziness? The Guess Is You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet.

Remember: this is a marathon, not a sprint. Lifetimes of gains made in just a year? Seems crazy, but has been par for the course in the past MONTH.

Buckle up and enjoy the ride.