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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Business
Simon English

Curb your enthusiasm for bitcoin -- shares are best

To the disappointment of his many fans, the celebrities punting crypto currencies include Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm star Larry David.

(Best two TV shows, ever.)

His advert was, as we’d expect, very funny. But why did he do it? And let’s assume he wasn’t paid for his time in crypto.

In response to the subsequent, almost inevitable, crash in these assets his producer cheerfully admitted that neither he nor David understood what they were promoting. They just made a funny ad.

To bitcoin afficionados, the recent stock market wobble is clear evidence of why fusty old shares are the past and crypto investing the future.

They are almost certainly wrong.

Big bank analysts in the City and on Wall Street have been downgrading their forecasts for stock markets in ways that grab headlines. But they are only thinking short-term, which is what they are expected to do.

Perhaps it would be better to look at who is buying shares rather than selling them.

Well, in the UK, Nick Train, a top fund manager sometimes compared to Warren Buffett, says rocky markets are opportunities.

“Often events don’t work out as badly as people fear; but even if they do, owning shares in solid companies is a good strategy to see you through to the better days to come,” he notes.

Meanwhile, the actual Warren Buffett is quietly putting billions of dollars into the stock market. He likes shares in Apple and Citigroup, the giant US bank.

That both have fallen in price makes them cheaper not riskier, and just increases his upside. Buffett is always right in the end, usually sooner than later.

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