Ruthless and Conniving Intentions

What a difference a year makes. 

When it comes to Bitcoin and Bitcoin proxies, not to mention the many "alt coins," the crypto space had a rough 2018 by virtually any measure. Needless to say, the euphoria of December 2017 seems so distant in the past that it may as well have been from last century. Gone are the days of poker dealers bragging tot he table how they bought Bitcoin at $10,000, planning on holding it to pay for their kids' college tuition. That may still work out handsomely, by the way. 

But as we have seen, when it comes to highly speculative asset classes there is a certain degree of stomach-churning volatility one must accept if one is, in fact, in the buy-and-hold Bitcoin long-term camp. The conviction to buy-and-hold crypto must transcend the mere utterance of "HODL" and must actually be supported by a willingness to suffer the types of drawdowns we saw in 2018.

For those of us who have patiently held out to get involved with crypto, though, 2019 may be a clean slate in more ways than one. 

To begin with, let us not forget about despised and heavily-shorted crypto proxy stocks like Overstock.com. 

OSTK, through no fault of its own at times, is still one of the most hated stocks and firms in the entire market, aligning properly with the enormous percentage of its float (shares outstanding) which is short the stock. 

As you can see on its zoomed-out daily chart, below, OSTK has been pummeled unforgivingly since the time when Bitcoin topped out in late-2017/early-2018. If you overlay OSTK with a chart of GBTC (a Bitcoin proxy Trust), it is hard no notice that seemingly trade in tandem. 

But if Bitcoin can finally muster a sustained relief rally now that sentiment has been through the full wash cycle of emotions, likely recently seeing apathy (which is what you want to see after all the other emotions have run the gauntlet), then OSTK may be ripe for a massive short squeeze to coincide with the current market bounce. Indeed, in speculation one must be a mercenary at times, willing to change sides with ruthless demeanor, going for a kill when presented. 

Overstock is basing fairly tightly on its daily chart since the week before Christmas. If bulls can push up through the $15.50 area early this week I like the idea for a potentially explosive squeeze as Bitcoin itself gives a similar look, incidentally.