Its only about 5 years old but its already making waves. In January 2013 it was about $10 US per coin, then in December 2013 it peaked at almost $1,200 per coin, then it crashed due to a lot of bad news (politics, not problems with the code itself) but re-stabilised around $450, which if you think about it is still 45 times what it was a year earlier, and right now its hovering in the high 500's.
At this point I don't think bitcoin can be stopped, its got a long way to go but if someone could shut it down, they would have. But they can't. The only thing that can stop bitcoin is some catastrophic failure in the code, but the code itself is open source (like linux) and updated constantly, so I'd be very surprised if that happened. If bitcoin survives, I think in 5 years it will be worth 200 to 500 times what it is today, which would put 1 bitcoin at around $100,000 to $250,000. The reason for that is pretty simple there can only ever be 21 million bitcoins, which means the more users it gains, the thinner the pool of bitcoin must be spread, which pushes up the value. A market cap of 5 trillion would be tiny on global scales, but would push unit prices of bitcoin well into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Coindesk lists the current price at 431 euros per coin, so why not? Buy 0.5 bitcoins, and put your private keys into cold storage for the next 5-10 years, and see what happens. Personally, I think in 10 years 0.5 bitcoins will buy a house.
First, congrats on thinking about your future! At 16, I wanted to buy games and comic books. I'm more than 2x that age now, so here's my advice for what it's worth. Also I'm in the US, so some of the specifics will be different for you in Europe.
Secondly, invest in yourself (and it sounds like you are). Don't worry too much about that 200 euro. If you invest your TIME by learning and improving your skills, this will be the best investment you'll ever make in life, and it will repay you thousands of times over. If the choice is between spending that 200 euro playing with stocks, or taking a programming class, I'd say take the class. That having been said:
One common way many small inexperienced investors go is to buy into a mutual fund or ETF. These are a basket of different stocks that a professional fund manager (or group of people) choose. Over time, they average out pretty well in terms of return. (I got about 12% growth per year when I had my money in a company 401k). If you don't like too much risk and don't want to manage individual stocks, consider mutual funds or ETFs (ETF = exchange traded fund, like a mutual fund, but you can buy and sell it immediately without any penalty.)
If you do want to actively manage your investment portfolio, you can open a trading account with one of the big online stock trading firms. Playing the stock market is extremely risky, as any investor will tell you. You could lose some or all of your money if you make bad choices. Don't forget that there are fees for buying and selling stocks. In the US, the lowest I can find is $4.95 commission per trade. Since you are 16, you may need an adult to open a custodial account for you. I don't know what it's like in Europe.
If you lose that $200, don't fret since you're really young and as you get older, your sense of scale will change. This 200 euro will be like nothing when you have a good job and you're 25 and making a decent salary. Mistakes are valuable when you learn from them.
I recommend trying online virtual stock market simulators first.. open an account and trade with pretend money to gain knowledge and experience before you play with your real $. One such site is http://www.optionsxpress.com/promos/opti...
Remember that to secure a good future for yourself and your future family (if you intend to start one), it requires constant reinvestment (in yourself and your finances). Try this:
http://sporkforge.com/finance/invest_grw...
(I'm going to use $ because I don't have a euro symbol on my keyboard)
After 10 yrs, if you assume a 10% return on your initial 200 euro and no further investment, that becomes $518. Add just $10 a month and it becomes $2431 after 10 years.
Good luck dude!
I'm 16 and I'm hoping to get into investing , I only have 200 euro to invest, and I know it may not be worth it but I want the experience regardless, how should I go about?
Are penny stocks worth it? I heard they're extremely volatile, that there not regulated and that it's a scam artists haven..,
If I was going for your average common stock if go for long term holds as that's the only option where I've some hope to make a bit of money even if it's minuscule.
Any recommendations?