Yeah... I bought about $250 worth of bitcoins two years ago on an exchange. The exchange went bankrupt and the bitcoins are gone. At least with a stock broker your account is insured by the government up to a certain amount.

Yes, I know, run your own wallet, don't leave your bitcoins on the exchange... Except again, with stocks, you don't have to worry about that. I was personally hoping that a bitcoin exchange would have better security and backups than my home PC. As far as I'm concerned, storing bitcoins on your machine, with no insurance, is not much safer than storing gold bullion in your closet.

I'm just happy what I was wise enough not to put more money in bitcoin than I could afford to lose.