Bitcoin had a 50x return in a year?! That's insane. 

I find myself increasingly convinced that Bitcoin has all the elements of a ponzi scheme, even if it wasn't intended to be so. The tendency for new money to favor early adopters ( a concept integral to Austrian theory but ignored by other schools) coupled with an algorithm that is inherently deflationary makes a perfect situation for a hype campaign to pump and later dump.

You are totally correct.

Ponzi scheme, unintentionally so, but Ponzi scheme nonetheless:

http://pandawhale.com/post/32804/bitcoins-the-second-biggest-ponzi-scheme-in-history

Also: YHOO did better than FB, AMZN, GOOG, and MSFT this year?! 

That speaks to how depressed the stock was. 

Alibaba helps YHOO.

It doesn't just help. It puts billions of dollars of cash in Yahoo's coffers.

What Yahoo plans on doing with that money, besides buy Tumblr, is still unclear.

...and of course there's always betting on 00 in Vegas.  That hits too every once in awhile.  But pays a little less than a 50x though...

Betting the Red Sox to win the 2013 World Series would have paid 50-1.