Ok here is my 2 cents. The reason I feel Bitcoin has lost so much over the last couple of months is because in some ways its a victim of its own success. The more merchants that come online and support BitCoin payments the faster its going to drop in value. The reason is simple, supply & demand and bitcoin payment/exchange gateways. When merchants say they are accepting Bitcoin as payment they aren't really, they are simply using Bitcoin as a conduit to process the payment from you the customer with Bitcoin. When a merchant uses a Bitcoin payment gateway, upon receiving Bitcoin payment, the gateway immediately turns it into a fiat currency by hitting the buy side of an exchange. They are putting more bitcoins back into circulation, in other words increasing the SUPPLY of Bitcoin. Its Economics 101 increase the Supply of any commodity, and the price goes down.
On the other side of the equation, the investors who are buying and holding Bitcoin, with the expectation of it going higher, are seeing it plunge, so what they are doing is buying more goods and services instead of holding, a way to get 'out' of their position if you will, and that further drives the price down, its a vicious cycle.
When will the price of Bitcoin start going back up? Who knows, for me I feel the indicator will be similar to observe the relative strengths of the fiat currencies, in times of peace or economic uncertainty ( not now ) they tend to show weakness, and traditionally speculators will find safe haven in gold, I think some may try to weather the storm in Bitcoin as well. Unfortunately that is not the case at the moment, both US and Canadian economies seem to be doing well, partially because of the 'war' the US is currently waging. So for me I think I'm going to sit on the sidelines and wait.