Should you invest in ETC?

I have been in the crypto community for several years now. I remember seeing Bitcoin for 60 cents and thinking that there was no use for it and not really paying attention. Fast forward a little bit and I remember thinking it might be a good idea to put some money into Bitcoin when it was about 30 bucks. Fast forward a little more and I jumped in at about 120 bucks and rode the train all the way past Mt Gox pump buying and selling the whole way.

It's easy to see charts like this and think that you are missing out on a great once in a lifetime money-making opportunity. In some ways you are. But at the same time with any great reward, there is also a great amount of risk.

I have traded in the market for a long time and earned a decent bit and lost even more over the years. So when I got the email from David Seaman saying that ETH might be a good thing to invest in back when it was less than a dollar, did I listen ? NO! I continued to watch from the sidelines because I didn't have the money to waste on another pipe dream that I might make a decent amount of money from investing in crypto.

So what did I do? I waited until the price was about 10 dollars and thought that it might be a good idea for me to invest into ETH. I was a little late, but I still had that dream of winning big. But in reality, I was just throwing money away.

Trading has been and will always be a zero sum game for me.

Despite the fact that I knew that this was true, it didn't stop me from thinking that I might be able to win more than I loose after I would make several good trades in a row. There would be days when I would be up 10% and know that I should walk away but I became fixated on watching each tick of the price hoping that I might be able to capitalize on the next big move. No matter how many good trades I would make they would inevitably be offset by the one bad trade that I would make that would wipe out my total earnings for the day. Zero sum game.

Don't get me wrong. I have learned a lot about trading over years as I am now able to identify some money making opportunities. Although the fact remains I have still lost more than I have ever earned. Not from making bad fundamental decisions, but rather letting greed take over when I should have walked away.

I write this story not to discourage people from investing in crypto, perhaps you might just think that I'm stupid for making the decisions that I have made. I write this to tell people that are new ​to the world of crypto that might have some freshly earned Steemdollars that they have converted into bitcoin to stay away from markets unless you really know what you are doing. Crypto markets are especially risky because often times there is no rhyme​ or reason for the moves that take place.

It might be easy to see ETC as a fresh start at being able to get in on Ethereum all over again, (which it might be) always realize that with great rewards come great risks. If you are looking at investing in any crypto as a chance to get rich overnight, chances are that there are better things that you could spend the money on. Looking back on all my stupid trading decisions, I didn't have the money to be investing in the things that I did.

If you want to invest in crypto. Don't day trade. Put what you can into the market and hold it. Consider the money spent. You might win or you might lose​. If you have extra money sitting around that you can afford to loose go ahead and invest a little bit in ETC, but if you can't afford to DON'T. You might have a better chance of buying a lottery ticket and scratching it and winning. Trade only what you can loose.