16th January
Portfolio: $216,690.43 and dropping
Yep, there it is, the quiet week lasted one night. A combination of FUD from China and Korea, not helped by a fucking Daily Express bullshit article of all things, has scared the market shitless, and so we have the combination of huge FUD, profit taking and the necessary correction bringing everything down hugely, and there’s no saying when it will stop.
It’s a good job I don’t claim to be a professional trader as I NEVER take profits when I need to. It’s not greed as in ‘I’m holding on because I want to squeeze every inch of this that I can’ it’s because when something is going up I always feel it’s realising its potential. This isn’t the attitude to have though – regardless of if it’s reached its potential, a percentage gain is a percentage gain, and profits need to be taken. I need to have a figure in mind, so if it hits 30% I withdraw a chunk regardless; if it goes up further then I can sell some more at more profit and if it goes down I’ve made the most of the profit.
TEL is a good example – I should have sold a chunk the moment it got to $0.006 rather than holding out for $0.01. Very few ICOs launch and go that high even in bull markets, and I really should have been prepared for this as above. I think this is the last time I’ll go into an ICO in such a big way so it won’t be as much of an issue, but I need to make sure that I have a percentage straight onto the exchange to sell the moment it hits a peak. Now I have to wait until it gets back to $0.006 to get back to that point again.
In times gone by I would have panicked at times like this, but I’m using the chance to trim a little fat and send some alts to USD ready to pick up some gems in a few days when we bottom out. Might pick up some WaBi, but there’s nothing I want to sell so it’s hard. Need to keep some for forthcoming ICOs and when WAN hits the exchanges, so I really don’t have much to play with. In a way I wish someone would buy everything off me for BTC and I could start again! I don’t know what I’d buy, or more to the point what I wouldn’t, but it would certainly be sell. Maybe I need to be ruthless and treat this like a house decluttering – no emotions, just yes or no. Ah who am I kidding, I can’t do that.
So this is probably the start of a very painful week when there won’t be much to do except watch things fall, hope for the bottom and plan my strategy. Wherever you are, whatever you’re holding, I wish you luck! It will pass, that much I can promise you.
I always look at these dips as a great time to buy. Then I remember that I don't have any money😭
This is it - unless you've sold for BTC, or when BTC is dropping too you've sold for USD, everything is in teh same boat. And I have no more FIAT that I can put in which is annoying!
I'm about to come into a little money (~1000k) and I'm trying to decide whether I should invest in the coming crypto boom, or build a rudimentary mining rig. I'm really more interested in the blockchain technology, it's evolution, and it's inevitable revoltionary applications. Getting my hands dirty with mining to learn more by doing will certainly be a necessity to take advantage of this.
Just trying to weigh the explosive gains coming shortly in crypto investment, relative to the education that'll serve to dwarf the current boom in the long run.
I'm leaning toward better learning the technology. But, at the same time, I know from the history of these kinds of explosions that the gains that we're seening so far are the tip of the iceburg.
Then, of course, (again based on the history of such explosions), the consitently poor decisions based on FOMO and irrational exhuberance will eventually cause a big collaspse. Once The more stable uses take hold, those truly utilitarian uses will rise to the top. Then the real opportunities emerge after the dust settles.
Invest in a (relatively) short term explosion in gains. Or get in early on the long term opportunities? Both benefit from early adoption. But one will be the smarter of the two. Just can't decide if the capital made now through crypto investment will put me in a better financial position to make use of the future opportunties or if a small investment in education through experience now will help to gain the advantage of an earlier adoption in the real opportunities set to dwarf the coming boom?
I wish that I had enough vision to make that call. i'm all ears if you have any imput.
Hey.
Funnily enough, I posted my mining rig setup and potential rewards right before I read your reply! So as far as mining goes I suggest you give that a quick look to see if it holds the kind of rewards you're looking for.
Personally, if you like the idea of the mining, I would consider both - mine a reliable coin like LUX and invest some more in some solid coins. This correction has been much needed and presents a good opportunity to enter the market. There have been ups and downs, and there will continue to be, but I am of the conviction that we will come out winning, the technology will make a difference to the world and a lot of money will be made in the process. Treat it as a gamble though - how much would you put on a horse were you to bet on it tomorrow?
Well, if the horses had the potential that this technology has, I'd put everything that I don't need to maintain a stable lifestyle.
There's this really interesting old TED Talks video from like 15 years ago with Jeff Bezos drawing the parrallels between the dot com bubble disaster and the California Gold Rush, as well as some other spheres within that ilk that have cycled through explosive adoption and implosive downfalls.
He was making the argument about how these boom/bust cycles throughout history sort of facilitate and eventuate in some massive progress that sort of benefits from the momentum that they bring. He also points out the common logistical pitfalls and poorly thought out involvement that causes the downfall of so many who, basically, like I mentioned before, act out of fomo and irrational exhuberance without doing their do dilligence before leaping in.
He certainly survived the dot com bubble and he's done far better than anyone would have expected back then. I have no doubt that there are plenty of Pets.coms and Etoys.coms in the cryptoworld right now. Probably the vast majority. The trick is to see who's emulting their disasterous decisions and which ones are on the paths of an Amazon or a Google.
I just hope to learn enough and work hard enough at doing my do dilegence to hitch my wagon to the right ones. So far I've done pretty well with what little I've invested. I'm not sure how much of that was simply part of the boom, though. I am woefully undereducated on the subject.
But I am pretty good at differentiating between someone spouting bullshit and someone who has something of real value. I was in sales for quite a few years, I never trust anyone who trys very hard to be convincing and isn't able to immeddiately and logically address a problem or overcome an objection. And if they're confronted with a difficult question and dance around it while stressing some selling point, you can be sure they have pure shit. As a salesman, If I have a good product or service, I'll know that bad boy inside and out. I want the objections, I want the hard questions, because when I hit em with that crusher of a rebuttal, then I'm set up to close them with a slam dunk. There're too many good ideas in the crypto world right now to saddle up with anyone other than hard closer. That's why I want to learn this technology, because that's the real product, that's where the slam dunk is. Just my 2 cents.
You're right - there are a number of great projects out there, but they are vastly outnumbered by utter garbage that as you say are nothing but FOMO generators. There's a simple test - if you watched a BitConnect video and thought it sounded like something worth invested in you're doomed, and visa versa. A good bullshit detector is essential in this game.
I've never heard of BitConnect. I'll avoid them like an angry skunk. Thanks for the tip.
Oh, and followed.
Thanks. BitConnect closed its doors yesterday. Lots have people have lost money, but any digging would have revealed it was a pyriamid scheme. Sad, but shows the importance of due diligence.
Probably it would be a wise step to turn some of your investments (e.g. initial investment +10% ) into fiat? so you would risk only the House money. You might also get a bit colder head ;-)
I've considered this many times, but it's not so easy cashing out to GBP without incurring fees at every step, and even then there's no guarantee my bank would accept the money - I know of UK banks that have rejected payments from Bitcoin sources. I'm going to try and hold off until fully fledged crypto banks are viable, or I can swap for GBP easily.