A Crypto Noob's Random Thoughts About the Market Tonight...
I have to say when I checked Coin Market Cap this morning I gasped in horror. Looks like everything is crashing, yet again...but shouldn't we be used to this by now?
I'm sure I am the 500th person to write about this today, but hey this is my blog post and I write whats on my mind...and what's on my mind is the state of the market. I doubt any one that that's been into crypto for years will care what I have to say, but to the noobs out there, and especially the "noob hodlers." Read on! :)
The fundamentals have not changed in cryptocurrency. It will be adopted, we will see it sometime in the near future. But the day to day ups and downs (mostly downs since mid January) can make even the strongest holder, like me a little sad.
Part of me thinks "Everything is on sale, I should buy some more!" The other part of me is "Why is everything crashing!? AGAIN!? How long will this go on? Forever?!"
Thinking back when I started buying and researching crypto (I bought some in July but really dove deep into it in September) I was way more relaxed about the whole thing back then. I remember thinking in the long term. Not months, years! I remember thinking "If I invest this now who knows what it could be ten years from now?"
Look at this screen shot of the Market Cap (of the beginning of September when I started to dive into crypto), it stayed pretty stagnant and I was perfectly fine with that. I wasn't constantly checking it, I just went on with my life.
Then November Happened
I woke up one day in November to see that things were defintely on the uptrend. I started to feel a little excited. I thought "Maybe this is when we all start to see a movement!" And I was right. By Thanksgiving I was raving to all my family members how amazing crypto was and how they should all buy some. I convinced several of them to buy.
By January I was convinced I was going to be a millionaire by the end of 2018. I excitedly checked my Blockfolio every couple minutes, amazed that how fast everything was growing. I would wake up in the middle of the night and I could not resist the temptation of checking to see how everything was doing. I was not the only one excited, everyone was, eagerly messaging me for advice all day long. It felt like I spent most of my time during those two weeks helping new people buy crypto. I have to say I enjoyed being a "go to" person for something, especially since I am new to crypto myself, and would never consider myself an expert.
And Then Mid January Happened
When the second week of January hit I couldn't believe what I was seeing, and neither could anyone else that I knew. I had people calling me freaking out. I had walked most of them through buying at all time highs, and now I had to be the one who walked them back off the ledge. At the time though, my sprints were high, and I told them all to hold.
They had been "into" crypto for a couple weeks, it made me irritable considering I know how much they all invested and its a fraction of how much I have spent on crypto since September. I can imagine a lot of you that have been into crypto for years must be sick of all the panic around here, even more so than I.
And the funny thing is, while I hate to see these lower prices, and I feel disappointed when I look at the prices today once again falling... I still feel the same FOMO as I did before, calculating in my mind how much I can comfortably afford to buy. If I am going to buy crypto in this market, its going to be something that has a real use case, that's working right now...
STEEM and Steemit have obviously stolen my heart when it comes to buying crypto during these turbulent times, and I have been buying STEEM since I joined here.
While the highs of the last bull run were exciting, a part of me wishes it didn't happen... as I was content before. I was not staying up in the middle of the night checking my portfolio. Days or even weeks would go by and I wouldn't know if something was up or down. I was thinking about the far future, and it was nice. But the bull run gave me a glimpse of the future, and then took it away. What a tease!
I deleted Blockfoilio (again) a couple weeks ago. I have done it several times since Mid January in an effort to stay sane and upbeat. Pro-tip though, once you reinstall Blockfolio it will remember all your holdings...so you have to manually delete each one before you delete the app.
And when you feel down about the current state of the market, go do something else...especially if you are a holder like me. We, as holders shouldn't be checking the prices several times a day anyways! Go out and grab something to eat with friends, find a new hobby to distract yourself because if you keep checking you might end up selling...
And if you sell right now, you will be "that guy." The guy who complained when Bitcoin prices were stagnant and he was happy to get out at $14. This trend has repeated several times before, and it will happen again. We will go on another bull run, and then the market will correct back and we will see the same people complaining and upset.
I look at that picture and I cringe, because I know that if I sold Bitcoin at $14 I would live with regret forever. I did not invest in crypto to make double my money. I want to be rich. Rich enough to be financially comfortable for the rest of my life, I'm not even talking "lambo" money, just enough that I would never have to worry about money again while living in my current lifestyle.
The only way you can hold for years is if you do the following:
- Never invest more than you can comfortably lose. Seriously, we all know this by now and yet people don't follow the golden rule. I know that its tough, I struggle with this too but I still have not over invested.
- Delete all your portfolio apps off your phone, especially when the market is crashing. You plan on holding anyways, right? Why do we constantly torture ourselves by checking every ten minutes. Do you enjoy the mental anguish?!
- Try to find something else to be interested in other than crypto, at least for the time being. I know that's hard too as I have spent most of my time trying to learn as much about crypto since September. The weather is turning nice soon and I will divert my attention to gardening (yeah it sounds lame but I love it!)
- Get all your coins of exchanges and safely into cold storage. First of all, we all know that keeping crypto on exchanges is not safe. Secondly it makes it much more difficult to panic sell, which for holders, is ideal.
- And lastly, only invest in coins you really believe in. I wish I had found out about STEEM and Steemit sooner, as I would have definitely not invested into some of my "shit" coins. (I have two that I consider "shit" coins that I luckily bought super cheap) This meme sums up my feelings about them perfectly.
And if you still need some cheering up, look back exactly 365 days ago. The market cap for all cryptos was....
$26 billion! We have come a long way in such a short time, and I really can't wait to see where crypto is 1 year from now. By then I hope to no longer call myself a crypto noob.
Emily
So, how long do you think the bear market will last? A week? A month? Do you have any good crypto news for me? I am always happy to read your comments below, and I'm looking forward to connecting with you here on Steemit! Steem on!
I think that the big problem that we are seeing in cryptos is that it is not possible to determine a fair market value on any of them right now. Money has been pouring in to cryptos last year along with equities and they've both basically risen together. Then, earlier this year the stock market went down and pulled the cryptos down with it as people pulled their money out for safety. Now, the stock market has somewhat recovered but cryptos are still going down. What happens if the stock market starts to go down again too? Not good. Last time I checked wikipedia there were 1558 cryptos out there, how do they claim value? Right now itself mostly based on p2p faith. Who knows though, faith can go a long way...
I think the tough part is I don't know that we are ever going to see the level of hype we saw in say December of 2017. What could possibly bring crypto that mainstream and get that many people interested again? At this point we need adoption, we need people actually using these currencies and using these technologies, I don't think pure fomo and hype can get the prices back up to where they were, I think we actually need use and adoption
my only wonder is I should put my liquid steem in tether and buy back steem cheaper. I hate losing money as I watch it sink!
Well technically you only lose money when you sell :), plus doing that would be a taxable event....
i don't think you missed out on steem...it's super cheap now
Yeah, the first time I bought Steem it was over $6...i hope I can pick up some more :)
I honestly have checked crypto prices maybe once in the past 3 weeks. I'm definitely someone who's kicking myself for not selling and taking some profits at close to 20k.
It's really wierd I know some people who are like man if I lost that much money I'd jump off a bridge and honestly I'm not that upset about it, it's life. If I was the type of person who sold I would have never ridden the wave up to 20k in the first place.
It also helps that I'm still in the green having been in crypto markets a longtime however I'm not a believer in the idea of "house money" as in its okay to lose it because it was never mine to begin with. Once youve won or profited be it crypto or gambling or whatever else that's real money that could be in your bank account.
I remember one weekend a month or so back the gravity of how hard crypto has fallen did kind of sink in and had me upset but I'm just sitting back. I'm not going to sell at these low prices and as they say a watched pop never boils so I'm just chilling trying not to pay attention. It's really kind of odd being on such a crypto centric platform like this yet paying no attention to it but I'm gonna tune back in maybe around summertime and see how were looking
Im about even right now (maybe a little in the green) I bought a lot in november-december. I may not have blockfolio on my phone anymore but Ive been cheating by checking coinmarketcap every hour or so today....and things are going up right now, but I keep thinking its going to go back down, so I check again... ahhhh.
It feels bad when you see the price of cryptocurrency doing down. But hey, it is what it is.
It is a long term investment. That's what, I think.
Yea you are very right, thats why Im going to try to stop watching the prices... I am in it for the long term, no point in checking 10 times a day!
One more thing.
Do have any control over the cryptocurrency price movement?
If not, why are you so worried?
Do something that you have control, that is, posting on steemit, making comments, interacting with steemians and making friendship. I'm making some funny posts these day... lol....
I think that's a good point, as they say, why worry about things you can't change. That said its easier said than done lol. I'm kind of tuning out of crypto for a while though. I think in the past 3 weeks or month I've literally checked crypto prices once.
I know what you mean. :)
I have been here on steemit since November, 2017. Back then Steem and SBD price was lower than what it is today.
Let's see what happens!
Loved them tips you included in the post!
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nice steemit