Good day fellow steemians, looks like I have been away longer than I thought that I would be. 

Today is a continuation of the Financial Freedom series which I have started about 2 weeks back. Before you jump right in to any form of investment or trading, do take 5 minutes of your time to read up on the one most important thing everyone should do, before they even think of putting their money into any form of investments. 

Financial Freedom #1 - Financial Planning

With the current market cap hitting all time high(ATH) every week, we can be sure that cryptocurrency is slowly gaining more and more attention among the people. With several big companies and even countries looking into cryptocurrency as form of investment, we can be certain that we will only start to grow higher from here. 

Today, for our topic, we will talk about some of the things one should look out for when they are just starting out in the world of crypto trading. 

I'll skip the part where you're required to create an exchange account, and reading up on blockchain technology, and jump right into coins selection. 

(Or maybe I'll go into them somewhere in the near future, but those guides could be easily found on the net.)

1. Coin's Potential

I can never stress enough how important it is to look at the features of the coin when choosing a winner. What you should be looking is the technology and ideology behind the coin. Everytime you're selecting a coin, always ask yourselves these questions:

1. What is this coin about?

2. What problems are they trying to solve?

3. Is their idea too lofty? 

4. What potential does this coin have?

Just by asking yourselves simple questions like these, you'll find that it allows you to understand the coin better. Some of us may not be as good when it comes to their technicalities. But at least go through the trouble on finding out what the product is about.

2. TEAM 

Ask yourselves, how many times have you decide to skip past the team section? Indeed, a coin's success depends largely on the fundamentals the coins are being built on. But the driving force behind their success is the team behind whom work tirelessly round the clock to ensure that investors like us are getting our money worth. 

Especially with more and more coins popping up in the scene, it is even more important to do your due diligence when reading up them. 

3. Community

I have personally joined several groups whereby the developers are closely connected with the community. In return, the community gives suggestions on how they could improve their product to attract even more investors. Some coins even allows members of the communities to create projects out of their code, further bringing up the value of that particular coin.

The equation towards a successful coin is simple. 

Good fundamentals + hardworking team + closely knitted community = 50% of winning the fight. 

4. Working Product

Having a working product is always a big plus when it comes to the world of cryptocurrency. Be it the product being in alpha or beta stage, with a working product out in the market boosts investors' confidence in them. 

What about those that are used as currencies? Bitcoins, Litecoins... Many product claims to be better when compared to the big boys in the market, but what many of them lack is real life uses of their own currencies. When purchasing coins that sells themselves as currencies, read up thoroughly and make sure that the coins do have some real life usage. 

5. Market Cap

Coins that have a smaller market cap would of course give you a higher return of your investments. But do note that, these coins could also mean you losing most of your investments. 

Always remember;

Good fundamentals + hardworking team + closely knitted community = 50% of winning the fight. 

This equation works well especially on coins that have a smaller market cap. Chances are, they do not have a working product or platform, and that is when the above equation matters even more. 

6. Doing Your Own Research (DYOR)

How many times have we heard of DYOR in the world of crypto? These words ain't said to you, just because they are too lazy or selfish to share the coins that they are currently invested in. But ask yourselves this, should I ask you to buy coin A today, and then coin A proceeds to dip 50% of what you have purchased initially, not knowing how the coin works, and why it is dipping would weaken your grip of that particular coin, and you may end up selling it at a loss. 

Doing your own research is the most important thing I can never stress enough to new comers in the world of crypto trading. You could go on google, type "COINS TO BUY 2017" and a whole list of coins just shows right up. Even YouTube, Twitter, or even Telegram! But how can you be sure that the people behind such lists are not promoting the said coins because of personal gains?

To put it bluntly, trading is the exchange of wealth between traders, where the wealth of the ill-informed are transferred to those that have done their due diligence. Which side would you like to be on? 

Thank you steemians for taking your time off to reading the second part of my Financial Freedom series. Do keep a look out for my next part, where I'll most probably be talking about Initial Coins Offerring. 

Signing Off,

JakeGlenGin.