I never thought I would afford to say this in this lifetime but here I am; leaving my job tomorrow finally after years and years of grinding, thanks to investment in etherum in early days and eventually bitcoin.It doesn't mean I am retiring and might open a small family business further down in future. Sitting idle is not fun anyway!I bought ETH first time around 15$ in three years ago after watching Vitalik’s interview. It seemed like a spotless tech and I thought maybe in eight to ten years I would see some returns. I had no idea what was about to happen.At the end of same year, ETH was going to insane prices that I couldn’t grasp if this was real or just magic internet money. Greed got the best of me as I didn’t sell a single coin and rode all the way to the great crash. To make matters worse, I bought BTC almost at the top around 15K.But I learnt a good deal with my time in this space…You, me, or even Vitalik have no idea what's going to happen. He has said so himself. ETH could shoot up back to 1400 tomorrow and then fall to 100 the next day. Or it could lurk around 450 for the next few years before exploding to maybe 5000. Who knows! If you have conviction in the technology invest what you are willing to lose and don't get hung up on the day to day movement. It's just noise.This has been said a million times, but for good reason: Don't invest more than you're willing to lose. For most people, this means no more than 25% of your money. This really goes for any asset class, even cash since there's inflation risk - but especially crypto. Ideally, in addition to crypto your money is diversified among a variety of asset classes like fiat, stocks, bonds, gold, etc.Never, ever buy or sell on emotion. As a rule, if you feel like you have to buy or sell right away, then you don't. Sure, you might luck out once or twice doing so, but this is called gambling, not trading. Being impulsive will ultimately screw you over.Our brains are running on millennia old legacy software designed to run away from threats e.g., panic sell, to follow the herd e.g., fomo buy, and in general to survive, not to be rational. When big dollar signs are flashing around, our lizard brains think it's life or death and all reason goes out the window. This is why the vast majority of traders, even professionals, lose money.Of course in a bull market everyone is a Genius! So it's easy to kid yourself but you are probably not a great trader. I know I'm not. I've read books on trading, and I'm not a total idiot, but the fact is I would be sitting on a lot more Ether or btc right now if I had just bought and held rather than getting all fancy. There are a few folks who have zen-like discipline or years of experience, but for the rest of us, short-term trading is a losing game. That said, you can treat a small portion of your holdings as play money that you daytrade. Just don't be surprised if it's gone next week.Don't be a maximalist. God knows I was when I first arrived here. I thought Bitcoin was Myspace and ETH was Facebook. I came to realize BTC and ETH are not competitors; they are trying to do different things. The world needs both gold and oil.This may sound blasphemous, but don't be absolutist about HODL-ing. For most, I think it's wise to take some profits as it goes up by selling a small to moderate portion of your holdings. Then, if/when it majorly corrects you won't freak out and panic sell. Instead, you can buy some back at a lower price. And if it doesn't correct, you'll still walk away with some profit and peace of mind.Now, if you are very patient and don't need to take profits it is fine to 100% HODL if you are truly able to stick with it. Just be honest with yourself. There are a lot of fair-weather 'hodlers' here who hit the sell button whenever there's a major pullback. It's better, not to mention a hell of a lot easier to sell when it's pumping up than when it's plummeting.It's human nature to never be satisfied. No matter how low you bought, you'll wish you had bought lower or bought more. Or you're gonna kick yourself for not selling at a peak. Remember, most people in this world still have no idea what Ethereum is and even if they do, they do not see its potential like you and me. We're early to the party.Keep your life in balance. This is more important than all the above combined. Sure, it's fine to go through a phase where this consumes your life, but if you spend all day and night staring at red and green your health and happiness will suffer. Trust me, I've been there.Trading is already addictive but throw in a 24/7 market that never sleeps with bewildering volatility and you have the perfect recipe for sleep deprivation, anxiety, and manic ups and downs. If you're overly obsessed with checking prices, try either setting ground rules (what I do is that I only check prices between 11am and 8pm) or step away completely for a few days or a week. I've done this a few times and I always return to the markets with renewed energy and perspective.Money is important but once you have enough to get by, it's far less so than friends, family, health, and finding meaningful things to do in life. Remember guys, love over lambos, balance over Binance, and bros over blockfolios.. okay that last one was a stretch..Finally, it's been said before, but that's because it's the truth: the joy is in the journey. Everything in this world is temporary. Whether the king and queen BTC & ETH faces some existential threat and gets wiped out tomorrow or goes on to revolutionize human civilization for centuries to come, someday something else will come along and replace it.Likewise, your stash may someday be worth zero or a million. But either way you will have won the bigger game in town if you enjoyed the ride and learned a few things along the way.Remember that crypto is just a means to your goals and its not always going to work 100% your way but that's okay.Life is too short to have regrets, just try to enjoy it every now and then.....
Submitted November 14, 2020 at 03:41AM
No comments:
Post a Comment