4 things I wish someone told me about trading crypto in 2017/2018

I bought my first lot of BTC at about $16k and ETH at $1200, about three years ago. My first few months (years?) in crypto SUCKED. Luckily, I stuck with things and am doing pretty well. Here are some things I wish I knew back then in case there are some new people here looking to get into it:Be clear about why you are buying crypto. Decide if you want to HODL or trade (you can do both) and stick to that strat. If you are buying because you believe in the tech, then you should not be selling...at all. The price will go up again, eventually. This requires discipline. I held through the COVID-19 dump in early 2020...just. The reality is crypto is a long game...think of it like you would if buying a house.If you decide to "trade" be aware that this is a market and the main players in the market (experienced traders with LOTS of money) are there to take your money. You are at a poker table with pro players. The odds are against you.When buying or selling any crypto, do the opposite of what your gut tells you. TA aside (and there is a lot to be said for understanding fundamentals of technical analysis), big green candles should be a sell signal (not a buy signal). Big red candles are probably a buy signal (not a sell signal). If the price is mooning and you think you should buy, don’t. You missed the opportunity. You just need to be patient. If you do FOMO in and the price drops soon after you buy, then you should definitely not sell. The price usually recovers anyway - it can be days, months or even years (ETH is yet to get back to its ATH).If you want to 'day trade' with margin/leverage, set aside an amount you are prepared to lose and just trade off that in a seperate account. Never leverage off your entire holdings. It will cloud your decision making. It's possible to get pretty good returns on a 10x leverage with $500. I turned $500 into $5000 pretty easily (after losing about $1500 in the learning process). But BY FAR my biggest returns are from just HOLDING.

Submitted January 05, 2021 at 06:05AM