TLDR at bottom
My Story:
So I got out of the military and started a job in IT (as i did in the army) immediately. I was enjoying my income that well surpassed my military wages and thinking of how i would try to grow some form of wealth. I considered starting a business, buying penny stocks, programming some form of software, and a number of other options.
Then my buddy called me up and told me to buy "Litecoin". I had briefly heard of litecoin, bitcoin and crypto in general, but I'd never really taken it seriously. But i trusted this guy and he promised guaranteed returns because of some crazy thing called "Seg wit" that was supposed to happen at some point in the next few weeks. So I put in $100 into coinbase and bought LTC. Low and behold the "Seg Wit" happened and I doubled my money!
This excited and fascinated me greatly, so i began reading everything about alt coins that I could. I ended up buying these two coins, one called Nem (XEM on poloniex), and another called Stellar Lumens (str on poloniex) based on some random rumors i was reading on reddit and 4chan.
Sure enough these coins more than doubled as well and I sold them back into bitcoins.
Over a large number of small volume trades I've learned a lot of lessons about day trading these coins that I'd like to pass on to all of you.
My Guide to Success:
- Never invest more than you can afford to lose.
I'm playing with majority house money at this point, so i can lose it all and walk away with a few drinks and a great story.
- Buy on rumor, sell on announcement/realization.
This is a lesson that i occasionally relearn as the hype of FOMO affects even me. Buy when the rumors hit, sell when it comes true and your investment has increased by at least 30%, and walk away. As a day trader do not fall into the trap of "oh i'll just go long on this coin". I've seen it a thousand times and I've done it myself to ill effect a majority of times. If you miss your window, accept defeat and sell the coin before it becomes a loss, (or bigger loss) UNLESS this coin is one of the top 5 and has held the spot for longer than a month.
- Pick a buy point, pick three sell points, and wait.
(Buy Point)
If you have found your rumors to buy the coin on, pick a price that matches recent trends (as low as you can effectively get in on) and wait patiently. That image of a rocket is a hype machine generated by whales, and the exuberance that those vertical lines generate on the way up are two-fold in despair on the vert back down. If you must take part, (and be damn sure your quick about it) buy and sell before the whales get the price up by 50% and walk away. Otherwise you run the risk of losing a lot more than you stood to gain in the first place.
(Three Sell Points)
(Point 1) Before you even buy the coin, pick a point at which the profits are acceptable to you, and set the limit sell order for that price as soon as the buy order is fulfilled.
(Point 2) Prepare for the coin to rise less than you expected, and in the event it begins falling, pick a sell point that still nets you acceptable, albeit less than ideal profits.
(Point 3) Prepare to be wrong. This game is Dark Souls with real money and you are going to die... a lot.... Make sure that you recognize when you were wrong and sell before you lose more than a certain percent (mine is 8%). Don't fall into the same trap as the fan boys and claim that this coin is the next Jesus and cannot possibly fail. (Once again less applicable if this is a consistent top 5 coin.)
- Learn to Mine Information
Remove yourself and any one person from the valuation of these coins. One opinion alone will gain you nothing but lost money and a poor investment.
Sift through the internet community on reddit, 4chan, Slack, etc; and weigh the opinions of every one that you see to make a determination about whether a rumor will bring the price up or not.
Find all the free internet "Trend Analysts" and find the coins where 3 or 4 of them happen to agree. This is a self-fulfilling prophecy that is all too easy to realize consistent gains on.
And If nothing else, learn how to use googles search filters such as "", the time filter (day, week, month, etc), wildcard, and others to let google do the digging for you.
This is a battle of information. The sooner and more that you know, the better position you are in to make a profit.
- If you like and or agree with these, please up vote to expose them to others. If you disagree or dislike, please reply and elaborate as I would love to learn more from everyone's opinions.
TLDR
- Never invest more than you can afford to lose.
- Buy on rumor, sell on announcement/realization.
- Pick a buy point, pick three sell points, and wait.
- Learn to Mine Information.
- If you like and or agree with these, please up vote to expose them to others. If you disagree or dislike, please reply and elaborate as I would love to learn more from everyone's opinions.