You probably see it everyday, when new traders announce their proposed entry into the golden gates of the fast paced Crypto Market, saying something like "I am ready to invest in crypto, which coin should I buy right now?" and the community generally responds with a "Great, please do your research first before investing - and do not invest what you cannot afford to loose." along with a barrage of worthless Hype/FUD & speculation.
But what does that mean exactly, "do your research?
When I first began trading many moons ago (j/k I started in May of this year) I was fascinated with the idea of day trading on wall street. When I scrounged up $1000 I was ready to pillage the market as my paper trading account skyrocketed I knew I had a knack for it, or so I thought. Turns out turning $10,000 of play money into $500,000 isn't the same as turning $1,000 of real money into $150,000 (my intentions based off my paper trading success). I suddenly realized that even with success and 5x leverage available to use on E*TRADE the fee we're eating me alive, and one bad trade could wipe me out in seconds. My hopes and dreams of being a fast acting day traded were crushed.
That's when it hit me, I remembered watching a video on crypto trading in a platform called Cryptowatch. It looked cool, I signed up and it was only a fraction of the price to get level 2 quality charts like on wall street. The fees were low and the market moved FAST. I bought .1 BTC and made my first trade, picking up about 12k XRP.
At the time I didn't even look at the price I just wanted to buy something and wait for the price to sky rocket. Sure enough, with some stupid lucky timing, XRP blew up about 1500% within a week or 2. My $650 investment was now valued at almost $10k.
For a few months I was elated with delusions of grandeur. I would buy $1000 of this coin and that coin, with out even looking at the chart. I was throwing darts with a blindfold over my eyes. I didn't know it at the time but I happened to get started at the beginning of a Bull market when everything was pumping, I felt invincible.
Shortly after, the market turned. As all my positions began to get crushed, I panic sold off almost half my gains (losing roughly $8000) It hit me hard but I realized I needed to come up with a new strategy. I needed to actually do some research. At first I though that simply meant to visit the website of coin I liked and learn what they are for and then I continued to invest in what I thought was "good tech". I continued to get crushed.
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