Investing in crypto is really more of a psychological aspect than just buying the coins. Today I am going to talk about a term, I coined, the victim of greed problem.
Let's first talk about greed. It is an impulse that makes us always wanting more, there is no stop to this insatiable hunger and it applies to almost anything. In this particular article we are going to talk about it in the context of crypto investing and how being greedy will inversely prevent you from making any gains, while constantly trapping you as a victim watching from the sidelines.
Most of us probably heard of Bitcoin and how crazy expensive it is especially now; hovering around $1900-2000 USD. But only a small portion of us own a large amount of bitcoin and even smaller amount of us actually got in right before the boom. Back then in 2008 when it was first release, it was unproven so it made sense that the adoption was low, but when you skip to 2013-2014 near its peak before Mt. Gox hack, many people like me hesitated in buy in even though it was a proven coin. This is a prime example of victim of greed.
For many buyers like me, there was always this nagging thought, that it is already too late. At first when I saw the price at sub 100s then 200s then 400s and then it went into the 1000s. Each time I attempted to buy, but I never fully committed the action. If I had bought at anytime before then, it would have made me so much money, but I always hesitated due to my greediness. Logically, I should have just bought it, but every time I felt I'm over paying. There was always this tiny thought that maybe, just maybe it will fall back down to X amount. The price did dip, but never truly to a price I was truly happy about because I was factoring in all the previous increases and potential gains.
REMEDY
After a constant stream of regret, I reevaluated my situation and realized it was a horrible idea to factor in potential possible gains from the past. That is a sunken cost and I decided I needed to move on. Even though, I had an idea of what bitcoin could do, I didn't fully understand it to a level where I felt I could put an educated price on its value and that there gave me 'Ah-ha' moment. I felt my greedy attribute was because I didn't know the limits of how it compared to its competitors and what it meant in the bigger picture. Digging deep in research not only gave me a better understanding of the product, but it helped me minimize my own greed on when to buy and eventually sell.
I eventually pulled the trigger and just bought it at the price of 1400. I am pretty happy with my investment and I have to thank research for the biggest part of it in breaking this victim of greed cycle. Having a solid understanding definitely helped me commit toward my investments and have confidence in the cryptocurrencies that I wanted to invest in. Even when there are dips, due to my own research and confidence in the product, it allowed me to stay strong on my position.
When we do not know its capabilities we will always be a victim to greed, and the best way to fight uncertainty is to learn more.