Who am I?
I've had an interest in trading since 2009 after I attended a seminar on spreadbetting...
But I never really took it seriously and have been in and out of trading ever since, losing plenty of money along the way but gaining some valuable experiences which only now is falling into place.
2017 led to a chance online meeting with a former RAF pilot-turned-trader which ignited my trading interest again and this time I was armed with a better mindset and a better time structure in order to focus on learning this life valuable skill!
And what an interesting time to jump back on board the trading train! With cryptocurrencies gaining attention and the blockchain technology becoming more widely adopted, we have a unique opportunity to capitalise on the huge gains this market has yet to offer!
I'm still early on in my serious trading journey and still have a lot to implement and learn... but I hope to inspire others along the way! In order to survive and keep paying my bills, I still have a full time job which I invest 10% into my trading pot each month and allocate 10% towards continuous education and knowledge.
I am part of the Realistic Trader group run by that ex-RAF pilot and now one of the biggest voices on Crypto's, Siam Kidd. This offers me education as well as ongoing support to help me on my journey. If you'd like to be a part of this group too and learn how to safely buy and trade cryptocurrencies, come along and join us! - Disclaimer: This is an affiliate link but I'd only ever offer services that I actively use. Plus the affiliate fee would really help me to add to my trading pot.
You can follow my journey here on SteemIt (If you get any value from my posts then please UpVote it. As Tesco says"Every Little Helps") or come and visit my website at EXF Trading
=====================================================
Why Cryptocurrencies?
Do you remember the dot com bubble (also known as Y2K crash, tech bubble, internet bubble) around the year 2000?
I don't... well I do remember the internet boom but knew nothing about "the bubble". Mainly because I was in my early 20's and spent most of my free time at parties and hungover.
So, if like me you missed that boat let me give you a run-down...
The internet, although around for long before this, became available to many. Homes, businesses, etc and it allowed a whole new world of opportunity and a new way to transact business. It was a revolution.
As it picked up and gained traction, people saw it's potential and investment money started flooding into these new companies to get them going. Yahoo, Amazon, Netscape, AOL and later companies like Google, Facebook, Twitter and the mainstream ones around today.
Funds literally flooded in, expanding the market capital and being termed a "bubble". With such huge rises there were potential huge returns on investment in a very short period of time. Many people got very rich... but many people also lost a lot.
Growth at those rates cannot be sustained and eventually with all the hype everything eventually becomes over-valued. Then the bubble bursts and everything plummets in value. So, if you manage to get out of the market before the bubble bursts, then there's a lot of money to be made.
After the burst, the best companies that offer real life value manage to survive and the values begin to rise at a steady and more sustainable rate. New companies are also born in this phase, improving on previous companies ideas (Facebook was born from MySpace social media idea, Google replaced Yahoo as the number 1 search engine)
Here's the NASDAQ index during the dot com bubble period...
Image courtesy of flatworldbusiness.wordpress.com
This wasn't a unique event and has happened many times previously with very similar chart patterns...
I wasn't in a position to take advantage of the dot com bubble. I certainly didn't have the knowledge either.
Now, the blockchain tech sets to revolutionize industries and shake a lot of foundations too, especially for banking. Plus, it's likely to be bigger than the dot com bubble too!
What is blockchain and why should I know about it?
Blockchain is a new decentralised digital ledger. What this means is it updates transactions and verifies them using multiple computers to verify the data meaning it is practically un-hackable and automated. These can be expanded to make digital transactions upon confirming a set of parameters, otherwise known as smart contracts. These transactions and contracts need no middle company to verify them so is capable of cutting out middle-men business (EG Conveyancing solicitors, estate agents) and make the transactions with minimal fees (due to cutting out the banks)
That's just a brief explanation. But you can see how two people can make an exchange and save thousands in fees.
There's many potential uses of the blockchain from shipping product ledgers (which are often still paper based or can be lost or mistaken) digitally verifying ownership of digital assets such as a digital photograph and knowing exactly where that image has been used online and of course to using digital currency as an exchange of value bypassing banks and helping with anonymity.
Governments have good a good reason to find a recognized digital currency (without anonymity) as they will already know exactly what is spend and received by people/businesses and able to tax accordingly.
As you can see, the blockchain is a revolution in how we transact business. It's going to destroy many jobs along the way so has been met with much resistance. But it cannot be ignored.
Why the crypto revolution will be bigger than the dot com bubble.
When the dot com bubble came around, there wasn't the wide use of the internet that there is today. After all it was the birth of the internet as we know it...
So, those who invested into the dot com bubble were mostly Americans through brokers. Now I've no idea really how you'd buy shares and invest in startups without the internet as I've only ever done that via the internet.
The dot com was limited by location, education and availability yet it reached a near $£6 trillion peak.
With the internet now fully up and running, free sharing of information via social media and the ability to open accounts anywhere around the world, more people can take part in the birth of crypto's.
Right now, crypto's have reached a peak of $750 million. That's not even 1 billion yet.
Now, the whole world can get involved and with easy access to exchanges, plus the extra money which is now available in the world, the crypto market has a potential to reach $12 trillion or more according to experts.
That's over $11 trillion growth to come until we should expect a bubble burst!
We will still expect to see a similar pattern to previous bubbles so we can gauge our positions along the way.
Which cryptos to invest in?
It's not just as easy to pick the well known cryptos such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and Ripple. These have had big gains already and these are likely to be the earliest, but not the best cryptos going forward. Just look at MySpace. It was the earliest but Facebook soon became the best.
I'm not going to pick the best crypto's. I cannot. There's now thousands (over 1500) and its growing rapidly. They will need research to see which has the best real world utility, which has the best teams behind them to ensure survival. There's many new systems coming along set to wreak havoc on existing companies. Social Media on the blockchain. Computer operating systems on the blockchain. The internet itself run on a blockchain! Big goals may be hard to achieve and riskier to invest in, but will offer huge returns.
There's also crypto's that offer regular payouts for holding much like some company shares pay out dividends.
It all depends on your financial goals and risk appetite as to what to invest in.
Where can I learn more?
There's many scams out there!
The biggest piece of advice I can offer right now is that YOU must buy and hold your crypto's in your own accounts and wallets. There's many companies that want your money and they say they invest that into X coin and make x% profit daily/weekly/monthly. You've no idea if they are telling the truth or just running a ponzi scheme.
So if anyone offers you crypto advice, make sure they arent the ones that are supposedly buying the cryptos.
For me, I invested in education to learn how to SAFELY* invest in cryptos. It's taught me how to buy and hold cryptos. At no point would I be asked to send my crypto's to my educator.
If you are interested in learning more, join us at the Realistic Trader Crypto Tsunami
Why isn't everyone buying in yet?
It's early days and many are still skeptical.
Also it's not as easy to invest in cryptos as it is for buying stocks. The online stock brokers are well established with software that has been improved over the years to make it as easy as it is today.
Crypto brokers are new. Exchanges are often difficult to navigate and can be quite basic at times as well as confusing. Their security can sometimes be weak and are often attempted to be hacked. They aren't well known companies that have been established for years.
And the biggest thing is because this is all decentralized, we are responsible for our data. Our wallet/account codes are ours and ours only. If we lose it there's no support to access the system and send us our information or reset our passwords. If we make a mistake it could be costly... (I urge education again!)
All these difficulties keep people away and prices low. But things are improving all the time and as they do, there's more value added to the crypto market cap.
The next 18 months is set to be exciting!
And for those willing to learn and invest, the next 18 moths can see some huge financial gains!
Life-changing times...