This month has been full of tears. Some happy, and some sad.
With the new ICO coin tokens being released on Bittrex I saw several newbies buying at well over .05 BTC and some times as much as 50 ETH when they first opened. Shortly after the markets regulated of course, dropping down to the same prices listed on other exchanges. Having made several of the sales myself (I ended up getting the coins during the initial offering), I myself am guilty of taking advantage of their stupidity. I decided to make my first post as a list of rules for general newb's.
Tokens are bought for pennies and sold for thousands when the markets first open. Don't get in at this point and expect to win. Sometimes people make some stupid decisions trying to get the price to keep rising because they bought for way to high. Don't see the price rising and think "hey I better get in now"... just don't...
If the token is about to be listed on your preferred marketplace, before the opening check to see its value elsewhere. Chances are when the smoke settles it will be around what the other markets have it. Buy from them if you have more then an hour, transfer and then sell for anything higher then what you bought it at (plus gas price to transfer).
Research any token you're going to put more then 10% of your free money on months in advance, and get into the ICO for as little as you can so you can sell for as much as you can right away. If it doesn't immediately sell for double settle for 5/3 price. If you miss that, hold for whatever reason you initially had faith in the token.
Use free money to buy and sell. -Do Not: use rent money, use life savings, borrow money, or rack up your credit cards. Mining tokens when they first come out is cheaper in the long run just to buy some good mining equipment rather then becoming. I am a 100% disabled combat vet and have been homeless 3x since the service. Don't be an idiot and choose that over bills because you were said idiot. I wasn't homeless over anything near as stupid.
Learn about what your investing in.... not just the token, but the whole idea behind cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. If you don't do this you will miss out on what people are actually saying about a token; and it will also aid in you choosing good tokens.
6 . When a market is fluctuating and a coin dropped below what you bought it for. Your not f***** until you sell... that is the point you lost money.
and last but not least
#7. When in doubt and you just want to sit a while or take a break and focus on life, put a little in tokens that are doing horrible, and then split the majority between the major currencies (BTC, ETH, and LTC). Take that break and when you come back don't start using that currency until it is higher then when you left it, maybe you came back at a bad day/time/hour/second....wait. Patients is a virtue and has made many happy early investors millionaires with BTC when it sold for pennies itself.
I am loath to say this on as a public message, because it will probably make me miss a few more 50 ETH sales, but don't say I'm heartless, I too am just trying to make rent.
On a related note to august first, here is my latest facebook post:
I hope everyone has their BTC reserve in a wallet that supports the split. Bittrex said it was going to support both and holders would receive a 1:1 ratio of coins. If you missed that window and you already have a bittrex account make sure you have some bitcoin either held or on reserve so you profit still, if you missed that window as well, you can always deposit on blockchain.info in their wallet (they are also supporting) or in a cold wallet where you hold your own keys. I know the people at coinbase who missed the past few weeks are going to be kicking themselves for missing out.