Hello, I have avidly been following bitcoin since it was pretty young in 2012. Some of you saw bitcoin when it was pennies, I started watching it when it was a mere 50 dollars. I remember the flash crash when it rose to 250 then fell, then it rose to 1000 and 'crashed' to 600, again rising seemingly immediately to 1200 dollars... Then the dark days of bitcoin arrived when it was stagnant at sub 500 levels for years... Now, we seem to be in another explosive period where bitcoin price has no where to go except up! People are scared of bitcoin falling to sub-2000 levels when it was sub-1000 levels not so long ago!
These 'crashes' are healthy! The way I think of a huge sell off is like a mass distribution of coins from one account to many. This movement is necessary for the currency to grow, but that's another story for another time, I'll try to limit this post to the emotional rollercoaster that bitcoin has taken me on over the years :)
There have been days where I've felt elated, I still remember purchasing LTC at 20 some odd dollars during its infancy and them selling for over 40, then rebuying for less than 2 dollars. On the flipside... I remember the Mt. Gox hack. I remember the silk road seizure where one of my closest friends had 15 bitcoins seized. I remember the pain of feeling emotionally attached to the USD value of my coins and watching it plummet from one day to the next during bear periods... By now, if I've piqued your interest you may have some questions...
What have I learned?
How much have I made / lost?
What was my first daytrade like?
What was my best trade?
What was my worst trade?
What have I learned:
Don't get emotionally attached to the USD value of your bitcoins. Think of it this way: Are you really going to cash out on something that could potentially be 10x its current value 5 years from now? If you answered yes, then you're not thinking longterm enough to invest in bitcoins, if you answered no, then you think of bitcoin how many of its early investors think of it. A truly revolutionary way to transfer wealth and currency that will not slow down for many years to come. Day to day, week to week, and even month to month the value of bitcoin may drop drastically and be extremely erratic. However, in the longterm, the only way that bitcoin will move is up. If you are not daytrading, just don't look at the price of bitcoins until you are ready to sell them 10-20 years from now, congratulations you have sealed your retirement funds and will be rich :)
However, I am a daytrader. I don't care about the USD value of my coins, what I do care about in increasing the amount of bitcoins that I own. I play the swings of alternative cryptocurrencies. I invest in ICOs, and, when I really feel like gambling I put some money in awful low-volume coins. I have to say my main strategy that I've employed over the years would be to diversify during the week, while the markets tend to be bullish, and sell off Thursday night or Friday morning when most currencies turn red for the weekend. Have I missed opportunity doing this? Yes, however I tend to reserve this technique for mid-tier coins while holding through the dips for higher-tier coins (like LTC/Stratis/Eth).
What was my first daytrade:
my first experience daytrading was with feathercoin on BTC-e. Since then I've evolved and I now trade mainly on bittrex. I made around .001 btc with my first trade... which is nothing to brag about, but I felt an amazing rush as I made my first bits of profit :).
What was one of my best trade:
Investing a large portion of my portfolio in LTC a couple months ago when it was sub-20 dollars for a couple of days. Since then I have sold about half of my holdings in it around 50 dollars.
Aside from this, I have a nasty habit of investing in 'shit coins' and setting up sell orders about 2x-3x their current price as they are often pumped mindlessly by these immoral pump groups. I have gotten lucky on a couple of these investments recently :)
What was my worst trade:
I was swing trading Litecoin on btc-e the day Bitcoin crashed from 1200 dollars... I remember buying at 15 dollars or so... then my ISP provider went down around 4 AM... My internet was down for 3-4 hours and by the time I could connect back to the internet LTC was in the sub-10 levels. This was probably the most frustrating moment for me in my daytrading history as it was very early in my involvement and I lost a large portion of my initial holding. I took a step back from cryptotrading for a couple months but came back stronger and smarter :)
Aside from that, I feel obligated to also talk about my one experience with a pump and dump group.... Even after all that I've told you, I've been stupid enough to join in on one... It seemed like a 'sure thing', I caught myself thinking "you know what, you're smart, you have fast reflexes, you can be faster than all of these other people!" So I went in pretty deep (investing 4 btc in the pump). I immediately realized my mistake as I bought near the ATH and sold getting back 1.5 btc. It was a very difficult day for me, but it's a mistake that I haven't repeated.
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