I find myself almost like an observer during this bull market, following my plan and also analyzing the reactions of others, what excites them the most, what interests them the most, and what topics or events influence me the most, as far as I can tell.
I observed today, for example, that a well-written article overflowing with positivity and excitement toward what we should expect for Bitcoin this time around started to build up excitement in me too (the kind that clouds judgment), despite enough evidence of pure speculation that defies logic.
It was not the price targets that built up excitement (at least not for me), it was the narrative, the package, and the writing that were contagious. I know people close to me who went to product presentations with the mind made not to buy anything and made incredibly stupid choices because they were sold into it. And I'm not saying the author, in that article was trying to sell anything but his own thoughts and opinions. But it is still contagious, and you will see more of that. It is only the beginning. The bigger the influencer, the bigger the impact.
I also see people jump(ed) into various things during this bull market: Solana, meme coins, etc.
I did the same in the previous bull market with Thorchain, and Cosmos, apart from BSC and Polygon. I don't regret it, I made some good profits with Cosmos, some of which topped up my crypto.com Visa card. I also lost 2k in UST+LUNA over there (some of it recovered later). But overall, I blew the previous bull market in different ways, maybe the biggest time in Splinterlands. At some point, I could've sold my land for 50k+ USD and bought it back for 10k USD in the bear market. Plus all the other pumped-up assets. My Splinterlands account was over 100k USD at the time (probably by a good margin, but I'm too lazy to check). But ain't hindsight 20/20?
So, what I did was be (almost) everywhere. What I didn't do was take (enough) profits, which is the most important thing in a bull market.
This time around I prefer not being in many places and focusing on what is the most important thing: to take profits.
When to take profits is a pretty complicated question given the influence of ETFs, but it will be a decision based on price levels and the phase of the bull market. And it will be a DCA out.
Something I've always avoided is meme coins. In my opinion, they are bad if you make money with them and bad if you lose money. And I'm not talking about the lack of utility or the risk associated with them.
I'm talking about the emotional roller coaster. They will make you an emotional wreck, whether you win or lose. And if you win huge based on a tip, and never touch them again (doubtful?), then maybe it's worth the risk, but if your main portfolio is something else, you can't afford to become an emotional wreck because of meme coins gambling.
Why do I say they will make you an emotional wreck? First of all, they wildly pump and dump, so you need to watch them constantly. And with every up-swing, your morale goes up, with every down-swing, it goes down. Plus the constant worrying and questioning: should I take profit now or let them pump more? Should I cut the loss now or maybe they'll recover? Of course, you can set limit orders, but meme coins are generally picked as one-cycle coins with no real history and indication of what's to come. You don't have any idea where the price would go.
I also don't check prices all the time. I mean, I check them daily, it's the bull market and things happen quickly and you have to be aware and able to take action when price movements align with your exit strategy, but I don't check them every half an hour or so. I used to do that some 5-7 years ago.
Have you noticed what affects you emotionally the most in the bull market yet and what doesn't seem to? What do you do about it?