For the Crypto Beginner: 6 Things I Wish I Knew Before Buying into Cryptocurrency

in #steemit7 years ago


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Just want to note: I am not an expert or a financial advisor and I am still learning the ropes on some aspects of crypto myself. But I have become quite entangled with the cryptocurrency world and research it often due to genuine interest.

For those who are new and just starting to dabble into crypto, it can be intimidating with all the terms, graphs, and coins out there. How do you know which are valuable coins to add to your portfolio, how do you find out the best time to buy, do I have realistic expectations?

I put together a list of the things that I wish I knew before buying in to crypto. I encourage you all to post your tips for newbies below as I am sure that some of your realizations/tips may be different from mine and all perspectives are appreciated!

In the DTube video, I go into how each of these tips were based off mistakes that I made myself at the beginning so give that a watch if you want to hear more about my specific crypto journey. Otherwise, read away at my tips! :)

Here we go:

As I have mentioned before, the underlying technology has the power to change most industries in the future. Blockchain technology can and will solve a lot of outdated systems that need to be more efficient and secure. There is a legitimate value in what these cryptos bring to the table, but due to the infancy of the industry still, prices and corrections are often based off of people's emotions, and even market manipulation. This is often induced by some form of "Fake News", or someone's emotion based opinion (in crypto land we call this FUD). Which leads us to our first, and maybe most important, takeaway…

First Tip

Don't believe everything that you read or everything that you hear others say.

Research, research, research. Hype, pump and dump, and scams are common. Research really is such a valuable & powerful thing to do in this industry as the mainstream media doesn't always educate properly and staying up to date is very important in this market because things change very quickly. The good thing about them is the awareness that they provide to the public that at least there is something incredible happening that is set up to be one of the most disruptive (in a good way) technologies in the WORLD…they just may not always phrase it exactly like that. ;) Also, you will hear others close to you giving their opinions and even they may not entirely understand everything there is to know about crypto even if it comes off that they do.

For me, I made a lot of mistakes in the beginning of crypto because I would believe everything others around me said because I was so new to the industry. This is what led me to this tip because if I would have just dug a little, I don't know if I would have made the same mistake. I do think that with the crypto industry, mistakes lead to valuable lessons so it's ok to make some along the way! Just find some great sources whose thinking you agree with & utilize their knowledge to guide you on your research journey! They may expose you to a coin you never had on your radar.

I think it's great to spark conversations about crypto in any way you can to get others intrigued, I think it's important to always encourage others to do some research once you see them actively engaging you in the topic. :D

Second Tip

Don't Panic Sell. Be Patient… or in other words HODL

Don't panic when the price is down and sell the moment it is up. A lot of people when they are new to crypto make decisions on panic and fear. Holding a bag is one thing but selling at a loss has proven to be a big mistake and one that people generally regret in a short amount of time. How I recommend getting through the emotional roller coaster of crypto is:

1.) Take a deep breath and remind yourself that you don't want to act out of fear

2.) Look at recent articles or reddit forums to see what others are thinking to at least give you a well-rounded picture. Look for the posts with long -term outlooks. (*this is tricky though as sometimes people want you to sell so that they can buy in at lower prices and profit off of others' emotional distress, so be careful! Also, twitter is often flooded with FUD.)

3.) Then, make sure you are only ever invested in companies and coins that you believe in as it will help you be more emotionally resilient to market swings. Try to always see the larger picture with crypto otherwise it becomes very stressful. This point leads me to my next tip since it is related:

Third Tip

Invest in Cryptocurrency without the mentality of "Get Rich Quick"

While there are extremely skilled day traders (I am in awe of them), starting out in crypto by only looking at the money will only increase your chances of not enjoying your experience & selling out at bad times. Yes, a lot of people have made insane money, especially early bitcoin adopters. However, if you believe in a coin's worth and the problem it aids to solve then you should HODL it until you learn when the time is right to let go.

Fourth Tip

Expect a crazy ride.

This is a very volatile market with a lot of uncertainties. Don't expect a nice, easy ride to the moon. There are ways to read trends and somewhat predict a price drop/increase based on support lines & we can go into that on a later post as to be honest, I am still getting the hang of.

One thing that is certain in this space, is that no one actually knows EXACTLY what is going to happen on a day to day basis. So, sit back and enjoy the up and downs, loops, scares, and community behind crypto.

Fifth Tip

Be responsible with your crypto wealth.

Remember, it is not cash in your pocket until you have it in your bank. Until it is there, do not spend what you don't have with the ideas that you are a millionaire because while you are in your car on your way to shop for your lambo, the market can crash. Also, never ever ever invest money that you aren't willing to lose.

Sixth Tip

There's more to cryptocurrency than Bitcoin.

Many Steemians are probably going "Duhhhh" but I still want to point it out. Bitcoin dominated the media in 2017 and still is, so that's generally what most new users are familiar with. Additionally, Coinbase is one of the most user-friendly apps and people don't always realize that there is much more to crypto beyond Coinbase.

In summary: You're better off holding for mid to long-term gains, being patient, doing your own research on a coin you want to invest in, being cautious of media manipulation/hype, and careful not to panic when times are rough or as we say HODL (Hold on for Dear Life), my friends.

Again, others will have different tips but these are ones that I found valuable for me and I hope that this helps some of you just starting out!

Have fun with your crypto experience and find communities where you can go to chat about maybe something you found, or just want to share your excitement about a coin doubling. I do have to say that once you are in it, then you start to understand the crypto market more and you will probably gain a genuine interest in it all. It becomes addicting. Also, you will check your app to see how your money is doing 20 times a day, which I would tell you not to do to eliminate panic and potentially severe emotional distress during drops. But I can't tell you not to do it because I do all too often. You may still make a few mistakes as you venture into crypto, but hopefully with my tips, you make a few less.


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If ya into buying alt coins, you should look at bitcoin's price pumps and dumps because any other coin pretty much follows bitcoin and in the recent weeks bitcoins has gain some more dominance :))

Solid tip and I agree entirely. :)

the tips are really very useful for the beginners even for people like us who are not very new but still learning

Yay! I am happy to hear that. :)

Great post. 2 in a row, you got yourself a follower.

Number 6 is extremely important and hard to get across to people. As is HODL... every one says they will then the price dips lol. Oh and I'd add don't rush to buy just because of FOMO... buy a little at a time not 100% now now now.

Woo! Happy to have you on board. :) Thank you for taking the time to read my posts! I have been posting about crypto but plan to post on health and fitness too so hope you enjow those too.

Also, completely agree. It's good to buy a little as you go that way you can invest smarter as you learn more. At least that has been the case for me!

I used to read everything fitness but have fallen off recently (got married and started on the dad bod lol)... but hopefully you can motivate me to start hitting the gym again. My wife's about to give birth so probably get back into it with her in prep for summer.

Sometimes it's hard to make the time to go to the gym at first, but trust me, once you get hooked you'll be set. :) I am pretty busy so the days when I don't go to the gym, I do at home workouts to get some cardio in... otherwise if I don't do anything the couch is my other go-to ;)

Check out my last video and try that :) It switches it up a good bit so hopefully you don't get bored!

Also! Congrats to you and your wife on being so close to giving birth!! I hope you two have a happy, healthy baby :)

Useful tips for noobies. Well done.

Thank you! :)

Great Tips!! For me what I would have wanted to know is where is the best place to buy BTC or ETH when I first started. Secondly, would have been whats a good wallet to use ie. MEW or cold wallet. Third would be how to liquidate my crypto assets, but you sorta mentioned that with being responsible for your crypto. Still, great post! Glad to see more women talking about crypto, us nerds are getting pretty tired of talking to each other.

These are great tips, and important ones at that! The wallet is a key one that I was thinking about even putting in its own separate post! Thanks for the welcome and I am happy to join in with all the crypto nerds any day. :)

Thanks for the tips and I agree with you. The most important one is not to invest any money that you can’t lose. When I hear some people saying going all in on cryptos I can just shake my head.

Oh my gosh, I know. I get a little anxiety when people say they are investing EVERYTHING they have. I believe in crypto but that is just too risky to do in my opinion. :P

Good post, solid tips, I agree with all of them. One extra tip I would add on is to learn some TA, even just the basics of price action, because if you can understand that (and in time become proficient) you will be able to make your own choices / decisions on what crypto to invest / trade in. Thanks

Im also a new one but i posted 10 already but i dont get upvote much thanks for the tios youve share God Bless

You're welcome! & your posts look great -- amazing pictures. :)

That is a great additional tip and completely agree with that! Learning the basics helps to put the power in your hands as you said :) Thank you for adding that in!

Thanks! One thing I forgot to mention, when looking at price charts, don't forget to zoom in and out of different time scales... Zooming out to the daily chart, or even the weekly chart, will give you a much better idea of the current price trend.

Very true!! Zooming out was something that I had missed in the beginning haha Good tip. :)

I'm literally going to start using your posts as a guide I think =D

I would be honored if you did! I am still learning on a few aspects myself but I want to put content out there as often as I can with crypto to help people. I am glad that you liked this article and I wish you the best of luck on the start of your journey!! :)

You're doing a great job, trust me :)

This is very useful...very practical tips...thanks for sharing...will follow you for more such blogs....cheers 👍

Thank you for the comment and I am happy that you enjoyed the post. :)

Thanks. This is valuable

Glad you think so! Thank you for the comment. :)

Yeah, crpto newbie should read this haha. The point is - do invest, not all-in. But I can see most newbie change as bitcoin-zombie by putting all money in crypto.. I hope scams don't get to them.

I know, I think my biggest worry is people getting in to crap coins or scams and having crypto leave a bad taste in their mouth. That's why I push research so much... to help avoid that! Happy you think this article is suitable/helpful for crypto newbies. :)

Thank you, audgirl. That was infromative.

You are very welcome! I was hoping to help in any way I could. :)

Thnak you for the video. For some reason, I am not able to make comments on some d.tube posts, so yeah. Here I am lol. Anyway. My experience was similar to yours: buying "hype coins" and riding that rollercoaster--usually right into the ground--with coins like: XVG, XRP, BitCONNECT (lmao, yes, I played that game for about oh, three days lol) . But, again like you said, Ive "calmed down" a bit, and actually began researching the coins and, go figure, that tended to work out a good bit better lol. Anyway, thanks for the video, you have pretty hair :)

It takes mistakes sometimes to make you pause and go "ok, I need to do some research" haha (like in my case and seems like in yours!) I'm happy that things are going better for you & thank you for the compliment about my hair!

Yes, exactly. I think earlier on, a lot of it was, as they say, pure FOMO lol. Fear I would "miss the boat." BUt, one thing I've realized: it's better to wait for a functioning dinghy, than sink with an expensive yacht. (just made that gem up rn, oh yeah..)

Mahalos for the great article. We agree completely with what you said. We generally have 50% of our assets in HODL and 25% in trading and 25% in cash.

Being able to take advantage of the down markets is huge. That is a good strategy!

Thank you very much for these tips. Common sense is also very important and you have to be prepared to learn a lot of new things. Above all, never lose the joy and enjoy writing! All the best for the future. I will follow your posts. Sunny greetings

Absolutely -- being willing to take on the crypto ride is key and additionally, the willingness to learn. Thank you for the thoughtful comment. :)

These are really great tips i'm also very new at crypto thanks for sharing

Absolutely! I appreciate you commenting to let me know that you liked the post and the tips. Feel free to ask me any questions that you have and good luck on your crypto journey!

these were really great tips :) i'm a beginner to crypto so this really helped. thanks for sharing xX

This is the truth! Sometimes I'm looking at coins in my blockfolio like a parent watching their kid sidelined on a sports team, smh thinking, there's gotta be something they're good at. But deep down I love them because they're my kids coins and I believe in them. Thanks for this post!

Hahaha I love the kids/coins part! These coins are sort of like our children and we are watching them evolve and grow. We just have to be those parents that don't stop believing :P

Expect a Crazy Ride no doubt. But fun as hell, right? Thank you for sharing. Great tips for success. @adsactly

Oh, fun as hell for sure. :) & thank you for the comment.

Great tips! The first 4 are covered in one of my favourite books (wrote a post about the books). Its more about the mindset than anything if you ask me (which is basically what your first 4 points say)

It's all about the mindset.. it's probably the biggest thing that determines someone experience with crypto! And I will check out that post on your roundup of your favorite books. I've been looking for some good reads for trading. :)

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Great tips thank you. I'm at the initial learning stage and trying to do the research but it seems like trying to learn 30 languages at the same time. If you or any of the other experienced people here were starting your research today what would you look at and how would you go about the research itself (reading white papers, digging into discord chat rooms)?

Good question! I would say that even reading white papers has a little bit of a learning curve with the crypto language so that would be hard to do Day 1 (some people can do that though, and power to them!). However, I really had to start from square 1 with all things crypto and the tech language, so for me, asking questions with people in my day to day who were familiar with crypto helped a lot.

Additionally, there are a ton of great articles and videos that helped me out... I honestly just Googled a ton. Coindesk is great for keeping up with news. I wish I could find the links to the best sources but I probably looked at like 200 haha (obviously not an efficient way). I'll do a follow-up post soon and dig into what my best resources were specifically. :) I personally didn't use discord but just downloaded it this weekend as I know a lot of people did and it's a great way to join fellow crypto members, so I would recommend that!
Sorry if this wasn't the most helpful response and I will try to get more specific resources to you, but I utilized YouTube, articles from reputable outlets, my friends, and reddit.

The Unchained Podcast is GREAT too. :) http://unchainedpodcast.co

You make very relevant points, I think a lot of people can relate to some of the mistakes...I sure can. I heard someone once say that "this world is abundant, there is plenty for all and you never missed an opportunity." Thats one thing that motivated me with cryptos because you look at whats going on and its like OHH no I knew I should have got that or whatever...but now I look at it like I didn't miss anything because there will always be another opportunity. Keep up the amazing posts ✨✨✨

LOVE that quote. I'm going to remember that one. :) It's so true, crypto is still so new and there are so many opportunities. Even with a mistake or a missed opportunity, you're very right in that there is always another shot around the corner.

The very good writen and nice video

Thank you!! I appreciate that.

Thanks for the info!

You're welcome!

Simple and informed tips. Great to see 'panic selling' addresses. Thanks for sharing

I see panic selling as a big issue for newcomers! That's why I strongly encourage people to join into the crypto game for the right reasons and pick coins they can stand behind. :) I am happy you liked the post!!

Great tips @theaudgirl. My mistake was not taking profits on the way up and letting greed get the better of me. I haven't lost money on that investment though so I was fortunate this time. But definitely learnt my lesson!

I'm with you on that one! :)

Awesome summary!

Favorite line: "Also, never ever ever invest money that you aren't willing to lose."


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It's the biggest and most important tip!! It also elimates people acting from emotions versus seeing the bigger crypto picture.

I'm gonna resteem your post so that I can refer to it in the future when I have 'enough' to start invest into this game. Thanks for the info!

I am happy that you liked the post and info!! Good luck on your crypto journey when you start investing and feel free to reach out if you have any questions. :)

I sure will. Thanks for replying too.!

Hey just got around to watch this,
these are great tips!!
I'm sorry you learned the hard way, I owned four bitcoin and bought in at $400 and sold shorty after... haha
But everyone does need to learn these really great tips!!

$400?! Frick girl. That one would get me! lol But there's always opportunity with crypto so I am sure you capitalized in other ways since. :) Thanks for watching miss!

great tips aud! i was in a similar both with crypto investing bc i dont have many friends whove invested and nobody to show me the ropes. its been a learning curve for sure, and of course mistakes have been made but thats truly the best way to learn and feel confident in decision making. we can all play the "coulda, woulada, shoulda" game to death - if i invested when i first wanted to id easily have turned $100 into a million, but the best thing to do is dive in, get your hands dirty, and work it out! good for you:)

"best thing to do is dive in, get your hands dirty, and work it out" --- Perfect line and well said! :)

Hello @theaudgirl, really appreciate your message about women and how we need more on steemit!! I am not sure if you know her, but @allasyummyfood also has an initiative to achieve this. additionally, regards to getting more people on steemit, we have a great tag called #promo-steem which rewards steemit promoters - it has just surpassed 1m dollars of rewards to the tag and has a website to provide inspiration, or a place to get started www.promo-steem.com. hope you have a great time on steemit, welcome! (I am also following you).

Oh that is awesome! I would love to encourage more people to join Steemit... I love it here! I just use the tag and it will help promote?

Yes, we have a team of Steem Ambassadors (anyone can be one, as long as they make a blog to per the application process shown on the website and the @steem-ambassador blog and the community accepts them) they help curate the promo steem tag and then we use our steem power to upvote amazing promotional content. We also have a voting trail at steemauto Under @steem-ambassador. We have on average 50 people posting to the tag #promo-steem each day. Check it out to see what everyone is doing!! (Please excuse the spam. We are currently working on a way to fix this!)

Well, said. You laid that out as too where there's not much more to be said for any persons getting into this world and wetting their feet. Cheers

Thank you, I appreciate that comment. :) I am happy you enjoyed the post! Thanks for taking the time to read it.

@theaudgirl very nicely articulated article I especially like how you emphasize the importance patience I made so many mistakes as a beginner but I'm learning again thank you for adding to my knowledge. Very good post once again.

@goodguytv, I appreciate your comment and I am happy this added to your knowledge! I made so many mistakes too as I didn't mention all of them in here but making mistakes and learning is part of the fun with crypto (or not fun at all depending on how bad the mistake was haha). :) Thanks for reading my post!

Thanks for crypto advice. And investing can help people over day trading, generally. It is an investment and it can take time and there is risk but also a lot of potential when we think more long-term and gradual.