Crypto 101 - Don't Get Caught With Your Fiat Pants Down
As the crypto market continues to fluctuate one of the most annoying situations to find yourself in is having no funds available to take advantage of some of the bargains. I have found myself in this position a few times over the past couple of months, initially due to my own FOMO issues and more lately due to real world delays.
Investing smartly AKA Being prepared to take advantage if an opportunity presents
I've become quite a fan of Chris Coney (@marketingmonk) who runs the Cryptoversity site and the Cryptoverse podcast/vodcast and he constantly reminds his subscribers that you should never be all in any of the markets, keep yourself diversified! Personally this has been a hard lesson to learn myself so I'm hoping if I type it out here it just might stick once and for all.
FOMO containment when things get exciting
During December 2017 when I finally took the plunge into crypto the excitement took hold. I've already explained why I was a little late to the party in previous posts so I won't dwell again here. The initial madness as gains were achieved without any real effort meant I threw all my funds in buying and selling which is absolutely fine if the market is fluctuating as it was then because you can maintain liquidity buying and selling multiple times a day. What you are not prepared for is the downturn like that which occurred in January and suddenly I, like so many others, found I was sitting on many lossy coins while bargains screamed at me to take advantage now. I couldn't and felt so very frustrated at myself for the missed opportunities.
I swore to myself I would not do this again but I did... pretty much straight away when I freed up some fiat and dived back in, this time finding myself caught up in the Nano drama. Learning lessons can be hard.
Real world delays can cost you thousands...
I have some interests outside of the crypto world having been a web developer for some 25 years now. I started out when PHP didn't have a version number and was called PHP/FI :) Microsoft didn't know what web scripting was at this time but I helped bring Active Server Pages into the mainstream, the original Wotif.com was built by my company and was purely ASP oh they were heady days... Enough reminiscing anyway where was I?
I'm a shareholder in a car hire site and recently we have been finally seeing some returns with annual dividends, nothing too extravagant, but I flagged some fiat for crypto investment and wrote a plan. The recent market plunge was perfectly timed and my money was due... Here we go! I spent the cash I had on a couple of small plays and prepared myself for what I'd buy next. Unexpectedly an email arrived stating that yearly accounts were behind schedule, the payout would be delayed. Crap! What do I do now? I tell you what you do you sit and watch as coins recover, thankfully slowly, hanging off any news that funds will be with you soon.
Again I think I've been quite stupid... too excited. Too passionate and optimistic about my ability to manage my real world fund availability against the market fluctuation. Never again... well honestly time will tell.
The Moral Of The Story
Be smart and keep yourself some kitty at all times, with fiat at the ready, as when the market drops you want to be able to grab your favourite coins while they are cheap. I estimate my current situation has cost me a few thousand dollars which is a decent payment off my house! I'll be working hard to make that kind of coin as easily as I might have in the crypto market.
Good luck keeping your head. I know I'm not alone in this scenario!