Cryptocurrency Teaches Novices Hard Life Lessons About Investing

cageymaru

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Cryptocurrency investors worldwide have felt the pinching of their wallets as the value of Bitcoin and other crytocurrency has fallen up to 90% from record high values in some countries. Now the investors who lost the most are telling their stories about taking out six digit loans to buy coins at record highs, holding onto coins, and accepting a new world of financial ruin after losing it all. Welcome to the world of investing!

"I guess I thought we were 'sticking it to the man' when I got on board," Mr. Herman said. "But I think 'the man' had already caught on, and had an exit strategy."
 
Loans? Why. Rule #1: Don’t gamble what you can’t afford to lose. Unless you have insider information, nothing is guaranteed.
Yar. This quote killed me:

Kim Hyon-jeong, a 45-year-old teacher and mother of one who lives on the outskirts of Seoul, said she put about 100 million won, or $90,000, into cryptocurrencies last fall. She drew on savings, an insurance policy and a $25,000 loan. Her investments are now down about 90 percent.

"I thought that cryptocurrencies would be the one and only breakthrough for ordinary hard-working people like us," she said. "I thought my family and I could escape hardship and live more comfortably but it turned out to be the other way around."

$90k to buy at the time, was what, 4 coins? With how quickly and how much the value fluctuates? Insane. What used to be a solid nest egg she had been saving up is now completely evaporated. This shit reminds me of The Boiler Room, especially with all the snake oil salesmen that were on the TV circuit at places like CNBC pushing Bitcoin and that you were foolish to not jump in.
 
Anyone who couldn't bother to look at the charts of actual crypto *usage* (ie transactions and acceptance at major retailers) deserves to take a write-off on their investment. At the same time coins were up by astronomical returns, their usefulness as currency was dropping. Should have been obvious that the prices represented were completely unrealistic and driven by rampant speculation.

I'm all in favor of researching and utilizing block chain for areas where it makes sense, and maybe currency is one of those in the future, but current incarnations of cryptocoins are terrible at performing their primary purpose as being a means of exchange. Perhaps once all the planned changes on transaction processing and verification are made that will change for Bitcoin, but right now it's just a junk investment, not a currency in any real sense.
 
Sucks for those that lost it all, but kind of satisfying to see the bubble pop after telling many people it was a bubble, and them ignoring all advice to get out while it's up, or at least sell part of what they had to cover their initial investment before it crashed. The "I know more about investing than everyone else" mentality that all the crypto bros had is finally coming back around to get them lol.
 
Greed, which travels hand-in-hand with the panic of 'missing out' on an opportunity... the mentality of something for nothing is it's own reward. News releases repeatedly revealed how currency backers were taking the cash and running...

I feel no sympathy for any of them....
 
Most people don't understand the difference between creating wealth and redistributing wealth. I don't think most people care either way though, as long as they aren't the ones left holding the bill.
 
Thats what you get, no sympathy here. Crypto currency is a scam, real world value to coins generated via compute time is just stupid. Blockchain is a great tech, but not for wealth generation.
 
You guys know it's not like crypto is over with right? :p

We've been here before --- many many times. This latest crash isn't even the biggest one by percentage.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/timoth...ated-history-of-bitcoin-crashes/#1284089c4039




https://www.ccn.com/bitcoin-crash-the-history-of-bubble-bursts/
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Yar. This quote killed me:

Kim Hyon-jeong, a 45-year-old teacher and mother of one who lives on the outskirts of Seoul, said she put about 100 million won, or $90,000, into cryptocurrencies last fall. She drew on savings, an insurance policy and a $25,000 loan. Her investments are now down about 90 percent.

"I thought that cryptocurrencies would be the one and only breakthrough for ordinary hard-working people like us," she said. "I thought my family and I could escape hardship and live more comfortably but it turned out to be the other way around."

$90k to buy at the time, was what, 4 coins? With how quickly and how much the value fluctuates? Insane. What used to be a solid nest egg she had been saving up is now completely evaporated. This shit reminds me of The Boiler Room, especially with all the snake oil salesmen that were on the TV circuit at places like CNBC pushing Bitcoin and that you were foolish to not jump in.

Which leads to rules 2 and 3 when investing.

Trust no one.
Do your own research.

When somebody gives you investment advise, you need to consider that they may be trying to line their own pockets with your losses.
 
I don't feel bad for anyone who invested a lot into cryptocurrencies and lost it all. It's an extremely volatile investment which means you should've only invested an amount of money that you could comfortably lose and not fret. Dumping life savings and cash from loans and insurance policies into volatile investments is beyond foolish.
 
Which leads to rules 2 and 3 when investing.

Trust no one.
Do your own research.

When somebody gives you investment advise, you need to consider that they may be trying to line their own pockets with your losses.

Rule #3: Always hedge your bets. Diversity leads to protection. No such thing as a "Sure thing"
 
I think it's a bit premature for anyone to call the death of cryptocurrencies in this thread. Yes, anyone buying the top (and compounding that pain from leverage) is feeling it but drawdowns have been worst before, although I doubt it will be as extreme given the network and larger adoption base (and infrastructure) today than years ago.
 
I bet they are supper happy that the crypto market isn't regulated...
 
You guys know it's not like crypto is over with right? :p

We've been here before --- many many times.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/timoth...ated-history-of-bitcoin-crashes/#1284089c4039

There will be another historic boom and another wave of FOMO "investments" just like those in the article. There are people who mined thousands of bitcoins for nothing in the beginning and trading them in for the real $$$ these people are so willing to offer up. Even the DEA recently noted that the use for crypto is overwhelmingly for price speculation. With speculation and manipulation running rampant, the extremely volatile prices are basically just fluff at this point, but day after day there's someone out there trading in money they can't afford to lose.

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Now people are selling when things are down 90%, this is the time to buy. Just have to be smart about it.
 
Yar. This quote killed me:

Kim Hyon-jeong, a 45-year-old teacher and mother of one who lives on the outskirts of Seoul, said she put about 100 million won, or $90,000, into cryptocurrencies last fall. She drew on savings, an insurance policy and a $25,000 loan. Her investments are now down about 90 percent.

"I thought that cryptocurrencies would be the one and only breakthrough for ordinary hard-working people like us," she said. "I thought my family and I could escape hardship and live more comfortably but it turned out to be the other way around."

$90k to buy at the time, was what, 4 coins? With how quickly and how much the value fluctuates? Insane. What used to be a solid nest egg she had been saving up is now completely evaporated. This shit reminds me of The Boiler Room, especially with all the snake oil salesmen that were on the TV circuit at places like CNBC pushing Bitcoin and that you were foolish to not jump in.


So many investment mistakes in one short paragraph.

Never invest with any money you can't afford to lose, especially in something as volatile as cryptocurrencies.
Never invest with borrowed money.
Never invest in just one thing, diversify.

She would have been better investing in lottery tickets like most poor people do.
 
Loans? Why. Rule #1: Don’t gamble what you can’t afford to lose. Unless you have insider information, nothing is guaranteed.
And if you do have insider information, see Ms. Stewart, congressmen, etc. etc. that got caught.
 
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Cryptos are a speculation at best, 10% of your portfolio at most. Bitcoin is the biggest bubble in history by a long shot. I believe this is the 3rd bubble in BTC, % wise the smallest of the three.
ifabt1.png


Anatomy of the bubble, know it, learn it, live it.
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your house is in one.

This is what to look for, 6-8 months of sideways consolidation and a slow rise. Beware of crypto regulation spooking the market.
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Then y'all can stop bitching cause you'll be able to afford a new 3080Ti.
 
It doesn't matter what the invesment (is bitcoin really an investment?), unless you're pushin 8+ digits to the left of the decimal you are nothing more than market friction and at the whims of the real players.
 
Anyone who couldn't bother to look at the charts of actual crypto *usage* (ie transactions and acceptance at major retailers) deserves to take a write-off on their investment. At the same time coins were up by astronomical returns, their usefulness as currency was dropping. Should have been obvious that the prices represented were completely unrealistic and driven by rampant speculation.

I'm all in favor of researching and utilizing block chain for areas where it makes sense, and maybe currency is one of those in the future, but current incarnations of cryptocoins are terrible at performing their primary purpose as being a means of exchange. Perhaps once all the planned changes on transaction processing and verification are made that will change for Bitcoin, but right now it's just a junk investment, not a currency in any real sense.

Here is the problem. Crypto can't even decide what it wants to be. Is it a currency? Is it an investment? Is it a speculation? Many of the crypto true-believers are always saying it's some sort of currency. However, it's rarely spoken of except as an investment or speculation. I don't see how it can be an investment since an investment usually involves something tangible and there's nothing tangible about crypto. I'd also say that the vast majority of "use" of crypto is as a speculation and that's where all the volatility comes from. How can it truly be a currency if the value isn't anywhere close to stable?

Crypto may eventually have some sort of place but the current use definitely won't be it.
 
sucks to be these guys. I can just imagine the panic in their heads.

They get FOMO, and then buy high.
and when they finally lose hope, they sell super low..... only to see the shit rise in value again.

then they commit suicide.
 
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