I recently FOMO-ed into a purchase I'm not sure I will regret or not. By the way, "FOMO" is a trading abbreviation for "fear of missing out". That means buying into something out of well, the fear of missing out on the opportunity to make a profit. Digital Pandacoin (PND) has actually been around for quite a while. This is something I realized only after I made the purchase, somewhat to my chagrin. You see, I had recently made some significant gains on DigiPulse (DGP) and wanted to reinvest some of those gains into another alt coin that had both a low price and market cap. After some shoddy research, I came across Pandacoin and furthermore, it was on the dip.
I could have spent more of my precious time researching it further but from the website (assuming you've seen it too), it seemed to me to be about as good or reputable as any other alt coin that had the potential of at least doubling or quadrupling in value in no time; and that was my whole intention. I wanted to flip the gains quickly so I had more Bitcoin to trade with (I'm planning on investing in an upcoming ICO with it). Unfortunately, that's when the market took a dip and we can see that most alt coins, including PND, are down. That's right. It's actually lower in value than when I bought into it but not by too much.
I had seriously considered taking maybe 10% in losses (after all, my gains with DGP were in the multiple hundreds of percentage points) and putting it into a more solid and well-researched investment. Then I remembered the wisdom/mantra we often hear in crypto trading called "HODL" which means "hold on for dear life" or basically to "hold" whatever you have. The wisdom is that you don't lose until you actually sell and it's extremely common for alt coins to remain in hibernation. Even for a few years, in some cases. Pandacoin just came out of its three-year hibernation (as you can see from the chart below) and I hope it's not headed for another one.
I take some comfort in the fact that I didn't buy it at its all-time high either which means the coin at least has the potential of revisiting it; and I would make a reasonable profit at that too. I'm also glad I didn't blow all my DGP gains into it (which I almost did). I only used half (another wise move). So I'm planning to keep holding onto my PND. Just like I'm holding on to my seemingly useless Embercoin, which is no longer even listed at coinmarketcap.com anymore. Perhaps it will come back some day (or not). Regardless, to HODL is the way. So the lesson here is to never go "all in" with an alt coin and I'm glad I didn't with these two. Also, have faith, as there have been many sleeping giants and good things come to those who wait.