My Rookie Crypto Experience

Greetings all,

My name is Ben and I want to share me experience with Cryptocurrency investing. The reason I want to do this is that when I started I had no idea what I was doing. I was an absolute rookie! I tried to do research but a lot of it was super complex and I either got confused or lost interest (or both!). I want to give you what I didn't have. A real life example with simple explanation!

So, my first experience is a bit embarrassing and I am still kicking myself to this day!

My work colleagues were discussing Bitcoin in the midst of it's rapid growth and the publicity that it generated. I had no idea what it was, but they pretty much said it used to be worth nothing and now it's worth $12,000. I thought to myself "imagine if every 5 cent piece you had in your piggy bank was suddenly worth $12,000"... Imagine my ass, I wanted in on this!

From the discussions at work, it seemed that the Bitcoin train had left the station without me, but there were other trains still at the station. Similar to Bitcoin, these others were worth a little and were tipped to worth a lot later on! These were called Cryptocurrency.

One particular cryptocurrency called Ripple was being discussed as the next big thing, and it was sitting at about $0.20. I thought to myself "holy shit, I have to get a bit of this!".

So after a quick Google search I found a trading platform called Plus500 and "bought" Ripple.... Yep, this is where the people who know what they're doing are burying their heads into their hands... You see, Plus500 specialises in something called CFD or Contract For Difference. What this means is that I wasn't actually buying Ripple, I was putting money on Ripple's price to rise. Almost like a bet! Of course, I didn't know this at the time... So when I "bought" 4,500 Ripple, I didn't have any Ripple at all!

Then, Ripple shot up to about $0.80 and I thought I had quadrupled my investment! Hell yes! I planned to hold onto this and let it grow. It was at this point that my phone popped up a notificaton. "Your Ripple position will close tomorrow".... Ummm... WHAT???

My Ripple position closed and I was fortunate enough to make a few hundred dollars on the increase with Plus500... But still, I had no Ripple.

I then found a platform to actually BUY Ripple at just under $1 AUD. It is now worth about $4.50 AUD. So I have made 4.5 times my initial investment....

But my friends, if I had bought Ripple when I wanted to (at $0.20), it would have been 22.5 times my investment! It still makes me sick to think of that.

But the silver lining with this was that now I could see the value in cryptocurrency, and I knew a bit more about how to get it. My journey had begun!!

Please feel free to follow me on my journey so that you can replicate my successes and learn from my mistakes! I am not am expert, I am just like you (assuming experts aren't reading this). Let's try and get rich together!!