Steemit Crypto Academy Contest / S3W2 – My Experience Investing in the Crypto Market by @b-naj

Steem greetings to all, i hope everyone is doing well throughout this week's Crypto Challenge. Today is the sixth day of this week's contest, yet i am as excited as on the first day. I am here with my entry to this topic of the Steemit Engagement Challenge Season 3, Week 2 for the Crypto Academy Community. Here is the link to the contest as i invite @rafk, @goodybest and @bongk to partake in it.

First off, i'll briefly start with the explanation of what crypto currency is, so as to help newbies of the crypto world follow up better.

Crypto currency is widely referred to as crypto for short, and it is a type of digital/virtual currency that is used cryptographically to better secure transactions. They are independent of any form centralization since they dwell more on a more decentralized approach during transaction recordings, and formulate new units.
Its name is the way it is because crypto currency uses encryptions when verifying transactions. Bitcoin was the first crypto currency to exist, and today, it is the most known crypto in the crypto world.
Crypto currency is a digital asset

My first experience investing into the crypto market was somewhat neutral, not too good and not too bad too. I know some would think of a trading platform once they come across such a question, but with me, my very first time was purchasing a few amount of steem tokens to power up and expand my bandwidth so that i could partake in a contest during my early days on steemit. I didn't quite know how the regulations of posting were done, so i carelessly posted and commented at will when i joined this awesome platform. It got to a point wherein i wanted to submit an entry and my publication couldn't be uploaded due to limited bandwidth. I was devastated and tried all i could, until i was told i needed to power up to expand the vest. I was then hooked up with a dealer who sold me some tokens. **For me, i count that moment as my first investment into the crypto market, because it was a very big risk for me since i wasn't convinced or assured by anyone of a definite revenue/profit, i didn't even know a thing about crypto, although i already knew the name Bitcoin back then 😁. I powered up and made a pledge to power up my earnings, and for me, that was my first official step to invest in the crypto market.

Answering this question, i would relate more talking about my first investment on an actual trading platform.
For a long while, the only tokens i ever owned were Steem and Tron, and i didn't even know how to trade them on my own 😥. All i knew was, i had some virtual/digital assets and can exchange for money directly with another individual who needs it. I didn't know too much about trading directly on the crypto market until when the Steemit Crypto Academy introduced a twist within the Crypto Academy Classes. At first, each season lasted for a duration of 4 weeks, before the next season takes over, but what they now did was to introduce a contest during the last 2 weeks of each season, to practically carry out trades applying the knowledge we had gathered so far.
I won't lie to y'all, i was so pissed when i saw this change because i knew i couldn't pull it off since i had never traded directly on the crypto market before. As a result, I missed out on the practical contests for 2 whole seasons before i picked myself up to do the work! I went on a chatting spring and lengthy calls with @chiabertrand who helped me so much to understand how to go about setting up an account on a trading platform, and even giving me some tips on how to go about trading as a beginner. Below is a collage of some screenshots gotten from the chats i had with him.

The first tokens i traded were the Jasmy, BNB and DENT tokens. However, if you examine everything carefully, one can conclude that my first tokens to be traded were the Steem and Tron tokens, because i deposited those tokens from Steemit wallet into my Binance account, and traded them for some USDT whivmch i then used to perform my trades with other coins.

What pushed me to trading for the very first time was the contest that was introduce in the Steemit Crypto Academy which required live trading.

NB: Before all these, i had already been carrying out numerous demo trades for my past Crypto Assignments. However, i do not see this as true investments since so many characteristics evolve differently with risk taken.

I found myself starting with a trading capital of ~$20, and i saw myself somewhere around ~$31 in less than 48 hours.

Yes of course i have experience losses, i guess that's why i said my experience so far with crypto trading hasn't been too good nor too bad. I have won some and i have lost some, however i have been extremely cautious not to loss too much, thanks to the knowledge i gathered from the little time i studied on the Steemit Crypto Academy.
My losses got grossly severe when i foolishly dived into futures trading wherein i used leverage like i owned the business. Truth be told, i had little clue on the disadvantages of the use of leverage. I am glad i know better now.
I lost all my $31 assets due to the careless usage of leverage on futures trading, and i have learnt a big lesson ever since then.

Currently, i am holding Steem token, Tron token and USDT token.

• Steem Token:
  It is worth noting that i will always hold on to Steem tokens because it is my asset to financial freedom. I hold onto this token mainly on the steemit platform, in the form of Steem Power (SP) so as to contribute in adding value to the coin. It is always in my possession due to the weekly rewards i get from blogging on this prestigious platform, STEEMIT. Even though the crypto market is on a bearish run, i will always hold on to this token. In fact, this is the perfect time to use external capital to invest more into this token.

• Tron Token:
  Just like the Steem token, i'll hold on to the Tron token for a very long time because it has an already in-built reputation just like Bitcoin. The Tron coin is very popular and can confidently be held for a long period with some confidence. Added to all these, also receive this token weekly as it is added amongst my rewards on steemit.

• USDT Token:
  For this token, i hold onto it mainly when i am unsure of the stability of other coins. This token has proven to be quite stable as it reflects the value of the American Dollar in real time, no matter how the other tokens are doing in the trading market (be it bullish or bearish).

I believe in both, however the weighing scale would shift more on Holding because with holding, what is required of you is to exercise a lot of patience, no matter how the market is moving. Trading on the other hand is also good, but quite demanding because you have to execute a perfect strategy at numerous instances. As such, it is not the idle option for a newbie.
With Holding, you can easily self determine when to pullout, without too much pressure. You can work at your own pace and become very successful is only you can exercise the patience. I love to hold because it adds value to the token throughout the crypto market, and you never can tell when you may become a billionaire over the night. You just have to be smart and vigilant enough to keep tabs on the crypto market as their values fluctuate, but don't be moved, exercise patience.

My advice to all newbies investing in the crypto market is for them to;

• Not rush into the market no matter what.

• Take the required classes to help you come up with strategies.

• Learn how to apply trading tools, bot individually and collectively.

• Always apply a Take Profit (TP) and Stop Loss (SL), so as to bring your losses to a minimal.

• Do well to have a Risk Management Strategy, especially the TP/SP ratio. The TP margin should always be at least twice the SL margin.

• Never you open a trade with more 10% of your overall trading capital, no matter what.

• Schedule trading time and frequency per day, and follow them no matter how successful your day might seems to be going. This would help bring losses to a minimalm

• If possible, have a mentor to guide you and give answers to the questions that couldn't be understood.