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I can thank Steemit for, yet one more thing...my newest addiction. Writing and earning here on this platform provided me with an introduction to the world of cryptocurrency. Steem was my gateway coin. In the past few months I’ve been devouring any book or article I can get my hands on about blockchain and cryptocurrency. I’ve also begun to wade into the infinite pool of trading cryptocurrency.

Very early on I realized the world of crypto is like a rabbit hole that truly has no end. I also instantly identified with the fact that I really enjoy it. There’s so much to learn and so many opportunities that the hours just seem to vaporize in the blink of an eye. I also became somewhat of an evangelist. I wanted to tell the world how lucrative this can be but a majority of people give me only a bewildered look, like I’m suddenly speaking Swahili, when I try to explain. So I just continue to learn, and trade, and then I learn some more. Maybe I just don’t know enough yet to effectively explain.

As I was beginning to understand the elementary basics of trading I decided to try quick flips. For those who don’t know, the idea with a flip is to spot trends in a coin. You must buy when a coin is low and sell as the value of that coin rises. The time span for a flip is often days or even just a few hours after you first purchased the coin on an exchange. If the flip is successful, you walk away with a nice, quick profit. If the flip it doesn’t work you sell and cut your losses or decide to hold onto the coin and wait for the best. Either way, you end up with a wicked amount of adrenaline and/or anger and regret coursing through your veins.

The key to trading success is emotional discipline. If intelligence were the key, there would be a lot more people making money trading… I know this will sound like a cliché, but the single most important reason that people lose money in the financial markets is that they don’t cut their losses short.” – Victor Sperandeo

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I’ve surmised that quick flips aren’t for me...at least not yet.

An easy way to lose money very quickly is to trade based on your emotions. Acronyms abound about irrational emotion-based decisions in trading. Two of these acronyms are FOMO (fear of missing out - which usually means buying too high, selling too low, or not cutting losses early enough) and FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt.) Believe me, I FOMO’d and suffered from FUD more times than I could count my first few weeks. At first I was constantly on edge, I was the FUD king, you could've called me Elmer.

What’s the best antidote to FOMO and FUD? Immediately after knowledge, the most valuable attributes you can have to become a successful trader are calm and patience. Knowledge has to be acquired through hard work and education but the most effective way I’ve learned to acquire calm and patience is through meditation.

As many of you might remember, meditation has enhanced my life in many ways. I can, in no way, claim to be an authority on cryptocurrency but meditation is one thing I know something about.

Over the past twenty three years of practice, meditation has improved my general health, helped me to overcoming anxiety, increased confidence, enhanced communication skills) but I never imagined meditation would make me a better trader...but it has.

I’ll end this post with a very basic meditation exercise to try before you sit down to begin trading sessions (or do anything that requires calm and patience.) Over the course of the next few weeks I’ll being posting more.

Basic Meditation Exercise to Increase Calmness

Find a comfortable seated position and make sure your posture is straight. Close your eyes and:

• INHALE for a count of 5
• HOLD the breath for a count of 5
• EXHALE for a count of 5

During the inhalation, make sure you're taking deep enough breaths that your belly expands. The rising and falling of your belly as you breathe indicates the lower lobes of your lungs are filling with oxygen. Most of us breath so shallowly that we typically only engage our lung's uppermost chambers.

Repeat this cycle of inhalation, holding, and exhalation 2-to-3 times. Being in a relaxed and comfortable state when making important decisions really helps you to step outside of the vortex of your emotions and think more logically.

If you try this I would be thrilled to learn about your results!

(Gifs sourced from Giphy.com)

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*I am an American novelist, poet, traveler, and crypto-enthusiast. If you’ve enjoyed my work please sign up for my author newsletter at my website. Newsletter subscribers will receive exclusive updates and special offers and your information will never be sold or shared.

Eric Vance Walton - Media

www.ericvancewalton.net