Small Stellar (XLM) Investment Grows from $144.00 to $2,280.00 in less than 7 months.

XLM #Stellar #Lumens is definitely one of my favourite coins, and here's why ..... it's made me money!

One of my very first #altcoin purchases was back in June 2017 when I very nervously bid on 3,619 Stellar Lumens #XLM coin at the then terrifying price of $0.038c USD each.

I paid a total of $144.00 USD for them (including exchange fees). Not a lot of money I agree, but I have kids in University and I'm a sole breadwinner so the $144.00 was at the cost of something else - a new washing machine I recall. I remember one of my sons saying it was a waste of good money that would be better spent on groceries. He doesn't think that anymore.

I'd read about the Stellar project and that it was a NFP. That caught my eye and on the day I jumped in it was trading at around 0.00001521 BTC. I registered an account on https://poloniex.com/exchange#usdt_btc and fumbled my way through the process of purchasing $144.00 USD worth of their coin #XLM. It was fairly easy because Poloniex is quite well suited for newbies and I'd had previous experience trading stocks and currencies online prior to the GFC.

That small purchase is now worth $2,280.00 USD. A massive 1,483% increase on my original $144.00 USD stake. Or to put it another way, the money has increased 14 times. Not bad for a beginner and well worth the jump. Check out the prices we were paying for cryptos back in June 2017 here >>> https://coinmarketcap.com/historical/20170604/

Since then I've managed to #daytrade up to having 20K XLM coin in my portfolio. Most I #HODL in an offline wallet, and some I keep on Bittrex for day trading. My main strategy is #BuyRedSellGreen, to quote Vincent Briatore https://steemit.com/@vincentbriatore . (#HODL is Crypto speak for Hold - as in Hold On for Dear Life)

This positive newbie experience, no doubt, contributed to my firm belief there's a very bright future for blockchain technologies, many cryptocurrencies, and many investors who stick with them. So much so that now I'm full-time investigating new cryptocurrencies to unearth those which appear to have the capacity to disrupt large corporate monopolies and strangleholds, and that have obvious utility, can show a clear purposeful mission, and are backed by an experienced and dedicated team with the necessary capabilities to bring the project to fruition. And it's an incredibly interesting journey.

If you're wondering how safe it is to invest in cryptocurrency, it's not. You're on your own. You only take big risks for big rewards. That also means you have to endure all your losses on your own. No-one can guarantee you a smooth ride because it's a veritable minefield out there with so many things that can go wrong. And they do.

For me though, more often my ignorance caused my losses - not the market, not the exchanges or wallets, and not the articles I read. Fortunately I'm a quick learner who learned from the pain, and I'm up! Way up! And that's despite me losing coin, sending coin to wrong addresses by inserting taglines in address lines, paying too much for BTC, selling early, buying late, buying into dud ICO's, and losing whole wallets in my desktop! Still ... I'm up and way ahead!

Even so, I still get scared whenever I do a coin transfer. Everyone in my house jumps out windows when they get wind I'm about to transfer coin because they know what's involved - reading and rereading addresses backwards, forwards, sideways and upside down. Why? Because if you send your coin to a wrong address it is bye-bye birdie. There's no way to retrieve them.

For those keen to give it a go, I suggest just start with a small amount because that's what I did, and I can only speak from my own experience. But even before that, take your time and do some serious research, reading, and reviewing. And don't believe the first, second or third thing you read or hear. Check it out for yourself, read the white papers, check out the development team, check out their social media followers and how often they communicate updates. And search out that coin's naysayers. Check out Reddit and Steemit and find out what the general attitude of the invested is. Look for the pros and cons first, and not last - after you've invested.

And finally, be open to hearing things that don't align with your desires, high hopes, dreams and perhaps even wishful thinking for a particular coin. Knowing when to fall out of love with a coin is an important skill to master in this unregulated and decentralized world of cryptocurrency where, almost daily, masterfully contrived siren songs can lead even the most skilled investors to the slaughter - in their droves.

In short - if a wide range of diverse people begin chanting 'sell sell sell' because they believe a coin has a particular problem, you owe it to yourself to give them a fair hearing before you decide to ignore them. It costs nothing to listen.

And on that positive note! I bid you cheers until my next post >>>> "How I Lost 350,000 DOGE Coin In My Computer - And What Happened When I Found Them Again!"

Gayer de Beauvoir

PS:
Below I have included the actual details lifted from my Trading Exchange, a record of my first XLM transaction
2017-06-03 11:00:30
Buy Price 0.00001521
QTY 3619.93957704
Paid 0.05505928
Date Time 2017-06-03 11:00:30