Tips For Crypto Newcomers

This is in no way to be considered financial investment advice. This is just a list of mistakes ,lessons , and helpful information that I have put together for cryptocurrency rookies to consider before and while investing. I myself have only been investing in cryptocurrencies for just over six months. I have definitely made money in that time. I have definitely lost just as much if not more and made many strategic errors along the way that are just part of the game. Anyone new crypto investing will make some mistakes, I am writing from my experience , and my experience alone, to help anyone minimize those mistakes. Please do not take this as gospel , These are just my own opinions.

   Before actually buying any digital tokens you will need a wallet. Cryptocurrency and wallet technology is advancing everyday. it will be in your best interest to research the types of wallets and what they have to offer. make your selection according to what is most important to you. There are multiple websites that compare and explain wallets. Wallets alone could fill pages of articles so I will be brief. I use multiple wallets. Most wallets hold bitcoin but when you start getting into altcoins (any digital token other than bitcoin) a lot of them still need their own wallet. Their are hard wallets that are offline encrypted storage devices that hold multiple tokens. Desktop wallets. Paper wallets. Online wallets and mobile app wallets. The exchanges where crypto is traded have wallets to  do not use these for long term token storage, they are some of the most vulnerable to hacking. Some wallets are a lot easier to use than others, some have more useful features. It really all depends on what you want. You will need a wallet to transfer crypto into when you purchase it. 

Your first purchase. The exchange of fiat currency to cryptocurrency is to me the most frustrating part of the whole process. This in my opinion is one of the drawbacks keeping crypto from mass adoption. There are multiple ways to accomplish this though. ill run through them quick. There are websites like Coinbase and Coinmama where you can purchase Bitcoin Litecoin and Etherium instantly with a debit/credit card or bank transfer. There is a somewhat cumbersome verification process in order to use cards, you will find this on pretty much all sites. the process will vary slightly from sight to sight but entails inputting your info and a picture of your ID or passport and sometimes a "selfie" with your ID and bank card or something like that. This is all pretty much to comply with U.S. SEC know your customer (KYC) and anti money laundering(AML) codes. I myself use coinbase then transfer to the wallet or exchange I want. This is where you lose a percentage of your money for the service and for sending it over the network. the less you move your tokens/coins the more you keep. There are wallets like mycelium that use a third party called simplex to offer the service. I am personally not a fan of simplex and had a bad experience with them. The other possible options are a bitcoin ATM, where you put in your cash or card, purchase what you want and send it directly to your wallet. There is also a nominal fee for this option. There is also a website that contains verified people that will met you in person and take cash for bitcoin or whatever coin they have to offer. I have not used a service like this so can not recommend it. I do not recommend purchasing cryptocurrency from Ebay simply because the sources are not verified and charge over twice the going rate sometimes. Whatever you choose to do, At this point in time the only coins you can buy with cash/card/bank account are Bitcoin Litecoin or Etherium. If you want any other altcoin, you must buy one of the three just mention and then transfer them to whichever exchange supports the tokes you want and then exchange them. That's just the way it is right now.

OK, all the boring stuff out of the way and its investment time. I got in to crypto for the long term investments. Blockchain technology and cryptocurrency is in its infancy still. It is said that there is less than one percent of the population invested at this time and the market cap has hit 200 billion. If three percent invests then theoretically goes up to 600 billion. The room for growth is beyond enormous. Imagine buying stocks in the first years of the stock market but the growth of those stocks are sped up times ten, or more. That is where I see the crypto market now. There are a few different types of cryptocurrencies. Ill try to remember them all. there is actual currency coins like Bitcoin ,Litecoin and Vertcoin . There are privacy coins with priority on anonymity like Dash, Monero and Zcash. Then there are building coins like Etherium and Neo that support other blockchains being built off of them, coins built on the Etherium blockchain are reffered to as ERC20 tokens like Omise Go. Which brings us to the next type, Platform tokens. These are used as rewards or payments for services of certain platforms, coins like this are Tenx paytokens , Binance , or Pivx . Then there are lending tokens like Salt and Bitconnect. For my long term investments I researched coins and tokens that I think the public has a need for and I believe in what they are doing. I always read a tokens white paper which can be found on their website. It is basically a layout of what the company wants to accomplish and how they plan on doing it, the white paper usually says who is involved in the project either as employees or advisors. don't be afraid to google CEOs and lead developers to see what people say about them. I never want to overpay for something but I am less concerned about price when buying for long term investments. I will always try to buy on a downslope but for something I plan on holding for years and making exponential gains, ill just buy.

One very big mistake that I made was thinking I could day trade before I was ready. I really cant stress this enough. If I could start over, which I kind of did, I would focus on amassing an amount of coins for long term investment and diversify. I hold Bitcoin, Neo, Lisk, Salt, Litecoin, Vertcoin, Tenx  OmiseGo and Bankera for long term. I purchased an amount of each that I am satisfied with (for now ) and moved them to the proper hard wallet or wherever so I wont be tempted to trade them at any point. When I first started I was told to not pay attention to the daily prices of my long term investments , it will drive me crazy. It did. Which carries me over to my next point.

 Don't fall for F.U.D. Fear uncertainty and doubt. If the coins chosen for long term investment have been around and  are pretty well established, they aren't gonna flatline in a day. I guess anything is possible but. not likely. Bitcoin regularly drops $500 in a day just to gain $700 the next. When I had my coins on the exchange and kept looking at them thinking "should I sell now" it was bound to happen sooner or later. Now I forget I even have them and just keep buying more at good times. 

 I would not swing trade either. Not with my long terms anyway. Swing trading is buying a coin low, selling it high to buy the same coin when it goes back down again. What I learned is that you may not always be able to get back in at a lower price than you sold it for. Day trading and swing trading look very easy. Day trading may seem like a fast way to make a lot of money, and it can be, it is also a quick way to lose a lot of money. I did eventually start day trading again after I lost a bunch of money, it wasn't until I got a fundamental understanding of reading charts and market trends. The 

people that make a lot of money day trading have been doing it for a long time and have massive amounts of capitol invested in order to make that money. I would suggest that when you think you are ready to day trade, start with a small amount and see where you are at after a few weeks. Patience and timing are key. I find that when I am day trading I need to watch the markets all day long . If you decide to try the day trading route, I strongly urge you to learn how to use the conditional buy/sell options. These tools let you set a price and quantity to either buy or sell a token at automatically so you don't have to watch it incessantly. There are a lot of other things that these tools allow you to do but that is a little more advanced.