Bitcoin Forum

Hi All,

Looking for some advice.

I consider myself to be an amateur in terms of investing, especially with Bitcoins.

Recently, I decided to jump on the bandwagon and purchase some Bitcoins, although, I believe that I was smart enough to wait until the peak collapsed so I could buy some Bitcoins for cheap and wait for the price to rise above what I paid for.

I bought 2.5 coins (not much, I know, but this is just a start for me) at $103 USD.

Was this foolish? Should I try to resell my coins and wait for them to lower a bit more? Or do you believe that they will rise once again?

I think I may have screwed myself a little...

Thanks

bump bump bump

Seems ok to me.  2.5 btc is worth $184 right now.

Right now - its not very good.

Sorry, I should've mentioned that the $103 was per Bitcoin, so in reality I paid $257.50 total.

Do you think I should try and resell them? Try and mitigate my losses for the time being and reattempt in a few days? Or should I just ride it out and see what I can make in the future?

Good investment...small but good to get the hang of things.

Thanks, glad you think it was good.

I am on the fence at the moment. I thought it was good as a start (my first ever investment tbh), but I think I may have jumped the gun a little and screwed myself.

Good investment, you did the right thing and waited for the bubble to pop before buying. Much much better than the people who bought at 200 or 250  :D

Now? Just hold.

Despite multiple DDoS attacks to the exchanges and following a major crash (THE major [1st ever] crash) - it's been remarkably stable past 1/2 day.

In the $70's @ BTC on most exchanges.

that's a good sign.
Personally, I'd keep a close eye on it and ride it out a bit longer, as exchanges harden their infrastructure and people are feverishly coming up with new creative ways to push BTC forward, following the crash (i.e. getting inventive with many people drafting P2P Exchange protocol https://github.com/p2p/bitcoin-exchange and actively SOLVING problems that caused the crash / ensuring the stability / viability of the currency)

Remember the 2011 bubble, it went from 32 to 2. If you bought at for example 15 after the bubble popped , and then you saw it drop at 2, what would have you done? Sell? Ha, from 2 it recovered and skyrocketed to over 250!

These days are the days where we can buy cheap bitcoins  :)

Come on, it all depends on you !

Lets look at the situation:

Bitcoin has crashed, quite hardly, markets are down, price is low.

There are dozens of different opinions on every corner, someone thinks the price will rise fast and high soon enough, others makes a prognosis of slow sliding down to one digits numbers, between these two "peak" opinions there are millions of different speculations on every cent probably.

Conclusion - no one knows what will happen for sure, no one really knows if all this crash was manipulated or started naturally.

So, I do recommend for you to think rationally. What those 2.5 btc means to you. Maybe you invested most of your capital, or maybe it's just a week earnings. Well you care about them, because you ask our opinion, so answer this question to your self. Do I need extra 150usd right now ?

Maybe you have to pay your rent, buy equipment or something, then sell them, if you don't need money right now, leave them or try to speculate,

If bitcoin hits 250/260 Id sell out in a second again

Thanks for the reply, I'm glad a 'high ranking' member of the forums saw this.

Do you personally believe that it will bounce back within a month or so?


Yes, I have been watching and waiting for a number of days now. I've added a widget onto my smartphone and have been checking constantly.

I was thinking of adding more money into my account and purchasing more if they drop lower, but I will have to wait until Monday as the site I use wont be able to process it until then! Grrrr!

lol, this is what is causing the panic.

Shit, I bought at 250, I better sell at 120 before they become worthless.

Then you get scared when it gets back to 200, so you buy again.

Then it drops to 80 so you sell once more.

Then it breaks 100, so you buy at 105.

Now it's 70, so you sell them again.

A fool and his money are soon parted.



ROFL, the 1st ever crash, major crash? You guys are funny. Looking at a two week period, I hardly call going from 85 to 70 a major crash. If you look at it on a per hour basis, yeah, going from 200 plus into the 100's sure is scary.

I think you've made a good investment and you were lucky enough to not bought @ 200's. Another wise decision would be to invest some mining hardwares and start mining it while you can. And always diversify your portfolio with alt.cryptocurrencies such as NMC or PPC maybe even some LTC. Here is my basket

BTC 60%
NMC 30%
PPC 8%
LTC 2%

Thinking to add some TRC %1, but not so sure.

Call me when we hit one digits, so i'll buy tons of bitcoin

In just a month? Dunno. But i believe that in some months it will bounce back and then it will rise to even higher prices.

Just look at fundamentals, there are tons of services and merchants who accept bitcoin. BitPay did over 2 millions $ of transactions in March. This is not speculation, this is real economy, people using bitcoin to buy things.

Bitcoin didn't die in 2011 after the bubble, why should it die today?  

Thanks for this reply, it really puts it into perspective.

Yes I believe that I may hold onto them for the time being, I did only invest part of one paycheck into these coins (although it was a large portion of the paycheck, but I can survive with what I have got).

I do care about them, but it's more because I don't want to totally screw up my first time investments. I want to try and make this work out for me to make it as profitable as possible.

I believe I will be in for the long term, it will be interesting to see what the future holds!


Agreed


This is what I am trying to avoid, I don't want to fall over myself making irrational decisions with my investments.

In your position, would you have bought BTC for that price? Or would you have potentially waited longer before buying?

I am also beginning to invest into LTC, I was going to focus more on LTC than anything and use that as an extreme long term investment plan.

I was also looking at TRC, but I need to learn more about all the other Alt Currencies before I do anything.


You're right, I don't think it will die in the long term, I think it may slow down to a crawl, then slowly pick up once people start thinking about it again.

Any time you "jump on a bandwagon" when investing, you're probably not being wise. One doesn't make money by "jumping on a bandwagon". You do it by predicting what the next big thing is and buying it before the masses discover it. Witness how many people were still buying houses in 2005-2006, and then lost their shirts when the housing market crashed. Look at how as the Dow hit record highs recently, ordinary investors have been pouring money into mutual funds. Guess who is going to lose the most when the stock market next corrects?

So yes, it was probably foolish to jump in during a phase of rapid price appreciation (you want to buy when the price of something goes down, not when it goes up), but it's also totally understandable. Bitcoin is exciting.

If I were you, I'd just hold onto them now.

What is your investment strategy? If you don't have one, get out.

If you're long on bitcoin because you believe in it and want to have it be worth a lot down the road, invest in it regularly. In highs, and lows, do it on a regular basis.

If you feel you paid too much at $100, buy some now that it is $67, the same 2.5 you did at $100. Your new rate per BTC is now in the 80's. Sounds better than $100.

But don't listen to me, I'm not a day trader.

You'll only get opinions from other people that do not necessarily know more than you.

I would not sell at this time. I believe that they will rise once again, though it could take a while, because the btc did not really crash in my opinion.

I never bought any btc, to answer your question.

I agree, I believe I jumped at the opportunity because I do view them as exciting, it's a (relatively) new digital currency! The way of the future y'know?

Thank you for the advice, I will use this knowledge to better my investments in the future.

Also, welcome to the Forums! I see that post was your first :)

From what I am aware of, I don't have an investment strategy, how would I go about developing one? What kind of mindset do I require? Would you have any helpful advice for me?

This purchase was my first ever investment. I suspect I will start off very shakey but will adapt with time.

I would hold too.  I think $260 was overvalued for now, but I don't think it will be in the future. Things can only get better. As observed, all this news is bringing interest to Bitcoin, shaking of the image it got when SilkRoad first came around. The further we are away from association with silkroad, the more legitimate vendors take Bitcoin, the more Bitcoins are required, the less they're produced the more they go up in value/

Personally, I'm going for the long game, not selling any coins any time soon, just slowly buying.

As someone pointed out, a year or 2 ago, a bubble burst at $32 and the mainstream media exclaimed it was the end of Bitcoin. Earlier this week, we got nearly 10 times that peak. It's crashed, and once again, the media is exclaiming the end for Bitcoin.

Within the next 10, maybe even 5 years, I wouldn't be surprised to see Bitcoin go over $500 (I also wouldn't be surprised to see it superseded though.)

Do you know anything more about bitcoin than it sounds like a good investment? You already said you have no investment strategy. Go dump your coins, cash out and forget about bitcoin for a few years.

I think the long game may be best. Just wait for the time to strike on the market so to speak.


You don't think that I should just wait and watch now?

Also, I understand the basic fundamentals behind Bitcoins, although I am able to learn more by studying them.

Just as an aside, do you have an investment strategy? Would you be kind enough to share your knowledge with me?

Good purchase but remember bitcoins are not meant to be an investment, you need to use it as currency.

Yes, I've seen other people mention that on this forum. I will watch the market for the time being and I may end up spending them on something worthwhile instead.

Thanks for the input my friend :)

If you bought as an investment, then think long term. plan on holding them a year or 2 or 10. then you can ignore these little burps in the price. Or, you can take advantage of these drops to increase your holdings. one caveat though, never speculate with more money than you can afford to lose.

Thank you for the advice.

Yes, that was the first part of wisdom I managed to soak up. I've gotta watch over my funds so that I don't drop more than I can afford into BTC.

I think my plan will be to slowly buy up over the course of years and then just bide my time.

This is good advice. The key with investing is to #1 get in early (and we still are...)

#2... you want to buy all the way down

#3... consider selling on the way up.

Most people do it the other way around and buy high and sell low.

+1

Yes, I don't understand the mentality of wanting to buy high and sell low. I did not realise that losing money was the overall goal!

When you say buy all the way down, do you mean if I start to see a dip, I should buy slowly but continuously until it starts to climb again, then begin selling?

I think the ultimate thing to remember is Bitcoin is unpredictable.

You can predict some things almost (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=171423.0) but there are so many variables involved determining the price of Bitcoin.

Here's a few things which I suspect influence the price of Bitcoin in different amounts:
 - media coverage
 - gox lag
 - service hacks
 - silkroad success
 - mining botnets
 - electricity prices
 - laws of all different jurisdictions
 - world financial crisis
 - individual countries financial crisis
 - the day of the week (e.g. there tends to be a dip just before the weekend)
 - alt currencies
 - forks in the chain
 - client updates
 - miner hardware progression (e.g. ASICs)
 and many many more.

What's more, they all interact, counteract, synergize and generally effect each other in even more unpredictable ways. I used to try do day trading, and even built a small day trade bot as a chrome extension for Britcoin when that was still around, but it's stressful and risky, hence me going for the long game now.

The right strategy though is what's right for you. Everyone lives in different countries, uses different exchanges, has different wages, is awake at different times, has different grasps of number and tolerates different levels of stress & risk.

You seem keen though - ride it out and stick with it. Learn about Bitcoin and it's community and why/how it works, that way even if you lose all your money, you'll still gain some truly amazing, fascinating and inspiring knowledge.

Yes, it is extremely unpredictable. Because of that fact, it is simply amazing.

Thanks for this summary of different factors, I will need to find a way of briefly observing each one over periods of time to try and perceive the future market.

Yes, even at the end of the day, if I lost everything I will come away with the experience, that is something I will never lose.

important lesson don't jump on the bandwagon

Congratulations, looser  ;D

P.S. By the way, what did you buy those coins for? Did you need to pay for something, or did you wish to help some other guy to pay for his porsche?

"An idiot is someone that doesn't know something you only just learnt "

What price did you buy your Bitcoins at? Given you only joined the forum a month or so ago, I'm guessing $30 - $50? Chump.

wow - you guys are raging hard-ons.

You wouldn't like the bitcointalk forum when it is angry.

Heh, I've noticed a trend on this site.  People falling over themselves to proclaim the smart trades they made (speculating).  I hear very little from people about the losses (realized or unrealized) they have sustained.  I'm guessing that a lot of people have taken a bath .. and must either take their losses and move on .. or sit on bitcoins that lost 2/3 of their value over the course of a few days.

I've lost zero, I've gained zero. The sidelines is a comfortable place to be at the moment, though I wish I'd been in a year ago.

Yes, Sir. 1 btc at $35, and another one at $47. And it is not for playing these bs games on exchanges, but because I am really interested in this technology, and wish it to advance.

can someone help me download cgminer? the site is down atm.. help plz!

Don't touch the coins for fifteen years and you will be very happy with your investment.

Crashes are just a new chance for new people to jump on.

Use bitminter.com easyest pool/minier there is. ;D

They would be if the exchanges were faster at processing deposits. And let's be honest, who wants to store funds in an exchange after what's been happening. I feel like i've already missed the rebound due to slow exchanges

Overall, I've made more bad moves than I have good, but have been fortunate at the moment to come out on top. But anyone that has coins acquired more than 5 months ago would have to have seriously dropped the ball at some point to not be better off at the moment.....

think of it as a long-term investment.
you did not screw yourself for sure.

Sounds good to me. Don't obsess over how much you would get this hour or the next if you sold or bought your coins. Look at what is, not what would have or should have been.
You've got your 2.5 coins. Great.

How about make a plan? when price hits X, I'll sell Y coins. When price drops to P, I'll by Q coins, assuming fundamentals still seem good to me.

If I need cash urgently, I'll sell coins no matter what. I won't waste time calculating how much I would have gotten had I sold them yesterday instead. I didn't, so it's pointless.

How about using bitcoins instead of just investing? Would that work for me? Do I have a need for fast, cheap international payments and transfers? Can I offer work/expertise/products for bitcoins?

Etc.

In a few years it's more than ok.  ;D

If you believe in Bitcoin, just hold what you already have, and buy more when you can.

Today it is at 112

You bought at 103? Congratulation, you are making profit  :D

 :o

No, he is not making a profit. Only if he sells coins at that price, he will be making a USD profit.

Excellent distinction. This must be understood by all BTC other alt.cryptocurrency lovers.