The game has always been on, whether the market is bearish or bullish, or whether the people are buying or selling, or whether they remain steadfast or in panic. At the end of the day, while there are weak hands selling, there are also strong hands buying. While there are dumping, there are also people who are buying and making their portfolios fat.

There are so many cheap cryptocurrencies that are worth investing. XEM is cheap, so is ADA, SC, BAT, and so many others. However, I think you don't have to focus on the price. At the end of the day, it is not the price that matters. I would rather consider whether the coin is solid or not. I would even go for the expensive yet promising coins such as ETH or Monero.

Before, one of the things that come to mind when we talk of cryptocurrency is transparency. Nobody can hide something from blockchain. Everything is made public. Everyone has access to it. They are always promoting transparency.

You are correct. Earlier, projects offering ICOs are posting their ICO address for investors and those who have the interest to easily check how much is raised. Everything is transparent.  Right now, projects are claiming to have raised millions in USD and yet they cannot even be transparent to show the proof. And after the ICO is done, there is no single product develoment that follows. The amount raised which is posted in their website and social media accounts is fake, shown only to boost their ICO, to make a hollow hype. At the end of the day, there was very little raised, if at all. And the project dies in a short while. And then the greedy developers will once again create a new scam project. These kinds of people should be held fully accountable.

That is correct, everything that is happening right now and those that have yet to happen are already explained by history. There is already enough information as to what is happening to Bitcoin and crypto right now. Bitcoin has been in service for 10 long years. There were countless of strong resistance coming from the traditional people, FUDs, bad news, dumps, and other negative events. And yet, Bitcoin is still here alive and well. Just believe.

It works this way. Everytime you do transactions you are actually paying taxes. When you eat at restaurants, you are not only paying for your meal alone. You are also paying for its tax. When you buy groceries, you are not only paying for the goods, you are also paying taxes. Even when you make withdrawals, you are also paying tax. 

When Bitcoin becomes the main currency for sure there will also be corresponding steps that the tax agencies of your government will take, that would perfectly fit with the nature of the crypto system.

The governments are tax experts. That's where they are good at.

I don't know if I agree or not. Central banks are the agencies assigned in manufacturing money. Of course it is based on existing monetary laws and other policies. As regards fiat system, it is necessary. Whether we need the fiat system or not is a different issue.

If we compare that to cryptocurrencies, the developers and the team are like the central banks insofar as the creation of coins, the economy behind it, the distribution, the products, the partnerships entered into, and so on are concerned. They are the ones who are assigned in designing the overall system and direction of the coin. 

That is sad to hear. You should not have invested all your money into Bitcoin. I have invested a relatively huge amount but I made it sure that I am not going to get drained in case the bull run will arrive rather late. I don't have much either during this Christmas season. That's definitely partly due to the fact that the entire 2018 is a bearish year.

Anyway, we just have to hold on. The next Christmas season will definitely be much more abundant.

How many years or months have you been in crypto? It seems to me you are too worried about the prices not getting back to their all time highs. Just relax. Keep calm and continue to support crypto. Promote it to the people around you. Use it where you can. It cannot be winter forever. Just like the four seasons every year, there will always summer. And most of all, look at the historical data. We are rising overall.

There are so many factors that could affect the price of a certain token. But the foremost factors are its product development, its usability, the economy behind the token, and so on. The demand of the token will be pushed much higher if its usability is solid and clear. Huge investors, institutional investors, would always look at the project more than the token. They do not just buy the token for the sake of investing in it. They buy the token because they see how promising the project or their product is, and they want to be a part of their success.

Selling prices are basically set by the traders themselves who made the sell order.

Yeah, the OP sounds too optimistic. Well, with your response, you are quite the opposite. You sound too pessimistic. If you consider a pump reaching lesser than $8,000 as a bull trap, I don't agree. May I remind you that we are coming from a little more than $3,000, not $5,000 or $6,000. With Bitcoin reaching $4,000-$5,000, even if slow yet consistent, that is enough sign for me that we are already starting to recover. That will take time of course. There is so much to recover.

The next big rally will happen in less than a year definitely.

And mommy already forgets her shopping talent! That 11-month hiatus was very long it killed women's shopping instincts! 

Kidding aside, this might really be the start of the stronger bull run in the next day or two. I noticed that there is a rather steady growth albeit in short steps. We do not want giant leaps for now, it might cause people to believe that it is a manipulated pump. It is much better this way. First we surpassed $3,500 and then breaking $3,800 and finally $4,000. I hope we will be consistent this way for several weeks until January of 2019! 

As for me, I would suggest that you focus on the existing solid coins. Avoid ICOs for now, especially because you are a beginner. You might find it really hard to pick the best choices. That spells a much bigger risk for you. And also because, as you may have already noticed, the market is not good for such investment. You are lucky that the top coins are offered in a much cheaper prices. You may divide your investment into 4 or 5. From your list, I recommend BTC, ETH, XMR, and XRP. But if you want to make it 5, go for Waves! That is as good as the higher ranked altcoins.

We are more than halfway through the month of December. This must be a beginning already. Although this is not yet the bull run that we are excited to happen, this is a good sigh of relief. We cannot claim of a bull run until and unless Bitcoin shows a solid and consistent growth. I can still see some short red lines in between greens. But at least, we are already showing good signs of positive movements.

Another link. Zzzzz! Could you please summarize it or take the gist and post it here the next time around?

There are so many reasons why cryptocurrencies are going down. You cannot simply consider only one or two or even three factors that caused all these massive dumps. There were so many reasons along the way. Let me mention some factors:

1. A strong correction after the All Time High days in late 2017 until early 2018
2. Cryptos are said to be overbought
3. FUDs
4. Strict crypto regulations or even restrictions in several countries
5. Massive dumps by huge investors and failed institutions such as Mt. Gox
6. Suspensions of ETF
7. Weak hands carried away by the initial strong dip
8. Bankruptcy of huge miners
9. BCH hard fork
10. and so many other factors...

I appreciate and even admire risk-takers. The majority, if not all, of the most successful people around the world are risk-takers. But then I would never agree if people would risk to the extent that even their families' lives are put at stake. I would not even risk all of my savings for a single investment. I am always in favor of risking only what I can afford to lose. You cannot afford to lose your family or your entire savings, can you? The future of crypto is of course very bright, but we cannot claim a hundred percent certainty. However bright it may be, there is still a huge amount of risks involved.

This is not yet the recovery that everyone is waiting and praying for although I strongly believe that this is already the beginning. This year will end with a bang. That is for sure. But we should be careful in expecting too much pump. We should take note that there is too much to recover in a couple of weeks or before this year would finally close. It suffices to see a couple digit growth every once in a while. That would not be enough to even get near their all time high prices but at least it is going in that direction.

Right now, it is still considered a season for buying. There's more green to follow in the next days and weeks.

By average, it is possible. Possible but very hard to achieve. But then do not think that you can make profit every single day. Even if you have the strongest signals, you cannot be certain that you cannot experience loss every now and then. Perhaps even the expert traders who have the highest level of charting skills experience loss and failure. Expect that the crypto market is generally unpredictable. It is simply beyond patterns and lines and candles. Its price could go triple in a day just as it could dive 50% less in an hour.

Bitcoin has always been very surprising. It has always moved in surprising ways. Just when there is a strong pump and people are starting to feel FOMO, it goes into a strong correction and then more dumps follow. But then when the market starts to go really down and a lot of people are beginning to dump ouf of fear, it begins to release long green candles. That's just how it is with Bitcoin. You are always in for a wild ride.

I agree. In a world where the power truly resides in the governments, regulation is the best deal there is. At the end of the day, there has to be a way to make sure that freedom is used along the lines of what is good and right. Bitcoin boasts of freedom. But then it cannot be used totally free that even the hackers, frauds, launderers, terrorists, and other crooks could get away from the law. There has to be some form of regulation.

The convenience that is brought by Bitcoin and cryptocurrency in general is extremely amazing. The smooth and hassle-free transactions which crypto can give is beyond what our current fiat currency is capable of. Aside from that, Bitcoin is beyond the strict regulations of every individual country in terms of where and when to use the government-owned fiat currency. Bitcoin is borderless. In terms of fee, Bitcoin is much cheaper than fiat. Try using Paypal and you will see.