I've learned to do this too.  I also try swing shorts when a significant ATH is reached that I missed on the way up.  I try not to make a habit of over trading tho because the more you play in the casino the more you end up giving to the house.  But I try a few that I've followed for a while. 

I've accepted that I'm not the type of no-fear person to become a good trader but a few calculated risks with reasonable position size mgmt has been going ok.

The problem I have is that I don't really know what to do with my original mistakes.  The bags I hold of ATH buys that in hindsight I feel like they will never revisit those prices again, but I also don't want to sell at a loss anymore.  So I'm sitting on things I don't know what to do with- For example Filecoin - FIL.  I think it's a great project but not at $150 a coin or whatever I paid at the time. Even at $50 it's overvalued IMO.  So here it's finding some support at $20 area but what am I to do? Wait a few years and maybe I'll recoup half my losses? Or am I missing opportunity elsewhere by keeping my capital tied up in a coin that I simply overpaid for and should cut my losses and put that capital somewhere else that can grow?

That's the big problem I keep running into.  Can't decide if HODL is the right move or cutting losses and reinvesting elsewhere. This is a source of regret for me.  But I guess I need to just pick a decision and stick to it so I can be free to move on.

Hey thanks. I definitely don't wish my experience on others but it's good to know my story isn't that uncommon. And you're right of course, that there's no point in mulling over past mistakes- I should learn from it, and move forward like you said.

What I've found interesting is the effect that one's social media habits has on the whole thing.  Such that, before I even knew what crypto or BTC was, my main forums happened to be Twitter and Reddit for whatever I happened to be into following at the time. So naturally when I discovered BTC I went there as opposed to here or discord let's say.  And holy cow, in hindsight I really wish Twitter, or rather crypto Twitter (CT), wasn't the place I landed!

Its so utterly toxic IMO regardless of which part you end up on. I've been on both- the shill, influencer, scammy rug ppl I unfortunately followed at first all the way to the highly curated "alpha feed" which I spend months creating.  

Sure, it sounded smart to follow the top top traders, VCs, OGs, maxis and the gigabrained, but I kinda forgot the whole fact that it's all about money, flex, cred, public shaming and psyops. I'm a pretty genuine person I think and enjoy helping others and learning myself (more of a reddit vibe in the right subs) so I got eaten alive on CT.  It's like oh no, you mustn't ask the crypto rich any questions that challenge their precious words or aren't boot licking simps.  It's brutal.  

Yeah I have a bit of a chip I guess about it cuz I found myself buying into it and treating these egomaniacs like they were all knowing and like killing every trade and getting in early on all the best projects (or pump n dumps really) and I just chased that shit endlessly for too long.  
So much smug condescending stuff going on there.  Brought out the worst in me and I'll admit, my greed, gluttony, envy, wrath.. Ha, all the top notch sins.  I was trying to get a leg up and become a trader, a tech-ist, a multi maxi, an investor, an insider, a economics professor, a monetary history buff... You get the idea.  Trying to be everything at once except being myself and trusting my own ideas.

My point here is that just from browsing on here for a few days it seems like a much more diverse community.  All kinds of threads from the most basic noob questions (which I always find useful) to advanced topics to ppl just sharing stuff, sort of like I'm trying to do now.  It's so much healthier than trying to zing someone or getting psyoped in 240 characters on CT.
I wish I had started here and not there.

Lastly, the craziest thing about my whole journey has been that when I look back over each move I made in detail for almost 2 years, the ones that were the most sound and reasonable and dare I say "winners" were the ones that I came up with on my own, without influence, following a somewhat logical thesis and whatever my gut told me on top.  Unfortunately, I second guessed all of them because of what others said esp on CT, but really just my own lack of confidence in my ideas at the time.

All the high conviction moves I made weren't my ideas and I was just chasing or FOMO or trying to run with the cool kids (yeah I'm old and a dork sorry). The assets I sold were out of fear and FUD and no one was hyping LUNA or AVAX at $1. So I went w narratives that I really didn't know anything about.  Not trying to say I was a genius at ally I def was not. But an independent, original organic idea always seemed to be better than the toxic nature of CT and following what others were doing that I knew nothing about..

Anyway, I've said a mouthful again.  Can't help it, it's cathartic to get this shit out. Esp publicly cuz it helps to keep myself accountable and take responsibility for my mistakes and hopefully learn something going forward.   Like a cleanse - trying to start fresh I guess.
Thx for the feedback.
Cheers

Hello. This is my first post on the bitcointalk forum but I'm not especially new to crypto. Just never created an account here for some reason. Maybe because of my story below.

The short version: Yes, I regret not selling some at ATHs because instead I was buying them!  Im a pretty solid crypto trainwreck. Lol. Hopefully I'll be able to let go of the regrets one day.

Long version:

I didn't read all the pages of replies but in the few pages I did, it seems like I may be one of the few who does feel a lot of regret.

I jumped into the altcoin market about 1 year ago. (8 months before that I was Bitcoin only. No altcoins).  I didn't do proper study beforehand and was swept up in the euphoria of the bull market. I also had made good unrealized gains in BTC up until then before the crash, but selling some for profits was never a thought in my mind since I was taught to just HODL.

As stupid and crazy as it sounds, I started buying all the altcoins I thought had good ideas and teams and lots of potential. I was blinded by "Up Only" and didn't realize I was buying the top of most of these coins. To name a few DOT FIL ETH ADA AVAX BNB MATIC LTC.  I didn't really know how to read charts, what cycles were, and how supply and demand affected price. Nor did I even know the impact whales could have on the market. I came from a traditional retail stock market casual investing background. I was not really even aware of how much BTC and crypto could go up/down in a day! I think the great BTC up trend from May 2020 to Dec 2020 made me think that huge crashes of BTC were a thing of the past, and the MCap was too big for it to go down so hard like in 2018.  I know, dumb. But the BTC I bought in May 2020 just kept going up so I thought I was in the golden age or something.  Who knows.

Anyway, I really screwed myself because by the time I was out of money I set aside to invest, and bought all the projects I liked, the market collapsed very soon after in May 2021. I was devastated and shocked.  Totally got me by surprise.  I couldn't believe how fast and far down the prices went!

Even worse, I was "married" to my coins and thought if I just waited long enough, the prices would touch ATHs again and then make new ATH where I could escape with some profits.

I'm sure you all know how that went!  I held as long as I could (not very long) but I entered max pain (for me) and couldn't hold any longer watching my money melt away. So I started to sell at loss. Trust me, I knew the concept of buy lo sell hi but I was just very fearful that everything was going to zero. The FUD got me.

Yes, I'm the person that bought Filecoin ~$150, DOT ~ $40 LTC ~210 (? I think) AVAX ~ $40.  Then at the WORST time, I sold most of them at new lows. .( I held onto FIL because I really thought it was a great concept & I still hold it today at $18 lol) I basically sold off some of everything.  MATIC at 0.60! I also held SAND MANA LUNA SOL that I purchased for under $1 - $10 but SOLD all 4 off for either a loss or break even. Maybe a few bucks profit.

I regret that I made the classic noob mistakes, and was influenced by media,  and I made the mistakes so badly you would think I had a talent for it!  Guess what happens next??

Yes, SAND MANA AVAX SOL LUNA MATIC all came back of course and went on crazy runs.  And I had next to nothing left holding!  I am not exaggerating when I say I was trading SAND & MANA back n forth for a few months under $1 and the week after I decided to stop because they were "dead" coins, they exploded.  AVAX and SOL I managed to get back in on a little bit but much much higher than originally.

FFWD to today and I'm overall up just a tiny bit in profit. But that's only because of BTC and ETH.  Every small pump I make a tiny bit back, but every small dip I'm close again to being under water.  It's miserable.

So I will be honest and say yes, I regret BUYING at the ATHs and SELLING at the LOWS.  It's embarrassing, demoralizing, and I can't really enjoy crypto-universe since it happened because I'm constantly trying to squeek out a tiny 1.5x or 1.8x in other coins to make up for the severe losses I caused.

It's no ones fault but my own, and I just happened to make every mistake there is to make.  And I still make them!  They are only more complex!  
It's too bad because I'm not a dumb person (I know it's hard to imagine) and I really love to read and study the technology, I've learned so much about everything really, but I can hardly enjoy it because from one day to the next I'm a little up then a little down. I have no padding or breathing room.  And the worst part is that I'm almost sure I'm one of the few ppl who hardly made any profits cumulative between April 2020 and Nov 2021! I was EXTREMELY skilled at not making money.  

I hope I can move on from the regret and scars I have from my bad decisions one day. Hopefully I hold a few altcoins today at decent prices that in a few years maybe I can see some profits. Thankfully BTC is proping my bags up since it's the one thing I mostly didn't touch except for a few good sells..

So if any of you do have regrets, just think of my story and you will probably feel a lot better.

PS- This was not meant to be a "feel sorry for myself" comment. I just had never really admitted all that stuff before, so I figured why not do it as my first post since now I'm POSITIVE I can only go UP from here in reputation!  Hahaha.

Cheers! :-)