Basic common sense advice for new people buying coins.

[no-ice-please]

Add any advice you want.

There probably are a lot of threads like this and I'll link them if anybody posts.

~~~~~

added

https://www.coingecko.com/en

https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/views/all/

...  I'm of the mind that there's absolutely no reason to own 99.99% of the shitcoins that are on the market.  My advice would be to check your motive in buying.  If it's to make a buck, then that's probably the same reason the next guy has for buying whatever coin you're considering, and you're just looking to unload the shitcoin on the next sucker that comes along.  Very very few coins have a reason to exist.  They're not going to be used as currency ever, and probably won't survive long enough to be useful as a store of value..

~~~~~


1) Always be wary of premines and ico's
The spirit of the crypto economy, for people who 'get it', is the creation of currencies that are able to perform functions, rather than simply enrich a few gangsters. There is no currency that genuinely "needs" an ico or premine. That's just the truth. There are a million and one excuses why an ico or premine "is necessary in this case", but the truth is that an actual good idea does not need a specific person or group to collect funds on its behalf.

2) If somebody wants to sell you a premined or ico coin then at least know who they are.

Coin after coin comes up with an anonymous dev asking for, and getting, vast bucketloads of cash just because he or she has an extraordinary gift for bullshitting people. Anybody can say they want money for a project. If they want your money but do not want you to know who they are, why would you guess that is?

3) A coin that is emitted very fast is usually made so that a few people can get all the coins then pump it up.

If more than half of a coin's total supply is produced within a few months it usually means the maker of the coin is going to accumulate most of the coins, then pump the price up and unload. If a coin is emitted very quickly and also contains a nonsensical "0 reward" phase in the beginning "to prevent instamine" then the scammer is specifically targeting the truly simple people.

4) Most garbage coins have pump crews.

If you go to the thread of an honest coin you will not see an endless string of people saying "This coin is the best since bitcoin." When you see hype it is usually because the coin needs it.

5) Estimate the value of a coin by it's market capitalization (the combined value of all its coins) rather than the price of one coin.

Most people go to sites like Coinmarketcap.com and look at the market capitalization of a coin to decide if it is cheap or expensive. The price of one coin is meaningless.

6) It is very common for people to be stuck with a worthless coin then try to convince new people to buy it by shining it up a little.

When a coin is abandoned, or found out to be a scam, there are people left holding the worthless coins. Often times these people will announce that they are reviving the coin but usually the revival lasts only as long as it takes them to unload their coins.

7) A genuine currency is first a currency, then a tool for speculators.

Most coins that exist now are made for speculators. In other words they are not actual "currencies". A tiny few coins are being used non commercially by people who genuinely enjoy them. These coins are very cheap right now but will still be around far into the future. Other coins were created only for miners and speculators, then had a bunch of "features" hammered into them to make it look like "somebody should be interested in this". Those coins are super expensive now but will probably not exist in a few years.

Be wary of "known experts" who whore out their reputations to pump premined or ico coins

This is a rapidly expanding economy with millions of pesos/dollars/rubles/yuan easily available for any publicly recognized "expert" who is willing to sell out for cash.

If you are a new person to crypto then you probably will be scammed several times before you get a sense of how much scum there is. Always diversify. Never put more then 1/3 of your investable money in any coin, but especially not in a "sure thing". Almost all of the activity in coins right now is speculative, almost no actual economy exists. So valuations are based on hypotheticals that in many cases are manipulated to serve whoever is promoting a coin.

If you don't understand something about a coin then ask until you understand. In almost all cases where people are scammed, it is because they trust others to understand things for them, to do their thinking for them.

[aioc]

Very good advised this should be made sticky have you lost money from this scam coin you are good at giving advice or does this one comes from e-books or from other experience

[The Sceptical Chymist]

Good advice so far, and I don't have anything brilliant to add.  I'm of the mind that there's absolutely no reason to own 99.99% of the shitcoins that are on the market.  My advice would be to check your motive in buying.  If it's to make a buck, then that's probably the same reason the next guy has for buying whatever coin you're considering, and you're just looking to unload the shitcoin on the next sucker that comes along.  Very very few coins have a reason to exist.  They're not going to be used as currency ever, and probably won't survive long enough to be useful as a store of value..

[lanbo]

Nice list of advice OP, highly recommended to all noobs out there.

[cryptodromeda]

I'd also pay attention to CoinGecko which gives a rounder holistic perception on a coin's health.

[tokeweed]

Always make sure that volume and liquidity are high, it would be much easier to sell coins with minimal loss.  Trades don't always go your way.  

[robelneo]

All the devs of this crypto coin will make us believe that their coin is the coin of the future,you need to see beyond how trustworthy the devs are,of course some devs will employ manipulation to attract attention and investors but it's the dev that is always on top of his project's issue and how he generate support from the community that will succeed..

[Caladonian]

you did a great job here sir, a compilation of a well studied guidelines I'm sure even those who already have some knowledge about trading coins are also impress with this, maybe it is not complete yet but a good criteria to start with avoiding to be scam. thank you for sharing and keep it up, I hope more professional traders here shared their owned personal points of view.

[tokeweed]

Always make sure that volume and liquidity are high, it would be much easier to sell coins with minimal loss.  Trades don't always go your way.  

The problem though is that the majority of scams involve inflating volume and providing liquidity during the pump.

What I mean by that is prolonged and organic high volume and liquidity.  Samples of these are BTC, LTC and the latest ETH which has proven to be highly liquid and has a trading volume over a million in multiple exchanges.

Hoping for LSK and DAO to follow.  We'll see in a few months.

[MicroGuy]

Investors should consider coins that are 'aged' and have solid communities, reputable developers, and brandable names.

~~

[tokeweed]

Investors should consider coins that are 'aged' and have solid communities, reputable developers, and brandable names.

~~

Quoted and bolded for truth.  Although they are highly arguable, one can pinpoint which ones are fairly good.  Couple that with high volume and high liquidity, then you have a solid platform which are worth considering.

[rizzlarolla]

no-ice-please,

You ignored all your own advise just yesterday, when buying neucoin.
(bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=944933.2760)


no-ice-please advise's on neucoin investing, (massive premine, presale, and whatever)

".... Neucoin, etc are not really doing much. This kind of project, done right, does not need any premine, ico, presale, whatever."
".... Bottom line, flip a coin if you want to know whether to buy or sell this one."
".... I invested about 0.01 btc in it at current price,"
".... I'm going to put another 50 cents into it."
".... Any gambler should see that as a fair calculated risk."

I'm confused about your strategy here.
Is this "gamble" you took for noobs also, or only advanced traders such as yourself?
Should advanced traders ignore the advice on this thread, as you do?

Is this thread designed to award yourself some credibility?
(your neucoin "gamble" already at 50% loss?)

[tokeweed]

Trading is a learning and relearning process.  And one can't really learn how to trade without getting a few lumps in the head.  I guess OP is learning. 

[BTCLovingDude]

all the rules that ever existed and all the rules that you can think of doesn't matter, it doesn't matter if you call a coin ico scam, premine scam, shitcoin, poopcoin, .... as long as they have a big hype surrounding them!

just look at ethereum, it is shady with a big amount in premine and is being controlled by a couple of big whales but because it has hype it goes up and down and there is a lot of profit to be made.

and mark my words, LISK is following the same path...

[tokeweed]

all the rules that ever existed and all the rules that you can think of doesn't matter, it doesn't matter if you call a coin ico scam, premine scam, shitcoin, poopcoin, .... as long as they have a big hype surrounding them!

just look at ethereum, it is shady with a big amount in premine and is being controlled by a couple of big whales but because it has hype it goes up and down and there is a lot of profit to be made.

and mark my words, LISK is following the same path...

Without other high volume exchanges supporting it, I doubt it will do what ETH did going from under 1 USD to over 10 USD.  LSK needs to be listed to other high volume exchanges in order to get enough daily volume trades to maintain its liquidity and volume then get it to rise big.  I doubt other big players will transfer to Poloniex just for Lisk.  

But who knows, I could be wrong.

[Spoetnik]

Trading is a learning and relearning process.  And one can't really learn how to trade without getting a few lumps in the head.  I guess OP is learning.  

Ya the learning process is following around Spoetnik and copy catting what he says / does.
The biggest trade skill we see in Crypto is the "Legit Angle"
The whole little game of supporting shitcoins (for profit) while parading around the forum
like you are some kind of shining beacon of integrity and class.

Coming from a scam coin shill tokeweed you look like a hypocrite.
What a joke you idiots are here fuck..

We have these idiots here like ThePharmacist who has been a massive Doge shill
and tokeweed who has been an Ethereum shill loitering around here like they have opinions.
You don't so STFU.
You two and others are simply doing what you all do best.. talking shit at Bitcoin talk for money profit fiat $$$

THAT IS YOUR REAL "SKILL" two faced bullshitting Investard Profiteers.

You keep pretending your the "legit one"  

[alyssa85]

Make sure the coin you are investing in is on more than one exchange. It is a danger sign if it is just on one exchange - that usually means that volume isn't high enough for the others to add it. And if the only exchange it is on is bittrex, then panic a bit more as the trex is notorious for delisting coins the minute the volume drops. At which point you will be the proud owner of coins listed nowhere.

[speaktome]

Investors should consider coins that are 'aged' and have solid communities, reputable developers, and brandable names.

~~

Quoted and bolded for truth.  Although they are highly arguable, one can pinpoint which ones are fairly good.  Couple that with high volume and high liquidity, then you have a solid platform which are worth considering.

Yes, That's true, That sounds like a very good common sense.

[balu2]

Once in a while a good thread pops up between all the spam. Good Job, OP.

[fortunecrypto]

All the devs of this crypto coin will make us believe that their coin is the coin of the future,you need to see beyond how trustworthy the devs are,of course some devs will employ manipulation to attract attention and investors but it's the dev that is always on top of his project's issue and how he generate support from the community that will succeed..

A major difference between crypto and fiat is that with fiat you have "somebody else", usually an invisible entity, that controls everything. With crypto you can have as much power as the dev, and coins that are good values are those coins where people step up of their own accord and make the coin better.

Crypto coins usually have one or more visible devs but ideally they are owned and controlled by the people who actually use the currency. There is no all powerful mommy or daddy in the background controlling things for you.

The developer of bitcoin did a good deed in walking away from his project when it was developed, rather than trying to create a fiefdom like so many devs do now.

You cannot say that to coins that has a huge premine or pos coin that has 100% premine like the case of Rimbit where they premine 100% of the coins and sell them to the community and has total control of the future of the coins..