I did not feel the need to "participate" when I bought my first BTC, I just needed it to purchase stuff from Silk Road. Straight up hardcore use of BTC
If I had not done that, I maybe would have only heard of it by now.
I wouldn't recommend to buy BTC and then look for places to spend it. Do it the other way round or just do it to gamble/speculate with it, as so many people do the last weeks.
First of all, observe. Stay calm and better think twice before hitting any buttons. You probably worked hard for your money and you probably wouldn't invest in a highly volatile and extremely risky asset on any regular stock market, would you? Bitcoin is extremely risky, better remind yourself of that again and again. Exchanges have been shut down, people are waiting for their money, the current price is more or less random if you ask me.
As said before by someone else: Only invest what you can afford to lose. Do not constantly check price. Set yourself stop values so you control losses. Realize profit better too soon than too late. I think anything above 10% profit is fair game. If you get more, thats fine but you have to manage your risk. Realizing 20% profit is better than watching it rise to 50% profit and then drop down to 10% profit or even below. Don't let greed or hope control your actions.
If you want to gamble and have the money, get your stuff verified at Gox, puit some money there, invest 50% in BTC and play with that 50% BTC / 50% money. I personally think daytrading is not very rewarding for the average user.
With a big pile of money and BTC it may be different, though I think the current "stability" is very fragile because of the low volume. I would not buy in now. IN fact I withdrew my money and just watch because I expect movement soon.
When the price is moving significantly in one direction maybe I would think of investing again. I definitely do not expect any chance of doubling or multiplying your investment on the current level (i believe many people have things like that in mind, get rich quick).
If another bubble inflates itself, maybe. I tend to think it will go down first. But that's all speculation (and wishful thinking) lol
Having it go up, buying in and making anything above 20% in a month also would put a smile on my face. Anything above 10% would be definitely okay. But it's not the same. Subconciously my greed allows true satisfaction only at about 30% profit and above. Damn greed! Investing 1000 Euros and getting only 100 Euros Profit looks kinda lame when you have a factor of 10 or 20 in mind - yeah right, the kind of factor when you bought last year and came back early April.
Guess I'll be traumatized forever, having sold my last 30 BTC in 2012 for ~ 10 Euros/BTC and then coming back first week of April 2013. I'll get over it eventually. Seeing how much you could have made if only you had..is painful. lol
Sorry for writing that much text. Sometimes you gotta go with the flow
