I’m from a third world country, so I usually buy dollars to protect my savings from inflation. However, last August my government started to force us to use home banking to get US dollars. That is to say, they wouldn’t allow me anymore going to the bank and using my debit card to exchange my founds for dollars. Firstly, I really got upset because I just don’t trust digital security, ever. I’m 35 and I have started with computers back in 1994, when we were all marveled by DOS. Just a few years later, I was playing with computers, customizing Windows 3.1 and avoiding shareware caducity dates with “.bat” archives. Oh, what a wonderful time! Haha! Anyway, I think I’ve been working with computers for too long to trust digital systems. However, I didn’t have a choice. Then, that week I saw some comment on bitcoins. It was just a Facebook comment with the picture of this guy trolling Yellen in testimony before congress with the sign: “Buy bitcoins”. It was at that moment that I thought: OK, if we are going to go digital, we are going all in! And I joined Bitcointalk. I started to research bitcoin on 11th August when one bitcoin was worth 3600 USD.
I read the white paper (I’m a scientist so don’t blame me, I just read papers every week), some stories about cypherpunks and old charts (once again, this is just part of my job, anyway). Then, I really convinced myself of: 1) This was an ever appreciating coin so there wasn’t anything to lose in the long term, 2) Nowadays, it is a very unstable so peaks like the one in 2013 was likely to repeat. In fact, I just read I don’t remember where something about difficulty greatly adjusting every four years so that 2009-2013-2017!! I thougth: 2017 peak is just starting, I’m just going to buy some bitcoins and sell them before the big fall that would last other four years…
Being from a third world country, my first problem was how to get those bitcoins. We can’t just use Coinbase, Poloniex, Bittrex as we don’t have US dollars credit cards or bank accounts. In fact, I have an international credit card and a US dollar bank account but the process to get verifications was too tedious, and somehow I would feel better using webpages/companies speaking Spanish and accepting my pesos. Anyway, I decided to get my bitcoins from SatoshiTango a local webpage/company bitcoin seller. They have a 2% commission but I made my calculations on fees from buying at Localbitcoin and it was more or less the same. After sending SatoshiTango digital copies of ID, paycheck and even of me smiling with my bank transfer proof they allowed me to buy bitcoins through bank transfers (I was really worried about being subject of identity theft during this period of sending IDs and personal data!). Anyway, on 20th August I finally got my first bitcoins for 600USD, when 1BTC = 4,059 USD. Later on, I just saw my bitcoins to grow in value. After the Chinese ICO ban I was in doubt whether to buy more bitcoins at discount price (I have to say that I thought there was a possibility of it remaining at 3,000 for years), or to get some crypto at big discount. I wanted to give the second choice a chance, and opened an account at Bittrex but my account verification was unsuccessful. I sent Bittrex a message and had not answer. So, on 13th September I just made other purchase for 150USD when 1BTC = 3,902 USD. A couple of days later I regretted not having waited till 3,000 USD!!! Anyway, I did not stress at this big Chinese FUD because I had the theory that the bubble will only burst at mid-November. Besides, I had bought at 4,000 USD so I had no choice but to wait for the value to increase! And it did! So much, that I couldn’t wait for other FUD till buy more, and I made a third purchase for 250 USD when 1 BTC = 6,000 USD on 21st October.
I have to say that I exchanged all the money I didn’t need from my salary to bitcoins only in August. On next months, I just kept buying bitcoins and US dollars by home banking at my local Bank (after all security issues about e-currencies I wasn’t worried about home banking anymore! haha). Anyway, in November I was in doubt once again whether I should: 1) Use all my extra money on bitcoins, 2) Use all my extra money on US dollars or 3) Use half on bitcoins and half on dollars. I thought that bitcoin price will suffer a huge correction after the fork but the correction started a week before for no reason. I kind of FOMO and thought that I would just spend all my extra money in bitcoins and hold for a week till the peak before the fork. Then, I would cash out and buy US dollars. The thing is that I bought 1,000 USD in bitcoins when 1BTC = 7,150USD on 6th November. But the correction had not finished! On the same November 6th price fall till 6,900USD and it looked like it was going a long way down. So, I decided to cash out my initial inversion, 1,000 USD, now turned into approximately 1,300 USD. That is to say, 30% profit in three months, when US dollar offers a protection against inflation of 25% along a year in my country. It was a real good deal for an amateur like me! A couple of days later the fork was suspended and I regretted not having waited till 7,700 USD to cash out!!! However, having my bitcoins in Electrum I think it would have been extremely difficult to catch this bitcoin peak.
As for my recent and out of time investment of 1,000 USD bought when 1BTC = 7,150USD, I had not much choice. A huge FUD started just after the 7,700 USD peak and I decided to wait. But then I got an email. It was from Bittrex, they said they have got my message of unsuccessful verification and solved it, so I had now a verified account. And I thought, this is it! I HAVE to get crypto if I’m going to recover from my error. The thing is that after transferring my founds from Electrum to Bittrex, my initial investment of 1,000 USD was reduced to 800 USD (because of the cancelled fork FUD and transfer fees). After a day of playing at Bittrex I had lost 20USD more. Then, I thought: wait a moment, if BTC is going to fall and BT2X fork is cancelled people only have one choice… BCC! And I bought 700 USD of BCC when it was 1 BCC = 0.09 BTC. Then, my money started to growth. I was extremely lucky because I had just catch BCC bull at the beginning. After some hours, I decided to play all in BCC and exchanged my 100 USD investment in SALT for more BCC, when 1 BCC = 0.15 BTC. I had not idea what was going on. I came to bitcointalk and read about BCC attack. Then, I thought that this BCC bull was destined to end and decided to sell my BCC when I would have doubled my initial investment. That was, 1 BCC = 1,400 USDT. Yes, I decided to exchange my BCC to USDT instead of BTC because I was not sure whether bitcoin would continue its way down after BCC attack finished. The thing is that bitcoin FUD supposedly started after fork suspension but before BCC attack. Anyway, I went to bed and I got up with 2,023 USDT in my Bittrex account. Best deal ever for an amateur!
Now, I was in doubt for a third time. Would I just play safe and keep my USDT till things cleared? Or would I risk for more money? When bitcoin was completely falling I thought I may risk some of my money, my investment was safe, and I bought 700USD bitcoin when it was 1 BTC = 6,000 USD on 12th November. A couple of hours later I regretted not having waited till 5,800 USD to buy!!! In addition, I thought if BTC is going to fall, BT2X fork is cancelled and BCC attack is going to finish, people only have one more choice… ETH. So I bought 150 USD of ETH when 1 ETH = 105 USD. After three days, I have made 150 USD profit. I really wish I had bought more BTC and ETH before these recent peaks but how I was going to know if they were going to rise or fall. I just risked safe (is that possible? LOL). I know that I have taken a lot of good decisions based on false premises, but hey! I’m always be a lucky guy so…
So far, I have made 1,440USD profit from my all initial investments of 2,000 USD (i.e., 72% profit). However, I have learned my lessons and I’m not going to cash out neither BTC nor ETH. Neither this year, nor the next. I don’t need this money. So, I just have programmed my orders to get more BTC at 5,449 USD, more ETH 315 and 299 USD, and some LTC 56,69 USD. I would forget about my Bittrex account till next year (the only thing is that I don’t know if they may close it because of the lack of activity! LOL).
I was going to quit my job next year as I have inherited some rents to live on. I was looking for a lonely hobby as I’m kind of tired of people, and I think I may have found a good one in trading. So, I just want to study properly and go serious on daily trading next year.
Well I hope you liked my story. I wanted to share some errors and good decisions that I have made along these three months in e-currency world.
If you liked my story, you may donate at:
BTC 1GrsnXgudjNQUsSP69WrkHAHWmqpDhnmP2
ETH 0x88a7a836534edc3eb77b334f4ab1e791e53c97b3
LTC LS2Cv9LRJ6trQs3YHW2oXwXKRkWUVK4w9T
Hey! Naturally, I’m just trying to get so many coins as possible!
Thank you all in advance.
Best regards,
Nicolás
