A newb introduction and inquiry

[dlagwagon]

[I wrote this as a text doc. before reading the beginners forum, but thought it would still serve as a pseudo introduction to the community. If any of my inquiries violate community protocol, please forgive me and disregard that particular transgression]


Greetings Friends,

I am somewhat new to the cryptocurrency movement and am looking to ingratiate myself with the community. I have had a cursory knowledge of bitcoin for a few years, but always looked at it simply as currency, not an investment in itself. However, the last year has made it obviously clear that my conception of bitcoin and cryptocurrencies was myopic. I didn't understand blockchain, nor its revolutionary potential, but fortunately I feel like I am finally beginning to see the light.

Anyway, I am now looking to acquire cryptocurrencies as volatile investments rather than as an inconvenient medium of exchange - in initial acquisition at least. I have done a bit of reading and feel familiar with which cryptos are most influential right now, i.e., bitcoin, ether, ripple, litecoin, and bitcoin cash. So if you guys don't mind, I'd just like to ask a few questions and get some opinions from people who are more knowledgeable than me. I'm sure some will seem stupid and redundant, but hopefully in answering them you will help not only me, but also people like me who have the same questions.

Say I've got 2k to invest right now, I know once I pull the trigger and click "buy" that is the price I'm locked in at. So at this point, would a smart investor be watching the price of btc closely over the next few days and hoping for a slight drop before clicking "buy" so as to obtain a bit more bang for my buck, or am I wasting my time waiting for a minor (not guaranteed) drop in btc price before purchasing? The argument for just buying the damn btc right away would be that I could start playing with it and hopefully making some profits...

Sorry that this seems like a litany, but I'm the type of person who questions and analyzes everything before acting. So yes, curious if it's stupid to time bitcoin purchases when I'm not buying it for an investment in bitcoin itself, but as a tool to acquire other cryptos. Moving on... Now that my money is in bitcoin and I've finally got some buying power, should I just start buying away or is it advisable to pick some promising investments and set a price buy limit on them before I actually pull the trigger?

I'm looking to reap the massive potential profits in crypto trading, but I also want to be somewhat smart about it. So just to get as much feedback as possible, I'll try and keep the questions somewhat vague and open-ended.

* With a small bankroll of around 2k, what would you do to quickly, but confidently turn it into 10k? (broad question, I know)
* Would you bet big on 1 or 2 cryptos or would you diversify into 5 or more as a way to hedge your bets?
* When you do make some decent profits, do you extract them and place them into a "safer" more dominant crypto?
* I know the logic is to buy low, and sell high. But say you have some money and you really believe in a crypto, do you just fucking buy the thing because you have absolute faith it's going up, or do you wait for the hysteria to die down. Sometimes it never dies die down though and you're stuck waiting while it goes up...
* What have been your biggest and most avoidable mistakes/regrets in cryptocurrency trading.
* In the stock market, 10% is a solid yearly return, what are your personal expectations for a year in trading cryptos?
* Should I be spending my time confirming the fact that the most popular cryptos are indeed good investments, or should i be digging like crazy for the esoteric and obscure ones that may or may not become the next big thing?
* Where does one educate themselves so they're able to determine the potential impact of new cryptos without relying on the opinions of pundits? (Like where can I get smart enough on this stuff so I'm not 100% reliant on the opinions of others?) Resources...?
* Where do people find out about the newest and hottest cryptos and how do they discern if it's just premeditated hype or objective and reliable information.
* If you could pick just one crypto to invest in for 1 year, what would it be?
* If you could pick just one crypto as your lifetime investment, what would it be?
* Is BTC already obsolete to improvements like litecoin and is it still the most dominant crypto just due to it being the 1st crypto and community loyalty to BTC? I think the answer to this will shed light on whether BTC will be the dominant in the future.

** Most importantly, I'd just like to hear your guys' recipe for success in crypto investing. I want to assimilate as much as I can from all of you so I can hopefully become an amalgam of the best minds behind this movement, but a perpetual student.

I am sorry in advance for any stupid or trite questions that perhaps every newb seems to ask, but I guess this is my attempt at building rapport with a community that I have been observing and have a profound respect for. Any links you may have to valuable information, especially in laymen's terms would be extremely appreciated. Also, I'm not asking everyone to respond to (or even read) my lengthy and tedious post, but if you see something in here that you have a natural response or opinion to, I would greatly appreciate hearing your thoughts.  I'll keep my fingers crossed and hope that maybe tomorrow I'll wake up and feel like I'm being accepted into an awesome new community and reality.

Cheers

[guybrushthreepwood]

* With a small bankroll of around 2k, what would you do to quickly, but confidently turn it into 10k? (broad question, I know)
* Would you bet big on 1 or 2 cryptos or would you diversify into 5 or more as a way to hedge your bets?
* When you do make some decent profits, do you extract them and place them into a "safer" more dominant crypto?

There is no sure-fire or guaranteed way to invest your money with anything, though I think bitcoin is a good bet long term. If you had bought bitcoin early last year you would have already achieved your goal. It's hard to say if bitcoin will rise this year or continue to fall even more so take that into consideration before you take the plunge and be weary of anyone who tells you it will do one or the other because nobody knows what will happen today let alone tomorrow and any advice (including mine) is mere speculation. Personally I think bitcoin will be worth both a lot more then it is today and a lot less but I couldn't tell you the time frame of either of those. If you get your timings right you could make a lot on the highs and lows but this is never as easy as it looks.

I would diversify. Put half your money in bitcoin and half in a handful of other cryptos. Maybe Litecoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash and Ripple. Maybe look at the others and take a risk on one of the other smaller ones but don't put all your eggs in one basket as the saying goes.

* I know the logic is to buy low, and sell high. But say you have some money and you really believe in a crypto, do you just fucking buy the thing because you have absolute faith it's going up, or do you wait for the hysteria to die down. Sometimes it never dies die down though and you're stuck waiting while it goes up...

* In the stock market, 10% is a solid yearly return, what are your personal expectations for a year in trading cryptos?

If you believe in it then invest in it, but I would personally wait for the right time to buy and try get it on a dip to maximize potential returns, though there's always the risk of missing out altogether.

You can get 10% interest on your investment in a day with bitcoin/crypto. On the flip-side you can also easily lose that in a day as well.

* Should I be spending my time confirming the fact that the most popular cryptos are indeed good investments, or should i be digging like crazy for the esoteric and obscure ones that may or may not become the next big thing?

Both. I think bitcoin is the safest investment but there is lots of money to be made in others. If you had bought Ripple only a month or so ago you would have already made a lot of money. If you had bought bitcoin, Litecoin or Ethereum last year you would have made even more.

* Where does one educate themselves so they're able to determine the potential impact of new cryptos without relying on the opinions of pundits? (Like where can I get smart enough on this stuff so I'm not 100% reliant on the opinions of others?) Resources...?

* Where do people find out about the newest and hottest cryptos and how do they discern if it's just premeditated hype or objective and reliable information.

Nowhere. Everyone is biased. Most people who promote or hype up a coin do so because it's in their interest to do so because they're bag holders of said coin. I don't believe there is any impartial advise so it's best just to do your own research at the end of the day.

* If you could pick just one crypto to invest in for 1 year, what would it be?
* If you could pick just one crypto as your lifetime investment, what would it be?

Bitcoin & Bitcoin.

** Most importantly, I'd just like to hear your guys' recipe for success in crypto investing. I want to assimilate as much as I can from all of you so I can hopefully become an amalgam of the best minds behind this movement, but a perpetual student.

There is no secret recipe. I guess it's just buy low sell high, but again, it is never just as easy as that. You just need a bit of luck and be willing to invest your money, but nothing is guaranteed. You could make a lot of money or lose it all but this is something you will learn on your own but nobody can guarantee you anything.

[lizardbtc]

Say I've got 2k to invest right now, I know once I pull the trigger and click "buy" that is the price I'm locked in at. So at this point, would a smart investor be watching the price of btc closely over the next few days and hoping for a slight drop before clicking "buy" so as to obtain a bit more bang for my buck, or am I wasting my time waiting for a minor (not guaranteed) drop in btc price before purchasing? The argument for just buying the damn btc right away would be that I could start playing with it and hopefully making some profits...

If you ask me I'd buy straight away without thinking, why? Because if you think and wait a lot price could go up or it could drop. You can't wait forever with uncertainty should you buy and when would you buy. Nobody knows will price drop in the next days or will it go up, it's pure speculation. If you are interested with playing with altcoins I'd suggest you to go with fiat - ethereum so your transaction gets confirmed faster and cheper when you transfer between exchanges. Because bitcoin network at the current state is overloaded because of recent price spike - it will eventually scale and enable cheap and fast transactions but work is on the way rn. Another thing about bitcoin is you can watch closley for forks, because by doing this and if you have private key, you can claim bitcoin from those forks and sell them on exchanges or keep them and see where their price would go.


I will diversify into few shitcoins because if they get pumped and if they get pumped good you could look at like 400%+ returns, thing what happened with VERGE recently. I am although it's hard to notice this, you will have to read and educate yourself a lot, but shitcoins have higher possibility of greater returns since it's hard for bitcoin to go from this price 14k till like 20k,30k; it is easier for some alt to get pumped and duble it's price or even trippple etc.

When I trade, yes I put them to "safer place" until I decide what move to play again.

Logic buy low and sell high is easier said than done. Sometimes I by because I have faith in coin, other times I buy because I do believe people will get hyped about the coin not because I believe in it, and sometimes I throw few bucks like 10-30$ into some coin that is worth very little and see what happens. You can look at exchanges like big casinos and we are all gambling, thing is we are all speculating, not many altcoins even have some greater purpose.


* What have been your biggest and most avoidable mistakes/regrets in cryptocurrency trading.
When I started: chasing the pumps and not really care as I was believer with other people in community that price of particular coin will go to the rooftops very fast, but when you look at it at the end you realize it was clearly a pump and that many things are pump and dumps. With good/bad news being one of the driving forces and you have people who will sell on the news.


In the stock market, 10% is a solid yearly return, what are your personal expectations for a year in trading cryptos?
Erm depends all of your expectations it can be 100% even 1000% if you play it right. With this being said the higher % you aim for the greater the risk, you must take higher risk with small investment.

* Should I be spending my time confirming the fact that the most popular cryptos are indeed good investments, or should i be digging like crazy for the esoteric and obscure ones that may or may not become the next big thing?
As I said depends on what return are you chasing, esoteric ones can bring enormous results and losses. If you ask me I will throw major of my investment into big guys and will diversify my money on those crazy coins.

Where does one educate themselves so they're able to determine the potential impact of new cryptos without relying on the opinions of pundits? (Like where can I get smart enough on this stuff so I'm not 100% reliant on the opinions of others?) Resources...?

You have to read the news, join various discord/telegram/slack groups, watch youtube and also take a closer look at persons who can have an impact on the price through twitter. Its like when John McAfee was doing his coin of the day, these coin got pumped really well. Be aware of fake "signal" groups that will tell you to pay them and in return you will earn by their signals....


Where do people find out about the newest and hottest cryptos and how do they discern if it's just premeditated hype or objective and reliable information.

Can be this forum ANN threads.


Is BTC already obsolete to improvements like litecoin and is it still the most dominant crypto just due to it being the 1st crypto and community loyalty to BTC? I think the answer to this will shed light on whether BTC will be the dominant in the future.

It is dominant today because it has credability from the public. Bitcoin has built itself a good brand in fron of the ordinary people, if you tell then that you are invested in cryptocurrencies they are going to ask you about your Bitcoin not about your Litecoin/Ethereum etc. BTC is here to stay for sure. But as many people get in and chase the profits BTC can lose its dominance lvl.


I haven't answered on all questions sorry ^^''

Anyway its okay always it is good to ask.


EDIT: After you have earned some money you may want to have a look at some trading bots, personally I haven't used any and I don't use them but I know people that are making nice reurns with tradding bots.

[dlagwagon]

Wow, thanks a lot for the very thorough responses guys. I don't remember which one of you had said this, but it was something about it being better to have ether as your currency instead of bitcoin when wanting to buy altcoins because of shorter transaction times... I think that was what you were trying to say but I wasn't positive, so that would be valuable info. And yes, I'm looking to have the most buying power with altcoins so if ether makes dealing in alts a lot easier than btc, that is what I'll have to get.

XRP: Now for some specific info on my progress. I have obtained some XRP when it was around 1.50 and am enjoying watching it move up. Does anyone have an opinion as to where the ceiling is on XRP and if it is going to meet some strong resistance soon, or does it have a few dollars of freedom before reaching that resistance? I have also read conflicting opinions, some saying ripple will be the banking system of the future, others saying that ripple is more tooting its own horn rather than speaking objective truths, as it hasn't been universally adopted yet. Though I did read something briefly where they did a bunch of successful transfers in Sweden or something... Is this proof of the future, or a futile attempt for Ripple to make it seem like that?

ETHEREUM: So I've noticed ether has been going up today and had been hoping it'd go down soon so I could perhaps buy at a slight discount. Anyway, it's currently up 13% on the day and my friend let me know that he bought me a couple earlier today before it went up. I had planned on investing in ETH as long term, but also as using it as currency to buy altcoins I want to invest in. My friend told me that ETH is due to fork in a couple weeks, and that is quite possible why the price is going up. Afterall, that is why he bought a bunch. So now that I have access to these couple ether discounted around 10% from where it is now, do you guys think that it would be best that I sit on the ETH for a few weeks and wait to see what happens after the fork, or am I wasting precious time in not investing in altcoins with that ETH right now?

BCH: This was one of my first investments, but it's been a little frustrating because I've been wanting to invest in more volatile altcoins with my money, but have been too stubborn to sell my BCH because it has slowly been losing value and I don't wanna take a loss on it. Then when I had some USD to spend the other night, it just so happened that the best rate on the exchange I was using happened to favor BCH over BTC and ETH at that particular moment, so I begrudgingly added to my holding of Bitcash. The first time I bought it it was around $3000 so I'm at around a 16% loss from that purchase, but I'm only down .41% on the second purchase.  Anyway, this one has been worrying me and I've been holding it in hopes of repairing the loss. However, I have read some promising reports that my worry is unfounded and BCH is solid and will break 3k again in the near future. I know no one here is psychic and you all have the same worries I do over your own portfolios and different holdings, but does anyone have a clear or solid opinion on the outlook of BCH both now and in the future?

Thanks a lot

[lizardbtc]

Wow, thanks a lot for the very thorough responses guys. I don't remember which one of you had said this, but it was something about it being better to have ether as your currency instead of bitcoin when wanting to buy altcoins because of shorter transaction times... I think that was what you were trying to say but I wasn't positive, so that would be valuable info. And yes, I'm looking to have the most buying power with altcoins so if ether makes dealing in alts a lot easier than btc, that is what I'll have to get.

XRP: Now for some specific info on my progress. I have obtained some XRP when it was around 1.50 and am enjoying watching it move up. Does anyone have an opinion as to where the ceiling is on XRP and if it is going to meet some strong resistance soon, or does it have a few dollars of freedom before reaching that resistance? I have also read conflicting opinions, some saying ripple will be the banking system of the future, others saying that ripple is more tooting its own horn rather than speaking objective truths, as it hasn't been universally adopted yet. Though I did read something briefly where they did a bunch of successful transfers in Sweden or something... Is this proof of the future, or a futile attempt for Ripple to make it seem like that?

ETHEREUM: So I've noticed ether has been going up today and had been hoping it'd go down soon so I could perhaps buy at a slight discount. Anyway, it's currently up 13% on the day and my friend let me know that he bought me a couple earlier today before it went up. I had planned on investing in ETH as long term, but also as using it as currency to buy altcoins I want to invest in. My friend told me that ETH is due to fork in a couple weeks, and that is quite possible why the price is going up. Afterall, that is why he bought a bunch. So now that I have access to these couple ether discounted around 10% from where it is now, do you guys think that it would be best that I sit on the ETH for a few weeks and wait to see what happens after the fork, or am I wasting precious time in not investing in altcoins with that ETH right now?

BCH: This was one of my first investments, but it's been a little frustrating because I've been wanting to invest in more volatile altcoins with my money, but have been too stubborn to sell my BCH because it has slowly been losing value and I don't wanna take a loss on it. Then when I had some USD to spend the other night, it just so happened that the best rate on the exchange I was using happened to favor BCH over BTC and ETH at that particular moment, so I begrudgingly added to my holding of Bitcash. The first time I bought it it was around $3000 so I'm at around a 16% loss from that purchase, but I'm only down .41% on the second purchase.  Anyway, this one has been worrying me and I've been holding it in hopes of repairing the loss. However, I have read some promising reports that my worry is unfounded and BCH is solid and will break 3k again in the near future. I know no one here is psychic and you all have the same worries I do over your own portfolios and different holdings, but does anyone have a clear or solid opinion on the outlook of BCH both now and in the future?

Thanks a lot

Having ETH to trade alts is good on exchanges that have direct pairs with ETH. This is due to not all exchanges implementing LN protocol as they put it off to implement in future.

Honestly I am not expert about XRP so I don't think that I'd give valid opinion

ETH fork, more infor here: https://news.bitcoin.com/pr-etherzero-a-revolutionary-ethereum-hard-fork-forking-on-19th-jan-2018/ 
Anyway with or without the fork Ethereum is a good investment for long run if you ask me. This is due to many ICOs lunching on ethereum network with some ICOs only accept ethereum as means of payment. dApps require ether to run and I can assure you that there will be more dApps and ICOs during next year. So all of this creates good demand for ether in the long run. Anyway to get back to your question, you can earn much more by trading altcoins if you can spot the pumps going on. There are many pumps happening with like everyday you have some new altcoin that is rising over 50%, however its not that easy to spot next pump - some are obvious and some are not.

BCH could break 3k I don't see why it doesn't have potential. Since it has big support from community behind it with some big celeb players withing crypto world. But if you see some potential in another coin you could take loss there if you think that you could flip that money and earn more by exchanging it now.


Again take my opinions as is and investigate a bit further yourself.

Hope you will take a look at reply, I am sorry haven't spotted your question right away.