Learn from my mistakes as a newbie!

[Ardavan2150]

The Crypto space is full of legends, gurus, masters, and gods. But no one ever talks about mistakes. No one is perfect. No one did everything right. I decided to do this. I will share the mistakes I made when I first joined the crypto space. Hopefully someone will be able to take something away from this.

I joined the crypto space about a year ago. I was part of the frenzy that thought crypto would take over the world in 2017. I invested ~$1,000 and started trading bitcoin and altcoins and my goal was to reach to $100,000 in 6 months!!!

Lesson #0: (Thanks to @Dudeperfect) YOU are responsible for your money and security
When I started in crypto I was mad at everyone on twitter. I used to follow their calls and when it did not work I would be mad at them and I tried to hold them responsible for my loss. This is not the right way to do so. Be careful and DYOR. Security is another important thing in the crypto world. If you do not know the difference between public and private key, you should not be throughout money around.

Lesson #1: Do not set rather unrealistic goals!
Instead of having a goal that you will probably never reach, try to be the best you can. Try to increase your investment in a rational non-risky way. Do not go all in on one coin because you missed a deadline on doing a x2 for a week. Let the growth, experience, and money, come to you naturally.

Lesson #2: Do not FOMO!
I do not know if this is still the case, but back in the days, McAfee used to tweet about a coin and the coin would instantly jump to do a x2. So naturally, I wanted to get on board. What I did not know what that all these buys and sells would happen instantly with bots. I did not realize I was too late because I wanted to buy ASAP. So there you go, REKT!!

Lesson #3: Be very careful when taking advantage of market arbitrage!
Taking advantage of market arbitrage is great. But you have to be careful. Arbitrage usually occurs between large exchanges (@BittrexExchange or @binance_2017) and smaller exchanges (@Cryptopia_NZ or @hitbtc) when the value of one coin in BTC is usually different from one exhcnage to another. However, what you need to know is that these smaller exchanges sometimes have issues in their system and depositing coins might take forever. ALWAYS check the status of the sites before deciding to take advantage of arbitrage. For Cryptopia go https://www.cryptopia.co.nz/CoinInfo and check to make sure that the block height is close to the most recent block on blockchain For hitbtc go https://hitbtc.com/system-health and make sure the deposit for your coin is not offline. I got REKT a couple of times because of this.
NOTE: The Legendary member of this forum @Velkro says: "Arbitrage is one of the most risky job in bitcoin world. If you count in transaction delays, all exchange problems, from FIAT block, BTC block/account block, exchange malfunction/downtime. Not to say about price fluctuation +30% in 10 minutes, you are safe to say its only for insane people"

Lesson #4: Do not waste your time participating in crappy airdrops/referral/bounty!
I can say that 90% of all the airdrops, referrals, and bounty campaigns are pure crap. Do not waste your time with these useless ways to get some extra coins. I have many many coins in my account that I got from different Airdrops that worth less than $0.01, seriously. Try to research a little bit about the campaign you are participating. It will worth it.

Lesson #5: (Thanks to @sase007) Due your own research before participating in an ICO
Research any ICO before participating in it. I know it can be very intriguing to put all you money in an ICO by only looking at similar projects that did a x10. However, know that MOST (over 90%) ICOs fail. @sase007 suggests that "don't participate in icos unless the developers are well trusted or the source code gets released and looks worthy of the amount per token that the developers/marketers are asking for it."

Lesson #6: (Thanks to @socks435) Do not trust investment sites (doubler) or cloud mining services
The Legendary member of this forum @socks435 suggests that most of the investment sites that offer a daily interest and cloud mining services are either unprofitable or are an outright scam. So do a thorough research before deciding to do this.

Lesson #7: (Thanks to @socks435) Always use an escrow
When you are trading with someone that you do not trust 100%, use an escrow to ensure you are not being scammed. Look at this link if you have no idea what I'm talking about: https://cointelegraph.com/explained/escrow-explained

Lesson #8: (Thanks to @Hagmonar): Greed is a bottomless pit!
Do not wait for your investment to do a x10. It might not ever happen. Take profit on the way up. Don't be greedy. Enjoy your profit and do not think about the fact that the coin did another x2 after you took your initial investment out. I do not know if this is perfect but this is what I used to do, take 1/2 or 1/3 of my initial investment after a x2 or x3 and let the rest ride with the wave.

I encourage all the experienced people to complete this thread by sharing with us their mistakes. I will also try to update this if I remember anything else.

[sase007]

Number 4 is definitely one I agree with. Airdrops and the like cause a lot of spam to this forum. I'd also suggest that you don't participate in icos unless the developers are well trusted or the source code gets released and looks worthy of the amount per token that the developers/marketers are asking for it.

[BQ]

I get the impression you really fell for the crypto hype early on and therefore lost money? I personally would like to add that when it comes to investments, never invest in 1. something that already is pumping and 2. make sure you know yourself what it is you are investing in, and why! Once it reaches twitter you can assume the timeframe to buy and then sell for a profit is very narrow, it's the trap way too many people seem to get stuck in. But, it's good to bring up points like these! 

[socks435]

I think you need to add mistake #5 about investing in investment site(doubler) with a daily interest and cloud mining which is unprofitable these days and most of them are a scam.
And add mistake #6 Do not trade to the untrusted person if you deal with someone always use a escrow.

This is just what I experienced before so I'd like to share it here so that other newbies aware about this.

[Awesomus Maximus]

Try to research a little bit about the campaign you are participating. It will worth it.

This advice is golden. When I started here on this forum, I didn't know what to look for. So I took part in a signature bounty for four weeks. I didn't do any research, nor did I know how to choose. That was my very first campaign and to date I didn't get paid. Who knows if I will ever get paid because in the meantime the signature manager got red trust --- a good sign to stay away from the bounty campaign. It was a poor choice of mine and a wasted four weeks.  

[cleverboy_engineer]

The best way of learning from mistakes is getting experience.

Mankind learns best when he experinces it firsthand so trading with small amounts of money is good way to learn new things and become a real broker.

[sase007]

I get the impression you really fell for the crypto hype early on and therefore lost money? I personally would like to add that when it comes to investments, never invest in 1. something that already is pumping and 2. make sure you know yourself what it is you are investing in, and why! Once it reaches twitter you can assume the timeframe to buy and then sell for a profit is very narrow, it's the trap way too many people seem to get stuck in. But, it's good to bring up points like these! 

Yes discounts are usually offered at the start o the campaign, before heavy advertising.

You can only make profit if it gets dumped and you predict the time it reaches its lowest value and buy it up and then sell it when it gets pumped again (but realistically, it might never get pumped or it might take years for it to be pumped again).

The best way of learning from mistakes is getting experience.

Mankind learns best when he experinces it firsthand so trading with small amounts of money is good way to learn new things and become a real broker.

It's always great as a newbie to make what seems to be massive losses and learn from them. You usually don't have much as a newbie so it's not much you lose but a lot you learn for when you get larger amounts...

[Hagmonar]

I do not agree in #5 mistake since Airdrop is the one who helped me to get an experience in trading. I got $200 dollars worth of token just by doing airdrop.

When I was doing my first trade in a Crypto Exchange. I waited for about a month hoping that the $200 dollar worth of airdrop wi go up but suddenly it didn't happen, I ended up selling when the market of that coin is falling.
 
I think you should add greed as one of the common mistakes of beginners.

[nakamura12]

Number 4 is definitely one I agree with. Airdrops and the like cause a lot of spam to this forum. I'd also suggest that you don't participate in icos unless the developers are well trusted or the source code gets released and looks worthy of the amount per token that the developers/marketers are asking for it.

You are right but we can't stop the airdrops as ICOs start an airdrop to spread their tokens so the holder of their token will increase. I did join airdrop but when I checked it I can't even earn money from it as it will only cost you transaction fee for the airdrop token you want to sell that doesn't even cover your fee.

[sase007]

Number 4 is definitely one I agree with. Airdrops and the like cause a lot of spam to this forum. I'd also suggest that you don't participate in icos unless the developers are well trusted or the source code gets released and looks worthy of the amount per token that the developers/marketers are asking for it.

You are right but we can't stop the airdrops as ICOs start an airdrop to spread their tokens so the holder of their token will increase. I did join airdrop but when I checked it I can't even earn money from it as it will only cost you transaction fee for the airdrop token you want to sell that doesn't even cover your fee.

You mean in Gas to send it.

I forgot that'd add value to the coin as everyone has to pay to transfer it to the exchange. If that didn't happen, I could see people selling them for a lot less, i.e. 1 sat per coin.

[Velkro]

Mistake #3: Taking advantage of market arbitrage!
Taking advantage of market arbitrage is great.

This is risky. Arbitrage is one of the most risky job in bitcoin world. If you count in transaction delays, all exchange problems, from FIAT block, BTC block/account block, exchange malfunction/downtime. Not to say about price fluctuation +30% in 10 minutes, you are safe to say its only for insane people

[Ciscopro2000]

I like #2 the best.  Far too many people fear they will miss out the next big coin or run and use up way too much of their capital.  It’s human nature I guess.  I’ve fallen victim myself a few times but now I’m much more cautious.  I tend to take my time, research, and do my due diligence before jumping into any new investment or hobby nowadays 

[pooya87]

Mistake #3: Taking advantage of market arbitrage!

when you are talking about "newbies" then you should be talking about advanced subjects like this. arbitrage trading is the advanced version of regular trading and for a newbie it is best to only stick to regular trading and not to touch any other strategy like this. specially since these methods (like arbitrage) require additional tools such as bots to be performed faster and with more accuracy. and a newbie should stay away from bots.

[Gembul0705]

Mistake #3: Taking advantage of market arbitrage!
Taking advantage of market arbitrage is great.

This is risky. Arbitrage is one of the most risky job in bitcoin world. If you count in transaction delays, all exchange problems, from FIAT block, BTC block/account block, exchange malfunction/downtime. Not to say about price fluctuation +30% in 10 minutes, you are safe to say its only for insane people

i agree with this. example like 3 day ago when bitcoin diamond at binance is open wallet many user trader wanna arbit their asset to binance at 10.00 AM (UTC) because the price $15 but we must waiting 6 confirmation at 1 hour to waiting then when the deposit is success the price is dump.and the we don't get profit.

Mistake #4: Do not waste your time participating in crappy airdrops/referral/bounty!
I can say that 90% of all the airdrops, referrals, and bounty campaigns are pure crap. Do not waste your time with these useless ways to get some extra coins.

i don't agree with this statement i have join bounty campaign and i get reward that worth maybe $300. I think bounty campaign still worth but you must selected bounty. maybe from bounty manager or bounty that paid you with some btc.

[SuiMikira]

Mistake #3: Taking advantage of market arbitrage!

when you are talking about "newbies" then you should be talking about advanced subjects like this. arbitrage trading is the advanced version of regular trading and for a newbie it is best to only stick to regular trading and not to touch any other strategy like this. specially since these methods (like arbitrage) require additional tools such as bots to be performed faster and with more accuracy. and a newbie should stay away from bots.

You are right, newbies shouldn't try arbitrage trading because this market is very harsh, even that traders with many years of trading experience can easy to lose. If newbies join this market, they will be immediately defeated by trading bots and trading experts.

[Ardavan2150]

[

Mistake #3: Taking advantage of market arbitrage!
Taking advantage of market arbitrage is great.

This is risky. Arbitrage is one of the most risky job in bitcoin world. If you count in transaction delays, all exchange problems, from FIAT block, BTC block/account block, exchange malfunction/downtime. Not to say about price fluctuation +30% in 10 minutes, you are safe to say its only for insane people

i agree with this. example like 3 day ago when bitcoin diamond at binance is open wallet many user trader wanna arbit their asset to binance at 10.00 AM (UTC) because the price $15 but we must waiting 6 confirmation at 1 hour to waiting then when the deposit is success the price is dump.and the we don't get profit.

Mistake #4: Do not waste your time participating in crappy airdrops/referral/bounty!
I can say that 90% of all the airdrops, referrals, and bounty campaigns are pure crap. Do not waste your time with these useless ways to get some extra coins.

i don't agree with this statement i have join bounty campaign and i get reward that worth maybe $300. I think bounty campaign still worth but you must selected bounty. maybe from bounty manager or bounty that paid you with some btc.

Thanks for your comment. I absolutely agree that airdrops and bounty campaigns should not be completely ignored. I am just pointing out the fact that most of these are just a big scam. It is therefore better to do research before participating in one. I agree with your point that there are some campaigns that definitely worth participating.

[Rameshvijay45]

I am newbie of cytrocurrency  thanks for teaching of these  points it's very helpful to me.experience makes man perfect that your experience on this cytrocurrency was shows this.

[Alone055]

Looking at the past experiences of mine, one thing comes to my mind that every newbie should know and should avoid doing:

Never get into trading, if you don't really know what you are doing. Most of the times, people think that it is very easy - you go in with some money and come out with profits once the market goes up. No! It is not that easy as it seems. The people that are earning profits out of trading everyday, every week or every month are the ones who understand the market very well. Just having an initial investment and a little bit of knowledge of how trading works isn't enough to turn your $100 into $1000, unless you are extremely lucky, but not everyone is so lucky. So, if you don't want to lose your money, then just don't do it until you learn the way of doing it. Greed is usually what compels us to do things that we are not supposed to do, gambling and trading are two appropriate examples of that, though quite different in nature because gambling is based solely on luck, while trading requires knowledge and experience along with some luck, but the cost can be the same for both of them if we think we can pull it off because we have greed in our mind, we are doing a mistake.

[Reedah]

wow, you did a good job there really i mean i agree with the fact that people here are not that supportive but telling all these will us newbies a lot. thank you i must say.

[Atlantic12]

Thank you very much it has been very helpful to me.