First I have to adress that this is guide for newbie investors who don't have any experience in trading and should be common sense or irrelevant for those with more experience. Also note that my advice might not be correct and you should always check multiple sources before making decisions.
I have seen a lot of people getting burned by making bad decisions by inexperience so I will provide some info that might prevent you from losing big time or limit the damage.
1.0 First important thing is that You won't miss out on anything. Take your time and learn what are you getting into. What is cryptocurreny? Who made it? Why does it have value? What are the benefits? How would you describe it if someone asked you what is bitcoin?
It is like checking out new car which you plan on buying. Once you learn something about it, even if you miss out later on You will have much better chance of making a good deal rather than just fearing of missing out on a good deal and ending up with problems later on.
Note that there are plenty of opportunities everywhere, prices will always go up and down, don't rush.
Here is a usefull slang dictionary by "
theyoungmillionaire"
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=3250658
2.0 How and where are you going to buy asset? How safe are you? Where are you going to hold it?
2.1 I won't share any website exchanges because in the future they might turn bad or die. Look around forum what are the current trusted exchanges with low fees and assets you are going to trade.
2.2 How safe is your device that you are accessing exchanges and your wallet? I would recommend using separate device which purpose is just to be used as access point. No games, no downloading, no porn. As more people get interested into trading there is the same ammount of interest of someone stealing your coins and there is no chargeback. Once your coins are gone, they are gone for good.
2.3 Depending if you are going for long/short term investiment or daily trading you want to choose the right place to hold your assets. For investing I would strongly suggest on using hardware or cold storage wallet which will prevent any hacker attack or accident that might get your data compromosed. Unless you are daily trading I don't suggest holding balance on exchanges or any 3rd party wallets where someone else is in control of your private key. Hackers are on high alert looking how to access fortune on exchanges. Exchange could suddenly terminate or limit your account, error might happen and you will stay locked out of your funds just like that. Check what happened to
Mt.Gox
3.0 Start slow like I said there is no missing out. Keep track of your moves. Take notes during journey.
3.1 You are all set up for buying asset. Test waters by going slow. Exechange certain amount and withdraw it to your wallet. You don't want to deposit $1k to find out that there are limits, long delays or your account gets locked until you vertify it. Once you pass that step, if you want to trade start with small amount. It will take time until you figure out how market moves, you don't want to take unnecessary risks. It's better to burn 100 bucks and learn from it than gamble.
3.2 Keep track of how much have you invested. Make excell document or whatever and write dates, deposits, reasons, add your comments on why did you deposit and for what purpose. Know your limits of how much are you willing to lose. Keep in mind that all money that you are going to deposit could be lost. Disconnect your emotions from it. If for whatever reason you start to worry about it the best thing is to withdraw it immediately and reconsider what do you want to do before making a mistake.
3.3 As previous said, making documentation is very handy thing for being responsible investor. Make excell document or whatever you prefer and add notes about what have you learned, your goals, plan your moves ahead. In the future it will come very handy to understand why did you make certain moves and how to improve your decision making. I even like to make a prediction on other assets that I don't trade based on my current understanding and then later on I can see if I was making good decisions and it is great way to follow project developments.
4.0 Learn public moves. Isolate emotions.
4.1 A good trader can spot a good time to buy or sell just by public activity. Watch news, influential people, follow project and this forum. When there is a lot of talks on the news, people being enthusiastic, charts going only green. It is a good sign of a building hype. When you see ads everwhere popping to buy bitcoin and you are being served FOMO, then you should know that the ones that are willing to sell you asset at that time are cashing out their profits.
While you have silent times where nobody talks about it, devs continue to be active, forums and people who are into it spread fear and HODL. Based on where are the charts you could consider buying some of the asset if you really like the project (This the time when all your notes come handy aswell).
4.2 There is difference between feelings and emotions. Usually doing anything with high emotions is considered gambling because they can rapidly change and you could make decision which will make you later regret. Everything is about collecting information and rational thinking. Learning how to deal with your emotions will make you better trader. Here is one more way why collecting your own data will calm you down when you read your own comments and decisions that you made while investing.
5.0 Don't trust anyone
5.1 Never trust any information, especially news or ads suggesting you to trade. There is always someone behind it that makes profit out of it.
Don't read some article and beleve it or make decision based on it unless there are multiple different sources and you can check it. Whoever makes suggestions of doing certain action either wants to take profit out of you or has no clue what is talking about.
That being said Don't trust even me who told you that because I could be completely wrong.
There are plenty more things to say but I don't want to make too long rambling thread. If I find something important I will add later or someone else can add up and correct me if I said something wrong.
