Things I learned through the years of Buying and Trading Bitcoin

[usorin]

Hi, I am interested in cryptocurrencies and Bitcoin since 2014 and want to provide some advice I have gained through the years and experience.

• Never invest what you can't afford to lose. This includes your whole life savings, child college funds, all your rent money.
• Use a paper wallet so you don't keep your copy of the seed phrase in your PC. I still suggest using a hardware wallet as a backup in case the paper gets wet, faded or destroyed.
• Use a hardware wallet for backup.You can get one with 50USD and it's one of the best investments you can do for your funds.
• Don't get in debt buying Bitcoin. It's never a good idea to get in debt in risky investments. This includes buying Bitcoin with a credit card. I started like this and it's not a good idea because interest rates. I now buy only with cash it's a lot better!
• Don't leave crypto on exchanges. That's why you got a hardware wallet, withdraw your funds on a constant basis to your wallet. If you leave your crypto
• Don't put your seed phrase on online backup. I lost some funds putting a screenshot in a Dropbox account. There are bots that scan .txt for seed phrases. Use physical media there are good metallic cases to use. If you can't avoid making an online backup then use 7ZIP to encrypt a screenshot of your seed phrase(no text) and protect your file with a strong password. That would make harder for bots to discover.
• Don't make public your earnings. This is to prevent someone with bad intentions to steal your crypto, especially if they know where you live.
• If trading and investing in crypto is it is causing you severe anxiety/depression, please stop for a while. I had to stop for some years due to anxiety. If you are risking your physical and mental health then the money it's not good.
• Learn techniques like DCA (Dollar Cost Average). This is so you buy a constant amount in a determined day. So, for example, buy $10 USD of Bitcoin each day per 6 months. This will teach you to be discipline on investment and don't fall of FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) or use sentiment and do a panic sell.
• Set clear goals. Why are you investing? Do you believe in the technology of blockchain? Just for pure speculation? Set clear goals of prices to enter and prices to exit and what % you can afford to lose to avoid further losses.

I won't go on recommending products but you can go and do a google search comparison of hardware wallets and physical steel wallets for seed phrase.
Note that these are things I have learned by myself so you don't fall in the same pitfalls I did.

I am also a developer and love creating blockchain products, so try to have some fun doing all your crypto tradings. Thanks for reading and have a good day.

Edit: Added Paper wallets as jjjfff suggested.

There is wisemend in this lines. I could add don't trust in every roomer.

[justspare]

Thanks man, you have really said it all, and I love that part where you said people should learn things on their own, this is one big major problem of many people that complains they fail a lot in their trades, I realize that some are quite too lazy in reading, they are lazy in making research and prefers to depend on people’s analysis than their own analysis forgetting the fact that whatever analysis that is available to the person we rely on, is the same analysis that is available to us to.

Plus, that part of never invest what you cannot afford to lose, many of them knows this, but out of greed, then invest more money because they know that the more money you put, the bigger the profit, but forgetting that reverse could be the case.

[omonuyak]

It has been a principle in forex trading in investing what we can not afford to lose.  Many people will not take this warning seriously and sometimes even invest money they got through borrowing. It most important that we should know that 75% of the traders do lose money in investments and it is very important you should know that your investment is going to turn to profits or not.

[Reid]

All are important for basic security.

If a user follow this steps then they wont have any problem afterwards. Paper wallet or any physical thing you could do just so you will have a back up that only you could access it.
I prefer the old school using a real paper and just looking at it monthly if the alpha numeric phrase is already faded.
I did not thought of using steel and embedding it but that might work to avoid fading. It will take longer than just tint.

Thanks.

[sunsilk]

I remember few years ago(2017) when someone was determined that he would want to have bitcoin because of the market situation by that time. Yes, 2017's bull encouraged him and he wanted to take loan for investing to bitcoin.

And you know what came next, the market came down by 2018 and so on, and the rest is history. Never invest what you can't afford to lose and don't take loans for investing to bitcoin if you can't cater the risk.

Boasting of your crypto earnings is pride, it is okay to before to share on how much you earn but due to some situations that crypto robbery happened. It is the best idea to keep it to yourself on how much you are making with crypto's.

[breathlessz]

It has been a principle in forex trading in investing what we can not afford to lose.  Many people will not take this warning seriously and sometimes even invest money they got through borrowing. It most important that we should know that 75% of the traders do lose money in investments and it is very important you should know that your investment is going to turn to profits or not.

mental factors and being aware of risk are the main things that must be learned. Psychology determines the success of a trader. as good as any technique that is owned, without the existence of a solid psychology, it will be loss

[Ellen Adarna]

The things that i learned through the years of buying and trading bitcoin is never expect too much in the coin that you bought because the market is volatile that the price of cryptocurrencies can be sometimes have an ups and downs. I also learned that not everytime you cannot apply the technique of buy low and sell high because it is risky. For now, I am looking for a trusted trading exchange that i can easily convert my fiats and altcoins into bitcoin and vice versa, then i started to found Darb finance where it is a wallet and exchange of fiat and cryptocurrencies. Finding a trusted exchange and crypto wallet is also the thing that i learned, so i could not get steal by hackers.

[shield132]

Well, good OP, your suggestion is combination of already a lot of times written ones but that doesn't matter much, I really appreciate when people post their honest personal experiences.
But I don't agree at some point: If you don't invest more than what you can't afford to lose, then such investment won't bring you satisfied profit. The more you risk, the higher reward you get or lose. Depends on your goals, be smart. Some people choose all or nothing, reward is huge if your action is correct but lose is more tragical, one redditor lost house because he imvested in btc when price was 20k.
Maybe I was saying another thing and continue of my proposal makes it foggy but to sum up, if you invest what you can afford to lose, then profit will be so much low, such game doesn't worth to my mind and is very boring.

[Ranly123]

There are still a lot to learn in cryptocurrency. Not just buying and trading Bitcoin but your ideas are also applicable to other altcoins as well. As long as you don't compromise your money for daily consumptions, then do whatever you want for your convenience.

[Reid]

There are still a lot to learn in cryptocurrency. Not just buying and trading Bitcoin but your ideas are also applicable to other altcoins as well. As long as you don't compromise your money for daily consumptions, then do whatever you want for your convenience.

That is because of the newly created coins.
It is like all of them are trying to make a token that will better bitcoin or Ethereum but yet there are still holes in it.

I dont think there will be a perfect one if money is still the purpose of creating it. Unlike the bitcoin technology which is really created for change. You cannot find someone out there who will give his all for a better end.

Until all of that bitcoins of Satoshi is intact, I will give my full trust to it.
But also, he have his rights to use it or withdrew it. But I am guessing that wont happen because bitcoin is like his baby.

[pieppiep]

There are still a lot to learn in cryptocurrency. Not just buying and trading Bitcoin but your ideas are also applicable to other altcoins as well. As long as you don't compromise your money for daily consumptions, then do whatever you want for your convenience.

I think you will find it difficult if you learn it all in a direct way, at least you have to be able to step up and try new trading methods and as much as possible to make a profit so that from there you can learn cryptocurrency deeper to be able to benefit.

[Vaculin]

There are still a lot to learn in cryptocurrency. Not just buying and trading Bitcoin but your ideas are also applicable to other altcoins as well. As long as you don't compromise your money for daily consumptions, then do whatever you want for your convenience.

Yes. Just invest what you can afford to lose so you will not end up being frustrated. And as much as possible learn to take risks in crypto investing or trading because you won't hit your target goal if you will not be brave enough in the first place. There are no guarantees in crypto that you will make an immediate profit because of its high volatility so learn to wait and be patient.

[The Sceptical Chymist]

All good advice but kinda obvious I'd say.

True, but it was a well-written summary of some things newbies to bitcoin ought to know. 

I keep all my seed phrases and passwords and such in a notebook, which I keep in a safe.  It's secure enough for me, and since I don't own a massive amount of crypto, if I lost everything I wouldn't be homeless. 

Very good advice about not investing more than you can afford to lose.  I've heard that said so many times in the gambling section, it's ridiculous--but very true.  It's valuable to remember this when bitcoin starts to go crazy and FOMO kicks in.  Those threads I read back in 2017 where people were selling stuff to buy bitcoin that they probably shouldn't have been made me cringe.  Investing in crypto can be a wild ride, and newbies might not be prepared for it.

Good thread, OP.

[gabmen]

There are still a lot to learn in cryptocurrency. Not just buying and trading Bitcoin but your ideas are also applicable to other altcoins as well. As long as you don't compromise your money for daily consumptions, then do whatever you want for your convenience.

Yes. Just invest what you can afford to lose so you will not end up being frustrated. And as much as possible learn to take risks in crypto investing or trading because you won't hit your target goal if you will not be brave enough in the first place. There are no guarantees in crypto that you will make an immediate profit because of its high volatility so learn to wait and be patient.

Of course you learn all these through time and practice. The term no guarantee should already be expected by the time you put your first buy order. Everything develops over time and all these things you'll pick up in a series of gains and busts.

[whirlcoin]

Hi, I am interested in cryptocurrencies and Bitcoin since 2014 and want to provide some advice I have gained through the years and experience.

• Never invest what you can't afford to lose. This includes your whole life savings, child college funds, all your rent money.
• Use a paper wallet so you don't keep your copy of the seed phrase in your PC. I still suggest using a hardware wallet as a backup in case the paper gets wet, faded or destroyed.
• Use a hardware wallet for backup.You can get one with 50USD and it's one of the best investments you can do for your funds.
• Don't get in debt buying Bitcoin. It's never a good idea to get in debt in risky investments. This includes buying Bitcoin with a credit card. I started like this and it's not a good idea because interest rates. I now buy only with cash it's a lot better!
• Don't leave crypto on exchanges. That's why you got a hardware wallet, withdraw your funds on a constant basis to your wallet. If you leave your crypto
• Don't put your seed phrase on online backup. I lost some funds putting a screenshot in a Dropbox account. There are bots that scan .txt for seed phrases. Use physical media there are good metallic cases to use. If you can't avoid making an online backup then use 7ZIP to encrypt a screenshot of your seed phrase(no text) and protect your file with a strong password. That would make harder for bots to discover.
• Don't make public your earnings. This is to prevent someone with bad intentions to steal your crypto, especially if they know where you live.
• If trading and investing in crypto is it is causing you severe anxiety/depression, please stop for a while. I had to stop for some years due to anxiety. If you are risking your physical and mental health then the money it's not good.
• Learn techniques like DCA (Dollar Cost Average). This is so you buy a constant amount in a determined day. So, for example, buy $10 USD of Bitcoin each day per 6 months. This will teach you to be discipline on investment and don't fall of FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) or use sentiment and do a panic sell.
• Set clear goals. Why are you investing? Do you believe in the technology of blockchain? Just for pure speculation? Set clear goals of prices to enter and prices to exit and what % you can afford to lose to avoid further losses.

I won't go on recommending products but you can go and do a google search comparison of hardware wallets and physical steel wallets for seed phrase.
Note that these are things I have learned by myself so you don't fall in the same pitfalls I did.

I am also a developer and love creating blockchain products, so try to have some fun doing all your crypto tradings. Thanks for reading and have a good day.

Edit: Added Paper wallets as jjjfff suggested.

[okala]

There are still a lot to learn in cryptocurrency. Not just buying and trading Bitcoin but your ideas are also applicable to other altcoins as well. As long as you don't compromise your money for daily consumptions, then do whatever you want for your convenience.

Yes everyday learning on new methods and new development as you go further in the usage of cryptocurrency and trading process, once you got the right knowledge on how the trading market works you need to upgrade your skills and develop your self to be able to make the right choice.

[olamidey]

I found the first rule very interesting. Just like Forex, I always advice people not to invest more than what they can afford to lose. This way you won't get burnt. The major challenge is most traders trade with their emotions. That's the first step to losses.  The second will be don't leave crypto on the exchange. The reason some do this is because of getting free tokens from forks. Once you get the forked coin, take out your crypto asap.

[Mahanton]

All good advice but kinda obvious I'd say.

True, but it was a well-written summary of some things newbies to bitcoin ought to know. 

I keep all my seed phrases and passwords and such in a notebook, which I keep in a safe.  It's secure enough for me, and since I don't own a massive amount of crypto, if I lost everything I wouldn't be homeless. 

Very good advice about not investing more than you can afford to lose.  I've heard that said so many times in the gambling section, it's ridiculous--but very true.  It's valuable to remember this when bitcoin starts to go crazy and FOMO kicks in.  Those threads I read back in 2017 where people were selling stuff to buy bitcoin that they probably shouldn't have been made me cringe.  Investing in crypto can be a wild ride, and newbies might not be prepared for it.

Good thread, OP.

Investing on the amount that you can afford to lose.- Yeah- a very very common thing that had been said for hundred of thousand times when it comes to investment and so as with gambling
yet people do still fail on considering this rule when they are being caught up in a FOMO or Hype which it would result into negative outcome which opposes into their
expectation.

[daarul50]

Almost all traders experience the same experience. But, maybe traders and investors disagree about the wallet used especially about the hardware wallet. whether online wallet or hard wallet is as good as security as long as we don't tell anyone the seed phrase we have to access a wallet that we have and use as an investment wallet in the form of bitcoin.

[yulchatar]

Perhaps, I would have combined two paragraphs -  not investing more than you can afford to lose and don't get in debt buying bitcoin. In my opinion, this is the same thing. Since the one who borrows money initially takes someone else's, and in case he loses this money, he will lose doubly.