Rate my portfolio progress

[Len Saldua]

As an aspiring investor / trader I rate my progress all the time. And I'm not talking daily progress, because in this crazy bear market we're all struggling day to day. But longer term... I believe we should all do an honest assessment, so here is mine. At some point in early to mid-May I exited the market, which to me it meant basically entering the bear market territory. Believe it or not I put almost all of my crypto tokens money into PAXG ( Gold ) not Tether or USDC. One Altcoin I didn't sell I left there to this day.

So lets say my portfolio value was $9,000 when BTC was 30K in Mid May
And lets say my portfolio value now as we enter September is also $9,000 when BTC is exactly $20K

How well did I do? Can I aspire to be a professional trader / investor one day ?
I have 2 years 3 months experience investing / trading and have tripled my original investment during this time.

P.S. My strategy since mid May has been to dollar cost average on various promising Alts ( high risk to low risk ) and sell my Gold into Tether and USDC when I sensed trading opportunities were near. I also bought a lot of Ethereum when BTC hit 18K. So my portfolio is highly diversified now, which wasn't before in Mid-May. Gold is still my biggest holding, Ethereum my second biggest, BTC my third.

[jossiel]

You have managed to save the value of your portfolio when it's up and when the market is down. You're doing good.

Yes, you can aspire to be a good trader someday or be both together as an investor. All the results that you'll be getting will dictate how good you are.

And that's what you have to do. It's gonna be a long process but show everyone how much you're winning and minimize your losses.

[GreatArkansas]

(.....)
P.S. My strategy since mid May has been to dollar cost average on various promising Alts ( high risk to low risk ) and sell my Gold into Tether and USDC when I sensed trading opportunities were near. I also bought a lot of Ethereum when BTC hit 18K. So my portfolio is highly diversified now, which wasn't before in Mid-May. Gold is still my biggest holding, Ethereum my second biggest, BTC my third.

Are you trading here? If yes, on what basis? Like how do you identify your entry, stop loss (if there is any), or take profits area?

Looks like you trade in a different way or you are just a long-term investment which is more on accumulating/buying at cheap prices and waiting for the time before taking profits.

[mk4]

How well did I do? Can I aspire to be a professional trader / investor one day ?
I have 2 years 3 months experience investing / trading and have tripled my original investment during this time.

That's a fairly short duration — pretty much just a single bull-bear cycle. Congratulations on tripling your money, but the only way to know how good you are is if you actually do it consistently for years and years (probably at least 6+ years minimum, idk).

[noorman0]

-snip-
How well did I do? Can I aspire to be a professional trader / investor one day ?
I have 2 years 3 months experience investing / trading and have tripled my original investment during this time.

You did pretty well if it wasn't a fortuitous decision. And yes it is possible, professional traders are not only good at finding profit gaps, but how to maintain portfolio value in the midst of a bear market storm. Because you play in trading tend to be long term, your fundamental analysis should be more dominant every time you make an entry.
Maybe you are willing to share your thoughts on how the decision to buy PAXG was made when BTC @30k, while some people think that it is the deepest pit of decline.

[Oshosondy]

How well did I do? Can I aspire to be a professional trader / investor one day ?
I have 2 years 3 months experience investing / trading and have tripled my original investment during this time.

You sensed bear market, because of that, you converted your crypto assets to gold, waited for a while which was 3 months, now you converted to USDT while also converted some to Bitcoin and Ethereum, I see you more of an investor, but it depends on how long your are making this trades, if getting more than a month, two or three months, you are an investor.

You are good if truly you did this, I have thought of converting to a tokenized gold before too, its pretty good and better than converting to fiat, but USD pegged coins are not bad either, especially if you are a trader and knows some reasons USD can increase or decrease in price. The over 7.5 US inflation occured before may, that alone would encourage me to have some money in USD pegged coin instead because I know it would strengthen back a little and it happened like that. But converting to a tokenized gold is not bad either, which is even better, and you said that your $9000 still worth $9000, it's pretty good.

Good traders and an investors will always know if they are good or not, as long as they planned and turn the plan to profit often and often, that means they are good.

[tvplus006]

...So lets say my portfolio value was $9,000 when BTC was 30K in Mid May
And lets say my portfolio value now as we enter September is also $9,000 when BTC is exactly $20K...

If the value of your portfolio in dollar terms has not changed in the bear market, then you have managed to increase the number of coins, which is undoubtedly the right strategy. Accordingly, when the market becomes bullish, your strategy will lead to more profit.

[Mr.right85]

If those aren't assumptions, looking at the fact that, you would the term 'Maybe' in asserting the value of your holdings to be constant at $30k and $20k BTC price, I think your doing good.

Most reasons why we trade is that, we don't make a lot of loses and looking at the values of your holdings to be unchanged in a price drop of about $10k, you've done great for yourself.

But, it would be indifferent if you don't buy from a low and wait for the bull market to come in. Holding a stable coin at $20k and holding same amount at $50k makes no difference and doesn't make you a good investor either.
After determining a good point to hold in USDT, you too have to determine a good point to buy coins and hold for a bull market.

[Len Saldua]

Thanks for the feedback people. I made a lot of mistakes along the way but you've got to accept that as part of the learning process. I moved all my crypto funds into Pax Gold because I wanted an asset that was uncorrelated to Bitcoin and Ethereum, and noticed Gold held its value pretty well through early 2022. I also feel a real investor should have exposure to precious metals, even if these are tokenized assets and Pax Gold is backed by real Gold. Also I've heard some really bad things about Tether and how it's basically a "house of cards" and could collapse at any time. That said, I still need to have some Tether and USDC in my portfolio but Pax Gold could be another way to exit the bull market later on. If you own over a certain amount you can redeem it for real Gold by the way. I am also looking into Silver Stonks, another crypto which lets you access the Silver market and redeem it for real Silver. So even at the bottom of the bear market as we are now I am already planning my exit strategy for the next bull run .
My portfolio is now very diversified, I've used this time to learn to use DeFi , DEXs, hardware wallets and all about new promising projects. I also invest in some large cap trusted projects like Binance and Ethereum. I'm trying my hardest to buy each project at their lowest point but this is near impossible as nobody really knows where the bottom will be.
So to recap, I exited the market with a good amount of capital but realized I needed to put myself in a position that would allow me to grow exponentially whether the market goes up or down.

If the market goes up, my portfolio grows stronger, if the market goes down, I can acquire projects that have the potential to go 5X or 10X in the next bull run. It's risky, but I figured you can't be an investor if you hide your cash indefinitely.

[suzanne5223]

So lets say my portfolio value was $9,000 when BTC was 30K in Mid May
And lets say my portfolio value now as we enter September is also $9,000 when BTC is exactly $20K

It nice to evaluate the progress you're making in the market in every trend but to be honest with you your portfolio value can't be $9000 in mid-May and still be $9000 is this month. Besides, the last time I checked the so-called stablecoin also experience some dump in price at some point.

P.S. My strategy since mid May has been to dollar cost average on various promising Alts ( high risk to low risk ) and sell my Gold into Tether and USDC when I sensed trading opportunities were near. I also bought a lot of Ethereum when BTC hit 18K. So my portfolio is highly diversified now, which wasn't before in Mid-May. Gold is still my biggest holding, Ethereum my second biggest, BTC my third.

DCA is the best way to invest in crypto but I will advise you to make BTC your biggest holding now for better preparation for the next halving market.

[The Cryptovator]

I have to say you managed very well. I lost 50% of my portfolio during this bear. But your portfolio same even if BTC drops from $30K to $20K. And very good to hear you tripled your initial investment during your crypto trading/investment session. Assuming you had been gaining a lot of experience that's why you can manage your portfolio the right way. So again if you wrote right then you are on the right track.

[Len Saldua]

It nice to evaluate the progress you're making in the market in every trend but to be honest with you your portfolio value can't be $9000 in mid-May and still be $9000 is this month.

Maybe I did my numbers wrong ?    Well it did help to buy a lot of Ethereum when we hit 18K, and also I have a good, early position into projects like Optimism that went 3X at one point. So if we go back a few days ago ( when BTC hit 24K ) I was actually in profit compared to mid-May by quite a nice margin because many of my Alt positions did very well.

[Len Saldua]

You will definitely not become a professional trader, because you are a retail trader / retail investor, and do not work in an investment bank or hedge fund. A professional trader is someone who works for a salary, trading with investors' money.

Yes but it is a fact that you can make more money than some of these JP Morgan traders with crypto. I believe a Quant would make around 300K a year, and that's considered extremely well paid in the finance world. In crypto, 300K is nothing to brag about.
For me a professional trader / investor would be someone who makes enough from his investments to not need to worry about a 9 to 5 anymore, although even rich investors these days seem to always want more and end up running multiple businesses and working even longer hours than before.

[goaldigger]

That’s a lot of time already and you should be able to make some profit despite of the market situation. To become a good trader, you must have a good strategy though you are able to protect your capital which is also good but I think the time you spend in the market is quiet useless since there’s no profit at all.

The good thing here is you are learning, and that’s a good first step to become a good trading. Yes, diversification might also work so continue on doing that. Learn more about trading and once you do for sure you can make profit even the market enters into another bear trend, there’s a lot of opportunities here let’s always aim to learn and make profit.

[goinmerry]

Just continue what you think is better. Since you were able to get profits, then it means you are on the right track.

Try to maintain that winning records and minimize your losses while you progress.

It's good to inspire others but that's not your goal. Focus on building experience and someday you can guide others, especially those newbies in trading.

Good luck with your future trades.

[goldkingcoiner]

Alright so first let me get something off my chest.

I feel like we should stop worrying about the amount of dollars we make in profit and rather concentrate on the amount of Bitcoin that we make in profit. Although that being said, any profit is good profit. I just find Bitcoin profit more effective in the long term.

A tripling of your investment is quite good, nonetheless. I also agree with your DCA and diversification strategy. All good in my book. Best of luck to you!
 

[Mr.right85]

I feel like we should stop worrying about the amount of dollars we make in profit and rather concentrate on the amount of Bitcoin that we make in profit. Although that being said, any profit is good profit. I just find Bitcoin profit more effective in the long term.

Of course, the goal would always be to accumulate more bitcoin but, when you don't have more money or new money to buy from the dip, how do you get to increase your bitcoin holdings? You don't! You only get to wait on the bull market to increase its value and that, you don't know when it will be or how much it would appreciate.

Hence, these swaps is beneficial for this who knows how but what is most important for me is that, you get to buy bitcoin from the dip when you feel it has dippen other than, holding the coin and watch bitcoin rise again to $30k. You would have lost your chance of making some good profits from a bearish market.

[pooya87]

So lets say my portfolio value was $9,000 when BTC was 30K in Mid May
And lets say my portfolio value now as we enter September is also $9,000 when BTC is exactly $20K

How well did I do? Can I aspire to be a professional trader / investor one day ?

It is not possible to say only based on your stats (profits/losses). It is in fact dangerous to give an opinion this way. To clarify let me give you an example. During 2017 if you closed your eyes and choose any random coin to buy, there was a very high chance you could make a huge profit. Many newcomers made a lot of money during those months. That meant they all thought they were good at trading in this market.

Then came 2018 and since none of those people knew what they were doing, they started losing all the money they had made. In fact you can still find their  topics in this forum where they are either complaining about the dumps or giving each other confidence that they should be "patient" aka to continue bag hold the dumping shitcoins. Long story short majority of them lost all their money.

That's the problem with the altcoin market. The pump and dump-y nature of it means it is easy to earn a lot of money today and lose it all tomorrow if you don't know what you are getting involved in is an altcoin pump and dump. This is also why most people prefer to just stick to bitcoin instead.

For me a professional trader / investor would be someone who makes enough ~

I disagree. An actual professional is not someone who makes money but someone who makes good decisions in all market conditions because of the experience he has. Obviously due to those good decisions he has to also make profit but as a result not the main defining factor.

[ethereumhunter]

You are already an investor because you have started buying gold (paxg) and have altcoins like ethereum. In this case, you need to set what your target is in investing, I mean, do you immediately sell your assets when the price increases high? Or do you have a timeframe when you can sell your investments?

I see you have experience in trading so I guess you can try to trade again to make a profit because now can be a good time to buy and sell later when it goes up. Market conditions that continue to fluctuate as of now allow you to buy low and sell high so you have the opportunity to make a profit.

[suzanne5223]

It nice to evaluate the progress you're making in the market in every trend but to be honest with you your portfolio value can't be $9000 in mid-May and still be $9000 is this month.

Maybe I did my numbers wrong ?    Well it did help to buy a lot of Ethereum when we hit 18K, and also I have a good, early position into projects like Optimism that went 3X at one point. So if we go back a few days ago ( when BTC hit 24K ) I was actually in profit compared to mid-May by quite a nice margin because many of my Alt positions did very well.

In this bear market, I consider you lucky since all your altcoin investments are doing well in the market as you claim because the bear market continually exposes the weak coin and it is also the season where some coins will disappear from the market.
Having said that, I will advise you to make Bitcoin your priority when making an investment decisions.