Am I the only one getting a sick enjoyment from the people that are freaking out about the crypto prices right now? Maybe I'm a bad person.
I don't mean them any harm, truly! But I can just see their mistakes so clearly. Their emotions swaying to and fro with the turn of the market tides.
You see, I've been through it all before... 3 times in bitcoin, many more times if you include altcoins. Bubbles rise, they burst... But just like a simmering pasta sauce, the bubbles are being forming and bursting because the pan is hot!
Tonight I was speaking to a friend of a friend about bitcoin, and like many people he asked what I think of the deflated crypto markets. Like many, he bought for the first time a few months ago, like many, he spread his cryptocurrency portfolio quite thin across a variety of alt-coins, and like many, he is concerned about diminishing value!
I feel for him, and many others, because it's their first experience in crypto - but I also feel a sick enjoyment.
"You're 3 months into a 5-10 year play," I said, "you can't see the forest for the trees."
Nothing has fundamentally changed about bitcoin - it's still the digital competitor to gold, a trust-less currency, an incredibly powerful network, a public ledger, the most revolutionary invention since the internet, et cetera, et cetera.
Oh... but "this time is different" right? Nope. There's a great book, aptly named This Time Is Different by Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff and it's about how throughout history, market collapses have always been viewed by pundits as "this time it's different", "this time it's actually the end of the world!". Spoiler alert: it never is.
Human nature is to get over-excited about things when they're good, and over-fearful when things are bad. If you haven't already, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE watch this video. It's by the investment genius Ray Dalio:
If you're stressed about the prices, then calm down. Emotions drive rationalizations, (not rationality) and rationalizations will make you think your feeling is correct. They're not. Emotions have a long-time contrarian relationship with markets. When you think it's all over, you should be buying - when things are going amazing, you sell.
Doing the opposite to your emotions is a better strategy than trusting your gut unless you're an educated trader (Check out this free trading course!).
If you're looking at charts and seeing anything other than an amazing long term opportunity, then stop looking. Delete the charting apps, un-bookmark the websites, unsubscribe from the emails - just forget about the money you have invested. It's money you could afford to lose anyway, right? ;)