Time In The Market Verses Timing The Market!
I've found that throughtout my 4 or 5 years in crypto that you have to be incredibly lucky to find a moonshot or someone who literally spends all their available time studying markets and trends to get in early before an explosive outbreak on a token. While there may be some of you who have developed a talent or skill for such, there are many more of us whom through poor luck, knowledge, ability, time or timing have fallen short of achieving a bankroll from a given project.
Emotions And The Ebs And Flows Of The Market.
I have had terrible luck, but I cannot deny that during my early days in crypto that I was probably my own worst enemy. Even more so than the rugs, poor timing and failed projects I invested in. One of the biggest enemies and probably bigger than the North Korean hacking syndicates is emotion.
Many people will tell you that. It took me years to reconcile to myself, I was my own worst enemy in crypto. I let emotion: Hope, fear, greed, denial, anger etc. impact my ability to stick to any strategy. When the market moved, I moved with it. I based many decisions on short term emotional thinking. I was always late to the party and later to leave even when I was well ahead. I realised my emotions were controlling me and that my mindset was all about timing the market.
Hitting The Reset Switch
About a year and a half ago, I was on the verge of leaving crypto forever. I had lost out big time. The markets had crashed and my double down strategy riding the wave down left me at an eye watering deficit. There were 2 things that kept me here. The amazing friends I had met on Hive and my belief in the concept of crypto. Let's face it I hated ce-fi even more than the losses I had incured in crypto! I sat down one night with a friend @giotrix and did some soul searching. I needed to change everything I was doing or I was doomed to become a casualty of the crypto space.
It was at this moment I realised, my belief in crypto was long term, so why wasn't my strategy? I mean I thought it was, but it wasn't long enough. It was at this moment, with the help of Gio and others who voiced their sound advice, I conceived a plan. I was going to begin DCA strategy and not the DCA strategy I thought I was already doing. I would start moving all my holdings, everything, realise my losses and move to stable staking. Stables are generally a USD pegged token issue by various crypto projects. HBD is the Hive Stable token. The returns are far less, but the volatility is almost 0 in most cases.
Changing Direction
From this moment everything changed. I began to see daily inflows to my holdings. I no longer cared about what the market was doing or which crypto I needed to be in. At last I had found peace of mind. Sure it wasn't the 1000X dream we hold in this space, but it was far better than what the evil centralised banks would offer me, I could still rebel and support the crypto revolution from a safe vantage point! Financial freedom and fair market value for all! Viva la Crypto Revolution!
And then something else happened! I realised I could hedge some of my gains from stables in DCA strategy with crypto. I mean I could actually hedge on both!
DCA From Stables
The idea of 'DCA' or 'Dollar Cost Averaging' strategy, is the idea that buying small, (or large if your Michael Saylor) amounts at regular intervals removes the ebs and flows of a cycle. It is widely accepted that it is probably the slower, but more proven concept for those of us who struggle to find the time to research the trends and the market.
Final Thoughts
I found my world changed in crypto when I began stable staking my holdings from one of despair to one of possibility. Then once I had built that up to a decent enough return per week, I could justify that return from my stable by adding fiat into my DCA in top 10 projects I liked in the bear and even continuing to DCA in the bull. Even if my DCA goes to 0, my stable stake just keeps doing it's thing, all I've lost is time. But since 1 year ago DCA has proven to have outpaced my stable staking which is just a bonus because I have gone in without any fear or emotion because this stragey has taken my emotions out of the equation. :)
If you are someone who has struggled in your crypto journey, never quite found that moonshot or have a habbit of picking out rugs/failed projects like I did, it's probably telling you, you need a different strategy. I would suggest don't be disheartened but maybe think about the approach of Stables and DCA.
Sure stable stable staking and DCA is a long term mindset. I found that learning to zoom out and control your emotions is probably the first lesson one needs to learn in crypto and I've found this strategy has removed them completely. If your are in a stable stake/DCA mindset, you find the daily moves dont effect you as much. The second is get stable staking! Sure it's slow, but it can be used as a hedge on your DCA moves and takes the guess work out of the equation while you slowly build toward your future.
The age old adage of: *'Time in the market verses timing the market' * has never been truer for me!
It's our journey through the world of crypto that brings us the lessons that will perhaps one day lead us to a place where we no longer feel bound by the restrictions of the centralised world. At least that is my hope and with my new outlook in crypto, it's never felt more real than it does now.
If you've made it this far. I humbly thank you for coming on the journey with me.
-----All images were generated on Canva to illustrate the thoughts in this post.------