Hello all!
So, in 2017 I wrote this article and posted it on Paul’s blog. Now it’s on my website :). I am a friend and ex-colleague of Paul. We have known each other for, what is it now? A year? And within that year Paul got me interested in the world of finance. Finance is a broad understanding. With finance, I mean the interest in stocks and cryptocurrencies. And especially that last one. Cryptocurrencies caught me like a butterfly within the first day and immediately I learned what the opportunities were. Some people call it ‘The high seas of success’. However, I’ve been asked to share my experiences on this market.
So to start off, I am not trying to get anyone into cryptocurrency and I am not an advisor. I am here to share my experiences.
The world of cryptocurrencies can be very frightening when you start. The most logical questions pop-up in your mind. What is it? Where does it come from? Why does it even exist? I’ll start with explaining what crypto is. So, cryptocurrencies are digital assets which are designed to work as a currency, such as the euro or dollar, to secure transactions and to control the creation of additional units of the currency. But, this is so vague to understand. As I’ve mentioned before, you can find success in this market. So in a nutshell. You can make money.
When I started with cryptocurrencies, I started trading on a platform called Kraken.com. This platform is considered legit among traders. This is where my interest in cryptocurrency really started to grow. Not like most people, who start to trade in Bitcoin, the mother of all cryptocurrencies, I started to trade in Stellar Lumens. My initial investment was €100 and it quickly turned to €130 in less than a day. And all I could think about is, how is this possible? You have to know, before crypto, I have been buying stocks and funds and until today, I haven’t been profiting 30% in a day. This was the moment that I thought. Ok, calm down. Time to research more and find out what my opportunities are. This was the moment things started to change.
After my first investment, it got a bit quiet on my side. I was busy with school, working a lot. But never did I stop with researching this particular market. Then I made another move, which was buying bitcoin. Now you need to know, everyone can buy bitcoin. You can either choose to buy one whole bitcoin (which is pretty expensive) or you can buy 0.0001 bitcoin. This market offers a price that everyone has, and in comparison to stock exchanges, the fees are much, much lower. So this was the moment I bought my first bitcoin shares. I felt happy in the knowledge that this investment was safe. At that time the bitcoin was worth around $1400. After researching more crypto’s, I decided that I wanted to buy Ripple. Now, this is where I started to panic. Ripple is a very successful company, they have made major steps in the crypto world. However, little did I know, a huge crash was coming up. Due to lack of sufficient research, I suffered a huge loss and due to my inexperience I thought just like at the normal stock exchanges, this will pass and everything will turn to normal. However, this market is not normal.
After that, I retreated and watched the market move up and down for a while. Then I decided to jump back in. Reading other people’s experiences and finding out which factors are important. When I jumped back in, the bitcoin was worth approx. $2100. Nowadays, it is worth almost $6000. One thing you need to know is that I didn’t profit $3900. I am an active investor, I watch the market closely and make a move when I find an opportunity. I don’t own multiple currencies, I invest in a currency when I think the time is right.
To sum up. My experience on this market has brought up a lot of emotions. Excitement, nerve wrecking, worry, elation, joy, regret, pretty much every emotion you can imagine. I have seen the opportunities the cryptocurrencies can offer. But I’ve also seen how fragile and inconsistent this market is. Of course, this is not my full story. But for now, I am sitting in quite a comfortable position watching my assets go up and down and carefully plan my next move … As Paul said: ‘The world of finance is a beautiful but monstrous place’. Not a word is lied about that.