Some things I wish someone told me starting out

It can be overwhelming getting into the world of cryptocurrency. There is certainly a lot to learn about the industry, and there are plenty of scammers looking to take advantage of the rookies in the market. I have been in crypto a while, and have made some successful trades and costly mistakes. I want to share a few things that I wish I had known as a beginner in crypto, and some basics that have helped me find some success along the way.

• Do not trade with any more than you can afford to lose, and do not trade on emotion. You are here on this subreddit because you are either contemplating on investing in crypto, or you already are. You have to believe in something to invest your money into it. If you believe that cryptocurrency is the future, then hodl strong and try not to check your portfolio too frequently. Understand that over time it will go up. Think of the reasons that led you to invest in crypto and know that even though the market might dip, it will probably go back up. It has proven this time and time again throughout the years, and I have no reason to believe it is going to slow down. It can be scary losing +20% of your accounts value overnight and everything inside of you will want to sell. When you are trading with money that you can't afford to lose, those emotions are amplified. Think twice before letting go of your position. Look at the long term charts for most of the top coins and you will see that they survive the dips historically. We are invested in something that has far too much room for growth, so remember that before you get out of the top coins early.
• Next, I would put at least 75% of my total investment into the top coins. I don't want to be too specific with which coins, but you can do your own research and figure out which TOP coins are best for you. There is still so much room to grow. WE ARE EARLY! Over time, this 75% is going to cover any losses that you may have with the other 25% of your money if there are any! HODL strong with those top coins! This 75% in the top may become 50% of your total portfolio in time, but anything less is treading in dangerous waters. Get comfortable with the market and the volatility of it first before you decide to jump into altcoins.
• If you use the other 25% of your investment to dabble in altcoins, make sure not to be too greedy. Altcoins can go to the moon quickly, but can come crashing down just as fast. You might see a coin (COIN X) trading for a $1. Tomorrow it's $2. The next day it's $6. You think that you can just jump in and ride it up to $10, and the next thing you know is you bought in at $7 and it's trading at $3 a day later. Just like that, you lost over half your money on a coin that is going to crawl closer and closer to $0. Don't blindly jump on a train because you see a coin keep going up that you have had your eyes on. If you miss the move, you miss it. THERE ARE THOUSANDS OF COINS. DO NOT INVEST INTO ALTCOINS WITH YOUR EMOTIONS BECAUSE IT MAKES IT HARDER TO SELL POOR PERFORMERS. Move on and make some money on the next coin that you are willing to invest your hard earned money into. While the top coins are at or nearing all time highs, many of the lower cap altcoins from the last bull run aren't even trading at 10% of what they were, and many of those projects have died off.
• The lower market cap coins have the most room to grow and multiply your money, but also are more likely to go to zero. If a coin has a lower market cap and it is in a hot sector, there is a good chance that it can move in time. If you go on reddit and CMC, you can find out a lot about the various projects. Ask some questions to yourself when you are about to invest. BE CYNICAL. These projects are getting YOUR MONEY that you may never see again. Do you believe that this project can be something? Is there a team with an identity working on it? What problems is your project trying to solve? Who is their competition and are they doing things better? The lower down the list that you go, the more likely it is that there is a project further up the list doing it better, but know that there are plenty of diamonds in the rough if you look hard enough!
• You are going to read a lot of fantastical stuff on here about coins about to surge and go to the moon. Be extremely cautious as a lot of those projects are pump and dumps or scams. Please, DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH and don't just invest in a project because someone on here sounded smart and that's what they said to do. This market is still so SPECULATIVE and nobody can predict what will happen.
• If I put my money into a lower cap coin and it doubles on me, I automatically sell half. I may be missing out on some gains, but at least I can't lose anything. I can ride the other half up 4x, 10x...whatever I feel is a good time to exit my position. If it crashes on me overnight, at least I made all my money back on it. DON'T LET FEAR OR GREED MAKE YOUR DECISIONS.

These are a few things that I can think of off of the top of my head, but these principles have helped a lot in the past few years. We all develop our own unique way of doing things and so will you over time. I hope that this post could give a little direction and maybe save some time for some of you. I know that this is a lot to read, but I feel like if this post can help just one person out then it was worth writing. If you are reading this and can think of something that I missed that would help a newcomer find success, feel free to share! Thank you for reading and GOOD LUCK!

Welcome to the world of cryptocurrency!

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