Last Tuesday, a longtime friend of mine contacted me for some help. He was diving into the world of the stock markets. According to him, he only knows two people who deal with "trading". One is his cousin, who is holding tesla stocks from when it was under $100, and the other is me - a noob trader of cryptocurrencies.
He wanted to have a "trader pal", someone who knows the jargon, and keep them both in touch with the trading world. I welcome the idea. It is always nice to have someone IRL to talk to and discuss various market-related topics, what is new in the trading world and what opportunities do we have, etc.
He visibly wasn't the guy I expected to take a shot at the trading world. I was very pleased to see my longtime friend want to join the bandwagon as well as get an IRL friend to talk about money with.
Obviously, I pitched him crypto. Showed him a little about my world and let him take a peek at some of my portfolios. He was pleasantly ruffled, to say the least. Pitched him hive, but he wasn't sure if he wanted that sort of commitment. I agree, Hive is not a short or long, it is a commitment.
He showed me his "experiments" with the $gme stock. Since that was the stock with the most relevant data. He was trying to learn how to read charts with indicators and so on.
I gave him a brief explanation about trading crypto and how it all works. Soon after, we parted ways.
Yesterday, he hits me up. He has bought some coins and started off with $100. He took some tips and asked me a question which made me stall a little.
"I want to learn about crypto, should I watch youtube videos or read books?"
I had no clue what to say. Personally, I have done all of my learning through action. I have literally traded to learn trading, lost money on projects to understand the difference between shill and scam, spent time on the market to get a grasp of trends and so on. Most of my knowledge about graphs comes from my short experience with FOREX.
No books. No youtube. What was I to say?
Let's cut to the chase. Acquiring knowledge through established sources, may it be books, videos or forums is the best way to go about with crypto. That is my opinion. I could have tripled my potential, had I spent time learning. Which is what I do now, and I stick by it.
There are some incredible books out there for crypto. One of my favorites is "The Bitcoin Standard". I am yet to finish 50 pages, but I love it so far.
Yes, it is focused on bitcoin. But the author, Dr. Ammous, lets the reader look into the decentralized system we live in through the freedom bitcoin provides.
In the beginning 20 pages itself, you start to realize through his powerful writing what bitcoin is, how is it designed, and what that design can help us achieve.
It is an eye-opening book to fully appreciate the history of currency, and how the future of currency, crypto, is about to change the world.
Another incredible book I was shilled on twitter is "The Basics of Bitcoins and Blockchains" by Anthony Louis. I am yet to download it, but as far as I have heard, it is one of the only credible sources that breaks down bitcoin, blockchain technology, and provides a full rundown of the mechanics.
However, you may notice a similar trend between the two books. They both focus on BTC, and only provide you with the base that you need to know. A complex and questionably complete understanding of bitcoin and the history of currency to cryptocurrency.
Books, are history books.
Crypto is fast-paced and changing as we speak. A ton of new ideas, a ton of new protocols, a ton of new technology and trend every day. The books start to lag behind compared to the tech.
There is no book on hive blockchain tech, or ava or yfii or bnb. There are articles, videos, tonnes of comments and forums, though.
There are books on trading, yes. But are they in touch with current times or can only satiate the desire to know the bases of trading.
I am sure crypto trading has evolved with crypto. Can books keep up, or does the tacky, blue-haired, snowball microphone using, overexcited youtuber really have the edge this time?
What I decided was to give my friend the gist of the ~800 words this post has. Or a rather simplified version of it. With a link to leofinance. Forums like these, as I see it, are the leader of the pack in these fast-paced times. And it only makes sense to be in touch.
What do you think is the best way to go ahead with it? Books? Youtube? or Forums?
