It has been a remarkable bull season and everything is beautiful, portfolios are looking greener by the day, new crypto experts are springing up, there is a lot of shilling and propaganda going on, thus bringing forth new whales, large amounts of BTC and BCH stash are being moved daily and the disciples of the New World Order (Crypto) are happy and reassured. For anyone who has been around the block for some time, there is nothing out of the ordinary here, it is just another season in the Crypto Industry with familiar twists and turns.
Another thing that is very familiar is, every bull seasons tends to bring with it a new set of noobs(enthusiasts) and weak hands who got on the train just because it is the trending thing to do and dump their portfolio, mostly at loss at the first sight of blood (OMG! its crashing!!), alas, this season's bull run hasn't been any different.
Below are a few things to note if you had just newly got onto the train or you've been on the train but still needs a little bit of reassuring.
1) It doesn't always go up
You probably must have been introduced to crypto during the bull season and you bought a few dollar worths of one of the most shilled tokens/coins and just like magic, you watch your portfolio grow in zeros without having done a single thing, now you are mad with excitement and you think that's how it always is. Hahaha, please don't make me laugh. You need to familiarize yourself with terms like price correction, consolidation and volatility because if BTC and other coins just take the upward trajectory without looking back, then the emergence of cryptocurrency wouldn't have been seen as the common person's best chance of levelling up. So, brace yourself, the bear is always around the corner.
2) It doesn't always go down
No, Bitcoin isn't crashing, a little red (maybe a big red) in your portfolio doesn't mean all hell is breaking loose and everything is finally crashing, it shouldn't signal SALE, it shouldn't signal SCAMPER and it shouldn't signal PANIC either, you know why? Cryptocurrency is here to stay and it ain't going anywhere. I might be generalizing about Crypto when talking about price movement but surely, I am not talking about every single coin/token/project out there, because some coins are utterly worthless and might have been pumped out of their minds by the time you FOMO'ed in, thus the only way from there might be down and sometimes some of these coins just don't recover and may never get back to the price you bought them at. TRX burnt me in 2018, so always DYOR and get a bit of an education on projects you wish to buy into.
3) You are only at a loss when you sell
This is possibly the most assuring thing about holding BTC or any other crypto asset, which is one of the reasons why the word HODL is so popular in this industry. When the bears come as they always do and you look at your portfolio with bloodshot eyes thinking about how shitty your life is ATM, thinking what NEXT now? Well, no action is needed here for those who know the game, but for those who don't, they cut their "losses", tuck their tails between their legs and scamper for safety, leaving a trail of loss and tears. You gotta get this into your conscious and subconscious mind - you can only incur a loss when you click that sell button. If you haven't sold, if you still got your assets intact, no matter how shrunken your portfolio is, there is always a chance of an uptrend. What goes up usually comes down and vice versa and the same is true with those coins in your portfolio so breathe easy, drink some water and buy the dip. LOL
4) Always think in satoshi
Satoshi is the tiny bits and fractions that make up one Bitcoin and the fraction in your portfolio is always the same, what fluctuates is the price/value of that satoshi in fiat, be it dollar or whatever currency you are pairing up with. So if your 0.0145 BTC is worth $100 now and in a couple of hours sheds a bit to $95, the valuation of your 0.0145 in $ reduced a bit but your 0.0145 is still 0.0145 and will still remain so if eventually, it increases to $1000 in fiat valuation. In other words, we are saying that a bar of gold is a bar of gold no matter how much price in pounds or dollars it might be at a given point in time. So don't look at your portfolio and scream, your quantity in BTC is still what it is, the fiat valuation is what never stays at a place.
5) The money is in the volatility
Buy low, sell high, sell low, buy back lower. This is probably my favourite side of BTC which translates to more satoshi and ultimately more, more money. Volatility is what traders pray and hope for because the price movement at each angle either puts more money in your pocket or more satoshi in your portfolio. What I am saying is, the money is in the erratic up and down movement of crypto. When the price goes down, it presents an opportunity to buy more satoshi at a dip, when the price goes up, an opportunity to sell for profit presents itself. It is such a sweet cycle, but this is the reality for traders and not long term investors or HODLers, so you have to know where you belong.
6) FUD will come
Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt (FUD) are some of the factors that drive the price of BTC and other crypto assets down, apart from the good old demand and supply. Some times, these FUD are spread deliberately and strategically by whales and big corporation (new entrants) to drive down the price of a certain asset so as to buy it cheaper when weak hands have dumped their load out of fear. Some other times, FUD comes as a result of one country or the other banning the trading and owning of crypto which leads to a massive sell-off (dump) which in turn leads to a drop in the price of BTC and other crypto assets. If you own any crypto-based asset, then you should always be ready to hear and dismiss the naysayers, the prophets of doom, because weeping may endure for the night, but joy comes with the morning. Hahaha
7) FOMO is real
Just one tweet from Elon Musk was enough to get many bystanders to jump onto a speeding train which Dogecoin was at some point last month and when you try to jump onto a speeding train, only one thing is guaranteed to happen, and that is total wreckage. Unfortunately, this psychological phenomenon is common among crypto traders and enthusiasts. When a particular coin is mooning at a crazy rate, without any history of such movements in the past(obviously being manipulated), some people usually want a piece of the action, a quick bite at the profit. Thinking the coin would continue on its unrelenting uptrend they quickly jump in, throwing caution to the wind and end up catching a falling knife.
