Week 2 - HODL Experiment

It's been a tale of three halves this week

Watching my crypto purchases and following the news threads to understand what they bring to the table - and what makes them unique - has been a full-time job. Not the "I have some extra homework that I need to do in the evening before bed" kind of job, but rather the more Intrusive "It's been 10 minutes, I wonder how my portfolio is doing", followed by a quick scroll through the other trade-able crypto on Coinbase.

I'm also finding the whole FOMO (fear of missing out) side of things has died down a bit. I remember before the first week of the experiment I was pumped full of TikTok and Instagram fantasies of seeing my wealth grow exponentially from week 1, and anxious to get my purchases in that very hour, no - that minute - so as not to miss out on any profit gains. I also had my eye on those Decentralized tokens and coins at the time, seeing unfathomably high gains of several hundred thousand %, yet still rightly puzzled as to how to get my funds onto the necessary platform to be able to trade on these decentralized exchanges (DEX).

And to complete my third half (mathematically not accurate, yet disturbingly appropriate as far as analogies go), the excitement of the "unknowing" is slowly turning into the frustrations of the "knowing", as my knowledge and understanding of the crypto world gains momentum.

So what did I learn?

First and foremost, market watching is a hobby I never knew I wanted in my life. I certainly don't need it in my life. Not before I go to bed, or at 02:00 in the morning, or first thing as I wake up. And during the day at work I don't have the time for it. But apparently my wants supersede my needs. You see, it's not as simple as logging on and checking your balance. You need to know which assets are performing well and which ones aren't. Then you need to check on how the other cryptocurrencies in general are doing (over 14,000 at the time of writing), maybe have a quick glimpse of the news feed for any breaking news. Then talk about it with some like-minded colleague for the next 10 minutes.

I am getting frustrated

I thought I had nailed down my trade route to get currency onto a Decentralized exchange in order to experiment with the more volatile currencies of Ethereum Meta and Solar Energy. What I hadn't realized was the fees involved with some of these Ethereum-based trades. $170 to convert a nominal amount - in this case $25 worth of Ethereum - into Ethereum Meta? Seems a bit steep for a social trader (if such a term exists) such as myself.

It's not to say all trades are as expensive as that. I have seen the stories where massive amounts of Bitcoin have been moved for < $5. So I know there are more affordable ways to convert crypto out there. But it feels a little like "two steps forward, one step back". There are dozens - perhaps hundreds - of different wallet / exchange combinations out there. I have also seen some downright confusing methods for circumventing these fees as you move your currency about.

I might start a separate blog post tackling this.

Did I miss the boat?

Reviewing the market trends for the last year, I can definitely see that the first half of 2021 was a lucrative time to be in the crypto trade. The likes of GALA (65,924%), AXS (21,594%), SAND (17,942%), and about two dozen other cryptos saw percentage gains in the thousands and tens of thousands. Yet for the last 90 days / 3 months these gains have been a fraction of their YTD gains. In fact, some have even seen a downturn during this period of time.

Does this suggest a leveling off on these trades, or merely the dip before the next surge over the Christmas and New year period into 2022? We will know before long whether this is the case. One thing is for sure, now is a good time to do your investing - whether you purchase big now or use the dollar cost averaging method and start to purchase over the coming weeks / months.

And the results after the second week?

Overall growth 15.82% as of Saturday 27/11/21

Best performing GALA @ 308.10%

Worst performing Shiba Inu @ -7.55%

A third of my currencies have dipped into the negative this week (overall), with GALA and MANA carrying enough gains to keep the portfolio trending in the right direction. On the whole the week has seen a lot of currencies struggling to shake off this down turn.

The calm before the next Bull run?

Happy Trading