Hi there,
I'm seventeen years old and recently I got into trading Crpypto currencies. Now you might be wondering how I got into trading crypto.. You see as a minor I've always wanted to have my wealth work for me but due to the fact I can't legally sign a contract stating exchanges aren't responsible for loses and neither of my parents were willing to co-share an account' I thought I was shit out of luck and confined to my bank account which in reality was loosing money due to the minuscule interest rates and the high inflation of the $USD due to our debt to China.
Last New Years I found out about Crypto trading through twitter actually. It was on my news feed that Bitcoin had just broke through the $1000 barrier and I read a few articles (that didn't talk about the exponential gains) at the time I didn't give it much thought. A couple month later in April I saw another article that said bitcoin had broken the $2000 barrier. So I did the only thing a rational 17 year old would do. After nagging my parent for a week trying to let me use a credit card and their identity on Coinbase to buy bitcoin, I quickly decided that wasn't gonna work and paid my friend $10 to drive to my bank which I withdrew my entire college fund of $2800 without telling my parents and getting into my account with just proof of identity.
Before I went to the bank I made a plan through local bitcoins to meet up with this guy at a star bucks and exchange $2800 cash for one bitcoin. I felt pretty comfortable with the transaction because of the sheer volume that the trader I was buying from had and the multitude of positive reviews. only upon having my friend drop me off did the thought arouse that I might get kidnapped or scammed but then I quickly remembered my earlier confidence cleared my head and met the trader.
He was actually a really cool guy that had gained millions from trading and had a construction company as a hobby rather than a main source of income proclaiming, "I just trade to live comfortably and pay the bills my real joy comes from hands on and physical jobs." This lesson was later reaffirmed when I learned from many other traders you should trade to live and not live to trade.
Promptly after gaining my Bitcoin and doing a massive amount of research on the inter workings of the coin and the fundamental themes that made the project superior to fiat currency such as a degree of anonymity, being decentralized and having the ability to gain % gains on your initial investment as mass adoption goes underway.
(the moment you realize you can gain yourself how to make buckets by cryptotrading)
This was all very enticing and within my first week of buying my bitcoin and just letting it sit in my wallet I had gained $150 and I was genuinely content. But I found out through reading articles about Ethereum, altcoins and the insane volatility and profitability of being able to read charts and speculate on the market. Shortly after I started trading with my first trade being BTC to ETH when Ethereum was $300 and then selling when it hit its all time high at $400 before its entrancement. The experience was filled with adrenaline and nerves and due to the success a distinct feeling of achievement. Although I probably just got lucky, although my father making me read book after book on the economy and the stock exchange in my childhood likely didn't hurt. Ever since then I've been hooked.
I created this steemit to share the lessons I've learned already, TRADES I'm keeping an eye on or am invested in and tell the journey of a noob trying to learn how to turn $2800 to 5,6,7 digits and the experience I gain along the way! Feel free to follow this Steemit account if you want, I'll try to make it as entertaining (and maybe educational if I learn enough) as possible. I'm doing this just as much for fun and the possibility of a little monetary gain as I am for just a place where I can express my feelings on the market, since the best ways to learn and solidify your foundation is to to teach (or at least attempt it. You can thank my Spanish 2 teacher for that one.)
Hi, thank you for sharing, I'm following you ^_^
thank you!
Hi @bitbybit207.
First of all, welcome to Steemit. And congratulations on your trading strategy / ideas.
Just a general advice : take great care trading, as it can be very risky and try not to get caught by your parrents that you emptied your college fund account :-)
How about you write the introduction post, to introduce yourself as well ?
Thanks for the comment, crazy to see people already reading my blog! and trust me I know about the risks of trading, I lost 50% of my profile two weeks ago investing in CRB and holding it past the peak of the upward breakout and I've just in the last day made it back in the black again from that incident. Will probably write a blog on it in the next coming days. And yeah I definitely will write an introduction post!
Be careful. #1, you're still a minor, and #2, most of your mistakes are made in your first year(s) as a trader until you know more about what you are doing. Many financial planners say to never risk more than 2% of your portfolio on any one item. Crypto-curriencies may be in their infancy like IBM stock or Berkshire-Hathaway, but you still have "flash crashes" and pump-and-dump schemes, and nobody knows yet how the U.S. government is going to react to "Bitcoin millionaires" (but there is a bill in Congress that gives dark foreboding).
Take profit often, especially if you have yet to "pay back" your parents for your initial investment. Everything looks good on paper or in the exchange until it all crashes. Once you've paid your parents back 3x (the standard for stealing), and can maintain a basic living on your own with your trades, then you can present yourself as a success. Until you reach 18 and can live on your own, your parents can still "pull the plug", and it's fully within their parental rights to do so.
#2, don't blow all your new wealth on conspicuous living. Do NOT get the Ferrari. Or the 5-star hotel room to live in. You are 17 - you can still do anything! So do get the "backup" or "weekend" job like mowing lawns or retail work or 9-to-5. You just don't care about only working 29 1/2 hours a week because it's not your major source of income. Get the real-life experience to not turn into a "new rich" jerk. (And watch out for the golddigger women out to take your wealth away from you.)
Haha I really liked the advice at the end there, thanks for the insight! yeah I know going behind my parents back wasn't the most respectful thing to do but I was thinking about my future and where I want to be in ten years and thought about my decision for a whole week. But at the same time I saved and made all the money in my college fund so I thought if it's my money who's the government or anyone else to tell me to keep it locked up.
Also I've already learned the lesson of diversity through a risky investment putting my whole portfolio in CRB which is in its infancy and holding onto it for too long past its peak on its upward trend ( will make a post about that later) and then loosing 50% of my portfolio. Just yesterday I made back all my losses from that!
I've also read a whole bunch of books about becoming wealthy and maintaining that wealth a book that really taught me a lot is Millionaire Teacher by Andrew Hallam which I first read when I was 12 and got the idea ingrained into my head by text and my father that you should diversify your total assets with indexfunds, roth IRAs, maintain a good credit, invest in rel-estate and stay frugal until you are truly rich (to me this means deca-millionaire) and always stay humble. Thanks for the comment and the good advice.
Most financial advice books written today are too "old". Any book that says "maximize your 401(k) in your salary job" needs to be dropped into the trash can. Today's world, especially for the US middle class, is almost back to the bad old days of the Guilded Age (1890-WWI) where you could make it as an independent entrepreneur - until the government-backed monopolies crushed you. So watch out for those guys, and diversify, diversify, diversify. Diversify as if the Mob is about to send "Knuckles" Malone to your apartment or house for a "discussion", followed by finding out all the legal bank accounts in your name are mysteriously drained dry the next day. The Real World is not nice.