Recently, a friend suggested I try crypto trading, and I’m starting to think about it. I mostly want to trade smaller amounts and play it safe at first. But I’m struggling to focus while watching some videos, and I feel like a lot of the information is going over my head. How can I get a better grip on the process? How will I know what to buy? How will I decide when it’s a good time to buy? How can I tell if this will be right for me? What does it all involve? I’m just unsure if I should make any investment tonight.
Crypto trading is an easy way to lose your hard-earned money.
DemiSutra said:
Crypto trading is an easy way to lose your hard-earned money.
What I’ve learned is that day trading might make one person rich out of a million, while most people lose money. Holding onto well-known coins like BTC and ETH for the long term seems to be the advice most people agree on.
Welcome to the community.
We’ve all been new at some point. My advice is to forget about trading for now and focus on just the basics like wallets, exchanges, and security. Try buying some Bitcoin and/or Ethereum and move it to a private wallet. Ignore those YouTubers who make it seem way too easy to get rich. It’s all nonsense.
If you learn the following, you’ll be on the right path:
- How to read charts
- How to set up a wallet
- How to sign up with an exchange
- How to move crypto around
- Understanding taxes and fees.
Important things to remember
- Never share your seed phrase with anyone
- Be cautious of phishing emails and messages
- Avoid private help over DMs (you may have already received scam messages). Keep your discussions public for safety.
- Never hesitate to ask questions. Believe me, every question has already been asked here. This is a great place to learn. The “daily discussion” post in this forum is a good place for quick questions.
Enjoy your crypto journey.
Note to everyone: It’s always a good sign to see more questions from newcomers. As much as it can be frustrating, I look forward to seeing posts like “Which wallet should I choose” and “Help, I transferred my BTC 3 minutes ago and it still hasn’t shown up.”
@lena
This is a great starting point, and I agree that setting up a wallet and transferring crypto is key. It took me a while to get those basic steps done when I first started, but knowing how to use crypto starts there. I think of it like this: users are actively engaged, while investors are just spectators hoping for a win. The person who posted this could try starting with a SOL wallet or an ETH L2 wallet and send a small amount like $10-20.
To really understand crypto, you need to realize it’s a long education process. I boosted my knowledge a lot by listening to several podcasts each week. When I began in 2022, the technical terms felt like science fiction.
Just do dollar-cost averaging into Bitcoin and Ethereum. Anything else in the crypto world requires a lot of money, dedication, inside knowledge, or a little luck to find the next big thing.
Oren said:
Just do dollar-cost averaging into Bitcoin and Ethereum. Anything else in the crypto world requires a lot of money, dedication, inside knowledge, or a little luck to find the next big thing.
Don’t invest in ETH. Stick with Bitcoin instead.
@Jordy
Bitcoin needs Ethereum and other useful blockchains to help web3 grow. If crypto doesn’t thrive, people may lose interest in Bitcoin.
Lilyharper said:
@Jordy
Bitcoin needs Ethereum and other useful blockchains to help web3 grow. If crypto doesn’t thrive, people may lose interest in Bitcoin.
Ethereum doesn’t do much better either. There are newer technologies that outperform what Ethereum can do.
You’re safer investing in Bitcoin and Ethereum.
Tariq said:
You’re safer investing in Bitcoin and Ethereum.
Ethereum isn’t unbeatable. There has been a lot of questionable activity involving lobbyists and the government. It’s a complicated blockchain that has been forked multiple times and doesn’t always work well.
I enjoy reading good books.
The first thing to know is that most traders, around 95 percent, end up losing money.
AND
No matter how smart you are, you probably don’t belong to the lucky 5 percent.
The 5 percent have learned from their past losses, which keeps their emotions in check and helps them follow solid risk management.
The crypto space is vast. If you’re looking at it for the long term, consider coins like Monero, Bitcoin, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, and Ethereum. If you want to gamble in the short term, then any other project could work.
The first thing to know is that most traders lose money.
This is one of my favorite quotes about trading from a book. 95 percent of traders lose, but if you ask 100 people, they will all see themselves as winners.
@Baileyfrank4
And yes, some of that 5 percent are insiders who already have an edge against everyone else.
You should know that about 90 percent of traders lose money in the long run.
So, who is actually making money? Insiders.
We can repeat the same advice all day but new people won’t pay attention because they saw a TikTok telling them to buy this.
The usual advice is to buy Bitcoin or Ethereum. Start with dollar-cost averaging and learn from that while you explore more options.
But then you hear, “I put all my money into this new thing my friend recommended and now it’s worthless. What should I do to get back my money? I’m devastated.”
Don’t waste your money.
Don’t trade, you’ll just end up losing money. Buy some Bitcoin and ETH occasionally, and maybe a small amount of an altcoin.
Start by focusing on Bitcoin to really understand what it is and its benefits. I recommend dollar-cost averaging and looking for opportunities to buy at the tops and bottoms within a typical 4-year cycle. Anything beyond that and you’re likely to lose money.
You’ll find that everything aside from Bitcoin behaves differently. The rest of crypto, including Ethereum, is like owning shares in a company or organization. There’s a lot of questionable activity in it, similar to the stock market.
Why? Because human emotions play a huge role. This doesn’t mean you can’t make money with crypto, but you need to know what you’re dealing with outside of Bitcoin.
There is Bitcoin, and then there’s everything else.