Seven days of crypto investing under my belt, what have I learned?  There is a lot to learn and there is a path but some obstacles across it to navigate through.

Firstly, I never tried to teach my dearly departed grandmothers how to suck eggs. Not that I would ever want to suck eggs, quite simply that just sounds absolutely disgusting, and I suspect neither would my grandparents, but if you read this and you are far more educated in this vast world of crypto currency than me, I apologise whole heartedly for my rambling.  Please just skip quickly to the next article, this is probably not for you unless you want to spend a lot of time rolling your eyes in painful disbelief at how naive some folks can be.

Onto terminology, where is the encyclopaedia of crypto investing?   I’m sure there must be one, if not we should start one, surely a money spinner and great for all the novice investors who do not have years of education in financial investment.

Let’s make a start, HODL (hold on for dear life) seems sound advice but is that my chosen strategy, I have no idea yet, there are far too many strategies.

My starting strategy is simple, buy low, sell higher!  Let’s see if that works out for me.  After several days it was looking promising profit was several percent up, the sun was shining brightly.  However after a week the clouds rolled in, my total P&L (profit and loss) is -3.81%, those glistening shiny coins are looking somewhat duller today.

Other useful information I learned this week...

Choose exchanges carefully and be patient, there are pros and cons to each.  After using several comparison sites I started with Coinjar, apparently reasonable fees for those in Australia and UK, I created an account, and waited for verification, and waited and waited and waited some more. After several days I got bored watching prices rise and not being able to get started so I created a Binance account, that was all up and running within an hour and I was finally on my way.   Incidentally for those that are getting started, you will need a photo of an Id. (Passport, Driving licence, etc) and a photo of yourself for these accounts.

Then I needed funds, my usual bank (no names), did not allow transfers into crypto currency exchanges, apparently for my own safety.  Really?  It’s my money, can’t I decide how to use it.  I have my own opinions about why a bank might want to block those transfers in one direction but not the other.  So basically I had to circumnavigate the bank by first transferring funds from my own bank account to a separate shared account with my wife in a different bank and from that account into the crypto currency exchange.  Wow, how strangely inefficient, no wonder people are turning to crypto currency. Fortunately I have a very understanding wife who fully supports what I’m doing and has not asked too many questions about why I’m sending money to a “Binance” company.

So I’m up and running with Binance, just transferred into my opening investments  with a split of 10-15% each across several coins in the top 100 when finally, my coinjar account completes verification.  Another two way bank transfer, another unquestioned but now suspicious glance from my wife about a transfer from the shared bank account to a “Coinjar” company and I’ve gone from zero to two accounts in one week.   What has this taught me? Be patient and be open up front with a significant other before transferring any money through joint bank accounts.

Next lesson learnt, there are minimum coin transfers in some exchanges.  Binance for example wanted me to transfer a minimum amount from crypto coin back into £GB, I did not have enough in some cases, so not a good strategy for transferring small amounts.  Instead I transferred into stable coins, there was still a minimum coin transfer from stable coins but it’s less restrictive in minimum amounts. Incidentally Coinjar did not appear to have a minimum transfer with stable coins when I tried that, or if it does it was less, I’ve not tried transfer to £GB through them yet.

After my initial set of transfers between several coins, several days later I was in the green and happy.  Then the coin dropped, literally, I purchased after the initial drop, but they continued to slide, so now I’m all spent up and into a HODL strategy, waiting patiently for the upturn which is surely on the horizon.  This waiting is far less fun and I’m stuck in the red zone. Let’s see what next week brings.

Final note. Full disclosure, having worked many years for companies in England and USA, I learnt/learned this week that learned and learnt are one and the same, the nuances of the English language can take years to fully comprehend, so if it’s not your first language, you have my deepest sympathy, stick with it.  It just goes to show, we never stop learning...

If you stuck with me, thank you, I’ve also learnt that writing is good therapy after a downturn.