This is a follow up to an article I wrote some time back about the other side of buying crypto... selling crypto. We are at an interesting time as BTC is about 15 percent off its all-time high.  People may be waiting for it to go back up, or scared it might crash. I have proven many times on here that I have no idea which way it is going. 

I was reading articles today and of course the clickbait got me and I pulled up an article called "How To Prepare For The Next Crypto Bull Market: 5 Simple Steps." How could you not read an article that says, "This is the time to make money and this is how you do it."  The link is at the bottom if you want to check it out.

The thing that stood out about this article is the final point from it:

(5)Take profit

The ultimate goal is to transform paper gains into real gains. Set up an exit strategy in advance, deciding at what price levels you’ll sell your crypto on both the upside and downside.

So many people in the crypto world are so stuck on HODL that they forget about the idea of actually cashing in at some point.  Day-traders in the stock market have had this built into their strategy since the beginning, but, it didn't crossover to the crypto world for a lot of people.  The most basic idea of how to cash out is to sell at a 20 percent profit or a 5 percent loss.  Why is this important? It takes feelings out of the game.  The choice of selling is dictated to you. You start to loose when you think you can time can time the market in the short run. (I say short run, because, in the the long run of ten years or more, you can almost always make money in the stock market. So, holding for more than a decade is a way of timing the market. Don't believe me? Read Yes, You Can Time The Market by Ben Stein.)

Anyway, my point is. If you are looking to actually make money by buying crypto, you need a strategy to take profits out of your wallet, not just guesswork. Crypto is still a newer investment, and for that reason much more volatile. This volatility provides more opportunity, but, only if you take advantage when the ups come. You can use outside goals a reason to sell. For example, if you want to buy a car for cash and are investing in crypto, or anything, you will know your point to sell is at a certain pre-determined dollar amount. No feelings involved, once the amount is reached...then sell.

So, set some guidelines for when to sell. Watching something go up in value is great, but, not if you only sit around and watch it go back down.