When doing any kind of trading or investing we should always be incorporating some form of F.A. (Fundamental Analysis) into our repertoire! You will often hear people say "DYOR" (Do Your Own Research) and they're essentially saying "put some effort into understanding the project you're about to spend your fiat and/or crypto on!"  

Today I want to provide a non-exhaustive, yet very thorough list of questions (well, mostly questions) that we should be going over when looking into a project. Some of the more in depth stuff will likely not pertain as much if you're just day trading a specific coin or token, but for swing trading or investing (HODL!) we should definitely be looking to cover most of these bases!  

• Are you interested in this project because it’s currently pumping, or recently had a pump? Don’t let FOMO get the best of you!
• Does the purpose of the company, people and/or  developers that are behind the project make sense to you?
• Do you want to support the company, people or developers that are behind the project?
• Do you see other people wanting to use this technology in a few years?
• Are there any perks to investing in this specific cryptocurrency? (Not necessarily important in the long run but something extra to consider).
  • Early bonus
  • Proof of Stake or voting rights? 
  • Community giveaways
• How is their Marketing? Actively campaigning? Logo, name, etc?
• How old is the project?
• Do they have a Bitcointalk ANN thread or some other announcement post. Is the post Active? Any negative posts that are justified?
• Is there a blockchain explorer? 
• Is there a rich list? How is the distribution if there is one?
• Was the crypto premined or instamined?
• Was it an ICO? Was the ICO successful? What were the Funds raised? 
• Is it an open source project?
• Is there a finite supply or is there yearly inflation? (PoS coins)
• Are they a new niche, first in the space? If not do they have a technical advantage?
• Do they solve real world problems? Do they have a real world use case? 
• If they’re not a new niche, what is the market cap and price of this crypto in comparison to their direct competitors?
• If they’re not a well known project, try searching the name + “scam” to see if any red flags pop up.
• Initial impression of their website. 
• Are they active on Social Media? Do they have a large following?
• Who are the Developers/Team? Are they anonymous? Do they have REAL Linkedin profiles? Business track record? Past experience in crypto related fields? 
• Do they have a laid out road map with specific time frames to accomplish their goals?
• Do they have a whitepaper? If considering a large, long term position I highly recommend taking the time to read this.  

I'm a big advocate of spending the required time to understand a project before making the decision to invest, or even swing trade. Trading coins with at minimum, decent fundamentals can greatly minimize the potential of a sporadic collapse of that investment! I'm pretty sure more than half of the ICO's from 2017 have already failed, which means a lot of people lost a lot of money on the hopes and promises of some shady people.  

Take the time to research - the longevity of your portfolio and your wallet will thank you! Thank you for reading and I'll see you on the moon!