That term popped into my head a few weeks back after reviewing my shockingly expansive portfolio of cryptocurrencies I had picked up over the course of 2.5 months. It was a scary thing to register in some regards; a newbie with money to burn, and plenty of products to burn it on, and enough time on my hands to become engulfed in the world of investing like I had never been before. I have had stock accounts, 401k's, and Roth IRA's, but something different was happening here. In the short term my vocabulary had expanded immensely to include words like support and resistance levels, price action and volatility. HODL, Maxi, Dojis, Fibonaccis, and Bollinger Bands. I mean, I was doing research and had become more knowledgeable, but it seemed like I was no closer to making what I would call rationale investment decisions still in a market that is very volatile.
Everyday there would be a new article or YouTube video extolling the virtue of some crypto and I would be obligated to offer it my money in hopes that in the future it would make my day. I started off in XRP at the recommendation of a friend, then XLM, then LTC and BTC. Eventually I started a Google Sheets to keep track of what I was acquiring, and the list kept expanding to GRT, ETH, ALGO, LINK, DOT, SOL ADA, ZIL, ATOM, NU, REN, UNI, REEF, VET, MATIC, LIT, RSR, RAMP, RUNE, PRQ, and UMA. A murderer's row of crypto, and luckily enough for me, some lucrative murderer's. I found myself doing well in all of them and had not lost any money since my earlier romance with XRP before their subsequent indictment by the SEC. One day after my portfolio had risen quite a bit, I started whistling "I'm In The Money." it had gotten so good. But it was not making me comfortable, so many investments without the knowledge to back that up and knowing I had probably just caught a cycle where everything was ascending upwards, and not that I was some sort of investment guru.
My portfolio was looking like a Fantasy Football Team, and less an investment portfolio that is crafted through detailed research I had put the time in. The problem I guess I was seeing was that everything looked good in my eyes, and before you know it I would drop $1000 here and there. Stocks and crypto can become like a hot craps table in Vegas, without the free booze and cocktail waitresses and the energy of the table can quickly pull in more and more action and before you know it, you have every number and every side bet covered except for 7, and are feeling good about your chances until the dice roll turns against you.
So I found myself, just before that point and made a decision to pull back. Cut my portfolio back to 5 investments, which stand at BTC, ETH, DOT, LINK, and ADA. I also still own some ATOM, REN, GRT, NU, and UNI mainly due to the inconveniences of the trade platforms I am working with. They make it easy to give them your money, but definitely harder to take away your money in a few examples.
Now the plan is to become more adept in technical and fundamental analysis. I signed up for a Udemy course Cryptocurrency Trading: Technical Analysis Masterclass 2021 that I believe will give me a good foundation. Crypto through my readings offers a lot of excitement not just because of its money making potential for me, but for the way I believe we will transact in the future. We are already seeing it with the advent of NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens) which brings value and validation of ownership to many non-monetary assets particularly things like works of art and music. It will be interesting to see where all this stuff will be in the next 5-10 years.