Monday 25 December 2017

How to HODL : Just lost a million dollars in bitcoin, didn't blink an eye

This is a throwaway account for obvious reasons.

I've recently seen some posts about people getting mortgages on their house to buy bitcoin, then losing a bunch of money in a recent price correction, and get rekt.

I don't know if these stories are true or not, but I think we can all agree such behavior is pretty irresponsible.

However, it got me thinking. During the most recent market correction in bitcoin I saw my net worth plunge by a million dollars in a matter of days.

And I didn't even worry for a moment.

Which got me thinking, maybe not everyone has this insight because they don't have a million dollars worth of bitcoin to even lose; on paper or not.

The main point I wanted to make is this.

If you invested say $10,000 in bitcoin. And that's all of your extra money in the world. And it was really hard to come by. And if you experience a major market correction, and see your investment drop to say $5,000, it can freak you the heck out.

It can cause you emotional pain and distress, anxiety and worry.

What all of that is telling you is that you violated rule #1 of bitcoin. Don't invest more than you are willing to lose.

If you can throw $10,000 at bitcoin, wait five years, and make a singular bet on a binary outcome, then that is perfectly reasonable behavior.

However, if you throw $10,000 of your hard earned money, that if you lose will devastate you, then you are doing it wrong. I won't even talk about how stupid it is to borrow money to invest.

Personally, I invested in bitcoin over the course of many years, and over those years and on multiple occasions, I pulled some profit out.

Today, whatever bitcoin I have remaining, has a cost basis of effectively zero. If I woke up tomorrow and bitcoin went to zero, I could fairly and honestly say, "I made a lot of money off of bitcoin" and be good with the outcome.

I'm playing with 'house money' at this point. It's like I went into the casino, won a few big hands, pocketed my original wager with some profit, and then just kept playing. Maybe I win big, maybe I go home empty handed, but no matter what happens I came out ahead.

So, just a couple of weeks ago when bitcoin began to approach the $20,000 mark, I owned over $2.8 million dollars worth of bitcoin on paper; on paper.

After the recent flash crash of a few days ago, it was under $1.8. I 'lost' a million dollars in literally a couple of weeks.

And, at no point, did I feel anxiety or concern.

For a number of reasons, but the main one is that I'm not risking more than I'm willing to lose. If bitcoin goes to zero, I will live with that. I have taken enough money 'off the table' by now that I am already financially independent, so the remaining amount I have in bitcoin is just 'gravy'.

I know that these 'crashes' are really just traders trying to prey on the fears of newbies to shake out weak hands.

I've seen it all before and I will see it again. Literally nothing changed with bitcoin fundamentals. It was just traders trying to manipulate people with emotion.

I won't gauge the success/failure of my remaining bitcoin investment based on what Roger Ver tweets or based on some trader dumping his coins on the market.

Wake me up in five years. I will either by very happy with my investment or, most likely, it will have gone to effectively zero. And, as I said, I'm good with either outcome.

So...why post this? I mean, this doesn't really help newbies. They don't have millions invested. They have probably still invested money that they are afraid to lose. They probably aren't financially independent or playing with house money.

Here is why I think it is important.

I'm not the only one.

Anyone who managed to accumulate and hold 100 bitcoin or more over the past five years is a pretty grizzled veteran.

We can remember when someone dumping 10,000+ bitcoin on the market was a 'whale'.

Today a whale is, what, 100 bitcoin?

Soon it will be, what, 10 bitcoin?

The point is that these tricks of trying to use scare tactics to get people to dump out of fear diminish in power over time.

Sure, you will always be able to scare the newbie but, then again, the newbies don't actually hold that much bitcoin either.

The veteran holders who are in this thing to the bitter end are not going to be so easily manipulated. Not by traders and not by attacks by the likes of Roger Ver.

We aren't going anywhere. If we wanted to sell some our our stash, chances are we already have. The rest we are going to let ride.

Telling me that fees are going to rise. Or that bitcoin cash is the 'real bitcoin' or that <insert your alt-coin here> is the real thing, none of that matters to us. If we were going to cheat on our bitcoin wife for some sleazy alt-coin, we would have done it a long time ago.

We believe in the bitcoin network and the current roadmap we are on. If you don't, chances are you have long since left and gone elsewhere.

Prying our bitcoin out of our hands through scare tactics, DDOS attacks, social media attacks, fee attacks, none of that is going to work. We are here to stay for the long haul.



Submitted December 26, 2017 at 04:44AM by bitcoinholder123 http://bit.ly/2C3Ugy4

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