01-08-2018, 11:38 AM
(01-08-2018, 09:16 AM)rayray Wrote: I understand how you feel, I get it. At a time I'd be right there with you.
My first individual stock investments we're Exxon, Paychex and Verizon. I then moved to foreign mutual fund investments and some Dot-Com stocks, I also cashed out and bought my first home. Needless to say I made horrible financial decisions. I should have kept all three stocks. After that, the dot com bust I was afraid to buy individual stocks, any of them, so I stayed with mutual funds. Eventually buying Markel (MKL) that I hold to this day. During the real estate/financial bust I was fighting cancer, didn't eat or work for over 6 months and saw my kplan/ira investments go from 212k to 104k...close buddies begging me to cash out and save what's left. I didn't care, all I wanted to do was "live" money did not matter. Now, of course, when I had a chance to buy BTC and invest 100 bucks, due to my circumstances I had less then 400 bucks in my checking account, it was a lot of money to me at the time, 100 bucks. My investment philosophy is to buy a quality company, at a fair price, look for that dividend and never sell (at least try not to sell). I've done well the last few years, maybe most of us who stayed the course. When I look at BTC and the likes I don't see what I might make but rather what I may loose. It's true, for the average Joe, and I'm a average Joe...making a million dollars is hard, the next hardest thing is not to loose that million dollars. My goal is to not loose that million dollars, my goal is to grow those dollars with my system that has treated me well. The cryptocurrency price fluctuations make me feel queasy, plus I like having easy access to my dollars. Some of my brother-in-law's money is not accessible for almost a year? What? GTFOH. Not my money. I made mistakes along the way, and I'll make some more mistakes, but I don't gamble, I didn't save 1 plus million by gambling or FOMO.
Anyone who made thousands or millions with crypto....great. But, do you know anyone who walked away with the cash in hand? I don't...because everyone I know is letting it ride, that's gambling not investing.
This cryptocurrency arena is being manipulated by crooks, to think otherwise is having blinders on...if I'm a crook, a smart crook I'm walking around with a boner right now, cause I'm doing a lot of...you know what. Decentralized digital investments...it's a crooks dream. People will make money but a lot of people will loose money too. Not me, I'm plugging away to 2 million without BTC and the likes.
When you have $400 in your account, I wouldnt recommend putting 25% that money into anything, not bitcoin, not stocks, not bonds, not GICs or any other form of investment. Investments are risky no matter what. Stocks are risky as hell...just look at the valuations stocks are trading at today, none of it makes any sense whatsoever. Even one of the companies you mentioned, NVDA -- those valuations look complete bonkers to me, with the stock trading at ~15 P/S. During the dotcom bubble, investors were wiped out because they were buying companies with a P/S of 10. So, what kind of returns can someone see when buying stocks at 15 P/S?
Can bitcoin and other cryptos crash wiping out all the gains? Sure. No asset class is immune to human greed. In fact, the crypto world is going through a ~25-30% crash right now, as I type this. But at a mere $700B global market cap, the total crypto market is in its infancy and just a small drop in the ocean. What are global equities at these day? $83T?
Having said that, I couldnt help but notice some incorrect statements towards the end of that post. There are a lot of cryptocoins that are scams. Of course, you should be careful with which ones you pick and invest in, just as you would not hand over money to any company, or accept any piece of paper as valid money. The cryptomarket makes it easy for scammers, but without any research and understanding, a blanket statement shouldnt be applied to cryptos like Bitcoin, Ethereum etc. These are not pre-mined coins that some "experts" claim to be, and just interested in FUDding the crowds.