Jumping into crypto without knowledge could be lethal

I blew my account after selling my car.

That was me in 2018 .

I first heard of cryptocurrency in Dubai from a colleague, David .

One at work, David told me that he was going to start investing money into Bitcoin .

I didn’t ask further to understand what Bitcoin is or how it works .

Hearing it, I was instantly interested because of the great things David said about it .

When I returned to my home country , Nigeria and was looking for what to invest in , one of my cousins told me about Bitcoin .

My cousin told me that I will invest in a Bitcoin trading company and I will be paid monthly profit .

Wow, it sounded very lucrative. Mind you at this point I was totally ignorant !

Invested a major part of the savings I made while working in Dubai into the company.

After two months without payment, the company dropped a bomb on us. 

They started telling us stories of how Bitcoin crashed. 

Till today, I never got dime from that investment. 

So my first missionary journey into the crypto world was futile. 

In 2021, one of my younger brothers called me to tell me how my aunty is making it big with cryptocurrency.

I said crypto???? No I am not interested.

He tried to explain that I lost because I gave my money to someone to trade for me when I should have done so myself. 

That got to me. It sank in. 

So I went to work…. started consuming every information I could get on cryptocurrency. 

YouTube was my go-to classroom. I followed most active cryptocurrency influencers on Youtube. 

I was consuming contents without having a cent to invest. 

In the second quarter of 2021, I sold my Volkswagen Touareg to raise money to invest in cryptocurrency. 

I started spot trading with Eth, Sol, AVAX, BNB and any coin that had good movement at the time. I was making money. 

Until I invested in Celsius! 

I was so naive and greedy. I believed that the price will keep going up. Without knowing that nothing goes up without coming down. 

The Celsius price drop did a Yokozuna Banzai drop on my account! 

I almost blew my account with that trade. 

I sold my car with the intention that I will make good money in the Bull market so I could buy a better one and live a more lush lifestyle but the money almost got burnt to ashes. 

I learned that ignorance is more expensive than the most expensive course. 

So I got a $200 Crypto course and that sharpened my eyes for what to invest in. 

Lessons I learned the hard way 

1. Never fail to take profit Always have an exit strategy. This is what pummelled my account during the Celsius and other trades. I didn’t have an exit strategy. Taking profits in crypto means to close out existing positions and realize profits when a coin reaches a predetermined pricei.e. when you buy a coin and it appreciates, you sell it and lock in your gains. Basically, it’s an exit strategy.
2. Always ensure you set your Stop Loss (SL) price at 10% of the buying priceIt is safe to set your stop loss price at 10% if you are doing a spot trade, it will protect your investment from a crash. If it is a bag you want to hodl to the moon then you don’t need to set a stop loss. 
3. Hodling is more profitable than daily trade I have learned that investing into a project that has a great team behind it, with good Circulating Supply, Market Cap, Volume, and community to hold to the next bull market is the most profitable cryptocurrency strategy. Investors who can withstand volatile market conditions and stay invested in their assets long-term, despite short-term losses, are said to have diamond hands and make more profit. 
4. It’s best to have two portfolios for trade and another for investment.You will make it faster in crypto if you have the two from the beginning. If you don’t have enough liquidity, then ensure that you re-invest your profits from your trades. Start buying into solid projects like BTC, Eth and other less risky cryptocurrencies with strong fundamentals . 
5. Be disciplined, stick to your strategyThis is very, very Important. You must be disciplined not to FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) into any project you don’t know much about or heard of when it is at the top. NEVER buy the top of any coin not even BTC! Imagine how people who bought Bitcoin at $60,000 feel today? They are praying that it gets back to All Time High while Dollar Cost Averaging in . 
6. Dollar Cost Average (DCA) is always the BEST strategy for your long-term investment. Make it a strategy and execute it with precision. Schedule days of the week or month to buy into the projects you have done your own research on and decided to invest in. Keep investing without minding what the price of the coin is. In the long run, you would see that your buying price is at a very profitable level. It works like magic! 
7. Ensure your target is to make profit while buying This is a major business trick.You don’t make profit when you sell, you should aim to make profit while buying. If you buy a coin that dropped from from $100 at $20, you are already in profit, you just need to wait for it to move back to All Time High…then sell. 
8. Get a hard wallet!To secure your bag from hackers, you need to secure your coins with a cold wallet. A cold wallet is a type of cryptocurrency wallet that securely stores your private crypto keys offline, usually on a physical device. It’s also known as a hardware wallet, and it protects your digital crypto assets from online hackers by using a flash drive-like device that isn’t connected to the internet.

Conclusion

Cryptocurrency is a very lucrative business to go into. 

I lost money but I also made money that I squandered. 

Crypto is not a get rich quick hustle! 

You need patience and adequate knowledge to win the game. 

This is not a financial advise. I am not a financial expert, I am just sharing my experience for educational purposes. 

Good luck !