My First Crypto Day Trade: The Sweet, the Bitter, and the Unforgettable Experience

When I said my first crypto day trading experience, I am not talking about the usual trading or selling of crypto on exchanges for Fiat and converting it to local currency. I am talking about real crypto day-trading where you buy low and sell high as many times as possible the same day. This was my first time trying to day trade crypto for profit since I gained exposure to crypto 7 years ago. The experience was a sweet and bitter type that taught me financial lessons I won't forget in a hurry.

I have some money in January this year that I have saved in my bank account, around $1000 that I wasn't using for anything. At that time, BTC was making new all time highs, and news was flying everywhere of how people were making profits trading crypto. I thought to myself, "why not start trading crypto with the money?" Just buy low and sell high even if it's a small profit it's ok. I thought that this method of trading crypto would be a walk in the park, but little did I know that buying low and selling high is not as easy as they said.

Without thinking twice, I deposited my money on Binance and bought USDT as my trading currency. At that time, BNB was the first crypto coin that attracted my interest. The coin has just reached a new high and it looks like it's not going to slow down soon. Without any crypto trading knowledge I bought BNB, and waited to keep my eyes on the market movement throughout that night to be able to sell if the price went up a little. I sold the BNB that first night and made about $3 increase on my capital, my very first profits from crypto trading.

The Gold Mine

With the result of that first trading experience, I felt like I found a gold mine. With much excitement, I bought the same BNB for the second time when I noticed a slight dip in the price. This time, the price didn't move up as I expected. It was actually going down a bit, and I was terrified that I may lose my money. To remove myself from the fear I swapped the BNB to BTC, because I believe that even if BTC dipped, it would surely get back up as quickly as possible. I waited that night like the previous night, almost having no sleep throughout the night. I got lucky the second time and made some decent profits of about $13.

Things became more interesting the next day, after I heard about Donald Trump's new meme coin TRUMP. The coin was firing up and the hype was everywhere on the news. At that time, it was trading around $4, and I went all in on it with my $1016. It was like I hit a jackpot, I watched as the chart kept flooding with buy orders and the price kept soaring higher. Just like that, within a space of 30 minutes it reached $12. At this time, my instincts told me to sell, and I obeyed and sold them all and realized a profit of over 120% within that little time.

The Roller Coaster and The Crash

I waited to see if I would have another opportunity to enter again, and surprisingly, the price fell back to $6+ and looked like it was going to build up again. This was the point where I made a huge mistake. Instead of taking out my profits or at least taking away my initial capital, I put back the whole funds, expecting to see a repeat of what happened before.

However, things were different this time, instead of going up, the price kept dipping. I thought it would bounce back, at least a little above $7 so I can get a little profit from the trade. But, shockingly, the price crashed beyond the initial level and went down to as low as $4. All the profits that I made just disappeared before my eyes, with my two hands on my head while looking at my phone on the table. At this point, my funds were now around $1014. Almost $1500 was gone within minutes before my eyes.

Nevertheless, I kept hoping for a rebound and a rise in price. But as if people had had a meeting and agreed not to buy the coin anymore, the price remained stagnant at the $4 range and refused to go up or down. At this point, the fear of losing my money became overwhelming, and I couldn't hold it anymore. I sold out and got my capital back, with a little over $12 gain.

Lesson learned and The Long Game

All the profits from what I initially regarded as a "gold mine" disappeared almost as quickly as they came, leaving me with a small gain on my initial capital. This experience taught me a very harsh lesson and how brutal day trading can be. The experience taught me that trying to predict market movement is like trying to catch the wild. Since then, I have vowed never to look at day trading ever again, no matter how tempted I may be.

Simply holding my coins in my wallet gives me peace of mind. If the market decides to improve and I find out that I can take profits, go for it, and wait for another opportunity to buy back the coins with the profits.

Posted Using INLEO