Topic: I fell into the bear trap... three times. (Read 2696 times)

be careful. don't let greed blind you. learn from the OP; the flipside happens as well.

I'm 100% sure there are at least a few who think they are "correct" if they stick with the main-stream view, i.e. that only official and centrally issued money should be used and nothing else.

haha, lol. It seems to me one could find some of this kind of journalist.

Bitcoin only 16.000 subscribers on reddit.
Gangnam style from 0 to 1,337,768,313 views in a 6 months.
Trends on internet do explode if possible...

There will be articles if/once btc reach breaks $32.

There will be no more Bitcoin is dead articles unless Bitcoin really dies.
What reporter would want to look like a idiot proven wrong not only one time but two times?
 

last time, if you mean july 2011, 2 was the bottom. now it is about 20. look at the log chart, all the truth you need to know is there.

I remember thinking that last time too, that 25 was the new bottom. I actually sold 2 bitcoins for equivlant of around 40$ USD at the time, purely by luck, and 10 minutes later the market crashed XD

But now I look back, and 31 being the mtGox peak seems so low, I swear it was in the 40s.. but nope.

32 might be the new bottom, but I'm not going to buy in more just yet.

The best two strategies seem to be either to go fully into becoming a trader, which means you have to develop your skills and may take a long time,
or just buy and hold.

it can't be an endless ramp, but 32 could easily become the new bottom.

I know how you feel man, I've been lucky mostly, though this current market is making me twitch a little.

I feel a little bit itchy under the skin that I didn't wait for the price to go up higher... here I am sitting, watching the price climb skyward, we are almost breaking our all time record.

All in all though, I am content.
I purchased 20 back in december-ish for around 11USD a bitcoin, I sold them at 27USD the other day... that is a massive profit margin. Whether the price ever goes back down for me to turn those sold bitcoins back in to more bitcoins doesn't REALLY matter. I have the money in hand, I can use it, It doesn't go to waste, it was over double profit.

Plus I have a decent sized savings of bitcoins.

My idea was, I "know" the bitcoins are worth at least 20 right now, so if it gets below 20, I buy back in. If it hits 40$ I'll sell another 10 bitcoins. The only part I don't have a plan for is if it keeps rising beyond that. I don't believe it will yet, I "know" there is going to be a another crash sooner or later here, there "has" to be, right? This can't be an endless ramp, right? The price is skyrocketing so fast...

Congratulations for becoming a true believer

Great advice, everyone!

you should name the newborn Satoshi. Satoshi Dice. 

Storm is coming... see that big wall ?

yeah this is another step... dont say i didnt warn you.

My advice: learn to catch the bottom, not the top, the latter is a tricky business.

Protip from Milkshake: Long BTC forever with as much leverage as you can get.  

Doubled my bitcoins

It takes a real man to admit it.

Getting margined out on bitcoinica was my lesson. I had the general trend correct but the trixy market makers ran a squeeze on me and my ilk, and took of with my coins.

+1!

Yep, it's the first one, and your description is pretty much what I'm expecting. No speculation there

Ah, I was in that boat a year ago. Is it your first? If so, you won't even *think* about bitcoin for weeks...(and that's a good thing).

daytrading is for daytraders
swingtrading takes longer windows of action into account.

account for your trading style by expierence.

Stop trading emotionally.

I've said it a million times...Go into your trades with a plan. Have a clear entry and exit point on both the top end (profit taking) and bottom end (which needs to be low enough to account for daily volatility, but high enough to preserve profits).  Stick to the plan and don't buy or sell on emotion.  Most of all, if you cant tolerate risk, stay out of the market.

Despite common belief, it really isn't that hard to make money trading in this market.

Care to provide a link? Not that I don't believe you, but would love to read that.

As for the OP

You want to be an efficient trader? here is the best advice that I have taken from trading throughout my time as one

1) When in doubt Just sit out

This is the greatest trading advice Ive ever received, if you have no clear vision of what the market is going do not make a trade, Accept your decision that you didnt want to partake in the market and make a trade when you have more information

2) During rallies or uptrending markets Buy during the downsings, During Downtrending or bear market sell during the rallies, during stable times find another financial vehicle to trade.

prime examples of this would be the last significant sell offs we've seen, since we are uptrending these should be sought as buying opportunities,

Day trading is seriously the biggest headache, Good day traders should except to be right about 50-60% of the time, this alone turned me off to day trading when i first started in markets (not to mention that I was wrong alot). but I think that TA used along side with Fundamental analysis gives you better insight than those who advocate only one,

No one in the world is the same, Those who are good at day trading are tailored to this type of trading, there is no 1 winning trading strategies and more times than not its just being at the right place at the right time,

instead of following the FUD around speculation step back and take a real look at what bitcoin is, its a Digital Financial Asset that many are starting to accept as a form of currency,

I dont know about what everyone else thinks but this world is moving to the digital age, it makes some sense at least in my mind that bitcoin could be the next best thing since sliced bread (who knows though I could be totally wrong I dont care though I believed in bitcoin a year ago and it has progressed so far now the sky is the limit)

Unless you like to day trade, I would recommend trying different things til you find what works for you

I have the opinion that BTC will rise well into the 30's and in the long term beyond that. I have no doubt there will be 10% fluctuations in both directions along the way with mini corrections.

Each time it dips a couple of dollars I've purchased a bunch. When it rises a few more I've been selling and waiting for the a 'bear trap' to buy them back.

I'm only using small amounts of money though. I purchased 90 BTC a couple of hours ago at $28.61250 which was just before it started rising again.

I'm only playing around but it's kind of fun and I'm making a few BTC in the process.

A good decision...

EDIT: I've been thinking about doing this before. The only thing that keeps me from abstaining from trading is my fucking greed! It's this hope that I could acquire even more coins. It never works out, though and I would've made much more money just working and putting the resulting fiat into bitcoin (or working directly for bitcoin). Thanks for giving me a kick. Maybe I can do it now.

At least your losses aren't devastating. Look at how many times new users buy at say $10, then when the price drops a dollar they panic and liquidate. Next morning they wake up to $12 bitcoins. My favorite was the guy who did this and came here threating to "sue bitcoin" over his losses. classic.   

We have all been through that experience.

The only solution is to stick to your strategy. Daytrading in a rocket is impossible, so go long on a percentage of your holdings, Less than 50% I would imagine, and pinch your eyes.

You can't feel a dump before it happens, such a trick belongs to inside traders.

I have bought back higher a mutitude of times, no sweat, I still make money.

Rest assured that you both have cash and BTC to catch the unexpected.

Thank you all for the kind words. Really, this was the bitterest way of wising up, according to Confucius:

Congrats on your wisdom. Everyone has to learn the hard way it seems (myself included... I lost at least 10% of my coins in 2012). Now I just look at the fundamentals and these days - hold.

You are not the only one that has been fooled by this market...

Two years from now, we're all early adopters and we're laughing at the difference between buying BTC at 20 and at 40 

Sounds painful.

At least it didn't end like the bear trap scene from the Walking Dead video game.  

Wisdom!

Good luck with your newborn!

I can't take this any more. Over the past six days I sold three times expecting a correction, only to get hurt and call a stop-loss at 2%-4% above. The second time I actually got it right, but changed my mind and bought back after the Mega tweet. Sure enough, the price briefly fell ~5% within a day, right through my deleted bids.

All in all, I quit. All my coins go into paper wallets, and I focus less on charts and more on preparing for the newborn, which is due in a few weeks.

Oh, and this being the speculation thread - expect a big correction any moment after I've gone all paper, followed by a continued rise. The correction simply due to trigger-happy, anxious speculators, the rise due to great-looking fundamentals.

Yours truly,

niko