I just thought I would add this little nugget I learnt from being a futures trader and adviser for 20 years..
80% of the people whole trade lose money
10% break even
5% make money
5% make good money
Every single trader believes they will "make good money".
A few more considerations to add to this:
Very many people who trade don't really know how much they've made nor lost primarily because their record keeping is rubbish.
Many more people who trade believe they've done OK than actually have (which I think is a reason bad record-keeping is so common because not knowing allows one to keep the success delusion going).
I have noticed the trend in success report posting when usd/btc was on the way up tended to express their success in $ whereas since the ratio was going down success tends to be reported in increased btc holding. Making USD when the price was on its way up was 'easy'. But if the end-goal was increased btc holding how many of those who believe they 'did well' actually held more btc at its peak than had they just bought and held? Making BTC when the price was on its way down was also 'easy'. But if the end-goal was to make more usd how many of those who believe they did well actually made more by trading than they would have had they just sold first opportunity on the way down and stopped trading?
And just another couple of considerations that may be worth contemplating:
most people have an idea when to get in to a trade but many many don't at the point of entry have a clear strategy as to when to exit - for if it goes well
and for if it goes against them.
Many people who trade do not have a clearly defined policy regarding how much money (whether btc or fiat) one's trading capital is and how one decides for each trade what proportion of the 'bank' to trade. I would even venture to hazard a guess that most people trading fiat and btc haven't really decided which of the two to treat as one's bank and therefore don't even have a clear picture as to what an 'open' position is (if you think of your bank in fiat an 'open' position is when you own bitcoin with the intent to sell for fiat profit whereas if you think of your bank in bitcoin your 'bank' is when you've bought some fiat with the purpose of selling it back for bitcoin).
Oh and one more... Heads up to the OP for reporting a lost trade and redressing the balance somewhat. It is easy to get the impression from reading the forums that a large proportion of those who trade do well most of the time and do very well fairly frequently. The most likely reason for that in my opinion is that people don't tend to report their losses. I say this because it might be tempting for those not trading to join in the fun because it's 'so easy' to make loads. I'm not saying it's not - just that you may not be getting a representative impression just from reading the forums!
I should make it clear for anyone keen to take any of my 'wisdom' on board that I am not a trader and have never had much success trading. However I have spent a lot of time learning enough about it to be comfortable not trading!* To the extent that I have a 'bank' is in bitcoin and I am delighted to have not lost - neither on the way up nor the way down simply by holding!
* Just as the book that has 'made' me most money is John Mullins' The New Business Road Test: What Entrepeneurs and Executives Should Do Before Writing a Business Plan - not because I have had many successful business ventures (or even one) since reading it but because I've
not kept trying loads of apparently brilliant business ideas of mine on whim meaning I've stopped wasting time and money on ones that were almost certainly to have failed!