Last year, during the bull run that we were so ecstatic about, I realized how easy it is to lose investments no matter how difficult it was to gather the crumbs that made up your portfolio in the first place.
This is not about misplaced chances e.g. buying the dip only for it to go deeper or missing out on a quality token airdrop or placing stop loss. This is about spending without a plan or means of filling up the gap.
First and foremost, must be the note that I depend too much on crypto for my daily sustenance. For some, this may seem unrealistic given the volatile nature of these commodities. In my world, you make do. That is all there's to it. No one can help you beyond the little tokens from time to time. The bulk of your financial burden is on you. Unfortunately, the economics do not account for unemployed graduates and we are many.
So here was I, in the middle of a bull run, having made some good money from speculating with shitcoins, as they were popular called. I got me a place of my own. Bought some few clothes and slippers (I don't wear shoes), furnished my little slice of heaven, and giving some little tokens to family and friends. Life was good. I knew it would not last. This is crypto. After the bull, comes the bust then the dip. I knew all these things but I needed to know, which is very important, what it means to fend for myself.
As the green gradually browned towards blood red on the charts, I began to find my bags of tokens could no longer give me the returns I was becoming accustomed to. I needed a new strategy. Desperate, I turned to my hive wallet. But I was too scared to touch it. My hive wallet has always being my last stand. I have believed long in the system enough to leave my hive untouched for years. Also in retrospect, I had just finished powering down the last of my over 1000 steem, when the bull market began and steem prices skyrocketed. That error of judgement hurts still but remember, I depend on crypto for sustenance.
I didn't want to go down the same road as I had done with steem, so I turned away from my hive wallet and sought some other token which I would sacrifice so that I may live. On the hive engine market, I sought to sell some tokens but the prices were too low. It was then I discovered that splinterlands was on mad run in card prices.
I was desperate enough to sell priceless alpha and beta cards. At first it was all good, until the prices began to fall and I realized I was almost through all my cards. It was finished. My gaming profile was empty. Then almost with terror, I turned to hive and managed to run through my hive wallet until a 2500+ hive in my hive wallet fell to 1000+ hive. When I got to the later amount, I saw that I was on a cliff and if I step off it there was no chance of my flying. I mean, I'll definitely fall. I stopped powering down my hive and left the platform alone.
Since then, again and again, a little crypto sold here, some physical cash received there, I have been surviving. An airdrop from the Optimism project helped extend my grace period but that too is almost gone. So at the end of it, I can say that the bull run has taken more than it has given me in terms of investment portfolio.
Yes I do have tokens on different platforms. I am yet to reap the dividends of buying them. I have bought stuff I needed to make my living better as well as that of my family and this is always a good thing. I am happy that there was crypto to lift me out of the doldrums. If not for Blockchain technology, I'd be lost.
What I have learnt from this past bull run is to always have some money stowed away for bear market buy ins. To never spend all your usdt but keep some in wallets for the rainy day. To never keep money in banks. Protect your investments especially if they are based on projects you trust (I should not have sold my splinterlands cards or my hive). Never get involved or invested in crypto out of desperation. You will lose more than money. Listen to the market. Have a core of persons who are invested in your success in this space as much as you are invested in theirs.
These are my take aways from the last bull run. Will I do what I did again, if the opportunity arises? I might. I am still dependent on crypto for my day to day sustenance. How long this will be feasible, considering present market trends, I do not know. I know, though, that the Blockchain space remains the most innovative and exciting means of making money I have ever come across. For me it is a thrill to find wins in a time and age when the value of money has fallen too low.
Until another bullrun comes, I will keep on keeping on, writing and trading and speculating and dreaming of better days. Amin.
That it's temporary :/