Why Wasn’t I an Early Investor into Bitcoin?

For a project planned, I’ve been spending the past 4 hours or so sifting through my blog archives for any mentions of Bitcoin. I’ve found comments on the site dating back to 2011, blogs from 2012 and up. Back then, and not until very recently, I was a harsh crypto critic, although I wouldn’t call myself a legitimate critic — more of an ignorant buffoon who used his platform to deride something he was wholly ignorant of — relishing in the setbacks of innovative and forward looking investors who took the plunge early and had the will power to see it through.

Quite honestly, reading 53 pages of Bitcoin FUD has made me question the very purpose of this blog. Because I know why I said what I said and why at $65 BTC I felt the coin was far too expensive and then laughed at it when it broke out above $100.

I have been blogging on the internet since 2001, finance since 2005. In some ways, I am like an NPC, routine oriented, cranky, and suspicious of new things. I was buying shipping stocks in 2013 when I should have been buying cryptos and I am doing it again — deriding NFTs — because I do not have any, and instead buy the same old stocks every day making 1%, losing 0.8% — rinse and repeat.

Repetition.
Ignorance.
A desire to be “right” because people read me.

What better way to be right than to bet against the crowd? The best feeling wins are always when no one else saw it coming. This is how I felt during the financial crisis — having successfully traded through it and just about every other major financial shock since the dot com melt down. I even panicked out of stocks in March of 2020 at the COVID lows — before acquiescing and getting back in and having my best year ever because of it.

In classic me form, I eventually sold myself on cryptos in early 2020 and bought a significant amount of Ethereum — making more than 15x my original investment. But this doesn’t make me a ETH guru, just a guy who finally caved and bought something that was down — in the hopes it would come back. I got into ETH mainly because of COVID and my desire to have a currency backup, since I feared the dollar could one day collapse. Saying that out loud makes me cringe also, since it’s more chicken little the sky is falling nonsense.

With nearly 22,000 blogs in the bank here at iBC, I can honestly say probably HALF of them are sensationalism, words crafted by a lunatic intent on getting a reaction out of people — stirring the pot if you will. I blog three times per day from Monday-Thursday and twice on Friday, once on the weekend — like a good NPC. I try to come up with things to say on days when nothing is new, other than my trading — which is always new and always different. Over the past year I have moved away from investing and into day trading, something I am quite fond of and enjoy a great deal. My blog has more or less become a denizen to post my notes and trade diary and admittedly isn’t all the useful for people reading me for day to day advice.

I probably do not need to be blogging every single day after 22,000 blogs and I probably shouldn’t think of things to say on days when there isn’t anything new.

I wasn’t the only one who missed BTC at $65 and I wasn’t the only one who said it was a big scam. I eventually did come around to the idea of making money in it — only after dozens of blogs decrying it worthless. As a reader of the site, I would be very hard pressed to take the advice of someone who flip-flopped on something he was so adamant about in the past. But truthfully, my best attribute as an investor is making money in spite of myself.

I trade against my own convictions all the time. I form ideas and attempt to hold true to them; but mostly I am a chameleon who adapts to the environ — typical of any species who wants to survive and thrive.

I could never have admitted any of this 3,5 or 10 years ago —- since my ego wouldn’t allow it. I was raised to be strong and always felt like the underdog and worked extra hard to disprove “haters” real and imagined. I never felt at ease without enemies — which is probably why I pick so many fights with people online.

But honestly, I swear, I am no longer this person.

I missed Bitcoin from 2013-2020 because I was too lazy and ignorant to immerse myself into something new. I looked down upon anyone who didn’t have a series 7 or series 65 and felt I knew more because I had worked at a big firm with bloomberg terminals and knew people who were very very rich who hated Bitcoin or anything new. It’s worth noting, these people still hate Bitcoin.

I remain very long ETH now, not because I am constantly researching it and investigating its prospects — but because I am riding the wave and my basis is so low — it makes little sense to sell it now.

I will not change, in spite of my desire to want to change, but I will also continue to invest successfully too —- because for whatever demented reasons involved, I am good at what I do and eventually, almost always, catch the wave.

If you enjoy the content at iBankCoin, please follow us on Twitter