Gonna dive into Crypto currency starting today, May 8, 2021. Better late than never. I have been trading stocks and options, since the mid 1970’s (Off and on) and following investing and trading even longer (1960s). So today I decided to invest a gigantic amount ($50), actually $50.50 to be exact. And I will try and record either my success at increasing this amount, or (more likely) my failure at losing this $50. I do not intend to just buy a currency, and just sit on it, but to trade it at least several times a week, perhaps more, time permitting. I am retired, but do work occasionally and there are also grandkids, genealogy, Atlanta Braves, fishing, etc. Since Crypto currency is traded 24×7, 365 I am not bound by any exchange time rules, just by how much time I have, and how well the trading gods treat me.
First off, while I do know day trading, I know almost nothing about Crypto Currency, or whether it is even a good idea. Basically it is a stored value that some people believe in, and others (like me?) are still skeptical about. There are different types of Crypto currencies like the well-known Bitcoin (which as I sit here is worth over $59,000 per Bitcoin. The equally famous (or infamous DOGEcoin) which supposedly Elon Musk will mention tonight on Saturday Night Live, as well as many, many more types of Crypto currencies are also out there. A very good thing about Crypto trading is that one does not have to purchase a “whole” coin, but can purchase a tiny fraction of a coin. This is a very good thing, given my budget for this experiment.
My first foray into this trading earlier today was with a lesser known crypto currency, Litecoin (ticker symbol LTE). As I continue this experiment I may trade several of these Cryptos with my massive $50, at least the ones my broker supports which are currently Bitcoin (BTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Etherium (ETH), and Litecoin (LTC)
Trade #1 Today, May 8, 2021. Decided to look at Litecoin for my first trade. After looking at my charts for at least an hour I saw a buying opportunity on my charts, and decided to purchase $50.50 worth of Litecoin at that time (8:11am):
As you can see, I bought approximately .1468 of a Litecoin which at the time I bought it was priced at $343.94 per Litecoin. Once my purchase was confirmed, I looked at my charts some more and decided to attempt to sell it same day, if the price moved in my favor, so I put a limit order to try and sell at just a little less than $348.
So a blind squirrel does occasionally find an acorn, and I was successful (@ 2:06PM) in selling this litecoin at $347.96, which increased my Crypto currency total to $51.09 a profit (before taxes) of $.59 cents. A whole .09 per hour. But it was about a 1% gain on the amount invested so all in all, not displeased with the result.
The real test will be can I continue increasing my cryptocurrency, or not. Time will tell.
One additional thing, I did a lookback at the charts, and had I purchased Bitcoin at the same time with the same amount of USD cash, it would have been a similar gain.