Thread by @JohnEDeaton1

A 🧵 about investment mistakes from a guy that has made them all. Topic:

WHEN SHOULD I SELL?

We have seen the Crypto market drop over 50% from its previous highs earlier this year.

IMO the decision to sell is the hardest decision anyone is faced with when investing money.

https://twitter.com/realvision/status/1407475536750858243

It doesn’t matter if you’re investing in cryptocurrencies or stocks. Whether it’s #Bitcoin or #AMZN, selling is a difficult call to make.

My personal struggle with the “should I sell” decision is likely a common struggle.

The decision to buy is easy. You’ve done your research

and you truly believe in the utility of the token - so you buy. In a bull market with everything going up - you buy. You believe in the business or the product - so you buy. You believe you have inside information - so you buy. You experience FOMO - so you buy.

Selling is much harder to do. If you are up and the token or stock is pumping, greed won’t allow you to sell. You refuse to sell early and miss out on all that
additional profit.

If you are losing money on your investment, you don’t want to take the loss or face the reality

that you were wrong (or maybe way too early).

Selling is also difficult because sometimes we become emotionally attached to what we have invested in. This emotional attachment is most prevalent in the Crypto space. As we all know, the digital asset space is very tribal.

People call your investment a shitcoin or a scam. Because they’re wrong, you become even more loyal to the token or asset.

Please believe me, I’m not judging anyone here. I’m speaking from personal
experience. I’ve been guilty of all of the things I’ve mentioned (ie don’t we

all FOMO at some point). Experience is the greatest teacher in life, including with investing. I’ve learned to take the emotion out of it.

I’m not attached, dedicated, or loyal to my #BTC my #ETH my #XRP my #AMZN or my #AAPL stock - nor even my house. I’m attached, dedicated,

and loyal to my family, not my investments. I’m emotional as hell about my family, not about stocks, real estate or crypto.

But I wasn’t always agnostic about my investments. I’m sharing my thoughts and mistakes with people because I see my younger self inside many of my

Crypto friends on Twitter. As the crypto market was tanking yesterday, I tweeted out don’t panic sell. Not because I’m so calm and chill, but because I have sold in a panic in the past.

For example, I’ve learned that when there is bad news before the stock market opens and the

pre-market share prices are tanking, you should never sell at the bell or during the morning session.

Experienced investors will tell you that the dumb money trades at the open (when emotions are high) and the smart money trades at the end of the trading day.

Of course, if you’re trading on leverage or margin, you might not have a choice sometimes. Been there and done that. I’ve experienced margin calls a few times in my life when I was fully leveraged and didn’t have the cash to rebalance my equity percent and had to sell at a loss.

Several of those margin calls came after I accumulated huge profits (on paper) but didn’t sell because of greed. And huge unrealized gains can disappear in an instance (think March 2020 and the covid crash).

In the past I’ve experienced a margin call because I didn’t sell a

couple stocks much earlier because I didn’t want to take the loss or admit I was wrong.

Like I said, experience is the greatest teacher. Because of experiencing those dark days and beating myself up, I don’t trade on margin or leverage that I can’t afford (assuming those

investments will get cut in half at any moment on bad news and with no notice).

Although it’s still difficult, I’ve gotten much better with the decision to sell.

Selling an investment should never be viewed as disloyal to a project or company or that you lack faith.

My goal now is that when I sell anything it’s an emotionless event. Certain objective criteria have been met so I sell. For example, everyone knows I own #XRP. I believe in #XRP and I’m fighting for #XRP.

But that doesn’t mean that I’ve never sold any #XRP since 2016.

There is nothing wrong with taking a profit. I’m sharing my mistakes because I remember @JoelKatz
commented something about there’s nothing wrong with cashing out some of your profits if you are up significantly and it improves your life or words to that effect.

I recall a few people taking issue with his statement and there was a lot of criticism, etc. I’ve also seen many people say that they will never sell their #BTC or #XRP or whatever. There’s nothing wrong with that and I don’t criticize their choice at all.

But some people

criticize others who have taken profits as if it’s disloyal to the token or the project or even that community.

I learned the hard way that I can’t time the market. Taking the emotion out of it has helped me greatly.

If you think you messed up, just know its called learning.