As you crypto enthusiasts know, the market has been crazy as Aug 1 gets closer. With this as a backdrop, I'd like to share a learning experience I just had.

I'm brand new to the market, and only have about $75 invested. I've been taking anywhere from $20-40 dollars from each paycheck and putting it into crypto for the last month. I've made some decent investments in STRAT, EOS, SC, XEM, XRP, and AMP primarily. I've spread the money around buying $5-10 on the dips and been able to grow my investment to about $115. And then yesterday morning hit. I woke up, checked Blockfolio and saw that all the alt coins we're in a free fall and BTC was moving up. I immediately surmised what was happening. People were moving their money into BTC to maximize the Bitcoin Cash they would be awarded if a fork occurs. Based on this assumption, I knew I needed to move my alts into BTC as well, ride the BTC wave up and then repurchase my alts at a much cheaper price when they bottom out. Unfortunately, I had to get to work and didn't have time to make the trades.

I monitored the market throughout the day from Blockfolio, and saw BTC hit $2800. I was getting really bummed that I hadn't followed my instincts and made the trades this morning. Once I got home and checked the markets, BTC had flattened out and so had the alts. FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) had gotten the better of me. I rationalized that as China woke up and started trading again, the trend would continue. So I sold all my alts at this point and put everything into BTC. I watched BTC then turn downward. I had realized my mistake at this point, but was too stubborn to just take my loss and correct it at that point, still gambling on the trend resuming through the night.

I went on to bed, and tried not to think about it. This morning I came to terms with the fact that my gamble hadn't paid off, and I'd fallen prey to one of the most common mistakes in the market. FOMO is real, and it is sneaky. Recognize it when it rears its head and don't allow yourself to rationalize it. I finally corrected my mistake this morning, but not without taking some losses.

Here's a screenshot of my holdings now. Prior to the sale I had 75 XRP instead of the 59 I have now, and I wasn't able to buy back into AMP at all. 16 XRP at the current price of $0.169 equals $2.704. 20 AMP at $0.209 equals $4.18. Therefore, this mistake cost me $6.88. I'm very thankful that it didn't cost me more. I'm still up on my initial investment, but if I don't take heed and learn from these mistakes, I won't be up for long.

I hope any new investors out there can learn from my mistakes and learn to recognize FOMO when it begins to creep in to your decision making process.

Until next time... Happy trading!