With the markets moving of late, some of my colleagues have had their interest piqued again, because in general, people start to pay attention when others are paying attention. We are conditioned as humans to do this, meaning that we essentially have an built-in FOMO mechanism, looking out for signals to dictate our next move. As I said to one of them today who was interested in ETH, not many were buying at $880, but here they are buying at $1800. BTC is up 90% from the low too, yet few were buying at 15K - even though they are expecting it to go past the old ATH and reach new heights.
500% is not enough gain.
Yet, like this cat, when they look back on the past, are they going to have green eyes of envy, admonishing themselves with could've beens and should'ves? Likely. Even those who bought will likely wish they had bought some more. But, as they say,
Fear is momentary, regret lasts forever.
Have you ever listened to someone who "believes" that money isn't important, yet they are simultaneously scared of investing and losing it? If it isn't important, they shouldn't be fearing its loss, yet they do. It is because while they might want to believe in some ideal where they are above the concept of money, the truth is, they are tightly bound to it because they don't have enough to "waste" on investments. If however the very same person had enough money to cover everything and enough money to invest comfortably and wear the potential loss, would they invest?
Most perhaps.
With enough money in the pocket "silly purchases" are common. They are common on debt models too. Most people don't perhaps fear making the investment, they fear the loss and some people can't afford to lose anything, no matter how much they have. But, moving into a debt mechanism, it isn't actually theirs to begin with, so it doesn't feel like a loss, even though it is putting the finances into a deficit, a negative that has to be paid back in the future. From another perspective, debt is a future loss of income, it is just that the loss is postponed, which gives enough mental wiggle-room for us to justify and classify it as something else more palatable instead.
When we look back at our opportunities missed, we probably rewrite history in a similar way, justifying our inaction to invest ourselves through a series of calculations as to why it wasn't possible at that time, but if we could go back, we would do differently. Every bullrun I hear the same thing from largely the same people as to why they couldn't - but next time... Sure.
Next time.
How many times can we tell ourselves that, before we stop believing it? How many excuses can we make for ourselves when we think we are smart enough to make good decisions, yet keep proving that we aren't capable enough to follow through? When we look at others who fought their natural fears in an attempt to build, are we jealous, or inspired?
We love stories of the underdogs winning, but when it happens to people we know or, it happens to others when we could have been the ones to gain as well - we don't feel good. We feel left out and often despise those who took the risks we were unwilling to take. If they had failed, we would have laughed at them and called them fools, '
but when they gain...
It is funny how we follow the cues of average people because we don't want to be left out of the group, but not those of the outliers, because there is too much risk. We fear failure and therefore failing as a group feels more justifiable, but we likely fail because of the mentality to follow the group. Buying the highs is following the group. Buying the lows is fighting fear.
Because it can always go lower.
But, if we are making the moves based on an assumption that the future price is going to be significantly higher than today's price anyway, it doesn't matter what we buy at, as long as it is below where we are going to sell at. Yet, people don't think this through in these terms, because they see the immediate movement as loss as more important than what they would be willing to sell at.
For instance, buying BTC at 20K and then watching it go to 16K is a 20% loss, but if a person isn't going to sell until it hits 40K anyway, what does it matter? The opportunity of profit hasn't changed, just the volume of token, meaning that the amount of profit is going to change.
500% is better than 400%, but not as good as 600%.
I find it useful to think about how I see people behave, because it helps my behavior too. It isn't about copying people, but in general in terms of investment return, if doing what everyone is is doing, it likely isn't going to amount to much. Like a resource, scarcity of action impacts investments too. When everyone is living in fear, it is likely time to ladder in and when everyone is feeling that it is now too big to fail, it might be time to ladder out. Some people will never climb up though, which means they can also never climb down.
We need to be agile and flexible in mind and body, being able to absorb the hits and get into position to make the next move. A cat climbs, always assuming that if it falls, it is going to land on its feet - and it usually does.
And anyway, as so many people say,
"There is more to life than money"
So what does it matter to lose it all?
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
