Tuesday, November 8, 2022

Crypto Update

One thing that has amused me in the crypto world is all the hoopla about "The CME Gap" or "The Gap". If you follow crypto social medias you've definitely heard some version of this. There's even a group calling themselves the "gap boys" (lol...honestly, how embarrassing is crypto sometimes). What CME refers to is the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. On the CME, you can bet on the price of bitcoin without having to actually buy any bitcoin. It's for people who want to get in on it but are afraid of the technical or legal aspects, I would imagine. Now, the CME operates like any other American exchange and is closed on the weekends. But of course, crypto is 24/7. So whenever bitcoin makes a big move over the weekend, the price on the CME opens Monday higher or lower than where it closed on Friday. This creates a "gap", or, (ready?), a "CME gap". Up until somewhat recently, these "gaps" have always been filled. I think there's still one open at 9400ish and the gap boys will lead you to believe that the bottom isn't in until we "close the gap" or hit 9400.

This is, of course, nonsense. A gap on some random exchange that appears due to a technicality in its operating hours doesn't have predictive ability. I mean really, there's not much more to it than that. The "gaps" have been filled before because bitcoin is insanely volatile and moves around a bunch.

The only reason I'm mentioning this, I suppose, besides the fact that it's kind of funny, is that I feel like I see and hear about it a lot, and it really is a ridiculous notion. There is no predictave power in it! Just because it happened before doesn't mean it has to happen again, or is even likely to happen again. And I guess it's one of those weird kind of trend things that people are always, always looking for. I saw it in sports betting all time too. ("They're 6-0 against the spread coming off a home loss facing a non-divisional opponent with a winning record"). And I don't know what exactly it is about it that appeals to people but it's interesting.

It's largely been pain across all the markets for the past year now. It's close to exactly a year since bitcoin topped out at around 69k. I've been in buy-mode for a while now, but I just recently sold a little bit of everything in this latest little bear market pump. I think there's still much pain ahead and I'm looking to buy back in and average down. My avg BTC price now is 23,270, Ether is 1308, and Link is 14.4 (looking back on my posts I'm slowly getting these numbers down which is good). Litecoin and Matic I'm actually free loading on now as I took more profits than I ever spent. But I own tiny pieces of those two now. LTC, Matic and Link really pumped the past week or so, so I took some profits and I'll be looking to get back in pretty much as soon as possible (as soon as the price goes below my worst most recent buy, I'll start buying back in). I've been using some of the money from the alt coins to buy more bitcoin. Mostly though, lately, I've been doing the opposite, selling bitcoin for alt coins. Trading coins back and forth for each other might honestly be my most favorite thing to do in this space. I'm only up a couple hundred bucks doing it but it's 100% free money. And it really scratches that trading itch I'll always have. (Matic pumped recently because Instagram announced they've be using Matic for some kind of NFT thing they have going, by the way. Whatever. Take profits, sell the news and I'll see you again at .8.)

I started buying Matic at .835 and took quick profits at .886. Bought back in at .845 then took profits at .899 and then .925. Then bought up the dip nicely at .85, .83, .75 and even .73. Sold a little bit at .837. Back in at .807. Profits at .86, buy back in at .818, sell some .88 and .93. Buy a little bit at .86 and then sold about 80% in this latest push at .92, .99, and finally 1.22. And that is how you get your average price to be below zero. Now, if it just keeps ripping I'll look foolish and will have cost myself dearly. But if it goes back down it's a really good move. Only time will tell, but I'm betting that with the macro environment right now, this isn't the start of some massive 200% bull run for Matic or ChainkLink or Litecoin. When they come back down into my range, I'll start buying again. I wish I got into these alt-coins earlier, I do have to say. I don't really care or believe in the use cases for most of them, but I'm starting to think that I can probably make at least a little bit of money with anything that just moves a lot. I do have on rule with them though, and that is to never sell all of anything. I might go as low as under 100 bucks, but never to zero. I should probably come up with a solid number though. Let's say I never go under 200 bucks worth, from now on.

I think my biggest weakness so far trading crypto and to a lesser extent stocks, has probably been over trading. Sometimes the hardest thing to do is nothing. I always want to sell if I think I can buy back in lower later, and I'm always buying dips. I think this is pretty clearly the best strategy overall, but I often find myself selling too much too soon, or buying back in as soon as I'm in the money instead of letting it ride out more. I really felt this way when it was all bull run all the time last year. Now that I'm going through my first real bear market. though, it does look quite a bit better in hindsight. If I never sold any bitcoin, I'd be buried with an average price of 34k. It would be a while before I was in the green again. But with selling, my average price is 23.2k. The cost is that I own a lot less than I would have, but if you buy already planning to sell, you can end up with close to the amount of exposure you want.

That's it for today, Ill have an update soon with some election stuff.




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