You Should Not Follow My Advice On Crypto
Using Airtable to automate performance tracking
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Hi everyone!
Welcome to the TRY ANGLES weekly review where my job is to share with you new readings, methods and tools that I have found and tested.
Following the previous episode, I have continued with my obsession over crypto-currency, and improved the Airtable tool I have been designing over the past few weeks.
The two main goals left were:
- Automate my investments, and
- Keep track of what the h**l I am doing with my money.
Three reasons why you should not follow my crypto investment advice
⧐ I am a newbie 🐥
⧐ Crypto is not my main activity 🥳
⧐ My investment strategy is boring 🥱
A newbie getting excited with new toy
Crypto has hooked me, because I enjoy new stuff.
Having a sense of consistent learning gets me going for hours and hours without stopping. Everything you read, hear and try is new and exciting material.
Crypto has a similar effect on me than gaming or sport. You are always looking to improve, to get better and to win more. It triggers this obsession of finding the solution whenever you are stuck.
However, with the amount of information, the number of new projects and resources out there: 24h are surely not enough in a day to keep up.
Even worse, excitement is dangerous for any investment strategy. Your brain has many biases that you will need to fight:
- Fear of missing out (FOMO)When crypto is in bull run and goes through the roof, you want to buy soooooo badly. Truth is, you are already a lagger, and if you buy now: you lose.This has happened to me. Newbie check ✅.
- Risk aversionCrypto is known to have huge swings. Going up and going down rapidly. Your nerves are going to get drenched over those periods, asking yourself should I sell now? Or will it be too late?You have only so many decisions you can take in one day, trust me those are not the ones you want to focus on.
Fighting your brain is impossible. How could you? Your brain has been encrypted with automated reactions for thousands of years. You are not going to beat that overnight. Nevertheless, there is a hope: automation.
The path to automation
Automating investments has been important to me in order to avoid being overwhelmed with crypto, up to a level where my brain would explode.
But, how can I invest automatically on the crypto market without having to think about it?
Coinbase has a solution where you can set up recurring investments as long as you agree to let 3.5% of that investment go away as a thank you fee.
It felt like robbery to me. I had to find an alternative.
Crypto.com has been the chosen solution for automation. The constraints are somehow stronger since you need to put a minimum of $50 worth of any crypto currency you want to buy on a recurring basis.
Not ideal if you want to bet on multiple projects but I still decided to go for it in order to set up automation.
BTC and ETH will be the two crypto used as a test for recurring orders. The frequency will be on weekly and bi-weekly basis over the course of a month to see how it goes.
Two things I’ll have to check though:
- The price at which I actually buy the crypto with the automated order.There’s no free lunch, and Crypto.com might take their commission on the price they automatically let you buy the crypto currency.
- Compare with the 3.5% taken by Coinbase when you place recurring orders
Automation is set, but things are not over. Keeping track of the performance is essential.
Tracking performance
Since I just started to put my nose into the crypto world, I also knew that keeping track of what I was doing would be necessary. Especially now, that I am automatically throwing money without having my eyes on it all the time.
There is a great tool that you can use on Google Sheets, it is a module called crypto finance who helps you keep track of the current value of any crypto currency.
They have referenced over 196 exchange platforms, 2,078 crypto-currencies and 31 fiat currencies.
Simply use the “=CRYPTOFINANCE()” function (link to module).
I got so excited! Finally I’ve found the holy grail. Being able to keep track of my investments based on the current value of the crypto.
All pumped up to check how the last two months of investments have been doing. Ready to see my path to success, glory and wealth.
**dramatic music playing**
And … — how can I put this — … really my performance sucks!
The graph below describes over time the percentage of value that each of my investment have “grown” (#sarcasm) based on today’s value for each currency.
Not so shiny anymore. Is it?
Remember the FOMO decisions? Here they are, deep down the FOMO Canyon:
Don’t worry, things are not that bad, amounts are not that important and as I said before, having a short term trading experience is not the goal here. Crypto is here to stay and has many interesting projects and perspectives.
My strategy is to invest long term and consistently.
A New Hope: Dollar-Cost Averaging (DCA)
The principle behind Dollar-Dost Averaging is to consistently invest a fixed amount of money in an asset, let say a stock or a crypto, no matter what.
Repeat after me: “No matter what”
Consistency is the key here, and that is why automation will help you avoiding to sell for short term gains or sell when you are afraid if the price of your investment dropped 20%.
The DCA method helps you smoothen the price of an asset you buy on the long run.
Sometimes you’ll win, sometimes you’ll lose. But if you choose your markets and assets wisely, you will, on average be able to buy more assets than if you bet all at once.
There are well explained article on Investopedia (link here) or Forbes (link here)
if you spread out your purchases in $100 monthly portions over 12 months, you may end up with more shares than you would if you bought everything at once
What to expect next?
I’ll keep you posted with the performance of my portfolio over the next few weeks to give you the insight on this project.
For now, I’ll set you free of my Crypto obsession
Helpful links
📚 Book worth reading
The Art Of Meditation by Matthieu Ricard (book in 🇬🇧 — book in 🇫🇷)A guide to help you start a meditation journey. Matthieu Ricard is a French doctor in genetics who decided to become a buddhist monk. In the book, he explains the methods used to meditate.
📲 App worth trying
In combination with the book, you can install Headspace, one of the most famous meditation app I am using. They let you have a 10 day trial, and there premium plan is somewhat around 60€/yr.They have a large library of exercices to meditate, sleep or simply take a break and relax.
🎥 Movie you cannot miss
The Prestige by Christopher Nolan (2006–8,5/10 on IMDb)The cast is just INSANE : Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Scarlett Johansson, and David Bowie.A battle between two stage magicians to create the ultimate illusion. How far are you ready to go to achieve a dream?
That’s it for this weekly review I hope you’ve enjoyed it.
Thanks for reading and until next time !
Cheers,
Franck ⏅
