Greed. It is hard to resist.

Yesterday, I was taking some time looking around at different coins I hadn't heard of. I came across one called Verge.

...Interesting. A privacy coin. There has been lots of talk recently about privacy in cryptocurrency. I'll check it out...

I found that it was selling at around 2 cents USD - pretty large circulation, but compared to other privacy coins, quite cheap, even when accounting for the circulation. For example, if you compare it to Monero with its 16 million coins, priced at around $350, Verge - aiming for the same market - has a circulation of 16 billion coins and should therefore be valued somewhere near a thousandth the value of Monero, all things being equal.

Of course, that's the tricky part. All things are not equal, and there is quite a few differences between the two coins. But it gave me a frame of reference. At that rate, with a thousandth the value of Monero, Verge should be valued at around maybe 25 to 35 cents. It was resting at only 2 cents. So, I figured, what the heck, I'll buy a little and it's no big deal if it doesn't go anywhere.

And about an hour after I bought it, John McAfee stated on Twitter, that the best cryptocurrencies for investment were privacy coins: Monero, Zcash, and Verge. He went on to say that Verge was "certainly the best buy".

The price exploded. It surged parabolically, rising from 2 cents USD to around 9 cents USD, or from about 150 satoshis to a peak of about 450 satoshis! What a thrill!

I had tripled my money in a single day, just on a hunch. Pretty awesome. I was holding on for the moon.

And then the price settled down. An instant feeling of disappointment crept over me, even though I was still far, far ahead. What, why not 400%, Verge? Why? (raise fists to the sky) WHYYYYY??

OK maybe not that dramatic. But it is a bit of a let-down now, even though I've still more than doubled my money on it.

This is greed. It's the feeling of being dissatisfied when I have no reason to not be satisfied. And it's a very powerful emotion. It can make you do dumb things, like dump more money in a surge when it's hitting its peak (fortunately, I didn't get sucked into doing this). It can also make you feel disappointed when you should be feeling happy. After all, how else can you make money this quickly with just a couple button clicks?

I need to remind myself to be satisfied. To enjoy the ride, and the thrills of trading, but not to dwell on the monetary gain. It is pretty entertaining. I should take more satisfaction in making a good pick and watching it perform.

So, my advice: resist greed. It isn't easy. Try to think of the positives, of what you enjoy in life, and avoid dwelling on having to make more and more money. It's not easy, but it's worth it.

Now to look for that next coin...

image source:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk