What to do When You Lose it All Trading Margin
This is part of a series where Taylor pulls sweet comments she has made or found over the years in the hopes that they can be useful, searchable, remembered, referenced, and/or aid in the creation of future knowledge base posts. Many are unpolished & contain typos, specific references to previous discussions or the user, and gratuitous cursing.
Ouch. I'm sorry. Start by breathing. Seriously. This is going to hurt now and for a while, but realize that you are not your trades, you aren't defined by your trades, and seriously there is a lot more to life than fucking crypto trades.
Figure out what gives your life meaning that isn't crypto trading. Do that more than you trade. When you are 30, 40, 50 years old and this entire crypto thing is a fad of the past and you are broke, are you going to put "crypto trader" on your resume? Don't get me wrong, I'm bullish as fuck. But putting your eggs all in one basket is irresponsible - whether that is the money you make, the money you save, or the items on your resume.
Call up your friend (no texting!) who works as a sign-spinner or actor or some bullshit and get a drink with him. Listen more than you speak.
Call up your friend (no texting!) who is actually on a career path that you are slightly envious of. Get a drink with him. Listen more than you speak.
Delete reddit -> gym.
For those who trade or those who might be in a similar position, don't be greedy and don't rely on crypto for your livelihood or self-worth or net-worth, please.
Get yourself a fucking piece of paper and a fucking sharpie. Write down how much you are going to take TO FIAT into YOUR BANK ACCOUNT each month. Then do it. If you are in the US, get yourself an IRA and/or another account that (1) has tax benefits and (2) you can't touch. Every single month, a % or flat rate should absolutely go to your bank account - preferably one that will stay there for 30+ years and grow slowly and be there when you are old and wrinkly.
Before opening any trade - short or long - or even if you are holding - write down when you are going to close. When you close if it goes south, when you sell if it goes north, all of it. Then do it. This has to be in sharpie...on paper....on the wall...next to your computer. You can't delete it, trash it, erase it. You do what it says because you 1wk/1mnth/1yr ago would have been happy with that, and you today should be happy with that.
Decision making in the heat of the moment is never good. Trust your past, more rational self. There is no new information that is more reliable today than the information you were relying on when you opened that position. This will save you more often than it hurts you to close a bit early. Plus, you can always blame and hate and want to kill your past self. It's much more problematic when you are blaming, hating, and wanting to kill your present self.
Diversification between Dash and BTC is not diversification.
Call up your mother or another trusted (older, respected, mature, financially sound) person in your life and explain to them that you plan on keeping X% of your net worth in crypto. If you don't have the balls to do that because you know they will think you are a crazy stupid motherfucker, then that X% needs to go down until you can.
Don't only hang out with crypto people. Having people in your life - colleagues, friends, family members - who are aware that you are into crypto but don't quite get it - is a very good thing. They keep you grounded. When reddit is going BUY BUY BUY, they remind you that the 99% of the world doesn't know an ethereum from and ethernet cable. This is insanely helpful when you think that things couldn't possibly go wrong. And also nice to have when you fuck up, lose it all, and reddit is laughing at you.
Things will always go wrong.