I’ve invested in Bitcoin – it’s been a...

I bought £250!!!8217;s worth of cryptocurrency !!!8211; Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin !!!8211; in December. I know nothing about them, I just saw the price rising and thought I could make a quick buck.

Classic speculator behaviour. Investing in something that you know nothing about because the price is rising is almost the very definition of speculation. This would be true of buying equities, or any other asset too.

You could argue traditional investing is a form of gambling, but that!!!8217;s a debate for another day.

You could argue that, but you would be completely wrong.

Even those supposedly in the know surely couldn!!!8217;t have predicted the wild swings from when one Bitcoin was worth about £1,000 last summer, soaring to almost £15,000 late last year, only for it to crash down to about £7,000 now.

I, and lots of others, predicted those swings. It wasn't exactly hard.

The technology behind these currencies is called blockchain. Some very clever people have tried to explain it to me but I!!!8217;ve still little clue.

"So I decided to buy into it!" :wall:

Without wishing to blow my own trumpet, I know a thing or two about personal finance given my job. But I have to hold up my hands with crypto that I!!!8217;m an amateur.

By the sounds of it, not just with cryptocurrency, but with any form investments, given the nonsense written within this blog that displays zero understanding of how markets work.

I, like many others, thought !!!8220;wow!!!8221; when the price kept soaring late last year. I just wanted some of the excitement of getting involved as, other than a £20 buy-in when I play poker with my mates once a month or putting $30 on the tables when I went to Las Vegas a couple of years ago, I rarely gamble.

Whereas, I, like many others, thought, "Look at that enormous bubble; I won't be going anywhere near that with my money!"

A friend told me he!!!8217;d bought some crypto and as there was a possibility it would keep rising I thought !!!8220;why not?!!!8221;

Always a bad reason to invest in something. "I had a tip from a friend [who also knows nothing about what he has invested in]."

I have no intention of ever using any of the currencies I!!!8217;ve bought, I just hope for my gamble to net a profit.

Good luck.

Why would it return a profit? You've already commented on the wild volatility, so how can you even begin to know when to sell? Have you considered the intrinsic value of the asset? No, because, you "know nothing" about it.

I used the Coinbase app as after some quick research

Nothing like doing your homework is there? And that was nothing like doing your homework.

Coinbase isn!!!8217;t the cheapest but the fees were bearable for the convenience. They were about 4% of what I bought.

4%!!! :eek: If someone's equities investments were costing them 4% they would be up in arms about it. 4% is ridiculous. Exactly what is your 4% buying you?

One thing I have learned is to avoid too many transfers within Coinbase. When I saw Bitcoin!!!8217;s value plateau in December I used some Bitcoin to buy some Ethereum within the app.

Once again, the lack of understanding of investments shines through. You saw the price starting to fall so you sold. This is the way to lose money. Keep going!

I was charged for taking money out of Bitcoin, and again, for using it to buy Ethereum.

Yes, they saw you coming! It's aimed at the credulous who invest with no understanding or knowledge, so they charge high fees that experienced investors wouldn't even consider paying.

Coinbase can also be expensive when withdrawing money !!!8211; see my colleague Callum!!!8217;s blog on how to withdraw money from Coinbase.

Yes, I read your colleague's blog, and once I'd picked my chin up off the floor, I wondered why anyone would have used such a service without checking first what the the process was for getting at your money.

And given the volatility, the whole process means that the price could have swung wildly between when you chose to sell and when you actually were able to.

As I write this, my £250 gamble stands at £300.57. Sorry, scrap that. It!!!8217;s now £303.65 !!!8211; it moved about 1% in the hour or so between first writing this and applying the finishing touches.

I!!!8217;ve lost money in theory in the last few weeks, though. It hit £450 a few weeks ago, then dropped to £200ish only to recover a bit to the £300-or-so mark.

There have been other yo-yo moments within those peaks and troughs. If the stock market had bounced around like Bitcoin, there would be chaos.

Now there's an investment I don't want to be part of!

Should you gamble on Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies?

Only if you are either completely credulous, or you have so much money that you just don't know what to do with it all.

You may be reading this in the same position I was in last year when considering whether to take the plunge, and hoping I!!!8217;ll answer that question for you.

Sorry, I can!!!8217;t. It!!!8217;s simply down to your attitude to risk and whether you are prepared to gamble on something you probably know little about.

Is your attitude to risk one of being prepared to lose absolutely everything you put in and not being able to sell when you actually want to, and paying sky-high fees for the privilige?

What I would say is if you!!!8217;re an amateur in this field like me,

Let me correct that for you: "What I would say is you are an amateur in this field, just like me,"

See it as a flutter, wondering what number will come up when you open the app !!!8211; and hopefully making some money.

There are much cheaper ways of betting.