Investor’s Talk Episode 1
Given the recent ban on cryptocurrencies within the country, I thought it wise to interview a very good friend of mine, Tega, he mainly trades in the cryptocurrency market, however, my boy is a real hustler. To say he has been disgruntled since he saw the news is an understatement, but however, he was not too upset to reminiscence about his cryptocurrency journey, and luckily he has been kind enough to share his trading experience with us.
When and what was your first Investment?
My first investment I would say was an indirect one. My mum actually invested in a cryptocurrency in 2017 on behalf of my siblings and me. I think the name of the cryptocurrency was TATCOIN. We each gave her 15,000 naira from our monthly allowance for the investment, and by the time we got home for the holidays, our money had doubled to 30,000 naira- I basically got a 100% return on my first investment.
I know you dived into forex market one time, tell us about it?
My first experience in the forex market was in 2018, which was a bad one. What actually happened was that I paid for a three days masterclass on forex trading, and after that, I invested 30,000 naira into my forex wallet. I first started trading with 15,000 naira, trying to practicalize what I learned from the masterclass, but I made several mistakes and my 15,000 naira was gone with just a blink of an eye. To be honest, I was not motivated to continue in the market so I withdrew my remaining 15,000 naira from my wallet and did not even bother trading till 2020.
Besides your terrible forex attempt, do you have any bad trade within the cryptocurrency market?
Yes actually, I have quite a few, but the worst was in 2017. I allegedly invested in bitcoin.
So, after my initial investment in the TATCOIN cryptocurrency, I was motivated to try out another cryptocurrency investment, so my uncle then introduced me to BITCOIN. He told me all I needed to do was bring 30,000 naira and he would buy bitcoins for me, and I would gain money by mining this bitcoin. He later told me that the Bitcoin mining process would involved me referring two people, and those guys would also refer two people, and just like that the value of the bitcoin would grow.
To be honest, I had no prior knowledge of bitcoin, neither did I know how bitcoin was actually mined, and him being my Uncle I trusted him and took what he said at face value.
During the investment period, I was not seeing any form of return and the guys I had referred started disturbing me, that how far the bitcoin money, me sef I never see anything too. So I started investigating, and I found out that what my uncle actually told me wasn’t how they actually mined bitcoins, plus he only bought 20,00 naira worth of bitcoins for me and the guys that I referred. Long story short, I had to use my personal pocket money to pay off some of the people I referred, because i also referred extra people for the two guys I referred initially.
Are you still in contact with this uncle?
Obviously not.
Given your bad investments in these markets, why keep on trading?
One thing I have learned so far in my journey as a business man is that there is no one sure part, and anything that has the potential to yield you a high return would surely be presented to you with a high risk, and that risk can be translated to losses.
Besides, the mistakes I made so far can be attributed to me not learning the trade properly, and my dubious uncle. So in 2020 I knew I had to correct those mistakes.
Tell us about your 2020 investment in the cryptocurrency market?
Well, during the ease of lockdown, a friend of mine introduced me to the cryptocurrency market and how to trade within the market, plus he kept on gisting me about how he had made mad profits from his trades. To be honest, I was quite skeptical given my first experience with Bitcoins. However, he assured me that this was legit and he personally introduced me to his trainers and that’s how I started learning and trading at the same time
What has been your greatest return so far since you started trading in 2020, and have you had any loss?
Since I started trading in bitcoins I would say I have made a maximum of 50% return on my initial trade. And definitely, I have made losses that spoilt my mood for the whole day. But I usually try to recoup some, if not all of my losses during my next trade. See to be honest, making losses is a normal thing in the market, even the big guys make losses, it just doesn’t show because they can cover their losses with the former profits they have made.
Do you wish you had started trading earlier?
Ah definitely, if I had taken time earlier to attend a legit training I would not have been discouraged to quit so fast, at least I know that I would have been making losses along the way but I would still have been learning from my mistakes and by 2020 I would have gotten to a certain level of proficiency within the market because obviously to excel within these markets, you need to be consistent, and have adequate money on standby.
How do you feel about the new regulation?
From the sound of my voice, you can obviously tell I’m not too happy. However, this new regulation doesn't mean you can’t still trade within the market, it would just be somewhat difficult withdrawing your money and converting it to naira. However, I think there are platforms that allow you to transact with cryptocurrencies without you linking your bank details.
So its really just a setback for so many people, because its obviously clear that the world is going digital, so we should be expecting regulations that support these digital transactions and not ones that sets us a thousand years back.
Also I think this regulations would pave the way for faster cryptocurrency transactions, as new fintech solutions can come up to facilitate cyrpto2crypto transfers not just within Nigeria but across borders. So, basically we just need to adjust to this new era.
