Chris Hodler

One of the biggest mistakes I see people making in the magic internet money industry is that, the moment they start investing, investing becomes their entire personality. And I genuinely believe this is one of the main reasons why so many people struggle to make significant money in this market, even when they manage to identify good opportunities. Let me explain. Investing, at least the way I approach it, should be a mostly passive game. You identify something you believe is undervalued, whether it’s a stock, a cryptocurrency, an index fund, or whatever else. You do your research, develop a thesis, and allocate capital because you believe that, over time, the market will eventually recognize the value you see in that asset. And then? You wait. Of course, this doesn’t mean you completely forget about your investments. You still need to monitor relevant developments, reassess your thesis when necessary, and make adjustments if something fundamentally changes. But for the most part, there’s not really much else you should be doing. Meanwhile, you keep living your life. You work on your business, advance your career, spend time with your family, take care of your health, travel, learn new things, and keep improving yourself in whatever areas matter to you. Basically, you let investing remain one part of your life instead of allowing it to consume the whole thing. Unfortunately, most people seem completely incapable of doing that. They buy some magic internet money, and suddenly they’re full-time crypto investors. Every morning, the first thing they do is check their portfolio. Then they open TradingView. They start on the monthly chart, move to the weekly, then the daily, and eventually find themselves staring at the 4H chart trying to understand why their favorite token is down 5%. And from that point, their entire mood starts depending on what the market does. BTC pumps 3%? Bull market is back. BTC retraces 4%? We’re going to zero. Lmao. The problem with this behavior is that you’re turning what was supposed to be a long-term investment into an extremely emotional, active game. And that’s where people start making all the mistakes that eventually destroy their portfolios. They sell during corrections because they’re scared. They refuse to accumulate when valuations become attractive because the sentiment is horrible. Then, when the market finally starts moving higher, they suddenly regain confidence and begin buying aggressively again. They FOMO into assets that have already made significant moves, constantly rotate between positions, and change their entire investment thesis based on whatever happened over the previous 24 hours. And the funny thing? Sometimes these people actually bought the right assets in the first place. They simply couldn’t leave them alone. I’ve seen this happen countless times over the years. People identify genuinely interesting opportunities, accumulate them at decent valuations, and then spend the following months obsessing over every little price movement. Eventually, they get impatient. They convince themselves that nothing is happening, that their money could be doing something better elsewhere, or that another token is about to outperform their holdings. So they sell. And sometimes, a few weeks or months later, the exact same assets they spent so much time accumulating start going absolutely parabolic. Without them. All because they couldn’t tolerate the waiting. And this is something I think a lot of people underestimate about investing. Being early can feel exactly like being wrong for a very long time. Just because you’ve identified something that you believe is undervalued doesn’t mean the market has to agree with you tomorrow. Sometimes it takes months. Sometimes years. And if you’re spending every single day staring at the 4H chart, those months are going to feel like a fucking eternity. On the other hand, I’ve also seen people make genuinely life-changing money by doing something much simpler. They researched properly, bought assets they had conviction in, and then simply allowed their thesis to develop over time. Of course, they still paid attention to the important things. But they weren’t constantly interfering with their positions because BTC had a bad Tuesday. They understood that there are periods when the best thing you can do with an investment is absolutely nothing. And honestly, I think this is particularly relevant to the market we’re experiencing right now. For the past few weeks, BTC has been moving sideways, and every little move seems to completely change people’s expectations. One day everybody is convinced we’re about to break higher. The next day BTC drops a few percent and suddenly the entire timeline starts talking about another bear market. Then BTC bounces and everybody becomes bullish again. How the fuck are you supposed to maintain a clear investment thesis if your opinion changes every time the market prints a couple of candles? Personally, I’m still bullish on BTC and the broader market. Until proven otherwise. Could BTC break some important levels and go significantly lower from here? Of course. And if that happens, I’ll reassess the situation accordingly. But I’m not going to spend every single day stressing over whether the next move is going to be 3% higher or 5% lower. If the market gives me attractive opportunities and I have capital available, I can accumulate more. If it starts moving higher, great. My existing positions appreciate. And if somehow my thesis gets invalidated, I’ll deal with it. That’s all. No need to make this shit more complicated than it already is. And one last thing, because I think it’s important. Investing and trading are two completely different games. When I’m day trading, of course I’m paying attention to the LTF, looking for setups, managing positions, and reacting to PA. That’s literally the job. But when I invest in something with a multi-month or multi-year horizon, why the fuck would I manage that position based on what happens on a 4H chart? It makes absolutely no sense. If you’re investing, give your investments the time they need to develop. Have a plan for accumulating, know what would invalidate your thesis, and most importantly, know how you’re going to take profits when the time comes. Then go focus on something else. Build your business. Make more money. Improve your health. Spend time with the people you love. Do whatever makes your life better. Because, at the end of the day, the whole point of investing is to eventually give yourself more freedom. Not to spend the next five years being mentally enslaved by a fucking portfolio. That’s it. Stop overcomplicating things.