I saved €3,000 a year ago and wanted to use that money to make more. Last month, I had the opportunity to do exactly that. I missed it.
To be precise: I did not miss it. I simply could not get to it in time. I will get to that part. First, the trade itself — the kind of opportunity that, when it appears, can carry you for a year.
The name of the opportunity was Ethereum. I had been discussing it with a friend, Faheem, who agreed that ETH had dipped to a level where the only reasonable direction over the near term was up. We both agreed. We both planned to buy.
Ethereum starts rising
On April 9th, Ethereum dropped to $1,416. That looked like a clean window to slip in and capture the rebound. The problem was that the slip had to happen quickly. We did not move fast enough — and that, as much as anything, is the entire story.
The climb begins
Ethereum started rising steadily — a few hundred dollars at a time, dipping and recovering within that band, but with a clear net upward trend. By May 8th, the coin was approaching $1,900. It had moved roughly $500 per coin in thirty days.
I had been right about the direction. I had been wrong about the only thing that actually matters — timing.
$2,000 and counting
On May 9th, Ethereum crossed into the $2,000 range for the first time in months. Anyone who had bought at the April low was smiling. By May 11th, it touched $2,500. Around the time I am writing this, it has briefly reached $2,700 before settling back to $2,500.
Why I couldn't invest
If I had invested €3,000 in Ethereum when it traded at $1,416, I would have accumulated more than €2,200 in profit across these two months — close to a year's worth of money, made in eight weeks.
The reason I did not make the trade is mundane. My savings were not with me. They were with a close relative who needed them at the time. By the time the money came back to me, ETH was already moving. By the time I might have acted, the window had closed.
I had been right about the direction. I had been wrong about the only thing that actually matters — timing. The chart did not care.