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Thursday, August 14, 2025
$10,000 Investment Challenge- Update 8/14/2025- Down big time at the moment
Wednesday, January 22, 2025
$10,000 Investment Challenge (paper trade) - 1/21/2025
Apecoin. Sold all the crypto in this paper trade experiment and bought more Apecoin. Going to let them ride out the remainder of this crypto cycle...
On December 11, 2023, I tried to open a crypto account, so I could get at least a little money into the market to take advantage of the current crypto cycle. Because of my lame Obama phone, I wasn't able to transfer money into the account. So I decided to do a paper trading experiment instead. Here was the idea, " If I had $10,000 right now (12/11/2023), where would I invest it?" Not just crypto, but any investment vehicle. I began the paper trading experiment, a pretend account, then. You can see the original post at this link. I bought and sold a bit, and by March 11, 2024, this was my portfolio of cryptos:
.011995 BTC (Bitcoin)
.2259 Eth (Ethereum)
7.647 SOL (Solana)
56.931 AVAX (Avalanche)
74.962 DOT (Polkadot)
595.298 Matic (Polygon)
2,685.31 APE (Apecoin)
490.196 SAND(Sandbox)
510.204 MANA (Decentraland)
After March 2024, the portfolio was up about 40%, and I cashed out some of the positions, and bought other cryptos. I saw no reason to "invest" in stocks, gold, or anything else. From the very beginning, my timeline was what I believed would happen in crypto by late 2025 or early 2026. That's still the timeline I'm following. I just let everything ride, after March 2024.
Yesterday, January 21, 2025, I decided to "sell" everything in this porfolio, except Apecoin, at the prices available about 12:45 pm Pacific time. Again, this is just a pretend account, a "paper trading" experiment, to see how my ideas would perform. Here are the prices I "sold" each crypto at yesterday (1/21/2025):
Bitcoin (BTC) - $105,950.64
Ethereum (ETH)- $3,308.78
Solana (SOL) - $253.79
Polygon (Matic) - $ .45
Sandbox (SAND)- $ .59
Decentraland (MANA) - $ .50
Polkadot (DOT) - $6.70
Avalanche (AVAX) - $37.03
That pretend (again, this is a paper trading experiment) sale yielded $7,244.01, less 5% estimated gas fees, for a total of $6,881.81
That left my portfolio with just 2,685 Apecoin (APE)
and $6,881.81 in cash
I took the proceeds and bought 6,000 more Apecoin (APE) at $1.03 each, which cost $6,180, plus a 5% gas fee, for a total of $6,489
So now, just over 13 months into my "$10,000 Investment Challenge" my portfolio consists of:
8,685.31 Apecoin (APE)
and $392.81 cash in the account
Total value after 13+ months, Apecoin and cash, equals $9338.63
So the account is down about $660 from the original $10,000 at this point, but I'm 100% OK with that, since Apecoin is out of favor right now, and sitting at $1.03 per coin. APE peaked at around $27, and hovered between $3 and $7 for much of its lifetime. I have faith in Yuga Labs, creators of the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT's, Mutant Ape NFT's, the Otherside NFT/gaming metaverse, and, of course, Apecoin, the unit of trade in all those realms. So I'm going all in on Apecoin at this point for my $10,000 investment challenge. Again, this is a paper trade, a pretend experiment, and should not be taken as financial advice.
Here are links to all the posts for my $10,000 Investment Challenge:
$10,000 Investment Challenge- December 11, 2023
$10,000 Investment Challenge- December 21, 2023
$10,000 Investment Challenge- February 21, 2024
$10,000 Investment Challenge- February 28, 2024
$10,000 Investment Challenge- March 11, 2024
I do most of my writing on Substack now, a platform designed specifically for writers. Check it out:
Monday, March 11, 2024
The $10,000 Investment Challenge (paper trade) - Up 40% in three months!
Just a reminder, this is a paper trading exercise, which began with this blog post, on December 11, 2023. I opened a Coinbase account, but was unable to put any money into it, because of my cheap ass phone. That really pissed me off, since I knew the next big Bitcoin/crypto bull market was already underway. I decided to to pretend I had $10,000 to invest in anything, and do a paper trading experiment instead. This whole thing started with this November 14th, 2023 post, about the coming Bitcoin bull market potential, due to the BTF spot ETF's and the upcoming Bitcoin halving. So I don't actually have $10,000 invested in crypto, and this experiment should not be taken as investing advice. See the Disclaimer above.
Anyhow, I clicked on the news today and saw that Bitcoin was up over $72,000 per coin, a new all time high. I knew Solana, the early star of my pretend portfolio of cryptos, was about double from where I bought in, on December 11th, 2023. Sure enough, about 8:25 am PDT this morning, Solana was $147.80 per coin. I initially bought into SOL at $69.65. Here's where my portfolio stood after the last trades, in this February 21st, 2024 post. So here's today's actions:
I sold 7 SOL (Solana) @ $147.80. That came to $1,034.60, minus the 5% gas fee I'm figuring per transaction, which was $51.73. That left me with $982.87.
I took that $982.87 and bought 405.97 APE (Apecoin) at $2.30 per APE, after a $49.14 fee, that cost me $933,73.
Now, my crypto (paper trading) portfolio consists of:
.011995 BTC (Bitcoin)
.2259 Eth (Ethereum)
7.647 SOL (Solana)
56.931 AVAX (Avalanche)
74.962 DOT (Polkadot)
595.298 Matic (Polygon)
2,685.31 APE (Apecoin)
490.196 SAND(Sandbox)
510.204 MANA (Decentraland)
The total value of this portfolio, that started with $10,000 on December 11, 2023, now ads up to : $14,017.97
So it's up over 40%, after gas fees, in three months. I'll take it.
At this point, my 7.647 Solana are completely paid for by profits from selling Solana. So I'm "playing with house money," as a gambler would say. I own those free and clear in this portfolio. I put the profits into more Apecoin, because I'm a big fan of Yuga Labs, and think APE is a solid bet, that could go 3X to 14 X from here, based on its past prices. It could go up even more. Time will tell.
Again, this is a paper trading portfolio, these are pretend investments. This is an experiment, since I couldn't put money into an actual account to buy crypto when I really wanted to.
I've been writing on many other topics on Substack, a platform designed specifically for writers, check it out:
Steve Emig The White Bear's Substack
Blogger's note- 3/24/2024- When I wrote this post, I didn't link all the previous posts about my $10,000 investment paper trading experiment, or the original post from last November, which led up to this post. So now, on March 24th, I'm adding those links, but not changing anything else in this post, not one character. So here are the links of the previous posts in this series.
November 14, 2023- The Great Bitcoin Play of 2023-2025 Bitcoin was about $36,366
December 11, 2023- The $10,000 paper trade investment challenge Bitcoin was about $41,935
December 21, 2023- The $10,000 investment challenge paper trade Bitcoin was about $43, 875
February 21, 2024- My $10,000 investment paper trading exercise- two months in Bitcoin was about $51, 109
February 28, 2024- My $10,000 investment challenge- paper trading- Taking profits! Bitcoin was about $61,069
March 11, 2024- Bitcoin was about $ $69,000, after an intra day peak of over $72,000
March 24, 2024- Bitcoin is $69,633 today, as I was adding this note to this post. Bitcoin, and other cryptos, have largely backed off the last few days. It's the end of March, 2024, and the Bitcoin halving is supposed to happen sometime in April.
Much like before the Bitcoin ETFs got approved in January, the price rose up before the event, and then backed off shortly before the ETF's got approved, and then started moving up again a short time afterwards. I expected Bitcoin to take a break for a while before the halving, since there's been such a good rally. Yes, the peak around $72,000 could be the top of this Bitcoin bear market. But I, personally, don't think so. The trough to peak spread on the last two Bitcoin bull markets were 18X in 2017, and 17X in 2021. If that happens again, Bitcoin would hit $282,000 to $298,000. I think it's unlikely Bitcoin will grow that much this cycle, but those numbers make a rise to $120,000 to $150,000 at the peak, seem quite plausible. I think Bitcoin, and crypto in general, is just taking a break, which could very well be manipulation by Wall Street, pushing down prices so the companies that opened up the Bitcoin ETF's can buy more BTC before the halving, at a cheaper price. That might be what's going on right now. My educated guess is that Bitcoin will chill out for a couple of weeks, maybe a month or so, then, after the halving, continue the bouncy upward rise that has been happening the last 2-3 months. Again, this is speculation on my part, this is not meant at financial advice, it's simply one person's opinion. Read the Disclaimer linked above, and always do your own research and due diligence before making any investment decisions.
Wednesday, February 28, 2024
My $10,000 Investment Challenge- paper trading- Taking profits!
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