Selling is scary, but for many of us trying to lock in our goals - it’s why we’re here. Today we discuss flexing that selling muscle.
Show Notes
Gerbz: What's up, crypto crew?
Coming at you from Tulum, Mexico this week, where I'm disconnecting a little bit, even though I did notice the markets dumped. Post halving, that was actually to be expected. If you subscribe to the Bitlyft newsletter or follow me on social, you know I've been expecting a dump. I called 55k, it looks like we're somewhere around there.
Everyone was buying in, hoping that the halving was going to be something special. It's not that special. It's not special in the moment. But big things are coming, big things happen. The having kicks off that supply shock that I talk about all the time. And the bull market is on track.
Might be time to buy the dip, average in, dollar cost average. As we do. As we're working our way towards this bull market, everything's kind of going according to plan, you know? That the halving does kick off this supply shock that we talk about all the time, but it doesn't happen immediately. But it will start to happen. Miners have to sell their Bitcoin, they're making less, and there's not as much on the market, especially now that the ETFs are scooping up so many coins. There's not going to be enough to go around. This is what's going to kick off this bull market that we're heading into now.
This week, I chopped together a bunch of little clips. Clips from conversations I've had with other members of the BitLift community over the last few weeks. I chopped together a bunch of stuff talking about selling. Every time we talked about selling, why to sell, how to sell, when to sell. And, you know, it struck me while I was watching all of this that, you know, no one's really selling for money.
We don't sell for money. We sell for the things that money buys us. In fact, we kind of, we exchange one asset for another or one asset for an experience or one asset for freedom, but we don't want money. No one actually wants money. We want the things that money buys us. And I just thought that was interesting.
I know everyone is a little bit scared about selling. Selling is a scary thing to do, especially after you've worked so hard to. Make this investment and to see it go well, and you don't want to screw it up.
Hopefully these conversations help you figure out a little bit, what you want to do and, work your plan, man, because having a plan is what it's all about.
So talking, selling, that's the topic for this week. Enjoy the pod and catch you around.
I think about like, in life, like you kind of have like these chapters, right? And you have goals for yourself, and you're progressing through life. And I feel like anytime you try to like skip a step, that's where you get into trouble.
Maybe one more thing is like, sell a little bit, like, when you feel that. You don't have to sell all at once, build that selling muscle a little bit. Remind yourself how to transfer from your wallet to the exchange. How to place a sell order.
Rosemary: But with this, it would be nice to have your guidance and thinking around it, especially as the market fluctuates. And if it gets to where it's supposed to get, you know, it's like, when do you pull? When do you not? How to think about it?
Gerbz: I had goals for myself. And even, I've gone into these, some of these cycles, without goals for myself. And I can see the difference in how I react to the emotions that come with the cycle and prices going up. And I find that when I have just a very specific goal, it's so much easier.
In 2018, like, I wanted to buy a house. That was like, my goal. It had nothing to do with crypto. I was like, man, I was saving for a house. That was what I wanted, and just knowing like, what the price of the house was that I wanted and where it was, I was able to just sell exactly the amount of Bitcoin around the area that I wanted to sell it at to buy my house.
The other big learning from that though was, something that always holds me back from selling is like the fear that it's going to keep going up after sell. That's why we're all afraid to sell.
And what I learned from that experience was, this was when Bitcoin reached $20,000, this was in 2018. Obviously, Bitcoin has hit $70,000 now. I don't regret selling for a second.
Like now in hindsight, I look back and I'm like, I'm in that house right now that I bought. And that was my goal. I don't regret it at all. And if it keeps going, I'm still not going to regret it. So that, I like, I almost needed to like, learn that in some way. That I don't have to be afraid of like, selling at the wrong time.
Obviously we want to sell at the top. I'm not going to stop you from trying to do that, but going to be okay if it doesn't go exactly that way and you're able to accomplish, like check things off your life list. That's way more important.
So that's why I start with that and it's, I try to base everything on that. Obviously we get into a lot of like guesswork later, but this is the one thing that you actually have a little control over is like, sitting down and figuring out what you want.
Rosemary: So on that note, because there's the, at least for me, there's that little voice, which is, like, let's say it's a house. Oh, but if I hold, maybe I, it could go up higher and I could buy, I don't know, a few more square meters or whatever, or something. Or I could get a better deal, or I could save more. You know, whatever.
How do you, cause once you hit the goal and you have the goal, how do you prevent your voice in the head, the voice in the head? At least for me, that tells me just maybe if you wait a little.
Gerbz: Just knowing that voice is coming, and it's trying to trick you.
Claire: Yeah.
Gerbz: It's going to happen. Like now, you know, you're gonna, you're gonna laugh when you have that thought next time you're going to be like, man, this is that thing that's trying to prevent me from actually accomplishing my goal. And you'll start to see it everywhere.
And it is, it's our brains, are like wired for that in some weird way.
Brett: So what's your play? I mean, you gonna sit on any long plays?
Gerbz: Yeah, definitely. So I mean, my philosophy at this point is to sort of like, four year trade Bitcoin and ETH. I've been buying Bitcoin and ETH for the last year, and I'm going to try to sell that chunk of it at the top. And that's kind of the only real trading that I do as far as like big trades.
Do you have a goal for this cycle? Like a monetary goal? Are you going to try to like, sell a certain chunk at a certain time or anything?
Brett: I don't know. I really, I'm not sure. Like, don't really ever want to sell any Bitcoin, but...
Gerbz: Mm hmm.
Brett: If it goes completely berserk, I might sell a little bit. De-risk if, you know, we hit another multi year bear cycle.
Cause I mean, I don't know what's going to happen. I've been through this game a long time and there's many times I've watched my portfolio go up to like, you know, silly numbers that I've never seen in my life. When I just kind of like shake my head and I just don't even do anything because I know that there's a bigger future down the road.
Gerbz: Couldn't you sell at that moment and then buy back when you know this winter is coming?
Brett: I think I can now, but in the past I was, I never know. Now it's like, no, I think I have a better picture of how this works.
Gerbz: Sure.
Brett: But I'm still like, I have trouble. Cause I know I'm not going to hit the top and I feel like anytime, you know, I feel like the, sort of cliche, like anytime I sell it skyrockets. And when I buy it dumps, you know what I mean?
I look at the Bitcoin that I have, like, I don't need to buy anything. Like, my life is pretty good already. I don't want to buy dumb stuff. I just, like, travel around the world. And I can do that, I don't have to sell any Bitcoin to do that, it's not that expensive, my businesses cover that.
Like, my life's already pretty good. But you know, at some point it'd be nice to set this money to do something good for someone or something that I care about. Or maybe buy me a house, if I decide I don't want to move around so much.
Gerbz: Yeah. When you're ready to settle down.
Brett: Perhaps both.
Gerbz: Your story is so familiar though, because this idea of like, I always say most people, their first cycle, they buy the top and they just lose everything. Second cycle, they are in on time, but they ride it all the way up and then all the way down. Third cycle is when you remember to sell.
Ferenc: That's my goal this time. But my story is a little bit different with, so I sold Litecoin, but I didn't sell anything else. So I've done the round trip twice now. Because I thought, the second time, I thought this time I'm more, you know, crypto Twitter, YouTube, BitLift Podcast and whatnot.
I'm like, I'm more educated now, I'm more informed and I'm going to sell. Haven't sold a thing. So I've done the roundtrip twice and I'm pretty annoyed.
Gerbz: You're not the only one, just know that you're not alone in that adventure, man.
Ferenc: And also, I remember after the first top, and when it crashed, I was thinking, Jesus, I'm just a massive bag holder now, and I've got all this shit. And didn't sell, and now I'm just holding all this valueless, almost valueless stuff.
And then it came back alive. And, I didn't learn from the previous one. I didn't learn from stuff that happened three months earlier.
Gerbz: I know, it's hard.
Ferenc: Let alone the one from previous, the previous cycle.
Gerbz: Yeah, it really is that I think, don't try to skip. You know, if magically you wake up one day and you've got a whole house in your portfolio, then just smash sell the whole thing, right? Or whatever percentage. Then just do it, lock it in.
But more likely than not is you'll hit your goal, you'll be like, man, but it's just not over yet. You know, like, it has so much more, so much more room to go. That is the time to at least start flexing that selling muscle.
You're going to need to get used to selling. Like, we don't sell very often. You don't buy very often either. Like, you're not going to be ready to really sell in that heat of that moment unless you've already practiced selling a little bit. So, work that selling muscle when you start to see that those goals are coming into fruition.
What I say to people too is Let's say you sell your Bitcoin at $100k, and you lock in this goal and you buy that house. And you guys are like, hanging out on the patio, on the beach, chilling, living the good life...and Bitcoin goes to $500k.
I don't think... you'll smile, but you won't be mad, you know?
Felipe: No.
Gerbz: You'll be like, you'll feel, you'll feel good about that decision, and I think it's hard. It's hard to see that. We get so caught up in like trying to time the perfect selling point. But really the best point is like when you accomplish your goals, that's a way better point.
Felipe: Yeah. I like the philosophy. That's a really good philosophy. You had it yourself, right? With your house, I think you said. You had that experience.
Gerbz: I'm in that house right now. I'm talking to you from that house right now. I sold all that Bitcoin at $20K. And I did, I sold at the top, it was perfect fricking timing. And you know, we've been, and then we crash and I still felt like a genius for a little while. And then the next cycle it was off to $60K.
I didn't regret it for a second. Still don't.
Felipe: That's a real good like, sanity check. Is to think in those terms rather than just think about maximizing the numbers.
Gerbz: And you'll see, so this is where you set, okay, my goal, my target for this year, I think Bitcoin could hit $100K. I think ETH could hit $10K. And then it's like, if that happens, first of all, how much of your crypto are you willing to sell? Maybe you're willing to sell a hundred percent of both of them.
Me personally, I would never sell all my Bitcoin no matter what my goals were. Like, one of my goals is to never sell my Bitcoin, right? So I would never have my percent be, you know, 100% for both.
But maybe it is for you because maybe your goal at the state, the level that you're at is to get more dollars to achieve that next level for yourself.
Cuinn: I don't think I would sell a hundred percent either. I think I'd want to make sure that I kept some of both, no matter what.
Gerbz: And it just helps me like, get into the mindset of, in the mindset of being prepared to sell. You know, like it's so funny too, like when you buy these long term investments, and you've never sold them, when the time comes to sell, you don't even really know what to do, like you've never even done it before.
Cuinn: That, yeah, that's my biggest fear. It's like, and I've been asked this question before, like, okay, let's say this does happen. What do you do? Do you sell it all? I would never want to sell it all because I think I'd want this to be like a formula that I could keep using over time. But yeah, I want to think about this before it happens. Because Bitcoin, unlike other investments, can change very fast. So you kind of have to be ready right away.
Let's say we're in June this summer and crypto is like very close to my $100,000 goal. In that moment, you're like you said. You're probably, one side of you is probably saying, okay, hit your goal. Like, execute your plan.
The other side of you is probably saying, dude, what if you sell it like you said, and you could have been, you know, you could have been retired if you waited three more days. So that's, God, I can't even imagine being there.
Gerbz: Here's what I've learned in my experience with this is that, so I had a goal, you know, in 2018 there was a big boom. It was a big, one of the big, the cycle before the one that we just went through. And my goal was to buy my house. I had a spreadsheet very similar to this where I'd crunched how much Bitcoin I needed to sell at what price to buy my house.
And Bitcoin got to $20K, which was right around the number that I needed. And I sold a lot of my Bitcoin there and I bought my house. I don't regret selling that Bitcoin and buying my house for one second. Like, not, even a little. In fact, it was a great decision at the time, and I still feel fine about it.
Cuinn: Yeah, I shouldn't have a more concrete thing that I'm trying to get to so that if I do sell at that point, I'm like, I got what I was looking for. Without that concrete thing, you're just left with, you're left with like, why did I sell?
Gerbz: When we're somewhere near the top, everyone wants. To think that we're going to keep going up forever. Because no one, no one wants to sell. You know, we all should probably sell, at least after we've had this crazy boom and we've had some of our goals like, achievable. And our portfolio, we see it there, and we don't capture it. We start to make up reasons why we shouldn't sell.
Maybe I don't need to sell my crypto ever. You know, every cycle we'll have these reasons to never sell. The super cycle is one of those reasons. Don't believe it. Don't believe it until there has been a cycle that we didn't drop. Until I can see one, like in my rear view mirror, then I'll, then maybe I'll believe a super cycle is possible. But for now, we're going to have big booms and we're going to have big busts also.
Jacques: Yeah. I mean, at the same time, let's say you got in at the first cycle, and you just bought Bitcoin, and you never sold, you're just like, oh, I'm just gonna ride it, you know, and never sold until now, you would be really much in the plus.
I haven't actually ever really sold crypto in that way. So I bought a little bit. I maybe sold a little bit. That's many years ago. So. I'm already scared of that moment of like, when do you transfer crypto from your wallet to the exchange?
Like, when you want to sell, do you set stop losses? How do you get the money out, you know? Yeah, and more, okay, that's more a technical thing, but how do you sell? When do you sell?
Gerbz: Yeah, there's definitely two components. There's the mindset part and then there is the technical part and they're both very important. The first thing I'd say is before the end of the day, maybe it's night, maybe tomorrow morning, sell some crypto. Just do it. Get used to and familiar with selling. Like I talk about it kind of like a muscle.
I have a post on BitLift called like, the selling muscle. And it's something you need to like, work it out. It's like you need to train it. You need to prepare it because yeah, that moment comes and it's a small window of opportunity. And then, all of a sudden you realize, shit, I've never sold before.
Like what exchange do I even still have an account with, you know? And like, is my bank account even connected to this thing? Yeah, you don't want to in the heat of the moment, you want to be so prepared. You want to have experienced this before. So go sell some crypto, even if it's a little bit. Sell the crypto for your local currency, transfer it to your bank, transfer more from the other direction, get really used to and familiar with that and start building your selling muscle.
And it's just where on that prediction list do I think it could happen. And let's like, place some orders like above and below and around that area. Maybe I'll say like, okay, maybe I think this cycle, $100K and $250K are like, the potential tops, right?
So maybe I'll put like. I'll break it into like, let's say six chunks, the amount that I'm willing total to sell this cycle. I'll put a couple at 90, I'll put one at 100, I'll put one at 110. And then I'll put one at you know, 225, 250, and 400. I know it's crazy, but that's kind of how I would approach it.
And then I'll leave those limit orders in and I'll change them if I change my mind or if I change my plan. That's the hard thing about having a plan is like people think, well, if I, I'm not going to stick to it. And that's actually okay, you can change your plan. Have a plan along the way, and don't be afraid to adjust your plan.
But make sure that you have a plan and then yeah, you can adjust it. That's okay.
Dom: I had two NFTs that I bought for 600 each and they both went up to 17 ETH each.
Gerbz: Wow.
Dom: And this was at the height, this is like three and a half, $4K. And I didn't sell any of them. And now they're, I think they're two ETH each.
But uh, yeah, one of the biggest regrets because that could have, if I'd converted that into fiat, and this is the only thing that's saving me, is that I knew I wouldn't have converted it to fiat, I would have kept it in ETH, so I would have still seen the value drop.
But if I had converted that to fiat, then that would have been, could have done a house extension, new car, two new cars. It would have been living a different life.
Gerbz: And the NFT is so interesting. So that same story we just talked about how it's so hard to get ourselves to sell the dollar amounts for the tokens, take the tokens and then add artwork on top of it. Something that you're like, even some, we have these connections, this emotional connection to the JPEGs and the projects and the team and the community,
It's like that exact same, whatever that is. It's that exact same thing plus a bit more emotional connection on top of it. It almost feels like it was just designed to manipulate our brains, you know?
Josh: But with Bitcoin, I'm kind of in the position or mindset that I don't want to sell any of my Bitcoin. For me, that's like, super long term, like, I don't know, maybe not ever sell it if I can and just kind of keep making that my piggy bank, I guess.
Gerbz: Yeah, it's nice to save in Bitcoin. Cause like you just, you're so unlikely to sell, like it just keeps growing there. Yeah, using it, switching to the mindset of like, not how many dollars do I have saved, but like how many Bitcoin do I have saved is such a nice, it makes saving a lot easier.
Claire: In regards to selling, how do you, how to think about taxes? Because I guess if there's a gain, then you get taxed on that.
Gerbz: Yeah, I can tell you how I think about it and tell you my experience with it, because they're different things.
Claire: What's the best way to maximize it?
Gerbz: I know it's hard. So I don't know what your jurisdiction is, but the states, it's like we have short term and long term capital gains. Short term is anything that we held less than a one year. Long term is anything that we held longer than a year.
And then any sort of like crypto income that occurs, maybe it's like from staking or some sort of like token rewards, anything like that, that gets taxed as income. That's how it is here. It's common for that across jurisdictions, but it's not always exactly the same.
If you can buy a year before you're going to sell, That's golden, right? Like it's half as much in tax in capital gains tax. So like, placing your bets early does benefit you.
TJ: The plan this year is to, you know, buy things sooner so that in Q1 2025, I will have owned them for over a year so I can just take some profit. And then the other thing is, just setting a calendar date. You know, in say Q1 2025, to sell. And force myself to sell and just remind myself to take some profits.
Gerbz: No one wants to sell all their Bitcoin ever. But it does make sense if you're feeling like we're topping out, to maybe take, to take some Bitcoin off the table too. So you can't be afraid to do that.
TJ: And well, I mean, cause it also it has to do with my, goals or whatnot. Cause even though I do firmly believe that, you know, Bitcoin is going to be the biggest performer in the longterm, it only performs if you take profits.
Gerbz: What advice would you give to someone coming at you today who wants to buy some, invest in crypto today?
TJ: Also have a plan to sell. No, I would say, buy it, but also have a plan to sell and don't get greedy. That's what happened to me last cycle. Don't, try to day trade your cryptos cause it just doesn't work.
Gerbz: It doesn't work, I know. It's unfortunate, but there's a reason people are professional traders, right?