5 Simple Ways To Resist FOMO and FUD While Investing in Crypto

During a recess in elementary school, I walked around the side of the school to pray to God for an Atari 2600.

Some of the other kids at school had one, and I wanted what they had. I experienced FOMO so bad I prayed for relief from it. As for FUD, I grew up poor, so there was usually a certain amount of it in my early years. Neither one of whichever did me any good.

FOMO and FUD can wreck your portfolio by causing you to make rash decisions with little to no evidence to support them. And since the crypto market's volatility is insane compared to others, you're going to get jerked around so much you'll get whiplash.

So, you have to find ways to fight FOMO and FUD. Every little tool helps you come that much closer to achieving your financial goals. So, let's talk about some quick definitions and five simple ways to beat FOMO and FUD.

Let's get it.

What are FOMO and FUD?

FOMO and FUD are acronyms for fear of missing out and fear, uncertainty, and doubt, respectively. They are pronounced FOH-MOH and F-UH-D. The fear of missing out is a phenomenon experienced by an observer of a subject who expresses joy from an event or interaction. The observer then builds a solid impulse to have the same experience as the subject and feel joy.

A marketing strategist, Dr. Dan Herman, allegedly coined the acronym FOMO in 1996. He also featured it in his 2000 paper, Introducing short-term brands: A new branding tool for a new consumer reality.

However, Patrick J. McGinnis, writer for The Harbus, the Harvard Business School magazine, has also been credited with coining it while simultaneously popularizing it in a 2004 op-ed.

FUD traces its beginning to 1693. However, marketing and sales began acronymizing it in 1975. You experience fear, uncertainty, doubt when advertisements appeal to fear to convince investors to buy or sell. FUD emerges when making big financial decisions because they're scary. And the constant bombardment of media is no help. According to Eric V. Holtzclaw, Serial Entrepreneur and contributor to Inc.,

"FUD tactics are meant to scare the customer into buying a product or using a service. "

It's about making the other guy look bad, so you're the safest choice.

You experience fear of missing out and fear, uncertainty, doubt in common occurrences every day. But nowadays, media outlets mostly use the acronyms to describe emotions experienced while investing in crypto.

In closing, FOMO is a bad thing you do to yourself, while FUD is a bad thing done to you. So, now that you know the definitions let's get started.

#1: Remind yourself the cryptocurrency market is volatile

When I was 23, my friends took me repelling for the first time—and yes, the edge fear is real. After securing my lines to muster up the courage to ease myself over the edge. I thought I was going to fall and get hurt or die.

So, I held my position for a little bit after making it to the first step. Then, after I calmed down a bit, I proceeded to take small springs out and release a little line. I started to descend. After ten such series of motions, I made it to the bottom unscathed. The next time I went over, my fear was nearly gone.

Remind yourself cryptocurrency is more volatile than any other investment market. Bond markets don't see volatility, and stock markets see it to a degree. But neither market beats cryptocurrency. For example, while the stock market can see monthly swings of 5.8%, crypto can see monthly swings of up to 22.8%—and that's from the market's store of value. So, you must remember crypto's tumultuous seas are greater than anything before it.

One way to help you remember the volatility is by being honest with yourself. According to Shainna Ali, Ph.D., LMHC, NCC, people can control their emotions by first becoming aware of them. Dr. Ali says there are "[e]asy, everyday applications for fostering emotional intelligence. "You will become accustomed to volatility over time. But when you see your portfolio drop 20% in a month for the first time, you're going to feel a lot of things. So don't act on them. Sit with them first.

The same way my edge fear subsided, your feeling of panic will subside. It takes time to adjust. Remind yourself daily the market will jump around. It may require you to look at your wallet during rocky periods in the market. But once you conquer your fear, there's another challenge for you to complete. And that's to stop checking your portfolio except during scheduled times.

#2: Schedule times to check your portfolio

I learned a valuable lesson about cooking meat: don't mess with it until it's time. Thank you, Gordan Ramsey. When I cooked meat in the past, I'd move it around the skillet, thinking I was tending to the meat like a studious chef. Sometimes, I'd flip the meat several times, believing it would help it cook more evenly. I was wrong on both counts. First, you get the skillet hot. Next, you get the oil hot. Then, you lay the meat down for X minutes, flip it, and leave it alone until done.

You must schedule specific times to check the progress of your portfolio and stick to it if you want to make money long-term in crypto. Planning a task has a powerful effect on your brain. In an article by Paul Minors, contributor at Productivityist, when you schedule something, you make a promise. And "once you make this promise, it becomes harder to procrastinate."

Also, the article shows you're less likely to perform the task when unscheduled. Moreover, schedule your entire day if possible. The benefit is your brain will have a categorized set of tasks to perform at specific times. So, scheduling keeps your brain from wandering off track and breaking the rules. What rules? The laws of successful long-term investing.

First, when you invest in a coin or token, fully understand how long you intend to hold your position. Schedule it. Write it down and solidify it in your head. Besides scheduling, writing information down has a profound impact on our brain more so than electronic methods of recording data.

According to a study by NeuroRelay, when you write something down with a pencil or pen on physical paper, the visual, audible, and tactile areas of your brain activate. Not only does the brain see the writing action on the page, but it also notices the shape of the paper.

For example, the page has slight imperfections such as waviness or a crinkle at the corner. That's why a stylus and a tablet don't have the same effect (even with friction-producing protective sheets). These small details trigger certain areas of the brain tied to memory.

So, it might benefit you to journal or write out your schedule the old-fashioned way. Lastly, training yourself to look at your portfolio on a specific day, whether once a week or once a month, will help you manage your emotions regarding volatile movements in the crypto markets. And when you're able to control your feelings and stay the course with your portfolio, you're going to win in the long run, which brings us to scheduling your investing and making it a routine as well.

#3: Make investing part of your routine

After eight years of struggling with severe depression, I got myself together and started exercising. I was at the gym five to six days a week. At first, I checked my weight every three days or so. As you can imagine, I didn't see much progress.

So, I sat down and researched what to do about obsessing over the scales. I came across several videos on YouTube of people sharing their experiences with the same problem. Their advice was to let go of the outcome and focus on the process.

And one way to do that is by breaking up your goal into smaller goals. For example, every time I made it to the gym, completed my routine, and left, I chalked that up as my goal. Instead of "lose 20 lbs., "my goal became, "make it to the gym. "

Investing your hard-earned fiat into a volatile crypto market is bold, but if you want to beat FOMO and FUD, you must make it a routine. Unfortunately, retail investors express little to no confidence in the market. According to MSN Money, only 11% of Americans are invested in crypto.

And of the ones who invest, few feel confident in holding their position. However, the fact you've invested in crypto shows you're ready to take some risks to control your financial future. And I say, bravo. The next step is to beat FOMO and FUD. While you've read about scheduling when to check your portfolio, you need to address when you invest.

Fortunately, most exchanges allow you to automate the process. For example, Crypto.com, which I use, will enable you to set up specific investment amounts for weekly, bi-weekly, and monthly frequencies. The convenience of setting and forgetting your investments helps steer your mind clear of potential moments of weakness where you'll see your balance during a drop in the market.

You work hard for your money, but FOMO and FUD are nasty feelings rarely providing value. Routine, however, can save you from all the wrong decisions that spring from them. So, dedicate yourself to an investing routine and use what tools are available to maintain it. One tool some coins offer to support your investing habit is staking. So, let's talk about it.

#4: Lockup your crypto to keep your hands off it

When I was about 32 years old, I had a credit counselor come to my apartment to help me get control of my credit card debt. After we talked for about 30 minutes about how I got into debt, she asked me where my cards were. I gathered them all together in a neat little pile and placed them on the coffee table before her. She then asked if I had a freezer bag because we would put the cards in it, fill the bag with water and freeze them. And that's what we did.

That was 2002.

There was no pay by phone. So, if I wanted to abuse my credit cards, I'd have to thaw them out. It turns out that was no problem whatsoever. Freezing your cards in a bag is a garbage tactic. The penalty for me to access those cards was about 5-10 minutes of hot water. That's not enough.

One great tool providing a double bonus is staking because it can earn you interest, and you can't touch it if you choose the right option. Some have equated staking to Certificates of Deposit banks provide, but they aren't the same. Staking happens when you commit your coins or tokens to validate transactions on the blockchain. The activity of staking can earn you interest, sometimes in the same currency and a different one. It depends on the exchange's offer.

For example, at Crypto.com, you can buy their native token CRO, stake it, then when you purchase another eligible coin, get up to 14% annually. In the former case, buying and holding USDC will net you up to 10% if you've staked $400 in CRO.

You can see the breakdown here and how long you agree to leave the crypto untouched. Imagine you're a thief but brand new to the game. You come across two houses. One of the houses is locked, and one isn't. Which one do you rob? You want to get in and out with little trouble. So you pick the unlocked one. Your brain always opts to choose the path of least resistance.

A post from Psychology Today shows participants picked the easier option when provided resistance. Therefore, if you lock up your crypto, you're less likely to bother accessing it. As a bonus, you earn more crypto. So staking your crypto is a great way to keep your nervous hands from making poor decisions based on FOMO and FUD.

Which reminds me, another thing to help you beat FOMO and FUD is not to make big decisions when you're emotional.

#5: Never make a financial decision when you're emotional

I got married after dating someone for two months. Two and half years later, I got divorced. Every decision I made, from the first to the last one in my relationship, was terrible. At least, it felt that way. I was awash with emotion over this person who preferred my exclusive company.

So, when she asked if I wanted to get married, I said yes. In addition, when she asked if I wanted to get married at a chapel with no family members, I also said yes. And it was pretty much yeses from there on out. I'll spare any more gory details, but it was a hard lesson, although I learned something from the experience.

If you make a financial decision while you're in a heightened emotional state, you won't be able to think about any consequences. So instead, you'll only focus on the possibility of reward—even if it's a 1% chance.

According to Ben Bernstein, Ph.D., distressed subjects performed worse on tests than their calmer counterparts. In addition, when subjects experienced heightened emotions such as anger or fear, they considered fewer ways to solve a problem as emotional dominance disallowed much more than one to two options before subjects became intolerant of the unsolved puzzle. Therefore, never make any decisions if possible when you're emotions aren't in check.

Let's put a bow on it.

Wrap it up

Never forget the volatility of cryptocurrency. I know I do. When I open my wallet and see my account down by 20%, I regret ever looking. But, on the other hand, it does me no good to obsessively check my wallet daily. Do I think I'll be rich one morning? Yes. But it doesn't work like that. And I know it to be accurate, yet I still feel like I'll die inside if I don't take a peek. Fear will ruin me unless I heed my advice in this post. But it doesn't have to, and it doesn't have to for you either.

If you've read this far (thank you, by the way), I encourage you to go and find more sources about the topics of FOMO and FUD. I've only listed five ways I believe can help you make better decisions while investing in crypto. But there's so much more information out there. And there might be something not covered here that will resonate with you. It never hurts to learn more.

You might already perform some or all of these ways I've listed. And if so, then you're on your way to a steady climb to financial freedom. Also, share with a friend you think might benefit. And let me know in the comments what you do to combat FOMO and FUD.

Stay strong.