DYOR is short for Do Your Own Research and means to make investments in crypto based on your own research. It often sounds like a warning, and it is. After all, if you make your decisions based on the opinions of others, you have no influence on the results.

Over time, you will get deeper and deeper into the story of blockchain and cryptocurrency and your trades will need to be of higher and higher quality. In this article, we will cover how to then start such research.

• In conversations about DYOR, you often see your interlocutor calling it out to disguise his own ignorance, but it can also be a prompt to become an independent trader
• By doing your own research, results will get better over time because you have found your own formula that works
• If you are going to invest based on your own research there are several standard sections, namely: technical analysis, fundamental analysis, trends and hypes, market cycle, investment horizon, risk management, regulation, ETF and large investors
• When researching a good new cryptocurrency, it is not a luxury to read our extensive blog about it
• Since the creation of a new crypto is getting easier day by day it is litterally raining meme coins, which are basically impossible to research with known methods because they do not have a use-case, only community "value"
• If you start your own research you obviously can't go listening to influencers, who are only concerned with lining their own pockets with a popular sales pitch
• When following influencers you will be faced with all sorts of scams and disasters, since there are even leaked price lists for paying those influencers, even if they have no knowledge about crypto and just have a certain outreach
• Get rich quick schemes don't work, except for the creators, thus YOU will become a victim of a rug pull, a pump and dump or a ponzi scheme
• Never give away your seed phrase or private keys if they ask for them in any case
• Protect your investments from developments you could not have foreseen
• Those who do not research become gamblers of Lady Fortune
• By engaging in your own research, you limit your risk greatly

Content

1. What does DYOR mean in chatter?
2. Investing based on own research
3. Investing in new cryptocurrencies
4. Decisions based on the influence of others
5. Crypto scams
6. Beyond my control
7. What is the risk of not doing research?

What does DYOR mean in chatter?

You know the drill. You're talking to someone about the crypto world and you're talking about what you're all investing in. All kinds of cryptocurrencies mentioned that might be interesting according to the participants in the conversation. You then ask why someone finds a particular crypto interesting and your conversation partner shouts: DYOR! At first you still think it's a perfume brand, but then they tell you what DYOR is.

There are then a couple of possibilities. The most obvious reason he calls out do your own research is that he doesn't know the potential risks himself either and he's getting off on the right foot. Another reason could be that he is urging you to actually do some thorough research of your own, which would be a legitimate justification.

Do your own gambling

After all, if you are going to invest, you will need to know something about a cryptocurrency before you put your money into it. Most people do pretty little thorough research and just buy something and hope it goes well. This is what you might call DYOG, do your own gambling. This can go well, of course, but this is not a system to work with.

There will have to come a time when you have a good answer as to why you put money into a particular cryptocurrency. You can then go on nagging your conversational partner with a never-ending argument about the benefits of the crypto you've invested in, and when he walks away bored, you know you're in the right place. Then your moment to shine is there, where you can finally be the one to say: DYOR!

Investing based on own research

If you're going to lay the groundwork for your own research, there are some standards you can't ignore. Remember: Investing in cryptocurrency is enormously difficult, even if it seems simple. When you know that around 90% of investors suffer losses, this seems like reason enough to create as many qualities as possible in terms of your own research for your trading strategy. We will discuss the most important standards here.

1. Technical analysis. With the help of technical analysis study your charts of a cryptocurrency using indicators and candlestick patterns. The idea is to beat the market and make better investments little by little. If you are going to invest in a new cryptocurrency it is best to do a fundamental analysis first.
2. Fundamental analysis. The master of fundamental analysis is Warren Buffett. Even though his speciality is the stock market, the principles are the same. Read or listen to his tips, he talks charmingly about his insights. In fundamental analysis, you are going to study the basics of a cryptocurrency. After a fundamental analysis, among other things, you know how many coins there are now, how many more are coming and when, what use cases the cryptocurrency has, what competition they have, what partners and what their roadmap looks like. In our blog " how to recognize a good cryptocurrency " you can read much more about this.
3. Trends and hypes. A hype is a temporary rapid rise in a particular type of cryptocurrency or popular event, such as DeFi , ICO , meme coins , play to earn and now AI . With hype, you quickly get Fear Of Missing Out . A hype can suddenly end. Therefore, investing in hype is dangerous and setting a stop loss is more essential than usual. A trend is a long-term direction that a cryptocurrency takes, such as a bear or bull market . A trend can be used to trade in the somewhat longer term with more confidence in its direction.
4. Market cycle. Even though you've done everything right, the market cycle is inexorable. If you bought the best coin in every way ever but there is a bear market going on, that coin will probably still fall in price. Those who do not know the market cycle from the crypto world cannot make multi-year plans and will be surprised more often than not, after which they do not know what to do. If you know the market cycle, then you know that there will come a time to buy and sell and you may also have a strategy for the in-between time, so that your holdings will still have some return during that time.
5. Investment horizon. You can make it as hard or easy on yourself as you want. Those who implement the HODL strategy have the easiest strategy. With HODL do you hold a cryptocurrency regardless of market conditions. Usually you do that with Bitcoin, because this coin becomes more valuable every 4 years during the bull markets, until now. If you go swing trading you have a medium-term investment horizon. This usually involves weeks to months. You have seen in technical analysis that a cryptocurrency moves between a price range of 1 euro and €1.25. You decide to buy the coin around €1 and sell it again around €1.25. Here you use support (1) and resistance (1.25). The most difficult part is day trading. With this you look at the candlesticks per minute or 5 minutes (some take longer sticks up to 15 minutes) and determine when you're going to buy and when you're going to sell on the basis of that buy price. You have to pay transaction fees, so you have to be able to get enough margin. Professional day traders usually pay very little transaction fees because of their high volumes , so they can take smaller margins. With the investment horizon, you still have to take into account the market cycle and thus set a stop loss, otherwise you can still lose large amounts, even with day trading.
6. Risk Management. This includes diversification of your portfolio . If you invest in only 1 cryptocurrency and it is on a downhill slide, while the rest are on the rise, you are bound to get few nice results. If you spread the risk across multiple and different types of crypto you also have a better chance of having a crypto in your portfolio that is doing very well. Another aspect is your maximum bet. Only invest money that you will never need. You don't want to end up in the situation where you need funds and your investments are underwater. Then you have to sell at a big loss to pay your rent or something. So always have a buffer so that a financial setback can be absorbed without having to touch your crypto.
7. The rise of regulation. Regulation can have its good points, but it can also cause market players to go bankrupt, be forced off the market or have cryptocurrencies banned. With the advent of MiCA and other regulation you see that many exchanges will be banned from the European market, other providers cannot afford the costs of this regulation and stop. Privacy coins can be banned because of the current hunt for money laundering and terrorist financing. So keep in mind that coins and exchanges can go off the market and trade accordingly, for example with a hardware wallet to be used for storage and avoiding specific coins.
8. Entering the market of large mutual funds. This has two main consequences. First, much more money will flow into the crypto market. This can push up the prices. Second, it also gives very large investors who have more funds than the entire crypto market the ability to manipulate this market to their own advantage. All the more reason to protect your investments, because a massive dump by such a large fund can firmly depress the price.

Investing in new cryptocurrencies

As mentioned, we have already made a blog about this, namely "how to recognize a good cryptocurrency". Therefore, if you are interested in buying new cryptocurrency I largely refer you to this article through the previous link.

Features of new cryptocurrency for informed decisions

Still, there are some points to be made here. The short story on finding a good new cryptocurrency is a fundamental analysis, and then you mainly look at who the team members are and which important and well-known investors invested in it at its inception. After that sifting, you're already a long way in the right direction. If a crypto has its own main net and not on another blockchain works is also a huge plus, as is having a popular consensus protocol . Also having the advantage of first mover (first cryptocurrency with this use value) can give a new cryptocurrency a solid edge over their competitors.

Explosion of new coin projects

There was a time when there really weren't that many new cryptocurrencies coming out at all. Nowadays, it's raining new cryptocurrencies, litterally like cats and dogs . That's because with the advent of token standards has become very simple. Within half an hour you can have created a token and within a week it can be listed and traded on CoinGecko.

With the advent of presales, distribution has also become much easier. Whereas it used to be very difficult to bring liquidity into a token, now you can have solid liquidity before the token is even on the market. This increases the odds for a new cryptocurrency, but with the explosion of new coins, you can't see the forest for the trees.

In particular, it is raining new meme coins. Investing in meme coins is very high risk and is not recommended if you have a long-term ambitions. True, there are people who have become millionaires through Pepe or Shiba Inu, but the vast majority have lost money with these tokens.

So stick to your own research and don't be tempted to buy cryptocurrency without any foundation. That way you can get into a coin with confidence and know the pros and cons. After all, when you invest in a meme coin you have no idea when it will do what, so it becomes pure gambling and any analysis is redundant.

Decisions based on the influence of others

Especially newcomers to the crypto market tend to be influenced by influencers . An influencer uses his popularity to influence his listeners. It is also possible for an influencer to become popular by talking about cryptocurrency, but that is less common than the other way around.

The purpose of influencers on social media

The goal of an influencer is simple: to make as much money as possible. If you analyze this sentence very carefully you will notice that the listener has no place in his goal. Thus, the listener is simply the product and must provide revenue. Often this involves fairly innocuous things like links in or below an article, but more intrusive techniques can also be used.

When it comes to cryptocurrency, influencers often play on emotion. You don't want to miss this opportunity, right? This coin is going to skyrocket in price, get in now or you'll miss the boat! By far the most cryptocurrencies that are shilled or hyped are meme coins. But like with most of the influencers: All hat and no cattle!

Risk when following an influencer

When buying such a meme coin touting an influencer you may face a rug pull or a classic pump and dump . In a rug pull, influencers and investors who have a lot of this coin (sometimes the principals or owners of the coin) sell all their coins at market price, so the new price becomes 0 and the followers lose all their money. In a pump and dump scheme, influencers and whales buy large quantities of a coin with a low market cap little by little, until influencers start praising that coin to the sky. When there is enough in the pot, they sell all their coins, after which the price drops tremendously. After this, they can start the next round with this or another coin.

Red flags among influencers

Many influencers use all kinds of technical terms or jargon to distract attention from the content. This way they sound very learned and will know what they are talking about. This is a red flag, because if you can't present it simply it will be for a reason. Sometimes they throw in another disclaimer with DYOR, effectively building in an exemption from their responsibilities and pretending to encourage you to do your own research, which is the last thing they want from you.

Beware of people behind a project or influencers with high charisma. The fact that they have an appealing personality says nothing about the value of their advice or project. In fact, you shouldn't look at influencers at all, because they really don't know what the crypto market is going to do. They just want to make money, even if it is a passive income based on misinformation.

Influencers who have no content

An example of a leaked influencer price list, so you know this can never be kosher:

https://x.com/zachxbt/status/1516129830873583617

This list includes the weirdest names of influencers who just have a lot of followers, but usually know nothing at all about cryptocurrency and blockchain. They charge high prices for simply dropping the name of a crypto to make it more popular. Lindsay Lohen said it! Oh, well, then we should buy it soon! Elvis invested a fortune in this coin! The King lives! I knew it!

Crypto scams

We've already talked a bit about rug pulls and pump and dump. In the world of cryptocurrency, it rains scams , where convenient guys and girls want to rip the money out of your pocket. Especially if you are starting out with crypto, it can be very tempting to go along with their stories, which are usually put together believably. After all, you don't have much of a foothold yet and can use any "help" you can get.

Ponzi schemes

If you are considering investing in crypto you will be faced with decoys. One of the most well-known lures is a ponzi scheme. In short, new investors pay to the owners and early investors of the project. This can be recognized by way too high interest rates that you get per year or even per day. When you see that you get 1% per day in interest, or 5% per week, how can a project ever pay you such high margins? That is only possible if so many new coins are made that they become worth less every week. Or by new investors paying the early investors until there are no more new investors and the curtain falls.

Empty terminology

Some coins are also touted with empty terminology. When you hear terms like Ethereum killer, Web4.0, the better Bitcoin or other nonsense, you can almost certainly know that these terms are used to impress and disguise their empty shell.

Nasty tricks

There are also whole fake support teams set up to show you the way to an empty wallet. For example, there are a lot of people on Telegram and other social media asking you about your private keys and you seed phrases , supposedly to be able to help you then. Their goal is to empty wallets of newbies, who do not yet know enough about cryptocurrency and blockchain. Also through emails they try to get you through phishing persuaded to share sensitive information or log in through a link with the goal of stealing your crypto. If you don't understand something, try to get this information from reliable sources and avoid social media in this.

Beyond my control

Some things happen without being able to foresee them, like the demise of Terra Luna. Only people who can detect a bug in a smart contract could have done that. The solution to this is to set a stop loss. You will have to protect your investments, otherwise you can lose large sums of money.

You can apply DYOR as much as you want, but some things are beyond your control and technical understanding.

What is the risk of not doing research?

Most people who do not do research lose money over time. After all, there is no foundation and every result is pure chance. The longer they play along, the more disasters happen to them. These usually could have been prevented with sufficient research of their own.

Roadmap and tokenomics

Researching cryptocurrencies can be time-consuming, complex and overwhelming. Yet this is especially necessary with new cryptocurrencies. For example, exactly at the time you purchase a coin, there may be lots of additional coins coming onto the market because the team and early investors are now allowed to sell their coins, after the vesting period (time your coins are locked in). This can have huge implications for the price and has happened quite often. Again, a stop loss can be a very important protection for your portfolio, in addition to selling your coins before so many additional coins are added.

DYOR limits your risk

If you do not do research you are a pawn of coincidences, which however were not coincidences, only appearances. Most events in the world of crypto are predictable to some degree. By protecting your investments, controlling your emotions and improving your insights you will get more and more by how cryptocurrency and blockchain works.

So DYOR is essential and will significantly affect your results and hopefully ensure that you do become one of those happy few winners that the crypto market has so few of. Plant that tree!