Well.... I work in IT... so around Nov/Dec/Jan last year, everyone was talking about Bitcoin, but they honestly didn't really understand what it was all about... I became a bit of a defacto expert and I told anyone who asked not to buy in at those prices.... but I know some guys that did anyway... and a few of them spent $5k or more when prices were super high... and have obviously been depressed all year.
As far as I know, they haven't sold their crypto... but I'll start checking in with them more regularly to see where they're upto... they can be my 'normal person gauge' (which I think is pretty much the exact same as being aware of what CNBC is reporting).
I honestly have no idea on timing... so I'm happy to just cost average in until it starts to get crazy again.
If they really spent like $5K on it at ATH's and are still hodling, kudos to them for having pretty strong hands (or having enough money so that 5K is pocket change to them)
But the REAL crypto winter is really depressing. Right now is only a taste of it..
I mean, I talk a big talk about being a hodler since 2013 but the truth of the matter is that the main reason I hodled was because the price was so low that I couldn't be bothered to figure out how to sell to fiat... I just figured.. meh. Crypto and prices were so depressing that I kind of lost track for a large part of 2016. I lost all hope of recovery and probably would've cashed out my measly few hundred dollars worth of crypto if there were an easy way back then. Because for all intents and purposes Bitcoin had died and from the looks of it, it was never coming back or at best stay a really small niche thing.
I think the depression will get a lot worse still. I hope is for a 3K bitcoin bottom but I am keeping a $1250 bitcoin in mind too. And while it sounds nice today, if it really goes that low then something will have happened that will make all of us think that it's a terrible idea to still invest in bitcoin... like throwing away money. And it's going to stay there for a damn long boring time too.
It's so damn hard to actually buy low, because if it's low then there is a reason it is so low (maybe banned, maybe overtaken, etc.) and the psychology works completely against you