You usually hear:

“A $1,000 investment in Apple stock in 2010, would be worth $15,000+ today
$1,000 worth of Bitcoin $BTC at the start of 2016, is worth $70,000+ today”

What you don't hear is

“$1,000 invested in Cisco in March 2000, excluding dividends, was worth $200 in 2011

If you had invested $1,000 in Ripple $XRP in December 2017, you would have about $100 today”

What does this mean?

There is a huge survival bias when we talk about investments. Survivorship bias/survivor bias is simply the tendency to focus on things that did great and forget

those that did horribly.

For every exceptionally profitable investment you could have made in the past, there are disastrous ones you could have made. You never really KNOW which investments will be the biggest winners or losers in the future when you’re living in the moment.

The one thing these companies have in common is high risk. While taking high risk gives you the opportunity to make massive profits, it also exposes you to the huge chance of losing a lot of money.

Those are just 4 opposing examples out of thousands not even including companies

that no longer exist, and that investment in them would be worth $0 today. The point is not for you to focus on the examples. The point is that not every high-risk opportunity is the next Apple, Tesla or Bitcoin. Not every new “investment” will be a winner.

Be careful. Don’t invest what you cannot afford to lose and don’t invest what you cannot hold on to for a long time to wait for it to turn a profit.