How I doubled my money in one month by sitting on my ass (...and how you can too)

Greetings Steemers, I'm in-vestments, and this is my introductory post. Originally I wanted to call myself 'investor-in-vestments', not because I'm a priest (or religious), but because it's a nice little juxtaposition/play on words. But alas, it was far too long a name, so I will have to make do with what I have.

                                    

So, how did I double my money in a month?
I invested in what is known as a HYIP (High Yield Investment Program). Let me say right off the bat that these programs are always scams, in the sense that they pretend to be legitimate investment vehicles that aim to earn sustainable income by trading stocks/farming cryptocurrency/betting on sports/whatever. In reality, they exist to make money for the admin by promising unsustainable returns, and paying early investors with proceeds from later investors. At some point, whether due to insufficient signups, or the admin simply deciding to cash out their profits, the program will close, and existing investors will be left holding the bag.

Wait... Isn't this immoral?
This is where I might lose some of you. Yes, the moral merits of participating in such a thing are questionable. Here's how I rationalize it: my participation will have no material impact on the program, and whatever choice the admin makes, would have been made whether or not I had participated. My job is to simply be more informed and timely than other investors. In this way it isn't too different from something like trading forex or betting - every transaction has a counter-party, and on average, the winners benefit at the expense of the losers. Not that anything is guaranteed in the HYIP world - even if I am smart, informed, and timely, I can still lose my investment if a program decides to fold tomorrow. Just as in trading, the solution to this lies in diversification and proper risk management.

When I invested in my first HYIP, I was already armed with knowledge that they are scams. Others are not so lucky. I did well, doubling my measly, probing sum of 0.007 BTC to 0.014 BTC in one month. In fact, I was overly conservative in this case and withdrew too early, as the program kept paying out for at least another month or two. In the ideal HYIP investor world, you can potentially double your money every month. However, in reality there are certain factors, such as premature program closure, as well as a lack of good programs to safely diversify your (hopefully) growing capital, that prevent this. Even so, I feel that HYIPs can be good for those with the right risk tolerance, who are interested in building up passive income streams. 

At the very least, I am providing a public service by warning people to be very aware when investing in something online that looks far too good to be true (ie. it offers a return of anything over 10% per month). And at most, you can follow my progress as I document my successes and failures over the coming months. I will be posting updates whenever I join or leave new programs, so you can do likewise if you wish.

Which programs am I currently in?
Aim BTC (www.aimbtc.com); Start date - August 3rd 2016; Initial deposit - 0.04 BTC; Earnings -  0.00876 BTC
BitStorm (www.bitstorm.biz); Start - August 6th 2016; Deposit - 0.04 BTC; Earnings - 0.01344 BTC
CryptoDevil (www.cryptodevil.net); Start - August 9th 2016; Deposit - 0.0119 BTC; Earnings - 0.002261 BTC 

I personally stick to programs that use Bitcoin as their payment method, as I find them more reliable, less fussy, and faster-paying. This is not a recommendation to join any of these programs, as it may potentially be too late to do so.

Most of all, do not invest any money you are not comfortable losing. If you want to dip your toes in, start with no more than $50 (or its BTC equivalent), diversified across 2-4 programs. There is absolutely no reason to start with any more than that, as it may be too uncomfortable to lose. Remember, $100 is just one month of doubling $50, and if you end up losing part of your $50, that's much better than losing the same proportion of your $100. Start small, stay diversified.

Expect to see more updates discussing my strategies, tips for novices, as well as new programs I join, and the results of programs I've left.

Best of luck to everyone!