Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) is an investing trend that is not limited to the venture capital world. Wall Street has been plagued by FOMO waves ever since the Dot-Com Bubble and its subsequent bursting in the early 21st century; this problematic trend would return less than a decade later to the real estate and subprime mortgage markets. In the world of cryptocurrency trading, FOMO coexists with inherent volatility, and this has clearly been the case with Bitcoin returning to a $50K trading range in early October.

Although some investors are starting to take notice of the cryptocurrency markets, they continue to focus their attention primarily on Bitcoin. However, as this market matures, the need for a broader range of offerings is becoming apparent. In addition, new developments such as the launch of the Ethereum Classic token, ETHC, have brought the entire market into the limelight. As a result, traders are taking a fresh look at altcoins, and the market has been showing more signs of life in the past week or so.

As with all new or emerging technologies, it is important to take a step back and assess the ecosystem on an industry-wide basis. Cryptocurrency has existed on the fringes of the financial system for some time, but now it seems as though its influence is spreading. It is no surprise that the world’s largest financial services providers have been involved with Bitcoin; after all, they are all trying to make sense of what seems to be the future of currency transactions, but we can't really have a market ruled by financial trends such as FOMO.

Professional traders are well-aware of the dangers associated with FOMO; for this reason, they will not trade on this alone unless certain technical indicators show that sentiment is going in a direction they can profit from. In the case of Bitcoin, there seems to be a constant state of FOMO, but there are many ways to navigate the market without it. Cryptocurrency, as with other emerging markets, will be prone to wild price fluctuations for a couple of more years; there really isn't any way around it.