Life as a crypto trader// My life lessons - I need intestinal fortitude

in #crypto7 years ago

So, I wrote one piece in honor of the crypto traders not too long ago. Quite frankly this thing takes balls. Not just man balls, it can be giant lady balls too, or whale balls. The PC expression is intestinal fortitude, and it comes with an apology to everyone currently without intestines. You're people too, and can also be brave. What I'm saying is risking lots of money in a unstable market especially while my monthly bills comes out of this is borderline terrifying.

@haejin

I'm not sure if he's nutz or not. He might be accurate. Some think he's a quack. He might be picking winners in a bull market. I haven't fully made up my mind, but I do think that he has a fairly deep understanding of the principles he's talking about. He does have some useful thoughts and certainly has some eyes on him. Whether technical analysis or anything else is better than asking my lucky 8-ball I don't know.

Here's his post from earlier today. It's called his third alternate count.

Notice the nose diving red. I just quit my job to do this full time. Rough start would be a few days after that realize that we were at a rather extraordinary high for the moment, but having not sold off about to get hit with a brutal couple of whacks from the reality tree.

The positive upside

He talks about the positive upside in this graph-

The negative potential

That one looks a little grim for a guy who didn't cash some out at the top and so has nothing handy to buy the dip.

Seems as though the universe is providing multiple pathways forward and the question is which one will manifest.

Here's what happened today

I started shitting my pants roughly here

We plummeted to the resistance line. That was scary.

I had cleaned up after my self here

Only to then totally reshit my pants here

I'm literally thinking "if this goes any further I'm panic selling all of this shit."

Crypto trading is hard on the nerves

Look, it's one thing when I had a job and could just ride this shit out and not worry too much about the ups and downs because I didn't have to cash some of this shit out to live. Now I pay rent with this. I gotta say, it's fucking nerve wracking. Here's hoping the market goes up, jaws of wealth, triangles, and all the goodness that comes with that. I'm gonna be the first one cashing out fat stacks to fiat when the correction rights.

This is simply a long toast to the people that have done this a while

Maybe it's because I'm new and untested that it's extra scary to do this with mortgage money rather than simply lunch money, but being in this market is a mix of excilerating and terrifying. To the people that have held themselves together (pun intended) I tip my hat, I share my high regards, and will look to summon the will and the balls to do well at this. Cheers. Many blessings of lambos to you all.

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Kudos to you for your success, but if you get to a point where you're not risking the rent money, you'll find it much easier to ride out the swings. What you're experiencing is common to investors in the stock market, speculators in the futures market, professional gamblers, etc. It's tempting to go for the home run and bet big, but volatility cuts both ways. I expect that 2018 will be a great year for crypto investors, but I expect sharp corrections along the way. Diversification and proper position sizing will help us ride out the swings. It will also be important to pick the right cryptos in which to invest. Most cryptos are scams and will go to zero.

"Never confuse brains with a bull market."

"Diversification and proper position sizing will help us ride out the swings."

Yes, yes and yes..

Long term investing only for me; I'm not a day trader.
I understand the landscape and the tech, then try to feel the timing.

These days, watching the newspaper only gives you the propaganda to make the markets cool off. Not the reality, not the truth.

"Success is not final; failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts." ... @aggroed

It is all about emotional control. Controlling the two most important emotions in trading and investing, fear and greed.

I would say it is only about controlling fear, coz greed is a fear not to earn.

Aggroed, very eloquently put. Mentioning 'intestinal fortitude' so early in a post is commendable! I would be wary of other traders' claims that they have made money in this cut throat world of trading. They will only tell you about their big wins and never tell you about their great big losses they have had in the past. Trust me I've been there. All the best and I'll be intrigued to hear how you are doing over the next few days and weeks..

Nice post @aggroed! I am relatively new to trading Crypto. I've quickly learned to do my own research, dont panic, and stick to the reasons I bought in the first place. I lost about 20% of my initial investment buying/selling/chasing, decided to hold (hodl lol) and I've made money since!

The "worst" part of trading cryptos is you miss your trade because of a price spike and your left holding Bitcoins. That's why I don't sweat it when I miss a trade.

Thanks a million blessings to you too, I am learning, I am totally new to this, and I am seeking advice from all. Lol your post is very funny and true. Thank you for sharing and success, please keep an eye on your opinions.

The thing about haejin advices is that he claims he is a Elliot Wave Expert with 90% of accuracy.

Elliot Wave Counting technic is pretty controversial, and 90% of accuracy it pretty stretched (check this article for a good idea of pros and cons about Elliot wave)

I started do dive deeply into financial markets for about half a year, and all honest big players i met say two things is common:

  • The market devour those who want to go in to make quick easy money
  • There is no easy way. You have to study, win, lose, win, lose again, until you are ready to be a good player on the market.

Also, you need to find wich tools (Technical, Fundamental, etc) work for you.

And if you start to look into the intraday graphics you might go crazy, if you are not into day-trading.

And yeah, how the way you handle your emotions is a big part of the game.

I suggest you to watch this guy: @cryptovestor. He have honest views about the crypto markets, and have no fear of warning when things are not going "to the moon".

Also, a personal opinion, but its up to you what to do:

Don't keep all your money into cryptos. The risk and the volatility is too high to be 100% invested in it. Make sure you put some of you money on stable less risky investiment.

It can go "to the moon", but there is always the possibility of cryptos failing completly.

Peace man! Keep up the good work! Your Radio Shows on PAL are getting better everyday!

Second on following @cryptovestor. One of the crypto youtubers I have come to respect.

Friend, I had a lot of fun with your post, I share your ideas, I think that trading is purely emotional with basic concepts about how it works, but you really need to have courage to dedicate yourself full-time to this type of activities.

In 2017 a two year old could have made profits trading crypto, 2018 has the potential to make a lot of crypto traders look like a two year old!

The problem is there is no model for any of this. When you try to compare it to stock, the analogy fails. It's not like fiat, or commodities. No one knows how high or low any of these cryptos can get. There's no ceiling and no floor, and so little history to predict. It's a gamble, cryptos can make us all millionaires or send us packing to the nearest burger shop.

Hodling long term is probably the safest. I've been trading a tad bit of "lunch money" and I'm still borderline panicking at times. All of my trades have made me money, but if I would have hodled instead of trading, I would have made more money. Happens almost every time I make a trade, I usually regret it a few days after.

In general I found there's guaranteed way to make money right now, not sure how long this will be true. By shortly after bad news hits, and sell when there hasn't been any bad news for a little while. The market is scared shitless of losing their pants, so they panic buy and sell all the time.

Simple investing and hodl’ing is where I’m at. Daytrading volatile shitcoins would drive me to drink.

it is very informative news.
I hope more feed like this from you
keep up it

I have tried not to look at the markets all of the time! For a while I would wake up in the middle of the night and check out CMC. I would try not to panic sell and not looking constantly at price helped!

😱😱😱😱😱

Yeah, I can see how that would be tough to do. The market fluctuates so much. I don’t have the patience for trading. I would get too much anxiety over it.

https://tether.to/why-use-tether/

Industry supporter include Poloniex

https://hackernoon.com/the-curious-tale-of-tethers-6b0031eead87

https://medium.com/@bitfinexed/are-fraudulent-tethers-being-used-for-margin-lending-on-bitfinex-5de9dd80f330

We know for a fact that we have manipulative traders on Bitfinex, that wash traded over $60 million USD of margin positions on July 27th though July 31st.

If you truly believe they aren’t wash trading the long positions with what in my opinion, is fake money, I have some Bitcoin in the Genesis block I’d like to sell you.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2437584.msg24986778

Per terms of agreement for Tether US users are not allowed to use or hold Tether. Interpret that for yourself.

Day-trading requires a steady supply of adult-sized diapers, especially when bots can see any order you place and wash trade you into oblivion.

Oh, and for anyone who's thinking of trading on margin, just don't. They can place a single wash trade (Placing two orders on an exchange to catch their own bid, illegal in regulated markets, allowed on many crypto exchanges) and blow your account the hell up.

Good luck out there, the waters are rough.

Thanks for share!!

Thank you for the post!
yesterday I started trading altcoins and I only lose, maybe I'm dumb? Is this business for me?

Investment is risky. It takes big balls, but I think the key is knowing when to stay, when to walk and when to flee. As stated by Robert kiyosaki in cash flow quadrant, the way is Be-Do-Have once you become the right person only then can you do, and then have your desired result. Ride as high as it can goes then sell.

Hopefully, when we put our heads in this game and things go right, we won't have to worry all that much about making those mortgage or rent payments anymore ; )

We are very good at seeing coincidences and I've also checked out his work but you really need to go deep on his predictions. From what I've seen they are just pretty charts based on stockmarket technical analysis tools.

And one thing I've learned is crypto is not a stockmarket.

But thanks to the power of the blockchain you can go a ways back and look at his predictions vs historical data.

I'd be super interested in what you find.

Great post as usual.

Just my '2 cents' and now you get my full upvote (currently worth 1 cent lol)

I promise to recklessly gamble the profit from that vote sir!

lol. Hold back, it's only worth 1 cent now and I can't guarantee it'll be worth that much in 7 days :-P

HODL!!!!

My thoughts exactly.

Quite frankly this thing takes balls. Not just man balls, it can be giant lady balls too, or whale balls.

Coconut balls!😂😂😂😂
I'm about going into this crypto market too!
I think i got to develop those extra balls😂😂🤣

Wow, you are very courageous. I wish you all the luck in the world. But, I know you have a lot of knowledge and that should help even though crypto is very volatile.

I read a post of @haejin predicted price of stellar upto $2.60.
I invested. Good luck to me :P

This is scary and exciting at the same time. A crazy and wild ride. You've got a funny description of your experience with the dips. But I guess, crypt gets volatile as it will ever be.

I can imagine you saying all these while reading your post @aggroed. I admire you and I mostly listen to your advice. If this is your main source of income( I know you've mentioned this on MSP) do whatever your heart feels would be best for yourself and your family. I may not be good in analyzing the crypto market but I want you to feel comfortable with where you are, having no worries do whatever you feel will make you happy. 😊🙋‍♀️

I don't know what the hell goes on with his charts and graphs. So I'm with you - the jury is still out with him. I'm sure anyone can learn if they put the time in but it makes my head spin.

It is interesting regarding the haejin and berniesanders beef. I'm not sure who's right and who's wrong on that one either.

I could not agree more that trading full time is absolutely nerve wracking. it is extremely difficult to actually make the move to full time for sure.

I am not a full time trader, but I do trade. I work full time in ICO Consultancy, onlne course creation and now Steemit blogging. It is nerve wracking more so because if you get paid in crypto, your wages dip when the market dips!

That being said, I love what I do and I would not have it any other way.

Thank you for the post and describing emotions behind the deal. I have found myself in the same situation a lot of times. A starting seeking for material about the trader's psychology and found a book "The Disciplined Trader". I have posted a small review - probably it will be helpful for some of us.

INVEST CONSERVATIVELY
Only in things you want to understand better over time, and study

Only in tech you have researched and believe in!

It's better if you like the founders and their pitch! (white paper and interviews)

it's way better if you like their theories and you hear them speak about it over time, and see it develop

Independent commentators that announce a trend is happening, so X, Y and Z will now take place? ...
Prepare to have an ULSER

ON the other hand, here's a tip:

https://steemit.com/eos/@verdes22/eos-to-take-over-rising-wedge-combined-with-cup-and-handle

Oh man, I feel for you. I know exactly where you are at and I know how hard it is. The thing that gets you is the emotions. If you are getting euphoria on every rally and shitting yourself on every sell-off you are watching it too closely and you have too much at stake.

I understand you've just quit your job and are going to do it full time but it sounds like you've jumped in the deep end. Good luck man and go easy on yourself.

PS - I haven't figured out if Haejin is a quack either but one thing I know for sure - he is a Technical Analyst that ignores Fundamentals. It can work but big risk doing that. Get your Fundamentals right first and then use Technical Analysis to time your entries and exits.

Can’t deal with all that stress. I traded a Little last night and couldn’t make myself go to bed cause I was so excited. I’m thinking keeping my job will keep me sane...ish

If you want some real people that understand investing and trading then let me know. Plenty of people on youtube that run paid groups that are making their clients money even in the most bearish markets. @haejin only looks good because of a bull market. I can make all the post and prediction he does and make it so easy to understand you could make better calls than he can.

It's funny that if you look at some of his calls they have a small spike in volume about 12 - 24 hours before he makes his posts. Is he giving the whale that upvotes him insider information before he posts, or does he see that small spike in volume and that's when he makes his call.

I've tracked a few of his calls for the past couple of weeks and he seems to be about 50/50 on his predictions on something going up or down.

Some good people to follow are boxmining (here on steemit and youtube), cryptodaily (here on steemit and on youtube), crypto investor (i think here on steemit and on youtube), data dash, cryptogrinders, high alititude investing, etc. You'll notice the people who are truly looking to help others to invest will sometimes provide TA's on what to expect, but back it up with why, information on the coin, and usually tell you on what bottoms to buy. Not that the coin is about to rocket to the moon and get on before it's too late. Those people are just trying to shill the bags they bought at the hi.

Thanks for sharing your journey with complete transparency. A trader at the end of the day doesnt care what direction the market goes as they know how to trade both directions. In addition they already know their stop losses before they enter the trade. If you can start with these 2 key principles its a great start to have. In addition research has shown that if you have a source of income even from a part time job that traders usually do better at trading as the pressure is taken off. Good luck with journey/

I strongly believe I have testicular fortitude.