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I have never feared for crypto as much as I am fearing for it today. The state of the market is abysmal. Quite frankly Itâs crippling my sleeping pattern, itâs destroying my productivity at work. Iâm torn. Do I sell or do I hold? Youâre the same way, I know it.
You canât pull yourself away from the graphs. Every 5 minutes thereâs this little voice in your head.
âCheeeck the graphs, maybe things are okay nowâ says the voice.
You know things are not okay now. You also know that checking those price graphs isnât going to make you feel any better. But you do it anyway. Thereâs money on the line, A LOT of money.
Thatâs not the first time youâve done that today. Maybe itâs the secon.. No no, itâs at least the third. Itâs painful trust me, IÂ know.
What Iâm about to tell you is going to change your trading techniques forever. What youâre about to learn is great for trading in any market, but in a bear marketâââlike the one weâre facing now, itâs absolutely essential. Iâm about to tell you how to keep cool when the fire alarm is blazing.
Iâm about to tell you what coin and crypto learned after a week of interviewing 19 crypto trading professionals.
The first rule of trader club isâŠ
*actual scene from fight club
Now I know what youâre thinking â19 traders. Damn thatâs cool, how did you swing that one?ââââlong story short, we were doing some market research for an entirely different project and we saw an opportunity for some investigating of our own. Sneaky, I know. But it was for a good cause.
Letâs begin.
1âââAlways have a game plan
Now to me, this one seems obvious.
But I mess this one up so many times. Itâs too easy to say you have a plan, most of us have one loosely defined before we enter a trade or purchase a coin. But thereâs a world of difference between having a plan and sticking to it.
I know youâve probably made the same mistake before too. You decide to change the plan on the last minute and as a result you sell too soon or too late.
You need to set a criteria. Clearly defined rules you will abide by when the market goes one way or another. Every professional has a trading planâââand they follow it religiously.
So itâs time for us to think like the professionals. Itâs time to make a game plan. To help you get started Iâve attached the template our team uses when making trades. It hits on all the key points the professional traders taught me.
After youâve filled that in, I want you to print it and stick it wherever you do the most of your trading. It needs to be in plain sight, and when the market meets any of those thresholds all you need to do is execute.
Having your strategy written down and in front of you makes it much harder to ignore.
Side note: Itâs also helpful to, on occasion, run through a sort of fire drill. Frequently question yourself âIf the market were to crash right now, and I lost everything. Would I be okay?ââââif the answer is âyesâ, continue what youâre doing. If the answer is ânoâ however, consider rethinking your approach.
2âââConsolidate your portfolio
Go through your portfolio and separate the coins that have long-term potential from the coins that donât.
Itâs a bear market. The ship may not be going down just yet, but itâs definitely going through a rough patch. Any unnecessary weight is just going to drag you down.
Henry, A trader with 7 years of experience in stocks and now crypto, told me all about his procedure in the event of a major market downturn.
âCut the dead weight. In a bull market, go nuts. In a bull market, it really doesnât matter what you choose to invest inâââthe market goes up and everyone wins, some more than others.â
Because in a market like this everything changes. You have real money at stake. If you donât move fast you will ACTUALLY lose it. Gone.
Henry stressed how important it is to act decisively when the market goes down. Consider what investments you have, consider the shitcoinsâââand be frugal.
Even look at coins that you genuinely think have potential in the long run. Ask yourself, Is it worth the risk? Because if it isnât pull out. Put your money into a coin that has better trading groups, or into something that you truly believe is going to withstand this crash.
Henry knows his stuff.
ACTION: Add this to your game plan document, list all your coins. List them in priority. When the market crashes, at what point will you begin to make cutbacks?
3âââCut the noise
You need to stay away from all the mumbo jumbo.
Out of the 19 professional traders I spoke to, all 19 of them stressed this exact same point.
Long term profitability means positioning yourself either ahead or behind the crowd. Never in the crowd. Stay away from the chat rooms and the discussion boards. Everyone in these groups has an ulterior motive.
Far too many people spend their time in huge discussion feeds like Slack, Reddit, Telegram, Facebook, Discord⊠the list goes on. You need to distance yourself from these groups, thereâs too much misinformation being spread and this will cause you to make rash decisions and sell too soon.
Your only job as a trader is to watch the graphs and make predictions. To make accurate predictions itâs not about gathering as much data as you can fit in your head. Itâs just about getting quality information, it doesnât have to be too muchâââit just has to be right.
For those of you who still want some informed data, some traders suggested joining VIP groups. These are close knit communities looking to share insights with one another and to make better trades as a collective.
ACTION: Question the sources you follow. Ask yourselfâââis this necessary? Am I following sources that really aid my trading predictions? If not, cut âem.
4âââFind your dream team
This technique comes from Sparkyâââa trader from Sweden. Sparky is 43 years old, he has a wife and 2 kids. Time for him is limited between his family and trading. So he came up with an ingenious solution.
Sparky has a small team of 5 traders. Each of them are subscribed to 2â3 primary sources of information. Everyday, itâs each personâs mission to study those sources and relay the best data back into the group.
Only the best of the best information is shared. Sparky makes 5x better trading decisions because of it. Efficiency.
Itâs not that hard to start either!
ACTION: Go out and find a few other people that trade, find people you trust. Start a group chat on Facebook messengerâââor on whatever platform you prefer. Each of you should research 2â3 credible sources to begin following and then delegate the sources equally. Each day your team should study their respective sources and relay only the necessary information to the group, focus only on information that is crucial for advising trading decisions.
5âââTools of titans
âGive a man a fish, you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.â - But fishing isnât very effective when you donât give him a rod.
So now that youâre getting the hang of it letâs get you set up. Here are some of the best trading tools I discovered from talking with professional traders.
- Trading View (Pro)
TradingView is a fantastic platform you can use for pretty much everything crypto and stock related. I mean seriously. This thing is more equipped for trading crypto than batman is for fighting crime.
This thing will take you to the next level. One of itâs best features is the split screen functionality.
The software supports up to 4 separate and fully interactive graphs in any one window. Mind blowing. You literally get to control every screen individually, every indicator, every time frame separately.
TradingView is like mission control, but for every coin you own.
- Hacked.com
6 out of the 19 traders I spoke to used Hacked.com as one of their primary sources of information. They each paid $400 annually and get access to all of the insider knowledge.
This tool isnât absolutely crucial. Really itâs a glorified aggregate of crypto knowledgeâââsomeone with a good eye for information doesnât need this.
But, if youâre like me and you just want to streamline your source of knowledgeâââessentially you want to cut the crap. Then sign up for something like this and be done with it. Sometimes that extra 10% makes all the difference..
All in allâŠ
Trading is stressfulâââiâm sure you donât need me to tell you that. But when you arm yourself correctly with the tricks from the best in the game, you will dominate.
I hope you found some of my insights useful. To wrap upâââhere are some of the key points I distilled from the knowledge of the 19Â traders:
- Make a game plan: prepare for every eventuality, and always have an exit strategy.
- Choose your coins wisely: only invest in the coins that will turnover a profit, cut those that wonât.
- Cut the noise: be skeptical of the masses, they will influence your thoughts and will make it more tempting to make irrational decisions.
- Build a dream team: find others that you trust to keep you properly informed.
- Use the tools of the pros: these, along with your careful attention, are going to be the biggest improvements to your trading career.
If this article was helpful or interesting please hit the clap button and feel free to share it. Weâll be sure to deliver you more analyses of the market in the weeks to come.
â writers@coinandcrypto.com
Secrets to survival: 19 pros share their advice on crypto trading was originally published in Hacker Noon on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
Disclaimer
The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not reflect the views of Bitcoin Insider. Every investment and trading move involves risk - this is especially true for cryptocurrencies given their volatility. We strongly advise our readers to conduct their own research when making a decision.