2022-05-27

My journey in learning how to trade cryptocurrency started in 2016. I was lucky enough to find Brian and TRi through a Facebook recommendation or YouTube search. The idea of Technical Analysis was fascinating, and I remember seeing Brian do it with Coinigy in a youtube video. Brian had turned 1.25 BTC into over 30 BTC just trading these cryptocurrencies and I knew I had to learn how.

[Link to tweet]
[Link to Coinigy Fibonacci tutorial]

The first strategy I learned through the Daily Briefs was the ‘Little old Lady’ strategy. If you want to know how to trade cryptocurrency without getting sucked into the hype, then you’ll need this strategy in your tool belt. This altcoin crypto trading strategy is what Brian used to get the results you see in his tweet above. At its core, it’s a risk-management strategy, where you never risk over 5% of your stake on any one idea. You don’t need to use a stop-loss like a day-trader might because you’re happy with your 5% amount going to zero.

First, you want to hunt for fundamentally sound ideas at or below their reload zones. Look for names that have retraced 70-80% from their highs. This is where you want to pay attention. At these levels, you can then hunt for momentum divergences, then bullish volume coming in, and some market price structure to frame your trade.

You could also slowly average into these names, with 0.5 - 1% at a time until you have entered a maximum of 5%. This way, you are averaging into a good name near the bottom end of its range, and you can start selling half when the asset doubles. The remainder is what we call a ‘free position.’ Now you have your money back from the market, and you can let your free position ride, selling more half-on-doubles as it goes up, or take it all out at a high point.

Read more about trading using the Little old Lady strategy in this blog post: [Link to blog post]

If you want higher octane trading and to risk more money, then you are heading into the swing-trader or day trader territory. Doing this is more dangerous, so if you want to learn how to trade a more refined style like that, I recommend taking the education program.

After doing the LoL strategy for a couple of years, I realized that this strategy was great fun during bull markets. The whole TRi community, Brian, veterans, and students are banging out doubles every week. However, this strategy is a long and painful waiting game during sideways, choppy or bear markets. Some traders move everything to cash during these periods and wait on the sidelines until the market is better. Others are happy with sitting in their cryptocurrency trades until they double again in the future or just lay dormant for the entire bear market.

When the bear market happened in 2018-19, I was in real trouble trying to use the LoL strategy, so I tried my hand at day trading and quickly realized how difficult it was. I hadn’t developed my edge in trading, and I had only just started the TRi Education program. Luckily, I focused my efforts on learning from Levels 1, 2, and 3, developing a fundamental understanding of the markets, and learning how to trade stocks and cryptocurrency with ‘setups.’

An example of a trader using the BoT setup taught at TRi.

It took years to find a process that worked after making many mistakes. I realized that trading a swing or day trading plan was more about my emotional control and my ability to develop the discipline to follow a specific trading plan.

In risk management terms, a Little old Lady trader has 5% max risk on a trade and doesn’t mind being underwater for years before the name quickly pops and doubles. A LoL trader sets orders in advance to sell half on doubles, so orders will get filled when the market spikes rapidly. If you don’t set your sell orders, you could miss these moves as they happen quickly.

Here’s an example of a recent LoL trade, buying at the bottom end of the range and selling half on doubles with automatic sell orders. I missed this trade, and I got locked out of my trading account, so I wouldn’t have been able to sell if I hadn’t placed these orders.

Day traders or swing traders may be in a trade but wouldn’t want to sit in losses and wouldn’t leave trades unattended for years as a LoL trader might. These traders use careful stop management and risk management to exit poorly performing trades, so they never risk more than a few percent on a trade. They are also happy without being in any position and can comfortably sit on the sidelines patiently until a setup from their plan appears.

If you want to learn more about how each trader type follows the rule of never risking over 5%, check out this blog post. I talk about the four types of traders on the risk-taker spectrum and how they use their capital in the market.

[Link To Trader Type Blog Post]