It has been a long while since I took some time to actually write, and do any sort of trading beyond just buy and hold investing.

Years.

Way too long by my count.

Won't bore you with the details, but let's just say life got a little exciting - which I am sure happens to all of us.  Amidst the tumult of change, I find myself at another inflection point in my life.

Not unlike what happened 3 or so years ago that thrusted me into developing and acquiring the skills and discipline needed to be a successful investor, and not just a retail trader, I am spiraling back to a similar place in my life.  Where there is a ton of shifting happening in the world around me - yet the crypto markets stay steady.  (Yes - that is juxtaposition, the literary device to show contrast being that the crypto markets are still quite volatile).

Even though I have not been in front of a chart or an exchange in quite some time - I wanted to do a little experiment to see if I still have the skills, if they lay latent within me ready for this next challenge.

Here's how I setup the challenge:

• I have put in $0 of my actual money.
• I have only put up ~$6 in LTC that I "earned," from faucets and after trading/converting my BAT from the Brave browser rewards.
• Using free tools available to me, I am timing myself to see how long it takes me to double my account once.
• Then time myself to see how long it takes to double my account again.
• Trading on big, liquid markets only, right now I am trading ETH.

My trading coach/mentor when we were working together used to gain around 4% on his account.  Consistently adding 4% to the account will turn a double on the balance in about 30-days.

How am I doing this?  What strategy is being employed?

Well - to see if I can keep up with my mentor's gains from the past (I am not trying to compete with him right now, he is a shark and is well-capitalized), I am going to employ a couple of strategies.

Namely: Scalping.

Let good trades develop for as long as possible.

Set and respect a stop loss.

Utilizing minimal leverage.  Like x1-x3, never more than x5 on a trade.  And if go x5 - there had better be a damn good reason to.

Now - if you are actively trading in the derivatives market (which I would highly recommend, you can read more about my thoughts on that here), and you aren't staying up to date with current events in the global markets, ask yourself why you are not.

Bitcoin halving aside, with BTC and ETH gaining more institutional attention with the new spot ETFs approved by the US SEC and all, these markets are going to be playing by institutional rules more and more.

It's not meme coins or meme stocks.  You can't r/wallstreetbets your way into a winning trade in these markets any more.

So...having to play the game like an institutional trader is required.

Anyway - with all of this big-brain bull$hit in mind, how did it go for me?  Well - first day of my trading, I got signed up for a Phemex account because it is a spot and derivatives exchange that had a few key things that were important to me getting back into this:

1) Liquidity
2) No KYC requirements
3) CFDs - inverse perpetual contracts (Coin margin, Coin payout)

Phemex has all three.

So, I converted my BAT to LTC, moved my LTC over to my new wallet, all in all was $6.04 after I traded the LTC on the spot market for USDT.  Then I went to work on the USDT-margin market for LTC.  I wanted to see if I could actually trade up into 1 LTC, but with USDT margin and USDT payouts, I was not super jazzed about that.  So I traded on it for one day, and I added 10% to my account.

BEHOLD!  10% gain!  Wooooooo!

On $6, really not that big of a deal, but it is not the dollar amount, but the percentage gained that matters.  It proves the principles in which I am abiding by and making my trades around.

(Took profit here, but did not close the trade just yet - let winners run!)

Was really over and done with LTCUSDT Perpetuals...

So, I packed it in.  Took my Tether to the ETH spot market and bought in at market price.  Could I have waited for just the right entry for a spot purchase?  Sure.  Did I want to?  No.  I wanted to just get my ETH so I can hit the ETH, coin margined, markets and try to make gains as quickly as possible.  I don't care about the dollar value of the coin, I want to double my ETH and keep doubling until I earn at least 1 ETH via trading.

Here was my ETH balance after converting: 0.00171156 ETH.

Day 2 bled into Day 3 a bit because I kept a position open over night.  But had a pretty quick gain from yesterday.

Here was the set up of one of my winners:

To make sense of this, we are going to go left to right, top down and back up.

First entry long was made at the first blue circle on the left, that is at the red candle crossing through the blue line.  Entered again to add to my long position at the circle just underneath that where the long red wicks are.

Had a small take profit exit on the climb up.  Added to my position on the retrace where the center-most circle is.  TP exit 1 at the pink line, and TP exit 2 at the top light blue line.

Right now, I have an open trade, going long.  Already took some profit, added to my position and are ready to just let it ride.

From what I am looking at right now and from what I have analyzed - there is a significant chance that if price does not break and close a daily candle above $3875.50 (and please keep in mind there are some differences between the exchanges with arbitrage, but this level is a "zone" to keep an eye on) that we'll see a deeper correction and it is going to go hunting for liquidity at $3665 and under.

Right now, I am keeping my stop loss tight, but gives enough room to play with (my take profit already covered my S/L) and looking to ride price up to test that $3875 area.  If it looks like it is going to reject and come back down to explore the liquidity at the lower price level, I'm there and prepped with some limit orders.

By the end of the day today, I am on pace to having added 10% to my account balance.  (Again, ETH, not fiat - I don't care about doubling fiat, I want to make gains on the coin.)

Current balance at the time of writing:

Playing the game here like an investor, and not some jabroni who just enters the market all nilly-willy, high on emotions, and without strategy has made a huge difference already.  Right now, the skills are there and are coming through.  

Even though I have not actively traded in quite some time, all of that time away has indeed made me a better trader.  I see the market with new, neutral, Shinagami eyes.

More on this little journey to come.  If this really gets rolling and turns into something pretty cool, I would consider livestreaming my trade set ups.  Drop a comment below if that is something that you would be interested in seeing.  If not, all good - drop a comment below with your most recent trading win!

If you want to trade along with me on Phemex and enjoy no KYC, click the link below!  If you are in the US, please use a VPN.

Happy hunting,
Puck