Sunday, July 9, 2017

[VIDEO] Cryptocurrency Trading Primer: Not Your Typical Trading Course or Technical Analysis Introduction - Human Emotions, Market Psychology, & Risk Management

I recently had the pleasure of speaking about trading Bitcoin and Cryptocurrencies at the first CryptoSG meet-up in Singapore, alongside 6 others speakers who covered various other topics about Bitcoin, Altcoins, and Blockchain technology.



In this presentation, I introduced an approach to trading that (I hope) is not what your typical "trading course" or "technical analysis class" would teach, and shared a method that I believe is one of, if not the only way to be able to make sense the market with a complete picture. I shared some tips and overarching concepts that I feel are more important than just charts and indicators, and hopefully this will be able to shorten your learning curve and help you find a footing in the market without having to go through the same mistakes I made.

It summarizes my last post, An Essential Beginner's Starter-Kit for your Journey into the Cryptocurrency Jungle that is Bitcoin & Altcoins Trading, while also covering some other key concepts spread throughout my blog.


Why does this methodology of "market structure" and "emotional market crash cycle" work so well? If you think about it, the only common denominator between all markets is nothing other than the people trading them. Therefore I believe it stands to reason that human emotions and trader psychology play an immensely critical role in being able to understand how markets work.

I'll just leave it at that so I don't spoil the rest of the video for you. Unfortunately, the first 5 minutes or so of the live talk got cut off due to technical issues, but I also recorded it into a webinar if you're interested to watch the complete presentation. Enjoy!





If you just want to look at the slides, you can view or download the PDF of my presentation here.

This presentation was merely an introduction and a very brief high-level overview of how to approach trading, where I highlighted a wide range of important things to look out for, but you probably still have a ton of more specific questions such as about how to get started, what to look out for on a chart, or how you can apply market structure and the emotional crash cycle into your trading strategy.

It's impossible to condense 3-5 years of experience and knowledge into a single book or a video which you can absorb and magically become a pro trader. There's no short cut to becoming a profitable trader, except through hard work and dedication, with time and experience.

Don't be afraid of getting your hands dirty; learn by executing trades and making mistakes, because nobody ever learnt how to ride a bicycle by reading a book. With the right attitude to succeed, you too can eventually become a full-time trader and achieve your lifestyle or financial goals. However, know that it is not an easy road; never give up, keep learning and improving, and you will be rewarded in the end.


To supplement what I covered in the presentation in my previous blog post, spend an hour to listen to this @chatwithtraders podcast with Michele Koenig who has over 14 years of trading experience and shares very relatable information about how to approach trading and start out as a beginner.



Lastly, I just want to again highlight the last but most important point about trading, and that is risk management. This is probably the most undervalued component of trading especially for new traders, and is coincidentally why most people continue to blow up their accounts.

If you play Texas Hold'em, or some other form of poker, you may have heard about 'bankroll management' and this concept applies to trading perfectly. Just like how professional poker players compete at a stake where their bankroll covers at least 30-100 buy-ins, professional traders typically risk no more than 1-2% per trade.



One of the most common sayings on Wall Street is to let your winners run and cut your losses short. Many new traders make the mistake of being patient at the wrong time, and holding onto a losing trade longer than they should. This is caused by 2 things, firstly not having a trading plan in the first place and hence allowing emotions to eventually get the better of you, and trading without a stop loss. Stop-losses can help you to quickly cut losses when a trade goes south, as well as to protect your profits as you continue to ride the trend. Read more about how to use stop-losses effectively with these tutorials by @Rayner_Teo, an esteemed financial markets trader who's also from Singapore.





With that, I hope I have opened up your mind with a unique view on how to approach the markets and changed your perception on what trading is all about, and also provided you with some practical information that can help you kick-start your trading journey.

If you have any questions or feedback, feel free to leave them in the comments section, or reach out to me on Twitter, Telegram, and join the AlunaCrypto community on Telegram to discuss Bitcoin and Altcoin markets, share price and technical analysis, and keep up to date with the cryptocurrency market.

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