Transcript
Speaker: yeah I don't really trade with hard stops. I'd never taken a perp trade. Didn't really even understand how leverage worked. Basically trading like 14 to 16 hours a day every day, like birthday, Christmas.
Speaker: And then New York will come through and just kind of like slam that shit right back down. Huge fuck up in high school. I didn't even graduate high school.
Speaker: Welcome to a new episode of the In Silico Terminal podcast. I am back at home after the travels. I'm back from Korea, i'm back from Singapore. I'm back from being in the very nice professional studio the last time that unfortunately, ah fucked up the the half day recording, but it was still a good experience. And I'm back home at my setup and my guest today is Nelly.
Speaker: And um I guess you're you're kind of a a student turned into a teacher from what I've seen about you on the timeline since I started following you. You're like sharing a lot of informational stuff.
Speaker: Yeah, absolutely. that That is a pretty good description. yeah how how did you How did you get started with all of that? How did you turn from from a student into a master? well so I had um i'd already been um in markets for like a while. I've basically been in really since I was a teenager. actually I used to trade Forex when I was 16, 17. But then i ended up taking breaks like here and there just for like life stuff.
Speaker: And ultimately got back seriously into markets like right around 2020, basically during COVID. And was just doing spot. I was just doing on-chain. Ended up doing on-chain for a few years. That was really my bread and butter.
Speaker: But ultimately, right around tariffs is when I realized that like I didn't really... I mean, I had an edge with on-chain, but it was clearly diminishing like as the days went by. That was really painful to watch happen.
Speaker: And I didn't really have any other skill set. I mean, of course, I had spot, but that's extremely seasonal in the sense that like there's only so much profit you can make when there's a bear market, when there's a downturn. And so I wanted to to find another skill, basically find a way to make money consistently every day.
Speaker: And I was already watching like a lot of live streams from like a lot of the people on Twitter, people who give out like a lot of this information for free, people like XO, Doc, Mags, Charlie. And um I knew that they were good traders. I knew that they knew they were doing. They had this skill that I did not have, which was lower timeframe trading.
Speaker: And i really just wanted to learn. I wanted to be able to call myself a trader and be able to kind of like level up a little bit in terms of my skill set. And so basically right after tariffs, I got just like clapped, like absolutely destroyed.
Speaker: And so i um i kind of told myself, all right, well, if you're going to find a way to make it and you're going to do this skill, well, then now is the time basically off the back of like a huge loss. And so April 2025 is when I ended up joining the group.
Speaker: I knew literally absolutely nothing about low time frame trading. I'd never taken a perp trade, didn't really even understand how leverage worked. Like I had heard obviously of like horror stories in terms of people getting liquidated.
Speaker: And that was really my entire like experience and knowledge with leverage. And so I came into the group in April. I knew nothing about order flow, nothing about perps. I um really grinded the fuck out of it. Like I really did. I watched every single educational video, which doesn't sound like a lot, but they're like in the hundreds.
Speaker: And um I mean, really just simple stuff. It sounds... um Yeah, it sounds little simple, but just like showed up every day, basically tried to put in reps every day, tried to apply what I was learning. And eventually after like a few months, it started to click. And then last um November, if I'm not mistaken, is when it really started to click for me, mostly actually just trading Asia.
Speaker: because I got a really good grasp of like how to trade a rotational system using VWOPS. And that just kind of like created a bit of a springboard for me. And I just carried that momentum forward, basically trading 14 to 16 hours a day every day, like birthday, Christmas, like it doesn't matter, you name it. I was at the desk and working.
Speaker: And that like really carried me forward for the like the following months, right up until... I mean, shout out to Doc and Mags, obviously, but right up until they kind of like recognize that I knew my shit and I was um I was really trying to like actively participate in helping people out. Like whenever someone has a question in the group, even if it's like not directed at me, even if it's directed at someone else, I would still like jump at the occasion to be able to um basically just give my take and try to explain. And if I'm wrong, well, then honestly, great, because someone will come in and explain it to me and then I'll have like basically fixed my own issue. And that's kind of the value of of not wanting to um
Speaker: or rather a lot of people are afraid to ask questions because they don't want to seem dumb. But the the only dumb thing is basically not getting an answer to your question, is not having the right answer. And so that um that really carried me forward too, right up until, yeah, until they recognized that like i kind of knew my stuff and I was able to like kind of carry a little bit.
Speaker: And so I started just like lightly doing like just trade review videos because that was largely what I got the most questions on because I would scalp. And so I'd have sessions where I had like 20, 30 trades. and um And obviously when you look at that visually, I understand that that's like impressive to a certain degree.
Speaker: Obviously the the trades like greatly range in terms of like the quality and the value. I mean, especially last year when we had like basically no volatility, it's like 200 point moves, which is not like incredible. Don't get me wrong.
Speaker: But when you're able to stack like a lot of small wins consistently, well then ah it eventually grows into something. And so I started just doing trade reviews and then um I started putting out outlooks. I started doing like a little bit of analysis.
Speaker: And up until basically the summer, I was just putting out videos consistently, just like a little bit of educational stuff too, if I could think of something useful to say. and um And then since the summer, yeah, I've been doing like live streams in the group too. Those have been like a ton of fun, really. I really appreciate them.
Speaker: And soon I'm just going to start doing public stuff too and just basically transition into... um Yeah, I guess like a teacher, like you said. But for me, it's um really it's great because it's it's less about being able to teach more than it is about, I guess, giving back because so much of so much of the education. I mean, I didn't go to school for anything like formal finance related. I'm like a total retard when it comes to that kind of stuff. And so i um yeah, I'm just really thankful that I can be in a position to essentially do for other people what was done for me, because so much of what I know about markets came from just free information that I got on Twitter.
Speaker: I think your journey is like really really interesting because most of the people that I talk to on this podcast are old heads, OGs, people that have been in in crypto for a long time or like trading for a really long time. But starting with tariffs, at least to me, feels very inside of the... the
Speaker: the range of like stuff that is still like in the back of our minds. you know It's like just like last year, everyone kind of still remembers that, at least if you didn't just join now. But if you've been around for a bit, you remember that. And and um i think it's very interesting how you like started the journey then and then grew this fast through all the the things that you learned during that time from like no perp experience at all because I feel that's also very very ah good for people that like everyone always wants to get into perps, you know, perp text meta and all of that stuff, but people people don't really know like where to start. um What made you like... why Why did you decide to trade low timeframes?
Speaker: i um i actually really was just looking to to make some type of like consistent money because the the value of crypto and that's i'm sure why a lot of us got in other than just like the fundamental theory of like be your own bank have your own money whatever is um the insane volatility right i think that's why a lot of people got in because the returns can be like extremely outsized relative to equities maybe less so true like in the last like year but like right up until then Yeah, crypto was like the clear outperformer and the volatility was insane. And so I um honestly, actually, it's funny, I had never looked at a chart that was like under 15, 30 minutes because I'd always been told that like low timeframe is confusing. It's just going to like skew your perspective. And so I was trading basically the lowest timeframe I went on was like the four hour for my spot trades and everything else was just um I was like completely blind to it, basically.
Speaker: and um and right And so the value of trading perps was really to be able to make consistent money, was to be able to have like essentially a salary within this like kind of nebulous job that we have trading markets.
Speaker: And I knew that it was going to be hard, of course. I knew that there was like a risk to it. but um And this is a bit of a double-edged sword, I guess. But I'm like extremely stubborn as a person, like extremely stubborn.
Speaker: And sometimes that works out great for me because I'll like bang my head against the wall like a thousand times. And then the thousand and first one, I'll like get the answer that I'm looking for. And then sometimes it just takes me way too long to adapt. And so realistically, this is a pivot I should have made like a really long time ago, but I, um, I had an edge in on-chain and it was working really well.
Speaker: And so it took me a really long time to be willing to let go of it. But then once I ultimately did, well, then then I had to pivot to what I thought was working. And like I said, I saw, I knew of people who could trade on-chain, who could trade low timeframe and they could do it effectively. And they were able to basically clock in and clock out at like regular work hours, just trading New York Session.
Speaker: And so I knew that it was possible. i just didn't know how to make it possible for me. and um And at least for me, that was part of the value of like joining the group because I was able to learn from people who have made a career out of this, who've been doing this for like a decade.
Speaker: and um And then past that, it was just about being willing to basically put in the work
Speaker: What did you how did you first get started doing things like did you just copy things that you saw from from other people's strategies and and setups and stuff like that? How did you decide which assets to trade if you like look at multiple little coins or I think now you're just trading Bitcoin? How did you wind up doing that?
Speaker: Yeah. So like within, i mean, within the group, yes, there like, there are a ton of videos in terms of like setups and explanations and education. And, um and a lot of that is what I ended up doing. There's one particular setup from doc, which we always recommend to new students because it's like an extremely easy way to kind of understand how order flow works. And you have like, kind of like your S tier trigger. And then when you get it, you get it, you trigger it. And then you kind of just pray that it works out.
Speaker: And um I think that's what the large majority of people end up doing who come in. I was definitely one of them. But past that, I've always been um again, I've always had like a little bit of a chip on my shoulder. And so the the better I got at using that setup, the more I felt like I needed to kind of like figure out my own. And like within within the realm of possibility, of course, because the thing about trading is that like it's going to be really, really hard to find like a new system, right? Like to a certain degree, almost everything under the sun has been done. There are different variations of it.
Speaker: But like the the idea that you're going to find a brand new edge that no one else has figured out and it's going to be purely yours is a bit of a joke. Like the the odds of that happening are incredibly low. But I wanted to basically take in all the information that I got between Doc, Mac and Charlie, put it together and try to figure out basically my own twist on it. And largely that is sort of what I ended up doing. I'm pretty pleased with that.
Speaker: And really what it is, is it's just a rotational system using like the VWAP. I use, um I mean, I use quite a few VWAPs between like high timeframe, low timeframe. I'll use the anchored VWAP a lot. I'll use the rolling VWAP a lot, but it's largely just a um kind of like a mix between price action and like a VWAP rotational system.
Speaker: And why did you decide to go for your Bitcoin over altcoins? That was actually more of a complexity issue for me, just because when um when I started trying to scalp and I started to do it effectively, I very quickly realized that like I could do it with altcoins and there was more volatility there. So like I see the risk to reward, I see the value of it.
Speaker: But so often what would happen to me, at least in the earlier days, was that I'd have a good setup on an altcoin and all of a sudden Bitcoin would nuke. And then it didn't really matter what your altcoin looked like anymore, because like to a certain extent, everything is going to follow the leader unless you really find like the coin that is like uncorrelated and is outperforming over everything.
Speaker: The odds of that are relatively low. And so the um the bread and butter setup for me really just became, all right, well, let me just focus entirely on Bitcoin. Yes, like not every rotation is going to be fantastic. You're going to get like, especially when I started out, you're going to get like 200 points and you're going to call that a good trade because the rotations were kind of shit at that point.
Speaker: and um And while I like, obviously is to a certain extent disappointing because you can get so much more out of an altcoin, if you're able to be really consistent about it and you're able to catch the large majority of the rotations in the day, I ultimately found out that like it kind of was the same. And then the other thing that I really ended up um kind of leaning into was the fact that as I started learning how to trade perps, and at first I was on Hyperliquid and that was great. There was nothing wrong with it.
Speaker: But I ended up pivoting into Variational and Variational, their whole shtick was zero fees. Now, of course, there's slippage because like everything is a business. They're not just doing it out of the goodness of their heart. But the value of having zero fees meant that I could essentially, especially at the time when I was starting out and I had relatively small size, I could clip in and out of trades constantly without necessarily having to take like the fee cut every single time. And so I could still preserve some of my capital while like essentially scalping as aggressively as possible.
Speaker: And so that was like an extremely attractive proposition for me. and um And then the other thing too, of course, is as I got better and I was able to like size more and more into my trades, and that's maybe just more of a personal preference thing, but like sizing significantly into Bitcoin is just so much easier than like your average alt, right? Because even the swings that you have to deal with are significantly easier.
Speaker: And as far as just reading Bitcoin price action goes, and that's just like ah a time in trade thing, a time in markets thing, but it's the it's the singular chart that I was looking at literally every day for months on end, for hours on end.
Speaker: And a big, big thing for me, and this has kind of been my entire life, but especially in markets, is one of the um strengths, I guess, that I have, and this is just like a human thing, this isn't a me thing, but pattern recognition to me is like so... um valuable, I guess. And it's something that obviously all of us do like kind of naturally to a certain degree, but it's something I put a lot of emphasis on. And as I continue to look specifically at Bitcoin and specifically just looking at ticks, actually, that's really what helped me out.
Speaker: I started to really develop like a a sense for it. I mean, a lot of people call it like gut feel or like ball singling, whatever. Ultimately, really what it means is that subconsciously you've like registered so much information that you kind of know what's happening in the moment and it feels like it's coming out of like the ether or something when really it isn't it's just because you have time and experience and you're able to kind of like recognize things as they're happening but the the fact that i stuck with a singular chart for so long and that it's what i did every single day meant that my read just got better and better and better and so now i do trade alts i don't really scalp them anymore largely the um The way that I trade alts these days is actually more kind of like Charlie in the sense that I recognize off of strength.
Speaker: So if I think that the Bitcoin rotations are strong, if I think we're going to have like a momentum day and that we're going to be able to put in like a solid leg up. Well, then it really just becomes about recognizing which altcoins are strong within like this period, like within the context of like the last few days or whatever.
Speaker: And then you're basically just sending the trade, treating it kind of like a beta in the sense that if I think Bitcoin is going to go up today, well, then it stands to reason that the most volatile alt that's had ah quite a bit of strength in the last few days is most likely going to replicate the same thing. And so it's less about looking at the actual rotations on that alt more than it's just about seeing strength in the market and knowing that like you kind of have like permission to take a gamble on a more volatile coin.
Speaker: Mm hmm. Hasn't it been like really frustrating to to mostly trade Bitcoin? Because I think um during the time that you have been trading was like one of the most or like some of the most boring times for price action like this summer and then all the downtrends and last year I think end of last year was also pretty like that like there there hasn't really been that much movement not that much ah volatility in inside of it so you're just like scalping very small moves most of the time right
Speaker: Yeah, absolutely. um Especially, yeah, especially last year. I mean, during the summer, actually this recent summer, it wasn't as bad. I think the worst time that I can think of right now was basically around Christmas, if I'm not mistaken. yeah Where we just had like, I mean, ah minutes after minutes of just zero volume candles, completely flat.
Speaker: And um yeah, for sure, that absolutely sucks, especially when you're looking for volatility, you're still sitting at the desk no matter what, even if there's nothing there, because maybe a setup will present itself. Definitely there is like a degree of frustration there. But I think um I think that's part of just sticking with it. Honestly, that's part of like what it means to have like a degree of discipline. Is that like, yes, it's not always going to be fun every day. You're not always going to have a great time. Sometimes you sit at the desk and you're going to get like a singular setup when you're used to getting like somewhere between 10 and 20.
Speaker: But um really that just comes down to sticking with it for me. And that is largely what I did. i mean, I know that and it it is a certain extent a bit of an opportunity cost conversation. But like, especially when Bitcoin was doing absolutely nothing. Yeah, I mean, you see stocks like absolutely ripping like MU, SNDK, whatever. The volatility like absolutely shifted away from crypto. And it is appealing to try to kind of chase those things.
Speaker: But at the same time, I kind of had to recognize that like I didn't have an edge in there. I tried to um to trade equities a little bit with like a fair amount of success using my system, but it wasn't enough for me to feel like I could essentially fully pivot into a kind of like a different trajectory with my career, basically. I still wanted to um perfect this singular thing, and I wanted to be able to get really good at it in the hopes that It would basically translate not only to the large majority of my trading, which for a certain like to a certain extent it has because all of my high timeframe trades, all of my swing trades are still done with like low timeframe execution. It doesn't matter if I'm looking for like a swing trade that's going to last like a week or something. I'm still triggering on the one minute on Bitcoin.
Speaker: So I was still able to kind of translate that into more than just scalping. But certainly, yes, like there there is a degree of frustration when you see everything else ripping and the coin that you spend every day on is doing just like absolutely nothing. And that really just comes down to, I guess, having faith in the plan and sticking to the plan.
Speaker: What made you have have so much faith? like how how much ah How long did it take you until you you saw things started working? And how much longer would you have stuck with it if it hadn't been? Honestly, that's a good question. So like how long did it take me?
Speaker: I joined in April. I really focused on the education, watched all the videos, took notes. like I really just treated it like school in the sense that like I bought books, pen and paper, and I just wrote down all the stuff that I didn't know. They do live streams every week. I would show up every single time I would ask all the questions that I could think of to kind of try to like refine what I'm doing but um but part of it also at least as far as like the learning journey goes at least for me was um one of the the ways that I learned and this is a video that Mags has and I think it's actually very um very interesting conversation Not everyone learns the same way, right? Like some people are visual learners. Some people are auditory learners. It it largely depends on kind of knowing yourself, which is obviously, at least in my opinion, as far as trading goes, a ginormous edge. You have to know your own pressure points. You have to know what you're good at. You have to know what you're bad at.
Speaker: And so for me, a lot of what I'm good at is actually learning by watching other people. That's something that's kind of always been true in my life. I don't necessarily need it to be like explained to me word for word. But if I can see what you're doing, well, then I will get better at it because with repetition, with time, you start to notice little things like, oh, he did this because this happened. And I remember he did the same thing two days ago. And so just doing a lot of that started to definitely get into my head.
Speaker: and um And so that like initial education journey kind of from basically April to November was really valuable because not only did I get to ask a lot of questions and have them answered, but then I was also actively seeing other people trade. I mean, that's kind of like the value of a community basically is you get to see how other people think, you get to bounce off like like ideas off of each other, you get to see their trades. And eventually a lot of it just started to kind of like click in my head relative to what I wanted to do.
Speaker: So like right up until November, i would say I was seeing like relative success, but it wasn't really consistent. Like I would have like three good days and then I would eat just like absolute shit on one that would reset everything back. And part of that is just like working on your discipline and whatever and like your w risk management.
Speaker: But um it really yeah wasn't until November that I started to get like extremely consistent into it. And then I opened a new account and I wanted to see basically how consistent I could be. That was really the um the value of the account. It wasn't about necessarily running it up as much as I could, as much as it was trying to make sure that like my P&L was up and flat as much as possible. I really just wanted to work on that level of consistency.
Speaker: and um And that's actually really what brought like a ton of success for me. It wasn't looking for high returns. It wasn't looking for very like insane RR trades. It was actually largely just looking for consistent results. And like, it doesn't matter if that means you cut a trade that's like only 100 points and you didn't get that much out of it. And then it runs without you. It was just about getting really, really good defense and really good risk management.
Speaker: And if I'm able to do that consistently enough, well, then it doesn't matter how small my wins end up being. It doesn't matter if I like min-max the fuck out of my trade and I get my full return, I'll still be able to get something out of it. And as long as I can do that consistently, well, then it will grow into something that matters. That's that's really been the um the entire ethos of how I've been thinking.
Speaker: Past that in terms of like how long would it have taken? that's Honestly, that's a good question. I think that... um I think one of the benefits that I have, and it is worth noting, is that I'd already been a full-time trader by the time I joined the group. right And so a lot of people come into trading and they have responsibilities. They have like a wife, they have kids, they have like things they need to do.
Speaker: And thankfully, within like the context of this, at the very least, I wasn't really burdened with any of the responsibilities. I could like just dedicate everything I had to this singular thing. And the fact that I had all of that time to spare really gave me basically an advantage ultimately, because it meant that I could constantly be at the desk. I could watch price unfold. I could constantly try to reiterate on like the system that I was building and try to find a way to make it work.
Speaker: And so honestly, I mean, I know this is like a little bit of hindsight. So like, who knows really what would have happened? But I like to think that i probably would have kept trying until it worked because, know, Because that's just like the the stubborn part of who I am. if i If I decide I'm going to do something, well, then I absolutely need to do it.
Speaker: Can you walk us a bit through how your setups look nowadays and how you like ah approach a typical day of trading like you? you I think you you just you wake up at around like New York time and then trade New York and Asia. what What is like the what sort of indicators and setups and like days to look for? Do do the setups differ a lot across like regimes and stuff?
Speaker: Yeah, absolutely. i um actually so it does. So that's a really good question. So the the first thing is just like the time management. Yeah. So I'll wake up before New York open. And honestly, I'm not as good at that as I used to be. I used to wake up like an hour before New York open so that I could see price develop into it.
Speaker: Nowadays I've been working like really late hours and I've gotten like a little bit less consistent and so my wake up hours are like a little bit dicey, I'm not gonna lie to you, but i still try to be at the desk every day at New York Open and that obviously is like the period to trade because that's when you're gonna get the most volatility.
Speaker: Although it's funny, when I was starting out, that was actually the hardest thing for me. the The easiest way for me to trade my rotational system was actually through Asia because there really aren't that many order flow triggers in Asia. There's not that much volume going through. And so you could argue that price in that sense moves a lot more kind of like naturally.
Speaker: around the VWalk. There aren't as many takers, there aren't emit as many people like kind of pushing the price around. And so a lot of it was just like purely very simple rotations that you would see around the bands.
Speaker: And that was largely what I would trade. That was really actually where I found my first success was just trading Asia. And then once I was able to kind of master that and understand really how the rotational system works, then I was able to add like a lot more complex things over it, like reading like flow in real time, looking really specifically at agar. I know that a lot of people like kind of in this niche that we do also pay like very close attention to passive flows.
Speaker: I personally don't. It's more just about kind of like simplifying information as much as I can. And then to a certain extent, I feel as though if you're using agar and you're looking at taker flows and you're looking at price action, you can kind of infer passive flows to a certain extent in the sense that if price is moving a certain way and you see that taker flows aren't necessarily like very present or there isn't very high volume, well, you can almost naturally assume that it's because they're passive flows that are chasing in the same way that if price keeps like bumping into the same level and getting rejected, I don't necessarily need to see passive flows to assume that there's probably like a big ask right around that area.
Speaker: yeah And so um that was really valuable for me, just like kind of like inferring a lot of information. But the um the system as far as how I trade is, yes. So like during Asia is purely rotational, just a lot of price action, a lot of reading ticks actually mostly is what I do just to get like a sense of like how price is reacting at certain levels and kind of like just trading off of the speed of the move. That's like a large majority of what I do.
Speaker: as far as New York goes, it's largely order flow. Yes. So like in terms of indicators that I use, it's really just looking at a why it's looking at relative volume. I'm looking at the VWAP and really that's about it. Like I like to um be able to simplify it as much as I can because I'm not really the type of person who, um I mean, I like to think that I can digest information quickly, but I feel as though the the less information I have to work with almost the better, as long as it's still like confined within the system that I'm trading and it gives me enough actionable information to basically create a setup for myself.
Speaker: And so I try to really just avoid kind of like overcrowding my charts and looking at all this stuff that actually doesn't really do anything for me. I think that's something that so many people do when they get into markets. I know that I did at the very least, but like you, you spend so much time thinking like, all right, this guy has this indicator, this guy has this indicator. There has to be like some kind of magic indicator out there where if I get it, then I'll be able to reprice too.
Speaker: And ultimately none of that actually means anything really. Like your, your system is only as good as the the quality of the sit-ups that it gives you. So. I don't care if you're trading like moon cycles or like whatever Venus is doing or whatever. None of that actually matters. As long as you're able to find a setup, well, then that's all that matters. yeah You can translate it into actually making money.
Speaker: And so, um right. And so largely that that is kind of what I focused on is just finding setups that like consistently showed up for me. And so in New York was a lot of overflow, yes, like a lot of OI trading, like especially. And largely I got that basically from Mags because that is like the the large majority of how Magus trades is like purely reading flow. The way he does it is um especially hard, honestly, because he will like largely position himself really just off of order flow and I'm not that good. My read of order flow is not that clean. It's not that strong. And more than that, I don't have the um the level of confidence, I guess, that he does because he's been doing this for like, I don't know how long. And so his read is was really good. I mean, I see his trades and I know that he's killing it. So yeah, his read is like killer. I've been trying to move into that.
Speaker: but um But it's difficult for sure because it's a lot more nebulous. It's so much easier for me to trade with very clear defined lines, to have like a very clear setup and it's okay if it interacts with this level and it creates a reaction, well then there is my potential trigger for an entry.
Speaker: I have essentially my TP. I don't really trade with hard stops because I like to accept some degree of variance because I know that like nothing is ever going to be perfect even if you have levels that like react well with price well you still have to accept some degree of variance it could still like swipe through your level and then the trade could play out and you're going to feel like a dumbass if you invalidate yourself over like a 20 point move when ultimately the trade like did what you wanted it to do and so um that was something that I had to like a little bit um adjust to to be honest because it is so much easier to be extremely strict with your trading
Speaker: But the um the simple answer, sorry, back to your question, is that, so like as far as different regimes go, yes, like Asia for me tends to be much more price action focused. And then even within that, there are different kind of like metas that show up.
Speaker: One thing that I really pay attention to is um sort of the changing of the guard between different sessions as far as like the transition from Asia to London, London to New York, New York to Asia. Because of course, every every session has like different participants and they have potentially like a different mission for each. Sometimes they kind of like pass the baton and like a move that's created in New York will be like to a certain degree have some follow through in Asia and potentially through London.
Speaker: But a lot of the times what I end up finding is that like people aren't necessarily on the same page. And like even today, we're seeing that now. One of the like large metas that we've seen recently is Asia has like really good volatile moves. They're starting to push it like really unidirectionally towards the upside, maybe less so today actually. But generally speaking, they're doing a pretty good job pushing price up.
Speaker: And then New York will come through and just kind of like slam that shit right back down. I mean, that's like what everyone's complaining about on Twitter is that like, yeah, New York can be like just absolute cancer sometimes for continuation because you get so much reversion. But um more than just like the joke of like New York kind of like killing price action, that's a meta that you actually can pay attention to.
Speaker: And if you notice that something happens consistently enough over a period of days, well, then you can translate that into a setup. And so that is something that I pay like a lot of attention to as far as like which session am I trading and how am I going to trade it? I don't apply the same thinking to every single session. And for the most part, I find that that tends to kind of like lead to a solid amount of success because Well, because if you try to apply like, like if you only have a hammer in your tool belt, well, then everything is going to look like a nail in the sense that you're going to treat everything in the exact same way. But if you're willing to like introduce a lot more nuance in your thinking and be a lot more flexible with what you think price should do, well, then you'll be able to catch a lot more rotations.
Speaker: So how how can I imagine, like, what what triggers and execution for you? Like, for example, in Asia, you're just looking at the the VWAP bands and then you're like looking for moves that go a bit too much in into one direction and then fade those back into the VWAP.
Speaker: um Largely yes, I do do a lot of that. Like a lot of my my Asia setups are just like edge to edge in the sense that it's just level to level, whether it's like the 2SD, the 1SD, the mean, I really just take the rotations between those bands. One of, and I've talked about this on Twitter a long time ago, honestly, I should probably start talking about it soon.
Speaker: But um one setup that i had pretty early on that was really consistent for me is because there was a lack of flow during Asia and because there really wasn't that much order flow to work with, well then the one thing that I used to constantly talk about with like a lot of my friends and a lot of the other students was the idea of um essentially failed continuation. So like what used to happen a lot, and it still happens every once in a while during Asia, is one singular person, price would get into an extremity like the 2SD, And then one singular person would basically just like get too excited and try to basically top blast or like bottom short into it.
Speaker: And very often what you would what would happen and you see this even just like looking at Taker flows on agar is a singular person kind of like steps out and tries to create a trend. They try to create momentum within like the span of the session that you have.
Speaker: And because this is Asia, because there's so little um aggression, usually during Asia, there would be no follow through. And a lot of people are familiar with this kind of reversionary trade because you take it during New York. The only difference is that during New York, there's so much more volume. There's so much more order flow. And so you see kind of the result of that reversion within seconds sometimes. It will take like a handful of minutes. During Asia, you really have to wait because participants are almost shyer in that sense, where someone will take a step forward and they will try to kind of like create an imbalanced period basically.
Speaker: And there's just no follow through. And so the the really like the zero IQ way that I used to explain it was basically like if you imagine that you're in a room full of people and then one person makes a joke and it's not funny and like no one likes it, no one's looking at them, they're not making eye contact. And then that person stands up and like sticks their hand out for a high five because they think they just absolutely crushed it.
Speaker: If no one is going to get up and no one's going to high five you back, if you're that person, how long are you going to stand there kind of looking like an idiot until you decide, okay, maybe this wasn't that funny and I need to sit back down.
Speaker: And that was like the the simple way of understanding reversion and like kind of imbalance is if a singular person is going to the bottom floor. Thank you very much. I love that. If a single person is going a bottom short and no one else is like hopping on that train, no one is trying to create that continuation for him, how long until he basically decides, oh shit, I maybe made a mistake and I need to puke this position.
Speaker: And then just like every other reversionary system, that is basically what creates like the fuel or the momentum for you to revert back into the mean. And part of that is just kind of like simple logic as far as trading view ops go. It's just the idea that like price naturally wants to kind of fluctuate around the mean and the rotations that you get around it between the SD bands are largely just opportunities for a potential setup, assuming that price wants to stay balanced in that day. Mm hmm.
Speaker: And how does ah New York differ for you? and New York differs quite a bit because New York is like so order flow heavy. And so it's really not that hard for a singular person to create momentum and then for a lot of people to jump on board. And like part of that, of course, is because i mean, it's just like a size argument. Like the volume is just so much higher during New York than is during Asia.
Speaker: More than that, there are also, of course, there's so many firms and they're like much bigger players that are trading drew usually during those hours. And so a lot of these setups, especially the reversionary one, can be the same. The only difference is you have to like kind of compensate for so much more aggression.
Speaker: And when you're not used to that, it can be so easy to stop yourself out of what is ultimately a good trade because like price will push much further than you expect it to. Whereas like during Asia, you can expect like a push into the 2SD and then see some degree of reversion, assuming that we're balanced. During New York, you can really extend way past that and get like absolutely blown out if you have a tight spot, a tight stop, sorry, just to ultimately revert back into the level that you were looking for. And so New York, at least for me, required accepting a lot more risk. That's where like not trading with a hard stop really started to make a difference for me because I had to, um,
Speaker: I had to basically have more faith in my read than I did in the actual levels that I was trading. It's more about how confident I am in the setup itself more than how price is reacting with the bands themselves. And that's something that actually as of late I've been working on a lot because I've been trying to, well, I mean, sizing up as far as like your low timeframe trading goes is like a journey, right? It's not something that you do a singular time. It's something that you continuously do. And then as you get better at it, you get more comfortable. You try to add more size.
Speaker: And so that's something that I've been doing a lot and that I really only pushed to New York because during Asia, it doesn't make sense to me to be pushing the same size because it's it's a lot harder to get away with it. yeah And so um largely what I've been doing is trying to kind of anchor my read more and more into flow and less and less into just like simple price action.
Speaker: And um honestly, it's actually, it's not, I mean, no, none of trading is easy, right? There's like a degree of complexity to all of it. But reading flow especially can be um really quite hard if you don't have like a um a good sense for it. And if you're not really confident in your own thesis, that's, I think that's part of what gets like so many people tripped up.
Speaker: is you to a certain degree, you have to be willing to um kind of tell yourself, okay, price is going against me, but I know that I'm right. And I'm going to prove myself right because I'm going to stick into this or even worse, if you're like specifically ballsy as a person, I'm going to like size into this step because I believe that it will ultimately revert.
Speaker: And so that's a lot of what I've been working on right now, actually, is like sizing into trades that like on paper in that moment don't look like they're going in my favor. But I have so much confidence in the flow setup that I think I'll still be able to prove myself right.
Speaker: How do you deal with ah trending days? And are there ever is there ever a day where you like watch the market, but you don't take a trade at all? Um, well, so trending days now is something that I'm a lot better at. When I started out, that was, yeah, that was really hard for me because when I came into it, we were still like largely in the bear market. And so there was like a lot of downtrend. And of course that is still a downtrending day, but I didn't necessarily have an edge there. And so when I was starting really like, I would just wait for the puke to be over. Basically, I didn't have like a way to really jump into that with a lot of confidence just because I didn't, um,
Speaker: Yeah, I just didn't know my system well enough, essentially. I didn't know how to take advantage of it. And then we started to kind of like bottom out and we created like a really long momentum loss kind of range on the higher timeframe. And so, so much of my experience was built in that range. And so range trading for me was was fantastic. It was extremely easy because you have like clear defined levels and you know what you're working with.
Speaker: When it got um a little bit dicier and we started to like trade into momentum, well, so the... Actually, this is something that I still suffer from today and I talk about it like openly in the group. Because so much of my trading was built off of range trading specifically, that means that I'm always... like the The general frame of mind that I come into something with is whatever happened before is what's most likely to happen again, as opposed to kind of like betting on a new paradigm.
Speaker: And really what that means is that when you're trading within the range, inevitably the range will break. But all of my my setups and the way that I think of price is it will stay range bound until like it will really prove to you that it won't be.
Speaker: And so really what that means is that like I'm able to trade the range and that goes great for me right up until the range stops working. And then I just get absolutely clapped from it because I wasn't like necessarily positioned for that and I wasn't ready for it because I'm still looking for the same reversionary setups.
Speaker: the The way that I cope with it is the fact that ultimately if the range holds for like a fairly long period of time and I'm able to get quite a few trades just within that range, well then I've kind of accepted the idea that like when the range breaks, I'm gonna eat shit, but that's okay because I've still been able to compensate with like a lot of winning trades within the range. And as long as my risk management is relatively tight, well, then it should be a non-issue. I mean, that's actually exactly what happens um when we got that impulse out of the bottom at like 67 or whatever that was.
Speaker: um We got that like huge trending day that pushed us into the 70s and we broke through so many levels. I had been able to trade that range from a swing perspective really well. But then as soon as it broke and it broke with like a very strong impulse, I got absolutely clapped on that because that was not part of like the way that I view price action. It wasn't part of how I deal with like essentially range trading.
Speaker: And so I had to kind of like flip on like a dime basically and really just adapt to, okay, now there is considerable strength in the market. And so it's really just about being able to ride it as opposed to looking for that like this is contained within a strong set of boundaries and I need to be able to revert it. It was really just about looking for that immediate strength and immediate follow through.
Speaker: And partially, actually, that's where um the on-chain career really helped out. And it's funny, I didn't realize I was doing this in real time, but a lot of, or so much of how I was trading on-chain was actually largely trading off of strength.
Speaker: Because, of course, there aren't that many participants, the chart is relatively new. And so one of the many ways that I kind of got into it was just, all right, well, which ones look strong? Because ultimately, on-chain, when you're looking at price action, you're really looking at like sentiment, you're looking at attention, you're not really looking at price in the sense that if people know about this coin, if they're excited about it, well, then the price is going to go up regardless. And you can do like TA, you can do PA on it, like all those things are relatively valid.
Speaker: But for me, it was really just about, well, how much attention is in this coin? And when you translate attention into strength, well, then that's how you create basically a lot of those uptrends. And so I basically just applied a lot of that thinking into trending trades for scalping, which um I didn't really expect to be so transferable, honestly.
Speaker: But it did pan out actually you relatively well for me. And to give you a more like mechanical answer, one of the many ways that I really just try to deal with trend continuation is actually just using anchored view ops. This is something that I do a lot and I've talked about this a lot in the group.
Speaker: is um when you get like kind of like an impulse move or like a relatively big imbalance or anything really, like a high volume candle, something that you think is worth paying attention to. Well, then I'll just slap an anchored VWAP on it. And then I trade the bands the same way you would basically just a VWAP system.
Speaker: And so if the like the simple framework is basically like if we're between like the 1SD and the mean, well then there's a certain degree of strength. If you're writing between the 2SD and the 1SD, well then there's a lot more strength. And so you just kind of try to play that continuation and essentially try to apply the same thinking, the same system, but just to a move with a lot more strength and a lot more trend. And that is kind of the um value.
Speaker: of using the bands for me is that like despite the kind of out of nowhere strength the out of nowhere impulses that you get you're still able to contain it within a system that gives you relatively clear levels to work with have you been trading like these setups or similar setups since you've since you've started out and like what kind of mistakes have you made at the beginning doing doing this stuff that you like rooted out over over time um So as far as training the same system, yeah. Like this, like what I'm training now is very much a culmination of everything I've been doing for the last like year and a half, really. I mean, I like to think it's a refined version of it, or at least I hope it is.
Speaker: but um But largely, yes, like this is the the same kind of system that I've been trying to learn for the last like year and a half. I've been able to push it a lot more um with a lot more discretion, which is something that like I personally enjoy a lot more. I know that it's a lot harder to teach. It's a lot harder to um kind of translate to people because so much of, especially when you're trading flow, so much of it is is things that are happening in real time. It's it's a um a feeling that you get that potentially this is going to revert or that there isn't as much strength in the market as people think. And so you're looking sometimes to counter trend or to move with the trend even before it's like properly formed.
Speaker: So there is um there is a degree that is like very hard to explain because so much of it can be discretionary. But the the system itself for me worked really well at first, again, because it just gives you clear, defined levels to work with. And so that was really something that I put so much emphasis on early on because looking at the one minute can be so confusing. I mean, so many times I'll see people say something like, why did price even do this? Like what's happening? Trying to like understand a a reason essentially for the way that price moves. But if you accept the idea that like everything is variance, everything is random to a certain extent, there's no, there doesn't have to be any rhyme or reason for anything. It's more about
Speaker: can you trade it than it is about, can you understand it? And so I don't really put that much emphasis in trying to understand why something happened as much as I do trying to just get on the right side of it. I think that's something that's really helped me a lot is um just the idea that I don't have to understand everything. I don't need to have a system that tells you why things are happening in a way that like a lot of people will tell you on CT, oh, we got this move because we reject it off of like this, whatever number EMA or whatever.
Speaker: whatever they're coming up with, that's absolutely fine if it works for you. But I didn't really find an edge in that. And so understanding why things are like doing the things that they're doing was kind of minus EV to me in the sense that it was too much time thinking and not enough time kind of actioning.
Speaker: And as far as kind of the mistakes that I made and that I've sort of been able to progress around. Well, um one thing, especially for scalping is, yeah, like when you're when you're trying to be extremely aggressive in your trading,
Speaker: So inevitably, you're going to take a ton of scratches because like you can it's so easy to kind of cross that line and be way too aggressive to like try to preempt a move before it even happens because you think you saw something that like is giving you the right answer when really you had to wait like an extra minute or sometimes even an extra few seconds to be able to like be validated in your thesis.
Speaker: But the the issue is when you're looking at the one minute, especially when you're trading during New York, things are happening so fast that like you don't necessarily have the time to to really formulate your thesis in that moment. You kind of just have to trigger and pray that it works out in your favor. And so, so many times what I was doing was i was trying to basically do too many things at once. I was trying to balance what I thought of anchored VWAPs or whatever like rotational, like the simple rotational system with the daily VWAP and the weekly VWAP. And on the top of that, I was trying to balance flow.
Speaker: And it was honestly, it was just too much for me in that moment. I had to be able to kind of break them all down separately and understand how these systems work separately to then be able to put them together.
Speaker: And so one of the the many mistakes that I used to make was just like entering a trade and then you're closing it within seconds because like you immediately see something you don't like, especially if you're looking at ticks. Well, then it moves so quickly that like you can get shaken out within basically like a second or like a single move if you're not really dedicated and you're not really paying attention to your thesis.
Speaker: And so that was something that I used to do like a lot. And that was a very frustrating experience to like see what I think is a setup. I trigger it. One more taker comes through and pushes price lower. So I immediately invalidate myself and then 30 more seconds pass and it just runs exactly the way I thought it would.
Speaker: That was something that I used to do just constantly was like take the right trade, but my timing was wrong. And that's something that I talk about a lot with with other traders is the idea that like right idea, but wrong timing.
Speaker: Because that is, especially as a scalper, so difficult to deal with. And so many of my trades were, yeah, were trades that I would cut that ultimately run. And part of how I like learned to cope with that actually was accepting the idea that, well, ultimately, if I take a loss and I take a scratch, of course, that sucks. But the only thing that I can really do to mitigate that if I want to be as aggressive as I am is really tight risk management. So if you think that you're wrong and you think you've been invalidated, well, then you cut immediately.
Speaker: If price reclaims the level that you're looking at and you think you can still get the trade out of it, well, then you just send it again immediately. And that was that was part of what really helped me kind of progress and cope with it was the idea of basically not getting tilted.
Speaker: The idea that like it doesn't matter if I fuck up the same trade three times as long as my risk is extremely tight and I'm doing a good job with my invalidation, because if I get it on that fourth time and I get the full rotation out of it, well, then the win is like largely going to outweigh all of the scratches that I took on the way there. And so especially if actually if you look on Twitter and you look at some of like my earlier posts, you'll see me fuck up like the same trade three times just to get it right the fourth time. And I understand that that looks like insane to a certain extent. And it is.
Speaker: But um but that was largely how I coped with being so aggressive with my entries. And eventually, the more that I did that, the more I kind of learned how to like refine my timing, how I learned how to really um decide when was the right time to send it and when was the time to send it with size. And so ultimately what I ended up doing more recently is really kind of just like refining my trade selection a little bit.
Speaker: And then more than that, in the trades that I was taking, accepting more variance and more than that, putting on more size so that I was trading basically less trades throughout the day, which is largely what I've been doing now, but with a lot more size so that like, yes, I'm not getting like 20 trades a day anymore, but the size is significantly bigger. And so as far as profit goes, I'm still very much in the green relative to what I was doing. And Part of that actually was kind of, um because I built very much this this identity as a scalper. That was what i what I thought of myself as. And when I was looking at rotational trading, that was very much kind of my objective. Like there are so many rotations and not all of them are worth taking ultimately, especially if you're pushing like a certain degree of size and you're dealing with fees.
Speaker: Well, then there's only so much you can do until like you're basically break even on what you thought was a good trade because fees are just eating up so much of the move, especially if it's not big enough. And so um that required like a bit of discipline for me, for sure. Like to to know that like I can't, even if I think it's a good rotation, maybe this one isn't worth sending. Sometimes you really do have to um decide what is worth trading and what isn't. And when you're so used to sending everything, that can be a bit of a challenge, honestly, definitely. Like when I think of the other scalpers that I know that are in the group and who do like a really good job,
Speaker: They, um I mean, they deal with it in different ways, of course. But for me, it was it was largely about deciding what setups I think are really worth taking. And those are the ones that I try to really action into and put more and more weight into. And the the challenge with that is that, well, if you're going from like 20 setups a day to five setups a day, what if you're wrong?
Speaker: Because then all of a sudden you're not compensating for anything. You could end up on the day taking like four scratches, a singular win, and ultimately not have a very good day. And so that was um that was pretty tricky to deal with for sure. It took um a bit of adjusting for me to be able to really like refine my trade selection and really decide what it is I want to do. But the the other argument to make as far as kind of like trading every single rotation is um sort of the quality of life argument. Because like, yes, I enjoy trading a lot. I really, i have so much fun with it. And that's really the only reason why I'm able to to work for like 12 to 14 hours a day. Because if this wasn't fun, there's no way I would be sitting at the desk this long.
Speaker: And part of that, of course, is just like the community aspect because I get to like talk and joke with so many of my friends. And so it doesn't like fully matter if price isn't doing what I want it to do in the moment because I'm still finding a way to have fun with my time.
Speaker: But if if this wasn't fun, if I wasn't actively enjoying it, well, then there's there's just no way that you'd be able to push it this much. And yes, I've had like a fantastic time training. I've had a fantastic time learning. But eventually you kind of like reach a point where you just have to like balance your life a bit and you kind of have to decide, well, like how do you want to live past the point of being like consistently profitable and finding a system that works for you?
Speaker: Do you really want to be working like 14 hours a day or do you want to have some semblance of like a normal work-life balance? And that is, um that's very much my current challenge right now because yeah I initially told myself that like I was going to give up trading Asia and I was just going to stick to New York.
Speaker: And I've kind of done that, but not really. Like really what will happen is during Asia, I'll actually most nights at this point, I'll end up playing Counter-Strike with like Magus and like a few of my friends.
Speaker: But um I'm still looking at like the chart is still on the corner of my screen. yeah And if I see a setup there, i am going to pause the game for half a second and risk getting just like absolutely nuked so that I can send what I think might be a good entry. So like it is um a little bit daunting to kind of like give up old habits. And that's part of just like the stubborn nature of the way that I am.
Speaker: But I definitely have taken like my foot off the gas, like a little bit at the very least, just because if I am sending a setup, I'm at the very least making sure that it's one that's worth sending. I'm not trying to trade every single rotation because I've come to realize that like it's just not worth it. It's not worth the time or the effort.
Speaker: And to a certain extent, you could even argue that the um kind of the more rest that you get, the more well rested that you are, the more balanced you are in your life. Well, then the more your trading is going to benefit, because in that sense, trading can be such a um a reflection of like who you are and how you're feeling in that moment. And so if you're not feeling your best, if you're not feeling good, well, then your performance is going to suffer.
Speaker: And so part of that is just kind of recognizing that. Even if you want to maximize everything out of a singular trade or out of a singular session, you're just not going to be at your best if you're not well rested. And if you're not like, if you haven't fed yourself, if you're not ready and like alert and feeling good in that moment.
Speaker: And so I've tried to learn how to kind of like restrict myself a little bit. I'm trying to sleep at earlier hours with like a moderate amount of success. Honestly, I could be doing a much better job with that.
Speaker: but um But I like to think that that is very much going to be my next challenge. And hopefully I will kind of like reach the same point that basically Doc is at right now where he shows up, he trades New York Session, and then he's done.
Speaker: If he has time, if he has nothing else to do, well, then maybe he'll look at the chart again. But otherwise, it's basically just a regular workday. You put in five, six hours, you get your trades. Maybe you don't, and that's okay. There's always another trade that's...
Speaker: Really, that's the fantastic thing about scalping is that it really teaches you that like there is always another trade. There's always another setup. When you're starting out, I think it's it's so easy to feel like a certain degree of FOMO in that sense because you feel like, OK, I need to find the setup for today. I need to find a trade. Otherwise, what the hell did I even spend my day doing? But that's that's so far from the truth, because like if you have a system that's consistent, and especially on the low time frame, of course, if you're not trading like the four hour, 12 hour,
Speaker: I mean, every single day there are several setups for you to take. So the the illusion that like you need to trigger this one, otherwise like you're not going to make it is is something you have to give up pretty much immediately. Otherwise, you're just going get caught in like a death loop of like always being at the desk. And that is that is something that I'm glad I've been able to internalize. And that does help me kind of like step away from the desk a lot.
Speaker: what What about the good old ah European session, the the London session? Does that not really like work with with your system or you're just like not a fan of it or there's no... there's Well, so it does. Honestly, i um that was just like a life thing in the sense that I've always been like a bit of a night owl. That's always been kind of like a personality thing for me. I like being up late at night and that's always just like how I was. And honestly, I mean, I live in Europe, so it would make so much more sense for me to be trading just London and New York.
Speaker: But very early on, I found success just trading like rotational price action in Asia. And so as soon as I found like something that worked, I just stuck with it. And then it very much became like part of my thing was just trading Asia. And because it was treating me well and I was able to read price action correctly in that moment, I just kind of stuck with it. And then it's like a hamster, and like in a wheel. Basically, the more I ran, the faster the wheel got.
Speaker: And the next thing you know, I was just like an Asia trader and it was like working until basically like seven in the morning and time just kind of passes and you don't really realize it. So that was, um I don't think that was a mistake necessarily, but I definitely could have been a little bit smarter about that.
Speaker: These days, um sometimes i actually will trade London. but not in the way that you'd expect in the sense that I'm not waking up for it. I'm actually just staying up for it. So like in the last few weeks, I've had a handful of like trading Asia sessions where I'll put on like a really good trade because I have like a lot of size on it. And I think I have a really good reversion brewing.
Speaker: And so then I'll end up staying up until like 9, 10, 11 in the morning, which when you do it consistently is just like absolutely brutal. Like there's nothing, um, Especially because like, especially i live not very far. I mean, it's not very close, but there is a school relatively close or close enough that like when the day starts, well, you start to like hear like the red, the bell ring and you hear like people on the street or whatever. And like going, yeah, going to bed when you hear everyone starting their day and like I can hear like my neighbor's coffee machine starting is like turbo depressing. Like that does not really work for you. Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, that's no good. Like going to bed when the sun is up is is just brutal, honestly. There there is ah an argument to be made there that like that's really not that healthy for you. But part of um part of why I trade Asia and part of why I like work the way that I do is because I feel as though I understand the context and the meta.
Speaker: during those sessions a lot better than, well, than trading London ultimately. And a lot of that just comes down to to repetition. I'm sure that if I pivoted and I made sure to like sit at the desk during London every single day, well, then I'm sure I would find largely basically maybe not the same setups, but setups to trigger within that session because I would have some degree of context and some degree of experience with how they move price.
Speaker: and And part of that is also just... um I guess, I mean, again, it goes back to that pattern recognition argument, but I do often, even if I'm not trading it, I will go back and look at all the rotations during London because I do want to have some kind of sense of how price is moving. I know that it's like an impossible task because no one is going to be in front of the desk 24 hours a day. But if I'm able to kind of like segment from session to session how participants are moving price, I feel that it gives me just like a much better idea of what setups are potentially available during those sessions and how you can move it around. yeah And then more than that, you just you get metas where I mean, kind of like the one that we're in now, where in the last few weeks, a lot of the better versionary trades have started
Speaker: basically at like the midpoint of Asia. And then you see continuation all the way into London. And then as you get closer to New York is when you start to see kind of like that move ultimately like barred or revert. And so that just in itself, the the value of seeing that price action play out kind of tells you what's possible in those moments. And so like a handful of trades that I've taken even in the last few weeks, some of the bigger ones that I've taken with size have been exactly that have been like knowing that Asia has been behaving XYZ way for the last three days. If they've been doing it for three days, well then the odds of them doing it for the fourth are a lot higher than them creating a brand new paradigm. And then if London has been doing this for three days and you just kind of like carry that logic forward, just simple pattern recognition.
Speaker: and um And that actually has kind of forced me to push into London because sometimes I'm in a reversionary trade, I'm in a long and I think that London will continue to push it up because that's what they've been doing for the last few days.
Speaker: And so unfortunately, yes, that that means you're staying up until like noon because you want to see this trade play out and you don't want to kind of like miss on the opportunity that you're already in. And that does require like a degree of sacrifice. But um but I don't think you have to be that kind of extreme about it. mean, I know I made the point about not having to chase every setup. And this is like a little bit hypocritical of me because I'm actively um kind of like sacrificing my quality of life to be able to catch those trades. Like I do recognize that this is very much like a do what I say and not what I do.
Speaker: but um But in these moments, at least in the trades that I'm taking, it's it's working and more than that, i'm I'm enjoying the learning process. Like it's it's actively fun for me to to have my thesis and to see it play out in real time. And even if the trade doesn't work out, I'm still ultimately learning something. And I think that that fun or that joy in learning and constantly pushing yourself is what gets me to to work the hours that I do. And it's what gets me to to take kind of like a natural interest in how every session moves priced differently. And if you're lucky, well, then you'll get a setup out of it.
Speaker: Mm-hmm. Do you ever trade weekends? i um Yes, actually. i do well so I try not to these days because, again, like at some point you've got to take a break. i mean the The running joke that I have with a few of my friends is that there are so many things that I've been wanting to do that I just absolutely have not had the time for. i mean Back in March, if I'm not mistaken, the the new Resident Evil game had come out and I was like super excited to play that. and That was...
Speaker: months ago and I still have not touched that game and every single Saturday I tell myself alright this is the time that you're gonna play it every Saturday comes and I just don't play it which is like highly unfortunate for me but um these days I try to step away from weekends and really what I do um is I try to segment it just like a little bit. So like Saturdays are usually, at least for me, not tradable sessions. Like the the rotations aren't good enough. And so if you absolutely want to be in a trade on a Saturday, well, then it's just like a unidirectional trade. You basically have to like decide if you think it's going to go up or down.
Speaker: You try to get a good trigger and then you just step away from the desk because ultimately there isn't enough like rotational price action for you to really be locked in on a Saturday. Past that on Sunday, futures open is is something that I trade a lot. It's not as much fun as it used to be, which is unfortunate. During the summers, especially during like the year on war stuff, when i was really like starting to pick up, there were a ton of really volatile futures opens. And i ended up making actually quite a few live trade videos like kind of about that because, well, because that was the beauty. You had like a defined period of time where you knew that at X hour, there was guaranteed to be volatility.
Speaker: And so then it just becomes as simple as, well, make sure you pick the right direction and you should be all right. Your entry almost, um I don't want to say didn't matter, of course it mattered, but you didn't have to be as precise as long as direction-wise you were correct. And part of that was just kind of like paying attention to news and like gauging the the general sentiment of how things are going and how people are going to be reacting to the developments that happened over the weekend. And I know that everyone knows complains about this because that's the way that like Trump does things that like Friday night, basically when markets close, he ends up saying something like devastating. And so everyone panics going into Monday and then Monday he changes his mind.
Speaker: And like that is um that is a joke that like so many of us used to tell. But that unironically is a setup. because very often what we would end up doing is Friday would close and then he would say something devastating, prices would nuke, and then by Monday he would try to fix it. And so if you were able to catch a low relative to that weekend, you just had to hold it until futures open and then ultimately you got your reversionary move. And so that was a setup that I used to run basically every week that was fantastic for me. um Unfortunately, there is still volatility for futures open, but it's not like it was. Like it's not as fun as it was. And- For the most part, it's been relatively muted. This Sunday actually was like a decent move. But aside from that, it really hasn't been like that much these days.
Speaker: um So so Sundays I will still trade and I'll trade around Futures Open. Less so these days, I try to be like a little bit more disciplined as far as like kind of like respecting my own time and making sure that I'm rested and ready for Monday.
Speaker: But Saturdays, I definitely just completely avoid now. I used to try to force it, but it just doesn't make sense for me anymore. that There isn't enough volatility to really make it work unless you're trading an alt, of course.
Speaker: But that um that is something that I can do, but isn't my kind of my comfort zone. My comfort zone is just staring at the Bitcoin chart. And because it's something that I've developed an edge in, it's something I've developed a skill with, well, then that's largely just what I want to stick with. There's no reason to kind of get greedy and try to get even more trades out of it when I know that I can just stick with this singular thing and I will eventually get it set up.
Speaker: I'm really curious about um your execution and I guess like a bit of microstructure topics and sizing and then whatever. like How um does your execution on the trades usually look look like? Do you just like pick a certain size and then mark it in and then mark it out if it doesn't work or like set some to piece and stuff like that or ah How does that look like and how does it work with um regards to to sizing, slippage, fees and all of that?
Speaker: Yeah, I, well, so first of all, the, as far as execution goes, really the, the core or like a huge pillar for what has really given me um a bit of an edge as far as getting good entry goes is ticks.
Speaker: Like I absolutely love ticks. It's something that like Magus talks about a lot and to his credit, I was, um, I was very resistant to the idea at first because when you don't understand aggro, when you've never used it, just looking at like the 10 second already feels like a lot. And so when you're looking at ticks, you don't necessarily know how to like action it either.
Speaker: But um getting some sense of familiarity with how ticks move, how like you can kind of determine what like an impulse is, what like a trigger point is, that has been really absolutely huge for me. That has really, really helped me refine my entries.
Speaker: Past that, it's, um yeah, it's a lot of marketing in and marketing out. I very, very rarely use limit orders, which I know is, of course, a mistake to a certain extent because a lot of the exchanges that I use obviously have fees. And so I am like leaving money on the table. But I am...
Speaker: I so I understand the fee argument and a lot of people will tell me that when they see kind of like the sessions that I used to put out, they would be like, all right, but you're scalping 200 point move. So like, aren't you giving back half of it for fees?
Speaker: And that's a completely valid argument for what it's worth. But I don't really care about that. Like to me, what matters is the fact that I'm profitable on the move. and that I was able to catch the right trade. If I'm giving back like 30% of it on fees, well, of course, that that sucks. That's money that you left on the table. But if I'm still able to do that consistently, well, then I don't really see the concern about worrying about fees because to a certain extent, you do have to kind of like pay your dues to be able to do what you're doing.
Speaker: Of course, I would rather be able to trade it on like a platform without fees. And that's largely what I've been doing through variational, but you still deal with slippage to a certain extent. So like there's no there's no free lunch in that sense. Someone is gonna be taking your money somewhere. That's just like inevitable.
Speaker: yeah um but But I do market order, especially, I mean, for my entries, everything is market order. Like everything is recognizing it in the moment and really actually trying to bid into weakness, especially if I'm taking a reversionary trade, well, then I'm largely triggering into the puke. And of course, that's like a risky move to a certain extent because, well, what if it continues to puke? And then you just like all of a sudden have a dog shit entry that's like so much higher than where price actually stabilized.
Speaker: And part of that is kind of like your read on ticks is your read of rotational levels and like how good you are in that moment in terms of kind of like feeling out the impulse. And I understand that that's like an extremely discretionary thing. It is hard to get.
Speaker: But the the value of scalping is that you put in so many reps that you just kind of like naturally build that experience. And I think where so many people kind of end up going wrong as far as their low timeframe training goes is that they they undervalue the um the meaning of getting reps.
Speaker: Because like it's it's like everything that you'll ever do in life. The more you practice at it, the more you will internalize it. That's kind of like the beauty of of how the human brain works. I mean, you can see that even like in video games. If you're someone who plays like Dark Soul games or something, if you run into a boss, you have no sense of pattern recognition in that moment. He's going to like absolutely clap you because you don't know what the moves are. You don't know the sound cues. You don't know anything.
Speaker: But the more you sleep on it, the more you come back to it, eventually you start to internalize all of that kind of behavior. You start to see the things that like you recognize in the moment is, oh, when like he takes one step forward, that means he's going to swing to the right.
Speaker: And so all of that just kind of like culminates into building kind of like a database for yourself. And that that is equally as true for people For video games as it is for like woodworking, as it is for studying, as it is for trading, it's it's everything. That is just like fundamentally how we learn is through repetitions. It's through like pain and failure.
Speaker: And so um that is something that has like tremendously helped me out as far as scalping goes. And it's something that I tell people like constantly is like, if you miss a trade, you don't get it right. Well, I mean, of course, that's too bad, but just keep putting in reps because it it will help you develop your read significantly.
Speaker: And I'm sorry. So back to your question. Yeah, I market order into everything. I very rarely use limit order. Sometimes I will for my um take profits. I'll use like a limit. chase Sometimes if I think that it's worth it, I will sometimes use limits for like larger swings if I have like very obvious levels that I'm working with.
Speaker: But for the most part, i tend to market, yeah, just about everything. And part of that is because I'm always at the desk, right? So like I have a degree of um understanding in terms of like what price is doing as it's getting close to my level. Because like one of the worst things that can happen, of course, is that like you have your TP and like price front runs it by like 50 points and the whole trade goes to shit. And like you were right, you just weren't right on like that level of precision.
Speaker: And that's part of why, honestly, I just like tend to avoid limits because I'm at the desk anyways. I'm seeing the strength play out in real time. And if I'm here and I'm willing to kind of trigger it in the moment, I really don't see a reason to do it like passively ultimately.
Speaker: um And again, I know that that costs, of course, more fees. But again, as long as I'm winning and I'm winning consistently, I'm more than happy to give back some by fees because That doesn't really matter to me. I'm not the type of person who's looking to like absolutely min-max the effort out of everything. I think that would be a bit of a drain, honestly, and a waste of time for for me and for how I trade.
Speaker: And do you always like size in fully or do you like scale in bit more sometimes? Well, so when I started, one of the things that I did, and this is ah a lesson that they teach in the Paragon a lot, is um just the idea of fixed size. Because especially when you're scalping, especially when you're trading a little time frame, the less you have to worry about, the less you have to think about in the moment, the cleaner your execution will be. like i don't I'm not the type of person who does like, oh, this is going to be 1% of my account. This is going to be 5% of my account.
Speaker: None of that really makes sense to me. It's so much easier for me to just have a fixed number that I send for every single trade. And when I'm comfortable with that, well, then the number is preloaded. can just click on like my stream deck. I can click like the execution on the terminal and that's it. I don't have to worry about anything else. And I do think that that is as simple as it sounds really a value add for a lot of people is using fixed size.
Speaker: As far as scaling into trades go, that is something that I've been doing a lot more recently. So like I had mentioned, I'm trying to, especially during New York, trade a lot more based off of flow. And because that introduces so much more variance, what it means is that while I do have like a fixed size that I'm comfortable with, if I want to really scale into a trade, well, then I'm going to have to start kind of like clipping into it. And part of how I deal with that variance of flow is essentially that, is by clipping into what initially kind of like feels like a price that's moving against you, a chart that like doesn't look as bullish as you'd like it to be or as bearish as you'd like it to be. But you have that like kind of high conviction in your entry. You have a high conviction in the thesis, even if price is moving against you.
Speaker: And so you, yeah, you clip into a trade that is pushing like actively against what you're looking for. But you have to, um, In that moment, yeah, you really just have to have like confidence in the setup. And part of that for me has just been the the process of really sizing up.
Speaker: And a lot of that, honestly, is actually more about the the platform that I'm using in the sense that because I spent so much time on Variational, right now they've done a ton of work into the liquidity. They've done a ton of work on the slippage. So like it is so much better than it used to be. I do want to give them their flowers for that.
Speaker: But when I started using it, when they first launched, I mean, it was there were moments where you couldn't even clip like a singular Bitcoin into a move. You had to cut it into like 0.25 or 0.5 and you had to just like keep spamming that button to try to fully get your size into it. yeah And that was um that was a challenge for sure. Like being able to clip like that and like still get the size that you wanted. A lot of the times the the move was too fast. It would go like without you and you weren't able to get the full size you were looking for.
Speaker: Now to their credit, they have like fixed a lot of that. the liquidity is a lot better. And so you can kind of like go full size if you want to. But ah it's funny, months of doing that have kind of taught me how to adjust to that speed.
Speaker: And more than that, actually, it kind of gave me the ability to um to be willing to be like extra aggressive and triggered that rapidly. And so what I've been able to do now that the liquidity is better on like the platform itself is kind of translate that into multiple accounts because that's something that I'll do very often. If I, as opposed to taking more rotational setups during the day, when I like kind of like zero in on the one or two, three setups that I'm looking for in that day, as opposed to just taking it on a singular account, I have basically three accounts that I run every day and I will just essentially send it on every single account.
Speaker: And part of that obviously requires like a certain degree of speed. And it does require like a certain degree of conviction, too, because then if you're wrong, well, then you're wrong three times, which like hurts a lot more for sure. um But if the setup is good and if you have a good read into it, the um the fact that I had to kind of like compensate for that speed of scaling in has very much translated to the idea that like I can send it on multiple accounts basically at the same time because because I'm kind of used to having to work really fast into it. Yeah.
Speaker: I think that's all very, very interesting stuff. But I also think it's a good time to slowly wrap up our conversation that I have enjoyed very much. I think this was very, very insightful into your journey.
Speaker: um Is there anything else that you did you haven't shared yet that you would like to share at the end? as some Some message or advice have for people? um Yeah, as far as as messages and advice goes, I guess what I would say is that, um so i I came into a lot of like life, honestly, and trading very directionless. like I was im in a huge fuck up in high school. I didn't even graduate high school.
Speaker: So like I wasn't necessarily someone who thought of myself as someone who was like super capable of marketing. anything, to be honest. Like I had a certain degree in markets, but a lot of that to me was kind of like luck and variance because like so many people in crypto, a lot of times you just came in in the right moment.
Speaker: It's not that you necessarily like figured out something that no one else did. It's just that you were very early and there was a lot of volatility in this market. And so you were able to find a degree of success. But I think that no one or rather everyone should really value just hard work and repetitions. Like you would be just like absolutely shocked what you can achieve for yourself, regardless of like what you think you're capable of, regardless of what you think you could do. You would be just like absolutely shocked what can happen if you're just willing to like really, really work at it. If you just apply yourself to a singular thing, I think you can go so much farther than you think you can. And like part of that is believing in yourself. Yes. And if you don't in that moment, well, then you just have to put in the work and kind of like let your results kind of like push you into believing yourself.
Speaker: But I think that like i get a lot of praise from um a lot of my friends, a lot of my students, a lot of people on Twitter. And I really appreciate it. But I really just want to make this clear. There is like absolutely nothing special about me. There's nothing particularly smart about me. I'm not like...
Speaker: there There's nothing about me that is outside of like the ordinary. The only thing that I've done is is work really, really hard. And so if you think that this is something that you want to do, if this is something that is interesting to you and you have a passion for it, I don't think it's inaccessible. I think if you're willing to work hard at it, well, then you can make just about anything work.
Speaker: And that that is hopefully really what I would love to leave um people with is the idea that like sometimes it's it's worth it to try to believe in yourself. Even if you feel like it's ridiculous, even if it feels like cringy to tell yourself I can do it or whatever, as long as you apply yourself to something, you would be shocked what you're capable of achieving.
Speaker: And that is that is largely what this like year and a half has been for me. And and if I can give that to other people, I think that would be fantastic. So that that is largely like the the big, big point that I have to make.
Speaker: Very inspirational words. they Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you very much for coming on, first of all. But the yeah. Thank you very much for having I'm a huge, huge fan of this podcast, huge fan of you, huge fan of your Twitter. So like, I'm really honored to be here.
Speaker: And of course, like I can't go out saying this, but like shout out, of course, to like Doc, Mags and Charlie. They spent hours teaching me how to do this stuff. And I'm really thankful for like the group. I'm thankful for them. Thankful for the Paragon because it's been able to basically put me in the position that I'm in now. And I'm super thankful for that.
