I didn’t expect an article this long to reach millions in today’s 3-second attention span economy. I’ve read every single quote and comment.
To be honest, I’m overwhelmed. I’ve never felt this much warmth on this platform. And I’m just deeply, sincerely grateful. Thank you, truly.
I’m not much different from anyone else who just entered this space. The only real difference is that I’ve bled more. I’ve lost more.
As a Christian, my faith gave me this habit of constant reflection, and forced me to look in the mirror and face the rot inside me. It gave me a way out when I was drowning, and eventually, that became my redemption.
Crypto was meant to be about anarchy. It was meant to be the middle finger to the gatekeepers in suits who think they’re better than us. That spirit feels dead lately, but I still believe in it. I have to. This space changed my life, and I’ll keep building here until the wheels fall off.
But I’m not going to pretend I had some perfect journey.
In my early years, I got absolutely fucked by Ponzis. I couldn't control my greed and lost most of my early Bitcoin (thank you, MMM). I was just a naive kid.
Every time I think about this part, I want to apologize to my mom. She had zero clue what I was actually doing. I was literally sneaking out every other night to act as a middleman in Vancouver’s nightlife.
I was sourcing and flipping Moutai, whiskey, and expensive cigarettes to rich Chinese university students. I was the one brokering the VIP tables and getting people through the door. Honestly, I was just really good at getting rich kids to come to parties.
I know people look down on that kind of "job." It isn't something people proudly say like "I worked at Google." But I’m proud of it. I was literally making an entry-level Google salary as a teenager just by being a better hustler than the adults.
Without that hustle, I wouldn't have anything I have today. That revenue stream was the only reason I could keep buying back into Bitcoin. I was sitting on a level of wealth I had to hide from my parents for years. No parent in their right mind would let an underage kid handle that amount of wealth.
I’ve never known what it’s like to get rich quick overnight. For me, it was always a long, grueling season.
The closest I ever came to “getting rich overnight” was thanks to Cryptokitties. Watching my kitties flip every day for weeks while ETH was mooning... that was the first time I actually felt like I’d made it.
But the scariest thing is when God gives you a "trial card" to see a world you aren’t ready for, only to snatch it back and throw you to the bottom.
In late 2018, when prices had dumped to a devastating low (again...), I had to go right back to the middleman business to get more bullets. But that time, I was different. My faith had shifted my perspective. I wasn't just chasing a high anymore. I knew, with everything in me, that crypto was the destiny I was meant to build.
If you're at your lowest right now, don't let the ego stop you. I've been in those dark times too. Nothing is "too tacky" when you are grinding to fund your vision. Whether you're hauling inventory, flipping goods, or doing the gritty backend work no one else wants to touch - do what you need to do.
Tell those who try to shame you to fuck off. Because when you finally make it one day, they will all come back to you acting like they were your biggest fans from the start.
The people judging you from the sidelines aren't the ones who are going to change your life. You are.
Keep building. I'm right here with you.
If you wanna stop losing money in crypto, the first thing you should do is STOP day trading.
Because RETAIL day trading is structurally a SCAM.
This is a long post but if you just give me 120 seconds of your time, I swear you'll thank me in a few years.
I’ve been trading since I was a teenager.
I’ve had wins that made me feel I’m Batman and losses that genuinely broke pieces of me I’m still putting back together.
I tried EVERY STRATEGY myself as retail could ever find.
I even day traded for a year thinking it would finally save me, and I failed so painfully it still stings every time I remember it.
> My PNL was so shit to the point that my grandma, who I HELPED set up an AUTO BUY on BTC for, made more money than me.
> Then I became a low-frequency swing trader who barely touches positions, who GETS THE F OUT and STOPS TRADING for a while after a winning move.
> ONLY THEN did my life get better and everything finally start to click.
I’m not a saint. I’m writing this to save the younger, dumb, naive, and painfully impulsive version of me.
First, as a RETAIL DAY TRADER, you’re trading high-frequency with zero real information advantage (no real order flow, no true liquidity map, no market maker positioning, no execution advantage, nothing).
> Do it a few times each quarter, you survive.
> Do it 10+ times a week?
> Even if you have the strongest “discipline” and “risk management” skills in the world, the math will still burry you alive.
Retails don’t fail because they (we) never win.
We fail because we NEVER STOP, and high frequency only has one final outcome.
RUIN.
> This is literally why I built a punishment system for myself if I exceed my quarterly trade limit.
> Every major loss I’ve ever taken happened after a big win where I kept going instead of stopping.
> And every major win I’ve ever taken (and actually kept the money for a long time) was because I caught a big move and then CHILLED.
> Pattern is so obvious it hurts.
Winning is NOT you suddenly made big money.
Winning is keeping that money and not fking losing it next year.
> I’m seeing 14 year olds on TikTok calling themselves day traders, drawing lines on TradingView, thinking they unlocked some daily executable system after buying a guru’s course or Discord.
> It sickens me because if they knew it was gambling I wouldn’t care. At least they’re aware of the game.
> But this day trading meta is bigger than the dropshipping wave in 2016 and 2017. And we all know how that ended.
> People underestimate the difficulty of trading and massively overestimate their ability.
> The issue isn’t just the math. Yes the more you trade and the less you stop the harder consistent profitability becomes.
> But the real problem is younger retail traders GENUINELY believe that with “discipline” and “risk management” they are not gambling at all. They think day trading is a "skill" you can execute like a daily routine.
This isn’t just crypto day trading. The same logic applies to US equities and basically every market.
High frequency only works inside institutions.
> Take US equities for example.
> Do you know what institution traders don’t even look at? Candlestick charts and TradingView.
> They’re on Bloomberg terminals with data retail will never see.
Well, you of course knows this. BUT the 14 to 18 year olds don’t know that. They think their indicators are what all traders use.
And that’s the real danger.
> If you know you’re gambling, at least a part of you knows when to walk away.
> But once you believe it’s a “system”, you never stop.
> You keep clicking until the market empties you completely.
It really is just like a casino in disguise.
> When you walk into Vegas or Macau, you know EXACTLY what you’re stepping into.
> You see the lights, the tables, the dealers, the noise. Your brain knows this is gambling.
> But day trading today is a casino disguised as a COFFEE SHOP.
> New traders walk in thinking they’re here to “learn a skill”, not realizing they just sat down at a table designed to drain them slowly.
So they don’t stop.
That’s the whole tragedy.
Not the losing.
The fact that they genuinely believe they’re not gambling, which makes them keep going until there’s nothing left to lose.
> And those retail traders (like me) you see who look like they’re “winning”… honestly most of them just caught a big move.
> They had luck at the right moment, plus enough discipline beaten into them by previous losses that they finally learned how to stop after a win.
And even then, this tiny group is less than one percent of all retail.
It’s not hard to make money in trading.
It’s just unbelievably hard to keep it.