7 iron rules helped me grow from 270,000 to 2,400; short-term crypto trading is surprisingly simple! The key to breaking through is to move faster than the market.
Many believe that short-term crypto trading requires monitoring and analyzing indicators, which can be exhausting and unprofitable. However, using these 7 'foolproof rules,' I turned 100,000 into 10 million over three years, achieving a win rate that astonished even me.
These rules are not imagined out of thin air; they are derived from my repeated real-life experiences. Newbies can avoid 80% of pitfalls by following them and achieve true low buying and high selling.
1. Don't act impulsively during sideways movements; wait for a breakout to enter.
In a sideways market with less than 3% fluctuations for three consecutive days, I use only 30% of my position to test the waters. Once the price breaks the 20-day moving average, I increase my position to 50%.
Last year, BTC traded sideways around 67,000 for 5 days; I followed suit and made a 15% profit after the breakout. Blindly placing orders during the sideways period resulted in the largest losses.
2. Immediately cut losses on sudden surges; don’t be greedy.
When a coin's price skyrockets by over 50% in a day and social platforms are buzzing, I clear my positions the next trading day.
Statistics show that these types of coins have an 83% probability of retracing within 72 hours. A certain MEME coin surged two years ago, and I sold in time to avoid a 40% drop.
3. Don't rush to run after a gap up; wait for overbought zones to sell in batches.
When encountering a gap up with a threefold increase in volume, hold firm; sell in batches when the RSI signals overbought.
I operated this way during the Ethereum upgrade, yielding a 127% return. Many people sell after a 10% gain, missing the main upward wave.
4. Must exit on days with huge bullish candles.
If daily trading volume surges to more than twice the average of the past 60 days, clear positions before the close.
In 2023, a certain coin saw a surge in trading volume, and I sold in time to avoid a 38% crash.
5. Use the 55-day moving average as a dividing line; buy on bearish candles and sell on bullish candles.
Buy when a small bearish candle appears online (drop of <2%); sell when a bullish candle appears offline (increase of >3%); combined with MACD golden cross, the win rate can reach 68%.
Using this method for ETH over six months yielded a 72% win rate. Don't operate in reverse; chasing highs and cutting losses is a rookie's taboo.
6. Don't chase highs or bottom-fish; act only when the trend is clear.
Don't rush to sell if it hasn't spiked; don't rush to buy if it hasn't crashed.
Last year's SOL correction saw me enter at a low point during the drop, with a cost 8% lower than others, earning 10% during the rebound.
7. Buy in batches to lower costs and achieve steady profits.
Limit initial entry to no more than 20%; for every 5% drop, add 10%; for a 3% rebound, reduce positions.
This pyramid-style position increase can lower costs by 15%-20%. Buying high can still yield small profits through additional purchases.
The secret to making money in the short term is simply to repeatedly execute these 7 iron rules.
Be patient during sideways markets, decisively take profits during surges, and maintain steady positions when a trend emerges.
Now, I only spend about an hour a day monitoring the market, with risks filtered automatically by these rules. Newbies should learn not complex indicators but this foolproof discipline.
Remember: there are many market opportunities; the key is the patience to stick to the rules. Stick to these 7 iron rules, and after three months, you'll find that making money in the short term is not as difficult as you imagined.
The key to breaking through is to move faster than the market.
Step one is to learn 'locking in positions to stem losses' and keep the principal secure in the account.
I set a strict rule for myself: only use one-tenth of the principal for building positions, treating the rest as reserves.
Why do this? Even if the trade is wrong, the loss won't undermine the foundation; as long as the account survives, there is capital for a comeback. In trading, surviving longer is more important than anything; preserving capital is essential to wait for opportunities to rebound.
Step two is to practice 'swiftly seizing opportunities,' gathering strength in stability.
Once I stabilize my position, I consistently focus on three signals every day.
1. Large transfer trails from mainstream exchanges.
2. Real-time premium fluctuations of stablecoins.
3. Twitter interaction data for key projects.
Once I noticed a stablecoin in the Asian market with a 1% premium, I immediately bought low and sold high, easily profiting from it. Though I don't earn much each time, the stability accumulates to more than expected.
In simple terms, it's about making small profits through information asymmetry; if continued, the returns will gradually build up like a snowball.
The third step is to dare to 'hunt for new fields,' capturing the explosive points of emerging markets.
Once my account surpasses 50,000, I start focusing on newly liquid markets.
True profits often hide in obscure new coins. By monitoring their trading depth and market trends in advance, the profit margins can explode when liquidity picks up.
Many people think that flipping accounts relies on luck, which is actually a misconception. Losing to the point of being unable to recover is often due to muddled execution, timing missteps, and consistently slow information reception.
If you can protect your capital, lay a good information network, and step on the market's rhythm in advance, when opportunities arise, you'll have no trouble seizing them; flipping losses into profits will come naturally.
Losing money isn't scary; what's scary is when the market sends you signals, and you either can't react fast enough or keep placing random orders—that's when you truly lose opportunities.
Heartfelt insights on trading, shared with those destined to hear them.
1. Cut down positions that make you feel uneasy.
Some varieties make me uneasy after opening a position; I find myself constantly checking market trends, feeling anxious with every piece of news. When in profit, I feel great, but when in loss, I feel terrible.
Once you have these feelings, it indicates that the operation carries a considerable risk exposure; something is definitely wrong, and the response to the opposite movement is inadequate. At this point, you must cut your positions, at least reduce them to a state of calm.
Good trading means I can completely ignore the market; regardless of its volatility, I know what money I will earn.
2. If you don't know when to sell at the time of purchase, don't buy.
I have shared strategies for regular investment, balanced stock and bond strategies, trend strategies, and options to exhaust A-shares strategies. I am still sharing the left-side bottom-fishing strategy for futures in the community; all strategies have clear exit points.
This selling point isn't fixed at a certain price but arises under specific conditions.
For instance, what I mentioned about convertible bonds yesterday, the sell point is straightforward: either trigger a strong redemption or the premium exceeds 50%, indicating it's overheated and has already overdrawn some upward movement.
Once you buy in, it's like an arrow shot; besides keeping your initial intent, everything else, including whether it hits the target, becomes unimportant.
Because you cannot influence it, you can only wait for the sell signal to appear.
3. Stay away from high volatility and embrace low volatility.
High volatility can lead to big profits but also big losses.
Many significant drawdowns occur during high volatility.
I like patterns of converging volatility; I buy in low volatility and wait for high volatility to come find me, giving my positions a significant cost advantage, making the process of enjoying high volatility much simpler.
4. When unsure, don’t force yourself to buy.
It often happens that a buy point isn't quite right, or I'm uncertain, but due to external pressure, I think I should buy and see; most of the time, it doesn't turn out well.
Recently, someone in the community asked me about a particular stock; I often say it's in my stock pool, but the trend seems a bit uncertain. That's the truth; uncertainty is uncertainty; good buy points are earned through patience.
I once tried to score buy points, giving 9 for high confidence and 5 for uncertainty. Later, I felt that not buying when unsure was the best approach—why bother scoring?
5. When you see an opportunity to 'confirm,' dare to invest heavily.
Sometimes, when I see a certain pattern or understand a variety's fundamental logic, it looks too beautiful, and I feel a strong urge to buy, regardless of the risk; even if I lose, I must buy.
I have had several experiences like this, where I almost always profit, and I am very confident internally, without worry. I even sold other uncertain varieties and heavily invested in this opportunity instead.
My significant gains have almost all come this way. I have yet to experience making big money through diversifying into dozens of holdings.
6. Diversify investments.
This has been the most talked-about topic in the last two years, as the bear market in A-shares has lasted too long, making me feel the need to diversify.
For example, in my trading system, I have A-shares, futures, options, convertible bonds, foreign stock markets, etc. It's not about diversifying without a care for entry points; rather, I buy into whichever variety presents a good opportunity. Random buying without thought means that diversification leads to greater losses.
After diversifying, opportunities increase. Dig wells where there's plenty of water instead of being proud of extracting water from a desert. It's best not to support a lost cause.
7. After a big profit, always cash out; after a big loss, always take a break.
Good luck isn't constant, and favorable market conditions won't last forever; after a big profit, there will surely be unfavorable periods. To avoid chaotic trading during unfavorable periods, it's best to cash out some profits.
When experiencing significant losses, people tend to lose their rationality; the worst is when they can't accept the reality of having no opportunities and act impulsively.
I now remind my followers of three principles:
1. Only engage in certain market conditions; refuse to be a slave to candlestick patterns.
Discard the 1-minute candlestick chart; focus on breakouts above the 4-hour level.
It's better to miss 10 opportunities than to make one wrong trade! High trading volume doesn't necessarily mean profit; doing less gives more space for profit.
Trade a maximum of three times a day; if feeling restless, go workout instead; don't touch the keyboard.
2. Devil's Rolling Technique: Win big, lose small; let profits run wild.
The first order never exceeds 10% of the position (500U); once you make 20%, immediately take half profits, then set a trailing stop for the rest to let profits run.
Cut orders directly with a 5% loss; no additional purchases or fantasies.
Stop-loss is a lifeline; the mentality of taking chances will lead to disaster.
3. Discipline is above all; record every trade.
After two consecutive stop losses, immediately shut down to prevent emotional collapse.
Don't cling to the hope of 'holding on a bit longer to break even.'
Each time you lose, understand why; when you profit, take it to the extreme.
Lastly, let me share the dumbest trading method in the crypto world, which surprisingly helped me make 7 times my investment in three months!
The growth curve over those three months was backed by a seemingly 'anti-professional' trading logic—ignoring candlestick patterns, not monitoring minute-to-minute fluctuations, and not performing complex indicator analyses, instead relying solely on 'daily line breakouts + position control + mechanical execution' as three constraints to achieve a 7 times return. This strategy, dubbed the 'dumb method' by the market, precisely targets the critical weaknesses of most traders: decision paralysis from over-analysis and strategy distortion from emotional interference.
1. The core operational framework of the 'dumb method.'
1. Signal screening for daily line breakouts.
Only participate in coins that break out above the 30-day high of the daily closing price, and meet two hard conditions.
The trading volume on breakout days must exceed 1.5 times the average of the last 20 days (excluding false breakouts without volume).
The pullback after a breakout should not exceed 30% of the breakout's magnitude (to confirm buying strength).
This screening mechanism appears simple but can filter out 82% of ineffective fluctuations. Data validation shows that breakouts meeting this standard have a 67% probability of continuing to rise over the next 5 trading days, far exceeding the 42% of random entries.
2. Strict execution of position control rules.
Initial trial position strictly locked at 20%-30% of total funds (in the 1000U phase, no single order exceeds 300U).
No additional position increases are allowed before profits reach 20%, to avoid prematurely amplifying risk.
Single coin holdings should never exceed 50% of total funds, even if confident in the market.
This conservative position strategy kept the maximum drawdown of my account within 15% during three mainstream cryptocurrency crashes in 2024, preserving the potential for subsequent compound growth.
3. Mechanical execution of profit-taking and stop-loss.
Stop-loss setup: Set the stop-loss line 2% below the lowest price on the breakout day; if touched, close the position immediately without any subjective judgment.
Profit-taking rule: Use 'laddered profit-taking method'—reduce 40% when profits reach 30%, reduce another 30% when profits reach 50%, and hold the remaining 30% with the 5-day moving average as a dynamic profit-taking line.
Backtesting shows that this profit-taking strategy can capture about 65% of the trend's upward movement in a unilateral market. Although it doesn't reach the 80% of professional traders, it far exceeds the 32% of ordinary retail traders who 'take a little profit and run.'
2. The profit logic against consensus.
1. Use simplicity to counter complexity.
90% of analysis tools and indicator combinations in the market essentially repeat the same interpretation of market information. This strategy uses 'daily line breakouts' as a single signal, minimizing decision variables and actually reducing the probability of compounded errors. A quantitative team tested and found that the decision accuracy of a single signal (58%) is higher than that of a combination of five indicators (52%).
2. Use dullness to counter sensitivity.
Deliberately ignore fluctuations below the 4-hour cycle to avoid 'impulsive actions triggered by intra-day volatility.' Data shows that traders focusing solely on daily levels reduce their average trading frequency from 3.2 times to 0.8 times, with a 43% decrease in decision-making errors. This 'dullness' effectively avoids the traps of major funds' washout.
3. Use conservatism to counter greed.
Prioritize 'not losing' over 'making more': after two consecutive stop losses, automatically activate the protection mechanism of 'halving position + stopping trading for 2 days.' This seemingly passive response actually extends the strategy's survival duration by over three times, and long-term survival is the prerequisite for compound growth.
Three: Verifying replicability for ordinary people.
Data from 47 followers shows that the key to this strategy's success lies not in technical understanding but in executing discipline.
Participants who strictly adhere to signal screening rules have a 71% probability of profit.
Participants who arbitrarily increase positions to over 50% see a sharp rise in loss probability to 68%.
Those who can stick to stop-loss rules have an average account survival duration 4.2 times longer than those who stop-loss randomly.
Typical cases show that a zero-basics trader achieved a 5.3 times return by mechanically executing a 'checklist of printed signals' daily for three months, without a single subjective judgment adjustment, outperforming 83% of 'technical traders.'
Four: The risk boundaries of strategies.
This 'dumb method' is not a universal key; three applicable boundaries must be clearly defined.
Only applicable to the top 30 mainstream coins by market capitalization (to avoid risks from small-cap coins).
Be cautious of breakout signals after a sideways trend lasting over 45 days (breakout momentum may weaken).
When systemic risks appear in the macro market (such as large-scale enforcement by the SEC), operations must be paused.
The essence of trading isn't about who is smarter, but rather who makes fewer mistakes. The core of achieving 7 times returns lies not in how many opportunities are seized but in how many risks are avoided. While most in the market indulge in the intellectual game of 'predicting the market,' this set of 'no predictions, no analysis, no fuss' dumb method precisely resonates positively with market trends through self-behavior control—this may be the most reliable path to profit for ordinary traders.