Crypto Personas: The Trader
Crypto Personas: The Trader
G-Eazy, from the video, “I Mean It” — Oliver’s “psych-up” song for the Alt season in April-May of this year.
TL;DR —having turned half a bitcoin (from when they were a thousand bucks) to a few coins, then a few coins to a few dozen it’s clear, Oliver is a real trader, not the type who is in the business of putting out dozens of charts a week on Twitter in order to get followers for a paid Telegram group. No, this is a real vet who’ve been taking gains and losses in securities trading since the 90’s.
Also, he’s a great guy, a straight talker, and overall a very knowledgeable individual from whom I’ve been picking up invaluable trading tips.
For these reasons I asked him if he’d be interested in letting me write a profile on him, and to my (and your) luck he accepted.
I hope you enjoy this piece, and learn from it, as much as I did writing it.
This is the first part of a series, I want use this as a platform to interview the different types of personas that exist in the crypto space, in its current form, in order to learn from them — and to learn how they got into crypto.
If you have any suggestions to a type of person, or perhaps even you know someone who would make for a good article — please let me know in the comment section or via Twitter DM’s.
Since I published my first story on Medium, I’ve been fortunate enough to come in contact with a wide variety of people from all over the world.
And as in real life, some are way more interesting than others. In this article I want to introduce you to a person who, in addition to being by far one of the most interesting individuals I’ve come in contact with, have been supplying me with much knowledge and great information when it comes to the art of trading cryptocurrencies.
I’ve been wanting to write about trading in cryptocurrencies for a while, but I have been reluctant to do so as I have no merit in the field.
That, however, does not apply to Oliver, who over the last couple of weeks and months have stood out as my main supply of “nail-hitting” tips. I’ve learned that whenever he tweets about his latest picks, there is a great chance that he’ll be quietly handing out some of the best tips that #cryptotwitter has to offer.
Oliver comes from a background which has left him more suited for trading than most of us. He grew up in casinos his family frequented, multiplying nickles, studying stock tables and watching “Wall Street Week” instead of cartoons. In the 90’s he got into bond trading, “when they were hot”.
Switching focus to trading the .com boom late in the nineties, in his own words he “made all the mistakes you can make”.
Barely exiting right before the crash in ’01 Oliver made off with a six-figure sum, instead of suffering devastating losses.
The crash made him switch focus for a while, studying medicine and parenting his two kids while leaving Wall Street alone, though only for a while. He got sucked back in by way of researching Biotech stocks, which he both wrote articles about, and traded in.
“After making some money in options and learning about leverage, I took several online trading courses in futures trading. I purchased a live feed to the CME floor and a brokers license. I trained with Danny Riley and rubbed elbows with guys who made 7–8 figures a year.
From 2012–2015 I would wake up at 3am every morning for the open of the Asian markets and make the same 8 types of NQ and ES trades over and over and over, the best of which, horizontal trades, have about an 80% rate of success.
Once the floor opened, it was different game, with my skills akin to a college football player up against the NFL.
I had to quell the compulsion and learn to refrain from overtrading before I could really succeed”
Eventually he got a lifetime brokers license. “There I really learned to read tape and anticipate the pops and drops” he explains.
“Also, being up against HFT computers, and the most aggressive and testosterone laden traders on earth, I got my ass kicked. Unless I stayed on it every second the market was open, or went flat every night, I was liable to blow up more capital than I could afford to lose, leveraged 86 to 1 You could wake up in the morning OWING money if something bad happened overnight. Positions doubled or got cut in half in instants.”
“Yep” he quipped when I noted that it sounded like a stressful way of life, though I have to say it resembles my own intro to crypto-trading to a tee, making some plays in the European timezones and then sitting up for our Asian counterparts to wake up and following the developments for hours into the night. I rarely do that anymore, but it can be consuming, hypnotic even, to study the market cycles throughout a 24 hours period.
Eventually, Oliver said goodbye to the futures market, and focused solely on building up a private practice following his medical degree, running a private practice in NYC and elsewhere for well over 20 years, though he is quick to point out that while he worked like a doctor, he never was an actual MD. Eventually his license was lost, thanks to “you know what” he tells me, in that familiar way that people who openly acknowledge their substance abuse issues make thinly veiled hints at the reason for why something in their life had an unfortunate ending to things.
“In 2013- 2014 I had begun to notice BTC, using it to buy candy, flowers, and viagra online. Half a bitcoin for a bouquet of flowers, oh my.”
This made me reflect on my first (legal) BTC purchase.
A Bitcoin miner from Butterfly Labs, I can’t even remember how many BTC the purchase set me back — all I remember is that it took ages (maybe 6–8 months, if not more) from order until final delivery, and when the miner arrived the network hashrate had increased to the point where my 30 GH/s miner would “only” produce somewhere around 1 BTC a week. Due to the price of BTC at that point, and the fact that I had the miner running in my living room with unbearable fan noise — I ended up shutting it off after just a few weeks (yes, I hate myself for that decision and regret it deeply).
But I digress, back to Oliver and his entry into BTC trading:
“…what I had brought from my experience in futures was quickly being able to assess support and resistance, and buy and sell targets like a sniper. I will sit for hours, maybe shifting my attention somewhat, or sleep with one eye open, waiting for a specific price i set my mind to. To me crypto traded so much more slowly than futures, seeing a range and trading the top and bottom of it was not incredibly difficult.”
His previous experience with trading, reading charts and the overall market knowledge he had accumulated over the years quickly paid off, this enabled him to turn “what was quite really quite a small stake, maybe 14–20k, into low mid six figures.”
This sets the stage for a revelation, to which he hinted in a earlier statement, that has caused me to relate to Oliver in a way that might not have been so obvious, considering that I don’t know jack about trading in general. Or at least I didn’t until I got in touch with Oliver. I’ll let him elaborate in his own words:
“At the same time, I’m also a frigging addict, and my own worst enemy can be myself. I learned trading impaired is when u make mistakes, and often not of calculation, but expensive, stupid fat finger goofs like tapping buy instead of sell, or market instead of limit, and watching thousands disappear like so much vapor”
I know there are a lot of people out there who can relate to this statement, and it resonated with me immediately. Both the brutal honesty but also the striking resemblance to own mistakes made.
Shit, my entire arrest was served — by way of FBI — on a silver platter to my local authorities due to a simple fuck-up achieved on the Silk Road, in a period of my life where 1 Gram of Coke, 3 valium, 8 Beers and 5 Joints was (to me) considered a regular Tuesday afternoon.
Another lesson that Oliver has learned the hard way and in which he places a great deal of importance is security. It is a topic that most of us, unfortunately, will have to get burned in before its importance is as obvious as it should be from the get-go.
“I got hacked rudely, and only quick, and expensive, intervention by a DOD trained cybersecurity expert saved me from getting cleaned out. I still find that “I” rent cars in Orlando, sign up for premium TV packages, and open credit accounts in India. I maintain a credit freeze to this day and can’t borrow a penny. The only money they got was a couple grand from a joint account I held with my Mom — try explaining that to a 90 year old woman.”
I myself come from an IT Security background (which makes my mistake on Silk Road all the more embarrasing) and it wasn’t until he shared the identity of the owner of a low-key but anonymous exchange that I realized that this guy knows his shit, not only in trading, but also within IT security.
When it comes to taking profits in crypto, his advice is clear: set a goal and work towards it.
“Passive income is great, the right masternodes, and making sure they stake every day. Having a “go to” coin, in my case VeChain, one you like fundamentally and like to put profits from shitcoins into , is good, since it produces a goal.”
Masternodes and staking is a game that I myself have gotten into after talking with Oliver who has been a great advocate for their generation of passive income. I’ve come to realise that, while I love mining, Masternodes are simpler to administer and keep running by far. This is a lesson that the summer months have underscored for me as my mining rigs are regularly overheating, or a PCI Riser has gone bust — I’ve come to realise that the PCI risers are far less resistant to higher temperatures than the GPU’s themselves and this has been a major source of extra work the past weeks and months.
Masternodes on the other hand are usually set up on a simple VPS where you don’t have to worry about either heat or electric bills. Just give ’em a initial install and setup, and be sure to keep up with the coin’s development as you might have to perform a SW upgrade from time to time.
He is quick to point out that Masternodes and in particular their related wallets can be very attractive bait for hackers and one should do some due diligence with regards to wallet security and node security in general as simple mistakes can cause huge losses.
“Hot wallets are catnip to the thieving bastards of the world”
When it comes to trading and where to place your bets, Oliver’s advice are simple, and for someone with experience in trading they might seem obvious but for beginners this is something that either can be taught the hard way, by loosing money, or by learning from others:
“... if i want to make money on Binance, I’ll look for what has high volume and is moving. See what’s fresh…not personality driven large-caps (like XVG or TRON)….and if it’s up a good percentage, like IOTX yesterday or DATA today, determine support and place a bid or some tiered bids, looking for a bounce. On Dex’s and small exchanges worldwide I’m looking for lowball fills on little-known coins before they hit CoinMarketCap. Hardly ever do i own something without having asks in place, and rarely does a bid on any magic internet money not fill if one is patient”
Another great tip, which he has been the only one so far to tip me off to is wallet research when exploring new investment opportunities:
“…that helped me pick VeChain before it took off. A single random mention on Twitter spurred to examine the richlist. I saw what didn’t seem likely- huge positions from top wallets that had huge positions in other coins, yet VEN was still under the radar. So I started with 10k @ 35c, tripled the next day, then I doubled that position thru position building trade in six weeks.”
So basically what he did here is to investigate the owners of big VEN positions on the Ethereum blockchain, and crosscheck what other positions they were major holders in — which in turn revealed that VEN was an investment that many whales within other successful cryptoprojects already had made, with little notice from media outlets focused on crypto. It’s brilliant in its simplicity, and it just underscores how much info one can obtain from some clever usage of the open nature of (in this case, Ethereum’s) blockchain and an analytical mindset.
“…after I doubled the VEN position in six weeks, I took my rehab break…then I nearly doubled it again this last Alt season… there are always trade opportunities in crypto worth seeking out, and position building to be done in a down market those wonderful slivers of time known now as “Alt season” are when truly startling gains can be made”
We have a little discourse on what truly defines the “Alt Season”, a term that I’ve been struggling to pinpoint with 100% accuracy, myself. Oliver tips me on a primer by Nik Patel that he highly recommends.
The Altcoin Trader’s Handbook has been popping up on my radar from time to time, and with a thorough co-sign from my own personal mentor it’s an easy decision. Actually I just checked it out on Amazon.com.
His main strategy for achieving maximal gains comes from sifting through the micro-cap coins (under 10 mil $) and accumulating early and (/or) during cycle low’s.
A great way to discover new coins that are below most people’s radar is to sift through all the ANN threads on Bitcointalk.org which is where most crypto projects with respect for themselves make their announcements.
Even people who do not have considerable tech-knowledge will benefit from this, because the Bitcointalk.org forum is the home to many crypto-educated individuals, so even if you don’t have the background to properly evaluate a project, there will undoubtedly be a whole lot of feedback from educated forum users who will either ask the right questions, point out obvious shortcomings or give cred where its due.
Take extra notice to what the members with higher statuses like “Legendary” or “Sr. Member” has to provide in terms of feedback, as they are likely to provide the most educated responses.
Once you’ve picked a coin or a set of coins that you decide to trade in he has a few simple recipes for expanding your position.
“One very simple “macro” concept is to imagine the mindset of traders who got in low, or high”
Also, opportunities will open in cross-exchange trading as well.
“Always scan for arbitrage”
And the advice of keeping a cool head can not be repeated often enough.
“With enough practice reading tape and the book, you get a feel for where prices are gonna land or drop to, so it’s best to work within a set of coin markets, learn those fractals. Coins trade differently on Binance, Bittrex, Tradeogre, the Crypt or a Dex, and each has it’s own advantages. Practice patience, and never get in over your head, or emotions will dictate.”
There is a huge deal of knowledge to obtain from getting to talk to experienced traders like Oliver, one of the more basic things, which I did not realise until I spoke to him, was how market depth can reveal support and resistance levels at a very detailed level.
But being a sceptic to every coin you buy into will also pay off in the long run, over time a critical approach will help you separate the real from the fake real faster and more accurately.
“Always play devil’s advocate too tho, investigate criticism and never turn a blind eye. The promise of some projects are like biotech back in the day — stories were juicy, sounded brilliant, but only a few push through”
Also, a realistic approach to all trading is necessary. Manipulation not only exists, its widespread.
“Once you see all trading is pump and dump, the manipulation becomes obvious and you begin, on larger coins, to trade WITH the manipulation and never against it.”
Over the past couple of months I’ve been fortunate enough to get enough pointers from Oliver to warrant 2 or 3 more articles which would be heavy in the usage of quotes like this one. He is also steadily supplying valuable plays on Twitter and the man is worth taking note of and paying attention to.
I’m usually not the type to shill my investments on Twitter on a regular basis (with the notable exception of Haven Protocol, and Bitcoin Air, of course).
The reason for this is that I don’t feel I have any business telling people where to place their money, again — except for $XHV and $XAP ;) — but Oliver does, and when he puts out some hints, or straight out lets #cryptotwitter know his plays, people should take notice.
If you enjoyed this article, and would like to get Oliver’s advice firsthand then be sure to give his Twitter profile a follow
Finally, this wouldn’t be a real crypto article without the author desperately begging for tips at the end, now would it?
Well .. I’m not desperate, but I do appreciate the few tips I’ve gotten so far, they get me motivated in terms of keeping up this writing.
And who knows, the 5$ you tip me today might be worth 2,50$ in a short while 😏
So here it is, my Tip jar:
AKA: 0xfE6d5EB3853B68BC2aFE8BA47eFdb9ABCb618f51
XHV: hvxyCxSYVGLSysjcLhRUhEfpHX3p9wXjpGNFC7iR84DPewEuZ3BxoYAaC7uUVvMxxVVBWwsxWkzPLPfFqwtVxveE7S9tdCbok4
BTC: 14iKgia5wtdjmLXs7QiJui3Sb6KVP6XebL
ETH: 0x913c1CD95Dc971B304C5217831102E350230efaB
BCH: qq5tjpm0jv460tvk4pa050pwc6u2aj46gs2tce2rd4
NEO: ARdd2cqCSajpzkSZGFtSqAPvBLYcquD7WH
Also, give me a follow on Twitter where I’m constantly putting out annoying tweets