Which trading level are you?

Oct 10, 2019

LEVEL 1 – THE COMPLETE NEWB/”WHAT ABOUT XRP?” PHASE

Totally lost – no knowledge or strategy – just experimenting, and oddly/irrationally obsessed with XRP.

LEVEL 2 – THE DIPPING TOES INTO THE REAL THING PHASE

Starting to learn more and get into it, but losing money on most if not all trades. Loves alt coins and believes in the next altcoin run. Continues to be obsessed with XRP.

LEVEL 3 – THE HEAVY LOSSES/HIGHLY IMPRESSIONABLE ‘GURU BAIT’ PHASE

Learning technical analysis and trading strategies – this knowledge is making the trader more comfortable and confident, but he’s still making lots of bad decisions and losing a lot of money on trades and he doesn’t understand why. He’s trading alt coins on high leverage. At this point, a trader will often get sucked into a “VIP” group of some kind and seek out a “guru” whose trading signals he can follow.

LEVEL 4 – THE EMOTIONAL ROLLER COASTER PHASE

Trader now has pretty good knowledge of technical analysis. He knows the main indicators and time frames and understands market cycles, and he’s starting to make some profitable trades, and he’s finally beginning to shy away from the alt coins. However, overall, he is still losing money and starting to get very frustrated. He’ll make a great trade but then lose it all on the next one due to poor risk management and because he’s trading based on emotion. He also continues to be far too influenced and far too easily distracted or sent off course by comments he sees in the online crypto community (YouTube, Discord, Crypto Twitter, Telegram, Trading View). But he LOVES trading and has decided he’s going to find a way to make it work at any cost. The VIP group he joined is okay. It’s led him to some profitable trades but there are things that are making him start to question it. The ‘guru’ sometimes makes bad calls. Also – the guru has a different trading style and doesn’t trade with the same leverage or time frames that he trades on, and he seems to be a little arrogant and over-confident and never seems to own up to his mistakes or bad trades.

LEVEL 5 – THE HITTING ROCK BOTTOM/MTV ROCKUMENTARY PHASE

Although the trader has learned a lot about trading, and even given up alt coin trading completely, he continues to make mistakes and lose money. The VIP group he joined didn’t pan out the way he expected or hoped. Although he feels he’s made some progress and gained a ton of knowledge about trading and reading charts—and made some profitable trades—nothing seems to be working to actually make consistent profits and keep him from losing money, and he can’t seem to turn his knowledge into profitable trading. He is getting depressed and it’s starting to affect his personal life. HE IS READY TO GIVE UP.

LEVEL 6 – THE INSPIRATIONAL LIFETIME MOVIE PHASE

Trader has taken a break from trading to “regroup” and come back to it with a fresh perspective and newfound understanding and attitude. He’s going to take it seriously now and do things like keep a trade journal. He’s not going to join any more VIP groups, and he’s no longer obsessed with XRP.

LEVEL 7 – THE EVERYTHING STARTING TO CLICK PHASE

The trader is finally starting to apply good risk management practices and also PATIENCE. He’s come to understand that patience and risk management are the key to successful trading. He’s also reading charts with way more confidence and using strictly higher time frames (ie, weekly and above) to assess the market and plan his trades. He uses strict rules for getting into and out of trades, and he follows them. Now, making profitable trades is quite common for him, but he’s still taking some losses and having trouble on the execution side and still a little too influenced by online crypto community comments. However – he’s finally moved out of the stage of always eventually losing all his trading capital and slowly moving into consistent profitability. And most importantly, he’s learning from every bad trade and every loss and maybe even keeping a trade journal to document what he’s learning. He no longer believes in gurus and is “becoming his own trader.”

LEVEL 8 – THE FIRST-DEGREE BLACK BELT PHASE

Trader is combining deep, nuanced technical analysis and market knowledge with high levels of patience and extremely good risk management to become a consistently profitable trader. He rarely takes losses and if he does they are small and way smaller compared to his wins. He completely ignores the online crypto community, only checking it on occasion to gather a pulse on what the retail trading herd is thinking. He’s developed his own strategies and trading style. But he also knows he can ALWAYS get better and ALWAYS has more to learn. His stance is “always learning”. He can still go for his second- and third-degree black belt.

LEVEL 7 – MASTER

You should NEVER feel like you are level 7. Nobody is.