90% down 😭

Monad will open its airdrop claim portal on Tuesday, October 14th — link | AI comment

Too real

Tweets are so good on red days lmao

since we are at this topic already i might as well tell my whole story. started with crypto in 2017. was semi-professional gambler back then, betting on horse races. all the money i made went for living costs, grinded it out month for month. liquidity pools for this started to dry out, apart from the 2 HK venues and the handful of big events every year. not enough to run a %-edge based strategy. needed smth new. then discovered crypto. had no capital but a good name so i could lend money from people. got a 10k loan from a friend and started buying. first coin i bought was XRP. i went into the rabbit hole, reading as much as i can. CT didn't exist back then, most convos were held in subreddits and bitcointalk forum. was a very different spirit back then. everybody was idealistic and we all thought we are partaking in a revolution of the financial system. ICOs started to spawn and i ran that 10k up to 500k in a couple of months. a lot of money for a young person. then market peaked eoy 2017. we entered a bear market. i thought i was a genius and i can play both directions. so i entered Bitmex. made all my money with spot and never traded leverage before. started shorting and playing bounces on lev on mex with my new found wealth. fast forward 4 months and all my money was gone. zeroed out.

then i found out that in the high-tax socialistic shithole i was born in one could not offset spot gains with perp losses at this time. so i discovered that i was not only broke i also owed the state 225k in income tax. this was devastating for me. i felt hopeless, felt like i have no chance to ever make it in society. young boy, at the beginning of his life. starting with 6-figures in debt. i got a bit depressed and gave up plans of traditional career (had no chance anyway because of narcolepsy but thats a story for another day). i did not report the taxes and turned my back on education and on speculation as well. regular job was not possible because of said sleeping disorder and i was sure that it would only be a matter of time until my tax offense would be discovered. smth new was needed. i began a new career path as narcotics distributor, was going well and i ended up mid-level with a solid client base and competitive pricing. haven't made riches but enough to cover cost of a comfortable life. the years went on and slowly i crept out of my depression. but i knew i cannot do this forever and need to find a way to clear this debt and forge a path for myself.

then, in 2020 defi summer came around. after seeing uniswap and sushiswap and CRV mooning i decided to give it another try. again took a loan from a friend over 20k and re-entered markets in october 2020. the goal was to make enough money to clear the tax debt and maybe a small piece for myself. fast forward 6 months later i had turned that 20k into 400k and was hooked on the game. did nothing else than engaging all day. reading, talking with people, learning, trading. i decided to maximize on this, so i had to leave country to go to a more favorable tax destination. had not much to leave behind in the motherland anyway, as i was not a productive member of society, besides my parents and my girlfriend. asked her to join me in my conquest but she declined. which was understandable as she only spoke the native tongue and was deeply rooted in society. broke my heart but i had to leave her behind. had to burn the boats. had to sacrifice all i could for the dream of becoming rich.

left the country with 400k in summer 21, tax debt still unreported and unpaid. the bull market lasted another 6 months and i ran that 400k up to 1.1m. bear market started again and i sat on my hands for a while. then tax law in my country of residence was changing so i knew i had to move again. again going into another foreign country where i don't speak the language and didn't know a single soul. also the climate in this second tax haven was much harsher than in the country i was residing before which had tons of sun and beaches. but, the boats had to be burned again, so i left. upon arriving on new shores i reported my tax debt and paid a total of 450k (incl. interest that accumulated over the years, penalties to avoid prison time and lawyer costs). this was draining a lot off my energy because every single tx had to be reconstructed and reported. i knew if i underreport for only a single EUR i would go to prison. this took a lot of time and a big mental toll. but it had to be done. with this out of the way i was left with 500k + money to cover living costs for a couple years of modest living. it was end of 2022, bear market. i rented an apartment, bought a desk for my computer and a mattress. slept on the floor, dreaming of becoming a millionaire. i took small trades here and there, but mostly sat on my hands. then Bonk was launched and we had the first real meme szn. i made some money. then came 2023, i hit some good plays (pepe, harrypottersonicobama coin, unibot). my 500k had grown to 900k. then came 2024. the same thing as of recently happened. i got caught up in greed and formed an echo bubble amongst me and some friends. oversized into a single trade and lost most of my portfolio. the asset was $mother (you can read about that trade when you scroll down my twitter timeline).

so, the dream was dead (again). i was left with 340k and had to rebuild. luckily my good friend tecton (who was a very profitable trader back then already and had the mental game on lock) came to help and taught me some very valuable lessons and showed me the way how to improve my game. i soaked all his advice up and started reflecting on every decision i ever made in this market. every mistake, every decision was mentally re-visited, my whole trading history was rolled back up and analyzed. this way i really got to know myself, my individual strengths and weaknesses and was able to build a process around that. additionally i was very lucky that i already had a network of experienced shooters that i could ask for advice. had access to some big players like RiffRaff and jcalhoun who were willing to help me and answer questions. forever grateful for that.

once this process was built i got back on the horse and started the 100k to 1m challenge (also tectons idea), which i completed roughly 3.5 months later. the way from there is described in the post above and now we are here.

jobs not finished. the journey continues.

biggest learnings i took from all that:
- the only real lasting edges are execution and ability to adapt
- successful trading is a highly individual thing. strategy needs to be tailored to individual character (pessimist optimist, risk tolerance, time horizons, individual strengths and weaknesses etc.)
- experience is the teacher of all things. there is a big difference between knowing what the right thing to do is and being able to execute on that. therefore its better to try stuff and reflect upon own mistakes than reading books
- reflection is hugely important. mistake + reflection = progress
- being process-oriented rather than being results-oriented. this means the goal should be to make the best possible decisions in given situations rather than thinking in numbers
- one needs to build a process because your NW will always regress to the base level of your process. if you make money by excessive risk taking you will lose money by the same thing. the process is your base level and NW will always mean-revert to it. thats also the reason why most lottery millionaires end up broke after 5 years
- your individual process can only be built upon reflection
- understand that the quality of a decision cannot be judged by its immediate outcome. very powerful concept that only few use in daily life
- see yourself as perpetual student. do net let yourself lose courage because the same mistakes happen multiple times. learning from mistakes is not linear
- check yourself at all times and do not fall into hubris. god's sharpest arrows are reserved for the arrogant
- constantly work on mastering the control of your emotions. your job as a trader is to control your own emotions and take advantage of those who cannot