The 2024 "Training Guide" for Senior Traders: How to Seize Opportunities from Volatility and Hold Profits

Author: Nancy, PANews

In 2024, the crypto market experienced a turbulent year full of fluctuations and developments. Bitcoin broke through the $100,000 mark and opened a new chapter in the industry. In this ever-changing market, some traders lost their way in the ever-changing market due to loss of control of mentality, improper position management, information lag and lack of strategy. Of course, there are also traders who successfully grasped market opportunities with precise decision-making, decisive operations and deep market insights, and obtained considerable returns.

Between the alternation of market prosperity and recession, how to effectively grasp the balance between risk and return, and how to adjust strategies to cope with different market fluctuations are key factors in determining whether you can make long-term profits in the crypto market. In this article, PANews interviewed and sorted out several senior traders to share their operating experience and investment lessons in 2024, and explored how to optimize trading strategies, capture market opportunities and keep profits.

Trading Reflections: Risk, Strategy and Emotion

Amid the volatility and uncertainty of the crypto market, traders’ experiences and lessons provide valuable insights. Whether adopting a sound investment strategy or speculating on short-term opportunities, risk management, strategy adjustment, and emotional control are particularly important in trading.

Chainup Investment CIO Amanda has more than seven years of experience in crypto trading. She flexibly adjusted her strategy this year according to market changes. For example, in Q1, she selected several potential projects, including AI tokens RENDER, FET and AIOZ, as well as DeFi tokens RBN, PENDLE and INJ; in Q4, in addition to investing in IOTA, she also actively purchased DOGE, PEPE and some political MEME coins, and also held positions in RSR, DYDX, LQTY and KAIA. At the same time, Amanda also pays great attention to short-term speculative opportunities, especially in November, when she increased her position to capture the dividends of Trump Trade and exited in time to take profits. However, she also revealed some regrets in the interview, such as missing the opportunity to heavily position SOL and MEME in the first half of the year, and in the timing of buying SUI, although she successfully captured the gains in the first half, she failed to fully grasp its subsequent gains.

CashCashBot founder Sabi Ge has also accumulated rich trading experience in the crypto field. His seven-year trading history has enabled him to navigate the market with ease. In the interview, he revealed that he had made good achievements in investing in the MEME sector this year, especially MOODENG, which saw a 5,000-fold increase in value, bringing in a profit of $350,000.

LaserCat397, a crypto KOL with three years of trading experience, is a deep player in the MEME track. He has achieved a good growth in overall assets this year due to his investment in MEME coins. However, he also encountered challenges in investment judgment and position management, such as errors in the operation of MEME coin PUPS, which caused the floating surplus to retreat by nearly 90%.

In contrast, Cobo VP Alex, who has six years of trading experience, has adopted a steady investment strategy. His most successful transaction this year came from Bitcoin, and his biggest regret was that he chose to participate in the airdrop activities of aevo and vertex, and missed the opportunity of Hyperliquid.

Top trader Eugene also recently summarized his experience and lessons in trading, especially the mistakes of ignoring stop loss points and not stopping losses in time. He revealed that due to the strong performance of SOL on the low time frame (LTF) and the confidence brought by the success of several previous transactions, he used $60 million to go long on SOL, but when SOL fell below the stop loss point, he still chose to continue holding it and held a "hopeful" mentality, which led to the largest single loss in the account.

A survival guide from tools to mindset

In trading decisions, many successful traders use third-party tools to assist in decision-making to improve efficiency and accuracy, thereby reducing decision-making errors. These tools can help capture market signals, analyze on-chain data, and provide real-time feedback, thereby helping traders better control the pulse of the market.

Amanda revealed in the interview that her team independently developed a data monitoring platform and customized on-chain data tools such as Dune and Flipside. At the same time, the team also uses CryptoQuant, Coinglass, Artemis, Deflama and Kaito to observe Bitcoin on-chain data, exchange contract data and public chain indicators to help make more accurate investment decisions.

Sabige believes that on-chain data analysis is crucial to capturing market trends in advance. He uses on-chain trading signals and data analysis tools provided by his self-developed CashCashBot to help quickly identify which market hotspots are attracting smart money and the potential investment directions of the main players on the chain. LaserCat397 mentioned that he used Abot, but this tool is about to be shut down.

Although the power of third-party tools can improve trading skills, trading in the high-volatility and high-risk crypto market is not easy, and even experienced traders cannot guarantee that all judgments are correct. Therefore, survival experience is particularly valuable, especially for novice traders.

Crypto analyst Altcoin Sherpa pointed out that the bull market does not mean that all currencies will return to the ATH (historical high) level, and do not hold on to unrealistic target prices. If the portfolio is very diversified, it is recommended to sell more than 50-75% of the holdings at the end of the next round of rotation. At the same time, you should continue to analyze data every week, constantly re-evaluate the top and end points of the market cycle, and independently analyze and operate your own portfolio.

"The most successful traders did not get to where they are today by perfectly timing every peak. If you have unrealized profits that can change your life, you will gain a benefit that cannot be measured in money: permanently improving your life and the lives of those around you," crypto researcher Route 2 FI also pointed out.

Former TradFi CTO @Game believes that investors should focus on key areas and combine the scale of funds, advantages and market environment to focus on areas that best meet current market conditions and can bring the highest returns. At the same time, they should also clarify the operating methods in investment, trading and speculation, and formulate clear action plans (market value range, stop loss points, profit plans, etc.) and continuous reflection. In addition, don't work in isolation and expand, expand the important information circle that can provide macro trends, market cycles, etc. beyond the scope of cognition.

Crypto KOL Based Money Lich King has summarized dozens of survival rules, such as don't rashly use perpetual contracts, don't blindly worship founders, don't lock your tokens, don't buy skyrocketing assets, don't connect to unfamiliar applications at will, remember to stop profit, and other practical suggestions.

Amanda suggested that newcomers should keep an open mind, always pay attention to the dynamic changes of the market, focus on the areas they understand, find the positive and negative balance of the project, and invest only when they can accept the negative of the project and the positive far outweighs the negative. Sabi Ge emphasized that the ability to analyze data on the chain is a necessary skill for every trader, and they should establish a trading strategy that suits them and strictly implement it. Alex believes that the cultivation of mentality is the key, and a good mentality helps to make calm decisions. LaserCat397 suggested that newcomers start from their own areas of strength, find a track that suits them, and focus on doing what they are good at, and the effect will be twice the result with half the effort.

Strategy optimization from opportunity capture to profit retention

In the context of changing market environment, adjusting trading strategies and methods is also crucial to accelerating returns. From the traders' sharing, we can see that we should flexibly respond to market changes and constantly evaluate and optimize trading strategies according to our own situation, find opportunities from short-term market fluctuations, and remain flexible and sensitive in long-term trends.

Alex admitted in the interview that the crypto market experienced a sharp pullback in March this year, especially in August and September, when market liquidity was extremely low. During this period, his personal strategy was to withdraw funds from the market and invest in neutral strategies such as DeFi and arbitrage. He believes that as the current crypto market becomes more and more professional, the previous funding fee arbitrage strategy has gradually reduced its returns, so it is necessary to find more new opportunities and migrate strategies more to the chain.

"The previous trading path was BTC to ETH, then to large currencies and then small currencies; but now it is BTC to SOL, and then to small currencies. The issuance of stablecoins has a more significant impact on the performance of small currencies." Amanda pointed out that when the market fluctuates, appropriate position adjustment and profit making are necessary. Risk management is very important. Generally speaking, she will classify each investment token/project before making a decision, whether the project has fundamentals, whether it is popular, and whether it is driven by technology. For example, for projects with fundamentals, positions can be appropriately increased. For projects with popularity, it is necessary to judge the sustainability of the popularity and pay attention to whether there are catalysts (because the currency circle is still an ineffective market, it is necessary to pursue market consensus, and Alpha is discovered too early, which also has a great opportunity cost); and for projects driven by technology, it is necessary to pay close attention to price trends. She emphasized that in a bear market, it is necessary to reduce those currencies with unsatisfactory economic models, and in a bull market, strategies should be adjusted more sensitively, and transactions should be made frequently and profits should be made.

In Sabige’s opinion, the market is more concerned about on-chain MEME this year. He believes that the changes in on-chain data are high-value reference signals that were not available in exchanges in the past, and more accurate trading strategies can be made based on them. For example, trading strategies can be adjusted by analyzing the changes in the main holdings of on-chain data.

LaserCat397 said in an interview that the market in the middle of this year is very difficult to operate. He suggested that everyone should do less and observe more in this market environment, and wait for the best time. In a bull market, you need to open up the pattern and then hold on.

Altcoin Sherpa said that in the future, investors should try to consolidate their investments, reduce the number of new positions opened, and reduce the types of overall holdings. In the recent wave of rising prices, he has sold many low-confidence currencies and reallocated funds to other better projects.

“Making money in the crypto market is one thing, and holding on to profits is another. When you plan your exit strategy for a cycle, the goal is to minimize the retracement from the highest point after the cycle turns. For those who claim to be consistently profitable in both bull and bear markets, I can only wish you good luck, because that means you have to be among the top 0.01% of traders in the world,” Eugene emphasized.

Potential sectors and investment opportunities from a trader's perspective in 2025

In the bull market atmosphere, major global institutions have recently released their outlooks and forecasts for the crypto market in 2025. From the perspective of traders, 2025 will be a more diversified and mature market, and various emerging sectors and technologies may become new growth points.

Altcoin Sherpa pointed out that the crypto market is expected to usher in a new upward phase in the next 4-8 weeks, mainly driven by the high Bitcoin dominance rate (BTC.D), seasonal factors, Ethereum/Bitcoin may rise, market capital rotation, and the government's positive attitude. However, from the perspective of rotation, it seems that all currencies will rise, but at the same time there is no overall upward trend. From now on, the market will mainly belong to traders, not long-term holders.

LaserCat397 believes that 2025 will still be the home of the MEME sector. In addition, he is particularly optimistic about the performance of infrastructure projects, especially the payment track. Sabi Ge expects 2025 to be the year of large-scale popularization of the crypto market. He believes that compared with the past, various infrastructures will be significantly improved, which will lead to more users and funds pouring into the market. In particular, MEME coins are likely to become the preferred sector for new traffic to enter the market due to their simplicity and strong communication capabilities.

Alex is also optimistic about the market outlook in 2025, believing that the future focus will be mainly on AI, DeFi and payment. Amanda pointed out that 2025 may be the second half of the crypto bull market, and small currencies have greater room for growth. She reminded investors to pay attention to the "top signal", that is, the shift in market signals and high-risk opportunities, while emphasizing the importance of "be sifu" - exit the market at the right time to avoid being swallowed by market fluctuations. In terms of specific sector selection, she is optimistic about the overall growth potential of AI, especially AI-agents, Move language (more choices are RWA, BTC L2, Chain Abstraction, new DeFi), and RWA-related projects.

Eugene is optimistic about the MEME market, and he recently mentioned four MEME coins in particular: MOODENG, CHILLGUY, PNUT and GOAT. He believes that although these MEME coins have experienced a large panic sell-off and have given back most of the gains in the alt season, he is still optimistic about these projects and tends to take them as targets for long-term layout.