I`ve been in the financial markets since 2003, yeah, a lot of time since then. Is my biggest passion in life and I don`t see myself retiring anytime soon no mater how much money I make. Bellow I`ll try to cover a bit from what I`ve learned in trying to help my degen frens reach it to the top, it is possible, seen many guys turn a few k $ into millions, is not easy but is 100% possible, believe it strong and don`t quit till you make it.
One question I get asked many times is: How to make that 1.000.000$ from a few k$ ? Also I see many that make it just to lose it again and feel even more miserable than before seeing how it is with money. Bellow some things I`ve observed in my journey and what I learned along the way and I hope will help you guys make it to the first 1 mil $ and beyond because things just start to become interesting after you reach 1st one. There is a good saying: 1st million is the hardest, 2nd one is inevitable.
First thing I recommend is having another source of income, have a job, maybe two, get as much as you can from your time and make as much income while spending for things u don`t need as little as possible but leave yourself time to educate, to study and to monitor the crypto market. Why I say that ? Having another source of income can make yourself more calm and give you capital to invest in this volatile market while not having to sell crypto to live.
After you have at least a few ETH to start, let`s say a good capital to start is around 2–3 eth first thing you need to do is start your networking and build a solid relation with smart hard working degens, crypto investing is a team effort beside the solo 24/7 grind. Join groups, do stuff for free for OGs just to get into their smaller inner circles, help as many people as you can to make as much contacts as possible, filter them regularly, cut the negative/underperforming people out and stick with grinders like yourself. One thing I learned is that the people you ride with are essential, is ultra hard to make it alone in crypto, market is just too wide and fast for anyone to cover it alone. Find friends that share your goals and dreams and prove to be trustworthy. Don`t worry the for the ones that will betray you, is part of the game, just cut them fast don't give 2nd chances to traitors.
So you have 2–5 eth, you are in some decent channels, you see calls, you follow some influencers that brag all day how many gems they shilled over the time, try to filter them, ape small in the calls they give like 0.1 eth and aim for at least 10x. Check market cap of similar coins when you buy, check volumes, check the numbers of buyers/sellers, try to be objective and always ask yourself “Am I early or I`m the exit liquidity? “. Also try to find out before buying anything if there was a presale done, if yes what were the terms/unlocks/size and any relevant info.
Never go fking all in into anything (just last night $banana bot launched the most hyped coin of the day and went to >8$ but a bug was found and price went to 0.02$, full rekt if you were all in). You worked your back hard for those 3–5eth don`t do lottery in here. Crypto is mostly player vs player market so just try to outwork and outsmart the rest or try to follow someone who is consistently doing so. Remember your degen buddies, Team effort vs PvP players will most of the times win. Team play is 🔑.
Bellow some good guys to start following, there many more I follow a few hundreds and have alerts on for the best performing ones:
https://t.me/RaAr3s
https://t.me/overdose_gems_calls
https://t.me/Noodles_calls
You see a coin, don`t FOMO also don`t have fear ( ape small if you feel fear, most of the times fear comes when you want to buy too much) be very objective and calculated all the times, ape small 0.1–0.2 eth until you have at least 10 eth and that way you gain experience also, losing your capital is very painful for your soul and mind, never ever quit, keep grinding, become smarter and better disciplined. Start being good at etherscan.io, learn how to use bots like Maestro, learn non stop as much as possible how to be faster than everyone else. If you are a coder try to build stuff so you increase your portfolio much faster by building diff tools or maybe even projects. Focus on making more ETH and more connections. Don`t withdraw if you have a big success and you see in your wallet 50 eth suddenly. Remember your aim is to be at least 1 mil $ + guy. Don’t buy fancy stuff like Rolex or cars until you can afford that without even noticing your wallet is smaller. Your only focus should be Education & Networking and capital growth.
Be patient, you got 10 eth in wallet those are like 20 x 0.5eth bullets with at least 10x aim or 40x 0.25eth apes. First target should be 20 eth and 2nd should be 50 eth. Don`t try to make too much at once, go in small steps. Try to be as early as possible and listen to your instinct, if you feel is too late just skip, another shitcoin will come. I always try to ROI my initial at 2x and ride the rest, saved me from many rugs, you will buy rugs that is 100% sure.
How to get the alpha ? Well that is a good and hard question to answer, when you are low $ and low in network nobody will give a sh*t about you because everyone wants people with $/intel or influencers that can pamp their bags. But don`t be sad, accept it and focus on growing yourself, your network, wallet etc. Do things that others don`t, use as much tech as possible from bots to analytics, listen to good OGs.
Non stop you should focus on finding good wallets to track. I personally use https://t.me/EtherDROPS8_bot to track coins, to track LPs, to track wallets and I setup alerts on dumps like -15% on big coins or buys/sells over 100k$ and stuff like that. How to find good wallets is a creative thing, try searching coins that pamped hard and check on etherscan.io first 10 buyers. Also search for wallets that have activity like 200–500 tx minimum, the fresh ones are most likely team wallets or Kols. Add them see what they buy what they do and filter them from time to time if you feel they don`t provide quality.
Be very disciplined and organized, in Telegram use folders, don`t let all channels pamp like crazy. Make yourself an X.com account, is a must. Start following people of quality. You can start with me for example and see who I follow, I rarely give a follow to some fool https://twitter.com/RaAr3s
Use Discord as well try to join there in channels, NFTs especially are using Discord.
Be OPEN to everything and anything except cheap shills/rugs, don`t be a moron and focus on “good tech only”. Memecoins and scams pump also, your focus is to make money before you can afford to make tech and improve the world around you, being poor wont`t help anyone. Fastest way to gains is in the small on-chain shitcoins anyway.
You got used with some bots, trackers, you have some twitter accounts you follow ( pro tip: see big accounts who they follow and select from there who to follow ), you know how to use uniswap, balancer, fjord, aggregators, launchpads, you know how to bridge funds, you understand CEX-es and how to use them, you know how to take a Defi loan and understand when and why, you are on the right track.
DO NOT TRY FUTURES or LEVARAGE trading, odds are very high against you and you`ll lose time trying to beat the manipulators. You`ll prob get rekt hard like the majority. Your odds of success are greater in Defi in shitcoins in a PvP market than in futures where you play against market makers and CEX-es that know all players positions and have huge funds to manipulate the prices so you and the rest of retail gets rekt.
You made your first 20 eth, good, keep the same risk management 0.2–2 eth max per coin and try to get at least 10x out but don`t be sad when you take 50%+ or 200%, feel the coin and if conditions change adapt fast, profit is profit after all and it adds in the long run. Always try to get initials out at 2x and ride the rest. Listen to your instinct every time , when low wallet your main focus is not to lose money rater than make more gains because if you get rekt from 20 eth to 2 eth is ultra hard to make it al back and requires a lot of time and pain is very real, you will suffer af. Be patient, understand that trading is 90% waiting 10% actual buying. Always when u ape into a coin try to split 50% first buy and the other 50% in slow 2–3 or more buy orders even if tx fees are high on Ethereum. Adjust non stop your buys to the coin LP size and your wallet size knowing what your targets are.
Once you get to that 6 figures for the first time your mind will play tricks on you probably, will make you feel greedier, is very very tempting to think u are very smart and to try to take bigger bets. Don`t do it. When you own 50eth you should ape 5 eth max because I`m a degen, others will say even that is a lot but I think life is short if you feel a coin deserves a 5 eth bet with DCA you can do it. If you start losing decrease the investment amount to 4–3–2–1 eth. Saving capital is more important than making money at this stage. Play as safe as possible and treat crypto market as a game where players compete with each other not like slots or lottery where you ape and YOLO. Fk yolo, that will get you killed financially especially in bear market. You could also keep 10–20eth in stablecoins if you feel market will dump next weeks/months so you have some spare capital to add more cheap ETH on way down. When over 100k in wallet you should think already in terms of market cycles, understand that in bear is good to play it slower and safer and buy quality that will pump in next bull. In bull you need to take more risk and also understand that the show won`t last forever, cash out in bull imo as much as you can after you reached your goals. I`ve seen guys going to over 10 mil$ in bull that have not cashed out and bear erased most of it, some even had to pay taxes on the 10 mil$ and their wallet value dumped to 2–3 mil$ so they got bankrupt. Others lost it all tying to recover their wallet ATH. Sad stories are many, most important is to learn from others mistakes, is cheaper than do them all by yourself, you will do mistakes anyway and each one will cost you $$$, time and suffering. Be prepared mentally and phisically, this is not for weak minds. Going to gym or doing any sort of sport that keeps your body strong 100% helps, strong body strong mind. You need both.
From 10k to 100k is very hard but from 100k to 1 mil is different game. You now need to start searching for coins with bigger liquidity because you can afford to ape 10–20k$ on a coin and if it does 10x you find yourself in the position of holding a lot of supply and if you dump you have 40–50% price impact. At this stage your networking should be solid, you have a few guys you trust and ape with. You should understand how the game works, who gives good calls who doesn`t. Don`t ever stop growing your network, find groups that are not corelated with each other, scout non stop for early Alpha, for new Kols, be friend with Devz, if you have an idea do your own project, don`t ever rug, don't try to scam others, karma will get you, making money has no fun if you steal.
At 100k$–200k$ you should play things a bit slower, understand the $BTC-Alts cycles every 4 years, understand when you are in bear market and where you are in bull market and how to play that rotation. In bull you should ape more aggressively and try to mark gains and put aside some $$$ or stablecoins or EURO or whatever, in bear you should ty to increase your BTC/ETH or what coins you believe will do well in next bull, but the gains will be in ALTs and maybe NFTs if they ever recover, now they are in very bad shape.
From 200–500k$ upwards is a game of patience, wait for the right coins, ape small in riskier ones, ape bigger in more legit ones, keep accumulate $$$ in bull market and btc/eth in bear market. People fud-ed me because I was holding a lot of stablecoins in bull but is imho is better to take as much profits in bull so you have capital to buy low in bear to once again sell that crypto in next bull. You play 1–2 cycles right and your life can dramatically improve. Always stay humble $$$ gains can get to your head and I`ve seen many losing it all because of that and ruining their lives. Money is important but mental health is more important. Try to take small breaks from crypto but monitor the activity, crypto never sleeps so you dont want to get disconnected.
At this point money management is key, put aside capital for trading small shitcoins, have capital for larger plays, have capital for NFTs, capital for maybe farming. You want to learn farming from a defi genius follow this wallet: https://debank.com/profile/0xef764bac8a438e7e498c2e5fccf0f174c3e3f8db
Don`t use all the capital for everything. The better you manage your capital and the flow of it the more $$$ you make. I see many apeing too much in NFTs and coins and are left with no capita to invest and then is the exactly the time when one good project launches and they miss. You should always be in a position to have free capital to invest if anything arrives at any point in the day or night.
Time in market > timing the market. This is true for crypto markets, the more you stay and talk connect, scout the higher the odds to find something early enought to make money. Take profits, take profits as many times as possible even if you sell too early sometimes. Too many people roundtrip the coins and from good profits they end up losing. If you don`t know when to sell and you let`s say invested 2k$ and now you have 50k$ of that coin ask yourself: “Would I buy 50k$ of this coin today ? “ If answer is no you should prob start taking profits.
So many things can be said and explained and many paths can get you to the first 1 mil $ but some things I observed into others that made it are: non stop work, perseverance, non stop improving, good money management, not all-in type of mentality, they have patience, they search new areas in markets as early as possible ( new chain, they go where the money go), they never ever quit even if it took for some several years.
I hope this helped you in anyway possible and wish you good health so you achieve that what now seems “impossible”, it truly is achievable.
