Thats pretty much my story too. More than 3.5 years 10h daily in front of charts. I also had technical background before entering crypto market (trading stocks for 2 years) and also 0 knowledge about crypto when i staterd to daytrade it. And I have symilar end thoughts but not so harsh.
A scalper's life looks something like this
:
I can add into this:
1-Christmas holidays and checking price in the middle of christmas dinner.
2-waiking up in the middle of the night only to turn from side to side and go to sleep on but... suddenly you remembered where you left your position open ... and thats the end of sleep... you have to pick up the phone and check the price
And when he showed me his growth in assets, I was, of course, very surprised and at the same time very depressed. I remembered how much time I spent multiplying my capital.
1- Did he sold? Paper gains =/ cash on wallet.
2- Ask him about his holding profit not after 15 months of bull market. Ask him about his holding profit 15 months of bear market when everything will dump 80 - 99.5%. I'm sure it will not be as spectacular.
Good thing about scalping is that its the fastest way to learn how to manage your money, how to open and close position in best possible place, how market works, how volatile it can be, how it react on news. I think that the most successful holder is ex-scalper with 2 years experience. Person that can read chart. Hodler, who never actively traded is good only during never-ending bull runs (BTC in 10 year time frame is during "never-ending bull run"). But nothing grows to the sky. One day crypto market will enter 10-20 years of bear market. Most holders will eventually break selling at the bottom. -90% from ATH. Who has such strong hands to hold an asset for 20 years losing year after year.
Holder in most cases takes unknown risk (my thread from 2018) and I can't imagine crypto newbie that will do reseach good enough to do long term investment choosing few coins out of 10 000:
I've seen many times on this forum statements like:
"trading is risky, holding is safer"
"when you are hodling you are not making that many mistakes"
"in trading there are much more possibilities to lose money"
"if you would buy ether for 1$ look where you could be now"
"Hodler is not affected by whales making pump and dump"
Let's discuss then how does investing time goes with risk taken (lets discuss only about risk).
Hodler strategy risk:
Hodler is buying coins by fundamental (whitepaper, team, code, hype, being unique in specific segment) analysis for very long period. Hodling is a strategy very often suggested for newbies in cryptos (when you are newbie than buy good coins and sell on profit after years - I heard it thousands time). What can go wrong?
1- whitepaper is just a document with words. It can be copied and change a little. Faked. I can create my own whitepaper in which ill write that tomorrow ill be on mt everest.
2-team can be faked with fake twitter account with bought followers
3- code - who of us can check if code is OK? How many of currencies have working code now? Most of them are just concept without working product jet.
4- hype can be bought.
5- being unique didn't give you certainty of being unique forever. 1 month after your investment there can be new ICO with better team, bought hype and with working product delivered faster.
6- you are newbie and you did fundamental analyst wrong or didn't do at all just jump after hype or because someone said that its great investment
7- there are 1600 coins. More than 1400 won't survive next few years because they are not necessary. Your decision must be precised and full of luck
What if any of above will happened? Your investment will continuously goes to 0. And if you are hodler you will never sell until there will be nothing to sell. When you are buying with hodler strategy you are risking 100% of your investment. I don't think there is more risky way.
Trader
Good trader have loved coins that he checked fundamental and trade on them. He is trying to buy low and sell high. When trade is not going how he planned it he sells. He don't w8 for coin to hit bottom to panic sell, he tries to sell on the rise. His risk is set by him by stoploss which is set in his trading strategy. And it depends on time period he is investing in and expected profits. He don't fallow pump and dump.
Time period:
When trader see good buy opportunity on 1d candles he has to set stoploss lower, he takes bigger risk then but possible profit is bigger.
When he sees opportunity on 5 min candles he can set stoploss even 0,5% under buy point risking only 0,5% of his investment.
Trader is taking known risk each time he enters trade and this risk i related to expected profits. When trades are not going well he can stop trading, lock money into bitcoin or usd and change strategy. Hodler takes unknows risk - up to 100% - for unknown profit. With hope that his analysis was good and data wasn't faked. He also don't have chance to learn to invest because after first buy decision there is only hodl
From my experience - The best way to start is to daytrade for 1-2 years while learning about crypto as much as possible. Actually using it as much as possible - sending coins, using DEXes, using different chains. Trying different strategies. Allocating profits in middle term investments that might turn to be long term if project will continue to deliver promises and continue its dominance over market. In fact never puting on unconditional hodl more than 20% of wallet. More than 1-2 years of scalping is devastating for health (mental and phisical).
- the most expensive (in terms of time costs);
- the most disappointing, because any holder will earn more in the long term than a trader (with rare exceptions);
- the most difficult type of trading, because psychologically not everyone will be able to sit at the computer for 10-12 hours and make many micro-trades;
- the most controversial, because it is both the most affordable way to quickly increase your capital and the most ineffective way to make money, at a distance.
I agree. But holding is the most risky strategy. for sure not for newbies.