From Nothing to New Heights: My Trading Journey

The market always has its wonders. It rewards bad behavior, but in the end, it will revert to the mean. Those who never consider this will ultimately suffer the consequences and become humble.

Recently, someone asked me how I started from scratch, gradually achieved stable profits, surpassed past performance, and set new highs for my investment portfolio.

In short: deep surrender, foolish mistakes, and luck.

My "zero" is somewhat different from others, but it also has similarities. It is not literally having nothing, but rather a spiritual collapse, a complete surrender of the self.

I failed in all my attempts and had to crawl out of the dark abyss. Then I started over. This is not role-playing, but you don't have to believe me either.

I have never systematically recorded these experiences; I have only shared some fragments sporadically. My friends and long-term followers know what has happened. I have transformed from a "foolish top signal" to "Dyme, who seems to have a clear understanding of the market today."

Unless you can understand the pain I have experienced, it will be difficult to gain useful information from this article. So, please fasten your seatbelt, and we will embark on a journey. It will be a long story.

If you don't want to listen to my boring experiences, you can jump directly to "the essence part you want to see ( )". It's time to sort out these experiences.

2019

After working at a job I disliked for four and a half years, I finally resigned. I have always been a staunch supporter of Bitcoin. But seeing others get rich through leveraged trading, I want to give it a try as well, planning to spend six months specifically learning how to trade.

At that time, I had no idea about chart analysis and trading, yet I started trying options and stock trading, even drawing lines randomly on the charts. My early charts were poorly made, and my judgments were often wrong. More importantly, I had no concept of risk control at all.

However, I realize that understanding market signals seems to be becoming increasingly important. I've been fiddling with those amateur-level charts, and since 2017, some of my online friends have been getting better at this.

Many of us became very wealthy at one point in 2017, but with Bitcoin plummeting by 80%, wealth slipped away from our fingers. I guess I’m not the only one who has thought, "It’s time to learn chart analysis so that I won’t lose so badly again."

In 2019, I had about two to three thousand followers, mainly cryptocurrency enthusiasts.

I didn't enter this industry to become famous; I just want to focus on trading for six months and learn some basic knowledge. For example, techniques like chart patterns and moving averages. I don't know which are useful and which are not. But in any case, I have to try.

I have savings that can sustain my living for six months, and I can also receive unemployment benefits. In the foreseeable future, my life is secured.

So in August 2019, considering my years of service, I asked my employer to terminate my employment (. As everyone knows, they did not oppose my application for unemployment benefits ). They agreed.

Unfortunately, shortly after that, Bitcoin reached its peak in 2019, and the market remained volatile and flat until mid-2020. This was truly the worst timing, and I happened to resign at that moment and fully devote myself to trading.

I finally have time to think, to learn, and to do those things that I never had time to do while working forty to fifty hours a week. Of course, I also have to bear all the risks and drawbacks that come with this freedom.

I started to take action. I traded call options on the S&P 500 index, speculated on stocks, and studied charts daily, trying to find ways to earn at least 100 to 500 dollars every day. In the year before 2020, the cryptocurrency market was bleak, and I only had occasional small profits, but I was glad to have persevered.

If I hadn't been a complete novice at that time, the trading environment during that period was actually quite good.

2020

Everything is going relatively smoothly, as I log into my account every day to share my terrible opinions on (, and my follower count has increased. I occasionally make a profit, and my account balance is generally on the rise. People appreciate that I can share some valuable information online, as not everyone has the time to think about these ) after all, they still have to work (. Although I have lost a lot of money, I can always quickly recover my losses. For a newcomer, this is already considered acceptable.

Leverage trading has become my way of life. I stare at the 15-minute charts, trading with 20x leverage, desperately trying to extract some benefits from the market, until February 20th when my position hit its highest price, I finally believed that I was trading quite well.

Then, the "nuclear weapon" of the COVID-19 pandemic struck.

Almost around the same week, my unemployment benefits also expired.

So, my plan to study for a while and then find a proper job instantly turned into a bubble. It felt like the end of the world - a new type of virus has emerged.

I managed to short the market crash triggered by the pandemic, turning 0.5 Bitcoin into 1 Bitcoin using 50x leverage. That week, only this went relatively smoothly; my stocks took a heavy hit, and I was pretty sure my income was doomed.

It seems as if fate has arranged for me to fully devote myself to trading.

Fortunately, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome and his "money printer" saved the world.

Everyone knows what happened next. The market soared over the course of a year. It was truly a peak period of "only rising, not falling." Although the market could bring profits, it was also absurdly ridiculous.

![Trader's Account: How I Went from Losing $400,000 to a New High in Holdings, What I Realized?])https://img-cdn.gateio.im/webp-social/moments-843923ffb67ad76b56d52ee6e90c6336.webp(

FTX

What is more exciting than a rising market is leveraged trading. I have some experience, but it's very limited, and I know very little about the macro environment. I only know that the Federal Reserve is printing money, and the market will definitely rise as a result.

Then, our "savior" has arrived, and he will lead us into a paradise, and he will never do anything terrifying.

At that time, we had no idea that FTX was about to take us on a "journey" that we would never forget.

I deposited about 4000 to 5000 dollars into FTX, purchasing FTT) FTX platform tokens in multiple transactions at a price of 2 to 4 dollars.

FTT has risen by 3000%. I suddenly have $40,000 to $50,000 in my leveraged account. I have never had so much money before. ( This is the first danger signal )

I have deposited more funds and want to engage in more leveraged trading because my FTT is staked and cannot be used as collateral. At that time, I was emotionally fully invested in the FTX ecosystem.

The day my number of fans reached 10,000 was exactly the day the "only rising and not falling" market began. This world truly always brings surprises.

I have transformed from someone who only replies to others' tweets into a somewhat well-known person.

In the coming months, despite the absurdly good market conditions, my physical and mental health has been deteriorating. The lockdown policies in my area are very strict. My weight has skyrocketed, and I only go out two or three times a week. My daily routine is a mess. I have almost become familiar with the delivery drivers, consuming 4000 to 5000 calories of food daily to cope with the despair and misfortune brought on by the pandemic.

Those days were terrible.

But I am making a fortune in the market, able to pay all the bills, and all my assets are rising, so I keep increasing my investment.

I often use leverage of 10 to 20 times. Sometimes, I can earn $40,000, and other times, I might lose $20,000.

I also engage in lending services, conduct perpetual contract trading for profits, and blindly invest in various emerging altcoins like COPE.

I often stay up late because I don't like getting up early, and since I don't have a job, I start staying up until the market opens, make a few trades, and then sleep until 4 PM.

This is not good for my health either.

In addition, I also earned a decent income by recommending others to register. During the peak weeks, I could make $1000 in a day.

I used this money for trading and also made up for some losses.

I caught a few upward trends of Dogecoin, SOL, Bitcoin, and various altcoins.

I am just a typical bull market "genius".

The market has rewarded me.

My highest account balance on FTX was about $250,000, mainly thanks to SOL, FTT, and Bitcoin.

Later, FTX founder SBF reduced the daily withdrawal limit for unverified accounts from $9,000 to $2,000. In hindsight, this might have been the first signal of the legal troubles he would later face, but who knows?

I withdraw money every few days, but that money is actually still trapped in FTX, and I'm still greedy, wanting to earn more. I've calculated that it would take about 120 days to withdraw all the money, and I need to log into my account every day to perform withdrawal operations.

Part of the responsibility lies with SBF's new regulations, but it also lies with myself. Because there was a moment when I really thought, "I should withdraw this $250,000 and improve my life."

I could have withdrawn all my money before FTX went bankrupt.

Even after the market peaked in November 2021, I continued to gamble. I was no longer trading, but going against the trend. Even when the market buying pressure was exhausted, I was still going against the Bitcoin cycle.

Every day is a new loss, combined with my constant withdrawals and losses, my account balance quickly goes to zero.

I lost two-thirds of my funds on FTX because I was trading against the market. Most of my trading career was spent in a "only up, no down" market, and no one reminded me to change my strategy, except for Jim and Insilico. At the time, I thought they were just annoying bears, but they were among the few who accurately identified the top. For that, they deserve praise.

During that time, there were no once-in-a-lifetime market opportunities, only endless suffering.

2022

Things have gotten worse.

In the first week of 2022, my grandmother, who raised me and was one of the most important people in my life, passed away.

We knew that this day would come, but it didn't make it any easier to accept. She has been in pain for a long time, and we feel a bit of comfort that she can finally rest.

The family member has passed away, the outlook is bleak, and the market still shows no signs of an upward trend.

It was purely luck; a few months later, I inherited a sum of money. Not much, but still something.

Because the source of this money is special, I have a deep respect for it. But in any sense, this money is not enough to change my life.

So, like a gambler, I tried to invest in dividend stocks to earn income at my dad's suggestion, but I lost 20% in four to five months.

Clearly, during an interest rate hike cycle, no one wants dividend stocks.

I don't want to take risks with this money anymore.