GUIDE: How to Be a Good Crypto Trader? Part 1
In this guide, we'll explore how to truly improve your crypto skills. We'll discuss how to think, filter other people's opinions, use data, and avoid making the same mistakes. Let's get started!🚀
1. You Need to Think
The most frustrating discovery in crypto is realizing you have no original thoughts.
You sit there, scrolling through Twitter, waiting for someone with a large following to tell you what to buy. And... that's not trading — it's following. And followers always arrive last at the party.
The problem with someone else's confidence is that when you copy someone else's thinking model, you don't know what it's based on:
- What factors influenced their decision?
- What risk management do they have?
- When did they change their mind?
It may turn out that they're already dumping their positions when you buy, and you only find out about it from the "I locked in my profit" screenshot...🫠
Conclusion: don't look for "the best people to follow," develop your ability to think for yourself.
2. You need to read more
Original thoughts only come from diverse sources. Don't limit yourself to Twitter and general chats.
Examples of what really helps:
- Jacob — Hyperstructures (2022): predicted the current DeFi renaissance.
- Pierre Rochard — Speculative Attack (2014): a theory of Bitcoin adoption that's still relevant today.
- Semi Analysis on TSMC — you understand why Bitcoin is growing faster than many on-chain analysts.
- Luke Gromen on the dollar system — helps you assess macro risk.
- Curtis Yarvin — a structural view of US power, useful for predicting regulatory risks.
The point is that varied reading creates a compound effect. You understand market movements, see patterns, and distinguish marketing from real value.
And for heaven's sake, read the protocol documentation. Knowing what you're buying is critical!
3. You need to write more
Writing is visible thinking. Any "brilliant trading thesis" falls apart when you explain it in words.
Consistent writing develops a "thesis brain"—the ability to see a narrative before it becomes mainstream.
4. You need to use data
Crypto is the most transparent financial market in history. But most people only look at CoinGecko. There are many more on-chain services that will allow you to see the market as broadly as possible.
- Dune allows you to calculate protocol revenue yourself and see trends before they appear on DeFi Llama.
- This is the information advantage that separates the observer from the real trader.
📍In the first part, we covered the basics:
- thinking for yourself,
- reading a variety of things,
- recording your thoughts in writing,
- and being able to work with data.