Article source: Nancy
Author: Nancy, PANews
In 2024, the crypto market experienced a tumultuous year full of volatility and development, with Bitcoin breaking the $100,000 mark to open a new chapter for the industry. In this ever-changing market, some traders lost direction due to mindset issues, poor position management, delayed information, and lack of strategy, while others successfully seized market opportunities and achieved substantial returns through precise decisions, decisive actions, and profound market insights.
In the alternation between the prosperity and decline of the market, how to effectively grasp the balance of risk and return, and how to adjust strategies to respond to different market fluctuations, are key factors in determining whether one can profit long-term in the crypto market. This article by PANews shares the operational experiences and investment lessons of several seasoned traders through interviews, exploring how to optimize trading strategies, capture market opportunities, and retain profits.
Trading reflection: Risk, strategy, and emotions
In the volatility and uncertainty of the crypto market, traders' experiences and lessons offer valuable insights. Whether adopting a prudent investment strategy or speculating on short-term opportunities, risk management, strategy adjustment, and emotional control are particularly important in trading.
Amanda, CIO of Chainup Investment with over seven years of crypto trading experience, has flexibly adjusted her strategies this year based on 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. By Q4, in addition to investing in IOTA, she actively purchased DOGE, PEPE, and some politically themed MEME coins, while also holding multiple projects like RSR, DYDX, LQTY, and KAIA. Additionally, Amanda pays great attention to short-term speculative opportunities. In November, she increased her position to capture the benefits of the Trump Trade and exited in time to take profits. However, she also revealed some regrets in the interview, such as missing the chance to heavily invest in SOL and MEME in the first half of the year, and while she successfully captured the gains in the first part of SUI, she failed to fully take advantage of the subsequent increase.
CashCashBot founder CashBrother has also accumulated rich trading experience in the crypto field, with a trading history of seven years allowing him to navigate the market skillfully. In an interview, he revealed that he achieved good results in investments within the MEME sector this year, particularly with MOODENG's staggering 5000-fold increase generating a profit of $350,000.
LaserCat397, a crypto KOL with three years of trading experience and a deep player in the MEME track, achieved a good overall asset growth this year through investments in MEME coins. However, he also faced challenges in investment judgment and position management, such as operational mistakes with the MEME coin PUPS, which led to a floating profit retreat of nearly 90%.
In contrast, Alex, who has six years of trading experience and is VP at Cobo, adopts a prudent investment strategy. His most successful trade this year came from Bitcoin, while his biggest regret was participating in the airdrop activities of aevo and vertex, missing the opportunity of Hyperliquid.
Top trader Eugene has recently summarized his experiences and lessons learned in trading, especially regarding neglecting stop-loss points and not stopping losses in time. He revealed that due to SOL's strong performance in the low time frame (LTF) and the confidence gained from previous successful trades, he went long on SOL with $60 million but chose to hold on even when SOL broke the stop-loss point, maintaining a 'hopeful' mindset, which led to the largest single loss in his account.
Survival guide from tools to mindset
In trading decisions, many successful traders rely on third-party tools to assist their decision-making, improving efficiency and accuracy, thus reducing decision-making errors. These tools can help capture market signals, analyze on-chain data, and provide real-time feedback, enabling traders to better grasp the pulse of the market.
Amanda revealed in an interview that her team developed a data monitoring platform and customized on-chain data tools like Dune and Flipside. At the same time, the team also uses CryptoQuant, Coinglass, Artemis, Defillama, and Kaito to observe Bitcoin on-chain data, exchange contract data, and public chain metrics to help make more precise investment decisions.
CashBrother believes that on-chain data analysis is crucial for capturing market trends in advance. He uses the on-chain trading signals and data analysis tools offered by his CashCashBot to quickly identify which market hot spots are attracting smart money and the potential investment directions of on-chain majors. LaserCat397 mentioned that he used Abot, but this tool is about to shut down.
Although leveraging third-party tools can enhance trading capabilities, trading in the highly volatile and high-risk crypto market is not easy. Even experienced traders cannot guarantee that all their judgments are correct. Therefore, survival experience is particularly valuable, especially for novice traders.
Crypto analyst Altcoin Sherpa points out that a bull market does not mean all coins will return to ATH (all-time high) levels; one should not stubbornly hold out for unrealistic target prices. If the portfolio is extremely diversified, it is advisable to sell off 50-75% of the holdings at the end of the next rotation. Additionally, one should continuously analyze data weekly, constantly reassessing the market cycle's top and endpoint, and independently analyze and manage their investment portfolio.
"The most successful traders do not achieve their current accomplishments 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: a permanent improvement in your life and those around you," noted crypto researcher Route 2 FI.
Former TradFi CTO @Game believes that investors should focus on key areas, integrating their funding scale, advantages, and market environment to concentrate on areas that best fit current market conditions and yield the highest returns. They should also clarify their methods of operation in investing, trading, and speculation, and formulate a clear action plan (market cap range, stop-loss points, profit plans, etc.) and engage in continuous reflection. Additionally, they should not work in isolation but should expand to gather important information beyond their cognitive scope regarding macro trends and market cycles.
Crypto KOL Based Money Lich King summarized dozens of survival rules, such as not recklessly using perpetual contracts, not blindly idolizing founders, not locking up your tokens, not buying assets that have surged, avoiding connecting to unfamiliar applications, and remembering to take profits, among other practical advice.
Amanda suggests that newcomers should keep an open mind, always pay attention to the dynamic changes in the market, focus on areas they understand, find the balance between the positive and negative aspects of a project, and only invest when they can accept the negatives of the project and the positives far outweigh the negatives. CashBrother emphasizes that on-chain data analysis capability is an essential skill for every trader, and one must establish a trading strategy that suits themselves and execute it strictly. Alex believes that cultivating the right mindset is key, as a good mindset helps in making calm decisions. LaserCat397 recommends that newcomers start from their areas of strength, find a suitable track for themselves, and focus on doing what they are good at for better efficiency.
Strategy optimization from opportunity capture to profit retention
In the context of changing market environments, adjusting trading strategies and methods is also crucial for accelerating returns. From the sharing of traders, it can be seen that we should respond flexibly to market changes and continuously assess and optimize trading strategies based on our own situations, finding opportunities in short-term market fluctuations while maintaining flexibility and sensitivity in long-term trends.
Alex candidly stated in an interview that the crypto market experienced a significant pullback in March this year, especially in August and September when market liquidity was extremely low. During this phase, his personal strategy was to withdraw funds from the market and shift towards neutral strategies in DeFi and arbitrage. He believes that as the crypto market becomes more professional, the returns from previous fund fee arbitrage strategies are gradually diminishing, thus more new opportunities need to be found, with strategies increasingly migrating on-chain.
"The previous trading path was BTC to ETH, then to major coins and small coins; but now it is BTC to SOL, then to small coins. The issuance of stablecoins significantly impacts the performance of small coins," Amanda pointed out. During market fluctuations, appropriate rebalancing and profit-taking are necessary. Risk management is very important. Generally, she categorizes each investment token/project before making decisions, considering whether the project has fundamentals, whether it has popularity, and whether it is driven by technology. For projects with fundamentals, one can appropriately increase their position; for popular projects, it is essential to judge the sustainability of the popularity and pay attention to potential catalysts (since the crypto market is still inefficient, market consensus must be pursued, and discovering Alpha too early has significant opportunity costs); for technology-driven projects, close attention should be paid to price trends. She emphasizes that in a bear market, one should reduce holdings of coins with unsatisfactory economic models, while in a bull market, one must be more sensitive in adjusting strategies, frequently trading and taking profits.
In CashBrother's view, this year's market focuses more on on-chain MEMEs. He believes that changes in on-chain data are high-value reference signals that couldn't be obtained before on exchanges, allowing for more precise trading strategies. For example, trading strategies can be adjusted based on analyzing changes in on-chain major holdings data.
LaserCat397 stated in an interview that the market was very difficult to operate in mid-year, and he advised everyone to take less action and observe more in such market environments, waiting for the best timing. In a bull market, one needs to open up their mindset and then hold on.
Altcoin Sherpa also stated that in the near future, investors should try to consolidate their investments, reduce the number of new positions opened, and decrease the overall variety of holdings. In the recent wave of rising prices, he has sold many coins he had low confidence in and reallocated funds to other higher-quality projects.
"Making money in the crypto market is one thing, but retaining profits is another. When you plan your exit strategies for cycles, the goal is to minimize the drawdown from the peak after the cycle changes. For those who claim to consistently profit in both bull and bear markets, I can only wish you good luck because that means you are aiming to be among the top 0.01% of traders in the world," emphasized Eugene.
Potential sectors and investment opportunities from a trader's perspective in 2025
In the atmosphere of a bull market, major institutions worldwide have recently published their outlooks and predictions for the crypto market in 2025. From the perspective of traders, 2025 will be a more diversified and mature market, with various emerging sectors and technologies likely to become new growth points.
Altcoin Sherpa pointed out that the crypto market is expected to enter a new upward phase in the next 4-8 weeks, mainly driven by the high Bitcoin dominance (btc.d), seasonal factors, the potential rise of Ethereum/Bitcoin, market capital rotation, and a shift in government attitudes. However, from a rotation perspective, it seems that all coins will rise, but there is no overall upward trend. From now on, the market will primarily belong to traders, not long-term holders.
LaserCat397 believes that 2025 will still be the main stage for the MEME sector. In addition, he is particularly optimistic about the performance of infrastructure projects, especially in the payment sector. CashBrother envisions 2025 as the year of large-scale popularization for the crypto market. He believes that compared to the past, various infrastructures will see significant improvements, attracting more users and capital into the market. Especially MEME coins, due to their simplicity and strong virality, are likely to become the first choice for new traffic entering the market.
Alex also holds an optimistic view of the market prospects for 2025, believing that the future focus will mainly be on AI, DeFi, and payment sectors. Amanda pointed out that 2025 may be the latter half of the crypto bull market, with significant growth potential for small coins. She reminds investors to pay attention to 'top signals', which refer to market signal shifts and high-risk timings, while emphasizing the importance of 'be sifu'—exiting the market at the right time to avoid being consumed by market volatility. In terms of specific sector selection, she is optimistic about the overall growth potential of AI, especially AI agents, Move language (more choices for RWA, BTC L2, Chain Abstraction, new DeFi), as well as RWA-related projects.
Eugene is optimistic about the MEME market. He recently highlighted four MEME coins: MOODENG, CHILLGUY, PNUT, and GOAT. He believes that although these MEME coins have already undergone significant panic selling and have given back most of the gains from the altcoin season, he still views these projects positively, leaning towards considering them as long-term investment targets.
