Author: Nancy, PANews
In 2024, the crypto market experienced a turbulent year full of volatility and development, with Bitcoin breaking the $100,000 mark, opening a new chapter for the industry. In this ever-changing market, some traders lost their way due to mindset issues, poor position management, information lag, and lack of strategies; however, there were also traders who successfully seized market opportunities and achieved considerable returns through precise decision-making, decisive actions, and deep market insights.
In the alternation between market prosperity and recession, how to effectively grasp the balance of risk and return, and how to adjust strategies in response to different market fluctuations, are key factors determining whether one can profit in the crypto market in the long term. This article by PANews shares insights from interviews and discussions with several experienced traders, sharing their operational experiences and investment lessons from mid-2024, and exploring how to optimize trading strategies, capture market opportunities, and secure profits.
Trading Reflections: Risks, Strategies, and Emotions
In the volatility and uncertainty of the crypto market, the experiences and lessons of traders provide valuable insights. Whether adopting a robust investment strategy or speculating on short-term opportunities, risk management, strategy adjustment, and emotion control are particularly important in trading.
Chainup Investment CIO Amanda possesses over seven years of crypto trading experience, and she has flexibly adjusted her strategies this year based on market changes. For instance, in Q1, she selected multiple 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 political MEME coins, while also holding multiple projects such as RSR, DYDX, LQTY, and KAIA. At the same time, Amanda pays great attention to short-term speculative opportunities, especially in November, when she increased her positions to capture the benefits of the Trump Trade and exited timely to secure profits. However, she also revealed some regrets in the interview, such as missing out on heavy investments in SOL and MEME in the first half of the year, and although she successfully captured part of the gains in SUI, she failed to fully grasp the subsequent price increase.
CashCashBot founder Sabi Brother has also accumulated rich trading experience in the crypto field, with a trading history of seven years allowing him to navigate the market adeptly. In the interview, he revealed that he achieved good results in investments in the MEME sector this year, especially with MOODENG's staggering 5000-fold increase bringing in $350,000 in profits.
With three years of trading experience, crypto KOL LaserCat397 is a deep player in the MEME track, achieving a good overall asset growth this year through investing in MEME coins. However, he also faced challenges in investment judgment and position management, such as making mistakes in the operation of the MEME coin PUPS, which led to a drawdown of floating profits approaching 90%.
In contrast, Cobo VP Alex, with six years of trading experience, adopted a robust investment strategy. His most successful trades 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 also recently summarized his experiences and lessons in trading, especially regarding the neglect of stop-loss points and the error of not stopping losses in time. He revealed that due to SOL's strong performance on the low time frame (LTF) and the confidence gained from several successful trades before, he went long on SOL with $60 million, but when SOL fell below the stop-loss point, he still chose to hold on, maintaining a 'hopeful' mindset, leading to his largest single loss in account history.
Survival Guide from Tools to Mindset
In trading decisions, many successful traders utilize third-party tools to assist in decision-making, improving efficiency and accuracy, thereby reducing decision-making errors. These tools can help capture market signals, analyze on-chain data, and provide real-time feedback, helping traders better grasp the pulse of the market.
In the interview, Amanda revealed that her team independently developed a data monitoring platform and customized on-chain data tools, such as Dune and Flipside. Additionally, the team uses CryptoQuant, Coinglass, Artemis, Defillama, and Kaito to observe Bitcoin on-chain data, exchange contract data, and public chain indicators to help make more precise investment decisions.
Sabi Brother believes that on-chain data analysis is crucial for capturing market trends in advance. He uses on-chain trading signals and data analysis tools provided by his self-developed CashCashBot to help quickly identify which market hotspots are attracting smart money, as well as 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 skills, trading in the crypto market, characterized by high volatility and high risk, is not easy; even experienced traders cannot guarantee that all judgments are correct. Therefore, survival experience is particularly valuable, especially for novice traders.
Crypto analyst Altcoin Sherpa pointed out that a bull market does not mean that all coins will return to ATH (All-Time High) levels, and one should not stubbornly hold on to achieve unrealistic target prices. If the investment portfolio is very diversified, it is recommended to sell off 50-75% of the holdings at the end of the next rotation. Also, continuous weekly data analysis should be conducted to reassess the market cycle's top and end points, independently analyzing and operating one's investment portfolio.
"The most successful traders do not achieve their current success 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," pointed out crypto researcher Route 2 FI.
Former TradFi CTO @Game believes that investors should focus on key areas, combining capital scale, advantages, and market environment to concentrate on the fields that best fit current market conditions and can bring the highest returns. They should also clarify their operational methods in investment, trading, and speculation, and formulate clear action plans (market cap range, stop-loss points, profit plans, etc.) and engage in continuous reflection. Additionally, they should not work in isolation but expand to gather important information circles that provide macro trends, market cycles, and insights beyond their cognitive scope.
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 wildly, not connecting to unfamiliar applications casually, and remembering to take profits, among other practical advice.
Amanda suggested that newcomers should maintain an open mind, always pay attention to market dynamics, focus on areas they understand, find the positive and negative balance of projects, and only invest when they can accept the negatives and when the positives far outweigh the negatives. Sabi Brother emphasized that on-chain data analysis ability is an essential skill for every trader, and one should establish a trading strategy that suits them and strictly execute it. Alex believes that cultivating the right mindset is key, as a good mindset helps in making calm decisions. LaserCat397 advises newcomers to start with their strengths, find a suitable track for themselves, and focus on what they are good at, as this will yield better results with less effort.
From opportunity capture to profit retention strategy optimization
In the context of changing market environments, adjusting trading strategies and methods is also crucial for accelerating returns. From the traders' sharing, we can see 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 to long-term trends.
Alex candidly stated in an interview that the crypto market experienced significant pullbacks 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 instead invest in neutral strategies within DeFi and arbitrage. He believes that as the crypto market becomes increasingly professional, the returns from previous funding fee arbitrage strategies are gradually decreasing, necessitating the search for more new opportunities, with strategies shifting more towards on-chain.
"The previous trading path was from BTC to ETH, then to large coins followed by small coins; but now it is from BTC to SOL, then to small coins. The issuance of stablecoins has a more significant impact on the performance of small coins," Amanda pointed out. In times of market volatility, appropriate rebalancing and profit-taking are necessary. Risk management is very important; generally speaking, she categorizes each investment token/project before making decisions, assessing whether the project has fundamentals, whether it has heat, and whether it is driven by technology. For example, projects with fundamentals can have their positions increased appropriately, while for heated projects, the sustainability of the heat must be judged, paying attention to whether there are catalysts (because the crypto market is still an inefficient market, so it is essential to pursue market consensus, and discovering Alpha too early also has significant opportunity costs); for projects driven by technology, close attention must be paid to price trends. She emphasizes that in a bear market, it is essential to reduce holdings of coins with undesirable economic models, while in a bull market, one must adjust strategies more sensitively, frequently trade, and take profits.
From the perspective of Sabi Brother, the market this year is more focused on on-chain MEME. He believes that changes in on-chain data are high-value reference signals that were not accessible on exchanges in the past, allowing for more precise trading strategies. For example, trading strategies can be adjusted by analyzing changes in on-chain major holding data.
LaserCat397 stated in an interview that the market in the middle of this year was very difficult to operate, and he advised everyone to minimize actions and observe more in such a market environment, waiting for the best timing. In a bull market, one needs to open up the landscape and then hold on.
Altcoin Sherpa stated that in the near future, investors should try to consolidate their investments, reduce the number of new positions opened, and lower the overall variety of holdings. During the recent wave of price increases, he sold off many low-confidence coins and reallocated funds to other higher-quality projects.
"Making money in the crypto market is one thing, but keeping profits is another. When planning your exit strategy for a cycle, the goal is to minimize the pullback from the highest point after the cycle changes. For those who claim to be able to continue making profits in both bull and bear markets, I can only wish you good luck because that means you have to become a top 0.01% trader globally," emphasized Eugene.
Potential sectors and investment opportunities from the trader's perspective in 2025
In the atmosphere of a bull market, major global institutions have recently released their outlook and forecasts for the crypto market in 2025. From the traders' perspective, 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 welcome a new upward phase in the next 4-8 weeks, driven by various factors such as Bitcoin's high dominance (btc.d), seasonal factors, potential increases in Ethereum/Bitcoin, market fund rotation, and a more positive attitude from the government. However, from a rotation perspective, it seems that all coins will rise, but there is no trend of comprehensive increase. From now on, the market will mainly 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 track. Sabi Brother envisions 2025 as a year of massive popularization for the crypto market. He believes that compared to the past, various infrastructures will be significantly improved, which will lead to more users and capital flowing into the market. Especially, MEME coins, due to their simplicity and strong dissemination ability, are very likely to become the preferred sector for new traffic entering the market.
Alex is also optimistic about the market outlook for 2025, believing that the future focus will mainly be on AI, DeFi, and payment sectors. Amanda pointed out that 2025 could be the latter half of the crypto bull market, with significant growth potential for small coins. She reminds investors to be aware of the 'top signal', which is the change in market signals and high-risk timing, while emphasizing the importance of 'being sifu'—exiting the market at the right time to avoid being consumed by market volatility. In terms of specific sector choices, she is optimistic about the overall growth potential of AI, particularly AI-agents, the Move language (more choices for RWA, BTC L2, Chain Abstraction, new DeFi), and RWA-related projects.
Eugene is optimistic about the MEME market. Recently, he particularly mentioned four MEME coins: MOODENG, CHILLGUY, PNUT, and GOAT. He believes that although these MEME coins have already undergone significant panic selling and have retraced most of the gains from the altcoin season, he remains optimistic about these projects, leaning towards them as targets for long-term positioning.
