“Did I miss the boat?” At the middle of the night, Ben pinged me. That happens a lot. Prices were rising, Twitter was abuzz and his thumbs were restless. I told him what I tell everyone: if you don’t have a strategy, the market decides for you.
Before you even consider clicking “Buy”, make sure that you are using a safe platform. TRADU
“Big exchanges, funding is straightforward, they have deep markets, and they provide real support. Consider the fees, spread and track record of the listing. Learn about their security practices. Have some ID ready when KYC comes up. If you want to keep your own money, get self-custody and test with stablecoins before bigger moves.
Be careful when you fund. Bank transfers are low-cost but slow. Cards are fast but expensive. Consider the total cost, not just the advertised charge. The spread may be more painful than you realize.
Make wiser orders. Market orders fill immediately, but they can cause bad fills. Limit orders give you control. Many people DCA, so they don’t have to guess what the market will look like. “Volatility is just background noise, but it is now the background hum,” he writes.
Set aside the capital that you are willing to invest and for how long. Hot wallets are handy. Cold wallets are safer. Write your recovery phrase by hand and store them like treasure, like a precious jewel. Avoid digital copies. There are no clouds. Add 2FA with an authenticator or physical device; SMS is unsafe. Backups are important. Be very careful here.
Be wary of shiny-looking links. Those phishing pages look clean and professional. Always manually enter the site. On-chain approvals don’t expire; check them often. If something feels too good, pause. Scammers push urgency.
Taxes are real. Monitor timestamps, transactions and purchase prices. You could use a sophisticated tool, or a basic log. Ours is once a year — wherever your accountant lives, you’ll thank us.
Ensure the size of the positions is manageable. If a decline of 20% is enough to ruin your day, you’re taking too much risk. Your pulse is not meant to jump like a ticker. Don’t sound alarms; use signals. Cash is also a position.
Go beyond hype homework. Read the documentation but also scan GitHub activity, community health, the schedule for token issuance and the dates when insiders can unlock tokens. Get very mad about more than just memes. Hype is loud; math is quiet.
Before you go in, figure out how to get out. Where could you cash out, you think? Where do you move it? Get a goal and stay with it. Without rules being altered in the middle of games, you keep control.
By making two rapid moves, I protected capital. Step 1: Test It First on a Small Purchase, Not a Big One. Costs, addresses and network decisions — learn at low cost. Step 2: it’s the dips you want, not green candles. It feels unnatural. It works.
Make the process your own. Take notes. Adapt on the basis of what you learn. The plan could be unique and yours. To feel better about the whole thing, be deliberate and click buttons with intent — and I don’t necessarily mean the speed of your clicks but rather the precision with which you push and the care with which you release; also, check addresses twice. Tomorrow, crypto will still exist. Your money should be too.