Since our mainnet launch in November 2019, we have regularly hosted weekly battles where participants can trade bitcoin derivatives to win prizes.

Follow us on Twitter to stay updated on our trading competitions in 2020.

A handful of users have won Weekly Warriors several times. Avadaa, mindseal, and powerful-jade-marsupial (as we know them in Interdax’s battle arena) are amongst them and have won dozens of our trading competitions between them.

Weekly Warriors commences each Friday at 21:00 UTC. Participants start with a trading stack of 0.10 BTC and these battles last exactly seven days. Once the competition ends, the three traders with the highest PnLs win prizes in bitcoin.

What have these winners focused on? How do their trading styles compare? What’s their advice for new traders?

Which Trading Styles (or Techniques) Have Proved Profitable?

A common theme between these traders is a focus on low timeframe price action.

Avadaa and powerful-jade-marsupial indicated that they do not really rely on indicators at all, but instead trade BTC based on volatility — taking advantage of the sharp moves that have defined the cryptocurrency.

There are also similarities between the techniques used by mindseal and powerful-jade-marsupial, as they both incorporate the volume profile and footprint charts into their analysis.

Avadaa: “I learned early that indicators don’t show what’s coming, they tell the past, which is the reason I never use any.”

“I never like to keep a losing trade open. This being just my trading strategy in general. I tend to open positions when a violent movement starts, and exit as soon as the first platforms start slowing down. This of course requires one to spend loads of time in front of the screens.”

powerful-jade-marsupial’s trading style focuses on low timeframes, using order book data, recent trades, the volume profile and footprint charts:

“My trading strategy in battles is mainly based on low timeframe price action and order flow. I gauge the market using higher timeframes by outlining trends, market structure and areas of interest. Indicators don’t offer much value for short-term positions so I don’t use any.”

mindseal: “Strategy can depend on what the current market circumstance is but I try to trade with an obvious trend whenever possible.”

“I tend to use footprint charts, like ExoCharts. Particularly volatility- and volume-based periodicities, as opposed to time-based periodicities. I also use some basic Volume Weighted Average Price (VWAP) indicators and momentum oscillators.”

R ead about VWAP indicator, momentum oscillators and more in the trading resources section of our Help Centre.

What’s the Easiest Thing about Battles?

Trading competitions give you the chance to earn more on top of the profit you make, and this is one of the best things about the battles according to mindseal:

“It makes your risk/reward better since there is no entry fee at this time and you’re eligible for an additional prize on top of your PnL.”

powerful-jade-marsupial: “I’d say the easiest part about the battles is the exchange itself. A few major crypto exchanges have attempted to implement trading battles but none of them offer the same experience that Interdax does.”

“Interdax has a properly implemented battle system that is simple and intuitive, packaged in the most aesthetic design in the crypto market.”

Joining a trading battle is straightforward

So far we’ve received a lot of positive feedback on the platform’s design, and our team are striving to improve the experience even more.

See for yourself. Join Interdax’s battle arena here.

What’s the Most Challenging Thing about Battles?

One of the obvious challenges of trading competitions is that you are limited to only trading the moves in bitcoin that occur during the time of the contest.

According to mindseal, the time limit means “it can be easy to get impatient and feel like you have to make a trade.” But in Weekly Warriors, “you have plenty of time to be patient and wait for a trade to develop in alignment with your system or strategy.”

“Often many of your competitors end up going bust in the battles and you don’t actually need a huge PnL to win them (unless bitcoin makes a massive move during the week). Be careful of your leverage as well.”

Battles with fewer participants require more skill, according to Avadaa.

But when there are a lot of traders, “the situation could be compared to the infinite monkey theorem. Some dude, no matter if experienced or not, will do well even though they might not have any idea what they are doing.”

“I took part in DaxDecade (and won it)… during the battle I learned that it requires some luck of my own to beat the inevitable 100x YOLO’ers.”

Avadaa says luck is more of a factor in battles with a high number of traders

powerful-jade-marsupial cautioned against FOMO’ing, that is, chasing a move when it’s too late:

“Being part of an exciting battle can and will amplify the temptations that any trader faces while trading. I think the most common challenge shared among traders in any battle is the temptation to chase a trade after missing a move. It can be especially tempting when it’s a significant move you’ve anticipated and one of the other traders managed to catch it.”

Try out our testnet here to practise before competing in our trading competitions.

Any Other Advice for Traders Competing in Battles?

Avadaa: “Don’t get cocky. When trading, one must always be humble and afraid. It’s extremely hard to go through the process where your brain learns to put your feelings aside and just roll with pure logic.”

“The battles are like poker: everyone will have losses, but it’s all about the long-term statistics.”

mindseal: “Watch your opponents on the leaderboard, especially once you have a lead in PnL. You can tell what kind of leverage they are currently using by watching their PnL.”

“Often the battles come down to a few guys in the running for prize who haven’t busted or effectively busted their stack. If you are a bit ahead of them in PnL and aren’t already riding a position on the right side of an obvious trend, you can take the same direction as the second place contender and adjust your position size accordingly to keep him or her at bay.”

powerful-jade-marsupial: “You can’t learn to trade by following clichés or half-baked advice that lack the specifics necessary to make trading decisions.”

“When was the last time you made easy money by, say, ‘Letting profits run and cutting losses short?’ Great advice, but how exactly do you do it?” “You can learn how an asset behaves by constructing specific, objective rules for a trade setup and then measure how price moves afterward. It may be beneficial to learn setups and ideas from others especially if you are new. However, somewhere down the road I think it’s necessary to develop your own style or variation on those setups. With time and experience, through trial and error you can learn to anticipate the direction of your trades and improve your chances of achieving consistent results.”

This final piece of advice highlights the importance of continual self-development. A part of this could include a trading journal with written notes and a spreadsheet to track metrics such as number of trades, direction, position size, amount of equity risked, average profit/loss, and so on.

While the advice here may not turn you into a profitable trader overnight, it could serve as an important starting point to help traders learn about approaches and techniques that have been useful in highly intense trading battles.

Thanks to Avadaa, powerful-jade-marsupial and mindseal for their insights and responses.

Disclaimer: This blog post is for informational purposes only and should not be taken as financial advice.