I know a lot of new investors in crypto want to try their hand at day trading. However if you just hold a few top coins like Bitcoin, you will probably outperform most day trading efforts. But nevertheless, people want to give it a try so here are some tips to help you get on the right path without making the mistakes I see pretty much everyone making.

Bankroll management – This is actually a gamblers term but it applies to day trading just as much. It means managing the amount you are trading on a daily basis. You should be trading about 1 to 3 percent of your total bankroll on trades per day. So if you have $10k in crypto, you should be day trading with no more than $300 a day at the most. Now I know right now you are probably saying that is too low, but trust me, successful day traders who actually make a living doing this do NOT trade a huge percentage of their bankroll everyday. If you do that, eventually you will lose it all, and this is the biggest mistake I see people making when trying to day trade. They are trading with 50% or more of their total bankroll in crypto. The only reason you should ever do that is if you have inside information.

The reason you do this is because eventually you will go through a losing streak of trades, it will happen. If you are using a large portion of your bankroll, you will be losing leverage as well which you will need to get back your losses. What that means is you need even larger returns just to break even. So every losing streak needs to have an astonishing winning streak right after just so you can break even. As you can see, that is not going to be the case every time and eventually you lose too much and you don’t have the money needed to get back to even.

Have a strategy – If you plan on day trading, you need to have a strategy. This goes with every form of investing, but it is absolutely necessary in day trading. Don’t just sit at the computer and look for random coins to try to invest in. You need to have a strategy and that strategy has to fit your style, your budget, and your risk profile. Do you plan on doing technical analysis or fundamental analysis? Do you plan on following social media and the news for tips? Do you have a list of coins you are going to watch daily so you can become very familiar with their price action and only trade those coins?

Also, a strategy includes your in and out prices. What are you looking to make on each trade? Do not just buy a coin then wait for it to go up. You should have your sell prices already set before you even put a penny in.

Overall, you should have a set of conditions for every trade. As soon as you see a coin or price action that fits your conditions, you simply pull the trigger.

This is also one of the bigger mistakes I see day traders make. They think they are looking for “winners” but you should really be looking for coins that fit your set of conditions. You are trying to automate the process as much as possible to take out as much of the uncertainty as possible.







Don’t over trade – If you have one or two losing trades in a row, you are done for the day. Do not keep trading or you will just be chasing gains and you will lose even more. As you become much more experienced, you can push this further. But when starting out and even as an intermediate trader, if you lose 1 or 2 trades, then stop for the day, you are done.

The same goes for winning trades. If you have one or two winners, you are done for the day. Walk away until tomorrow. As you become more experienced you can extend this out. The reason for this is because after a few wins, you become overconfident and you will start making bad trades that push your risk. Everybody falls for this, so don’t think you are too smart not to fall for this trick.

Day trading is a job – Successful day traders make small gains on a regular basis, so it’s really just grinding out a job. It’s not a get rich quick scheme. I know a lot of people in crypto have this romantic idea of day trading, but in reality it’s just another job that you grind out. If you think you are going to double your money everyday, you will lose. You are basically earning a paycheck, putting in hours and making consistent gains everyday. If you look at day trading like this, you will do much better.

Too many people look at day trading as a way to fast and easy money, faster than working or regular investing, and that’s not the case at all. Day trading is simply a job, you do the job everyday and make a little money everyday, and over time that money adds up.

Learning – You need to be learning everyday about good old fashioned trading. Too many people think since crypto is new, that the old rules of trading markets don’t apply. But that’s not true. Markets are markets no matter what you trade on them. You need to know everything about market trading fundamentals.

I am shocked to read forums like Reddit and Twitter and see the total lack of knowledge when it comes to even the most basic fundamentals of markets, finance, and economic concepts. Even something as simple as total market cap is not fully understood by most people I watch post.

In closing, I hope this info helps clear up some common mistakes I see new traders make. Not only that, I don’t often see these issues addressed. Even worse, I see “tips” about how to day trade that are totally the opposite of some of the advice I am giving here.