Crypto trading as a form of personal freedom

What is freedom to you, and how does crypto fit into that vision?

Maybe it’s a thing or a means to an end. Perhaps it’s an opportunity.

Freedom is the ability to decide and do.

Freedom means developing your own philosophy through thought and experience, then applying it.

It is the ability to explore and express the greatness of your humanity in connection with the humanity of others in the wider world.

Markets are expressions of human interaction and discovery. They bring people together to express agency over their ideas through input and feedback.

By exploring cryptocurrency, blockchain, DeFi, and NFTs, you are engaging in value discovery through trading.

And through trading crypto, you are expressing your freedom and agency.

Crypto trading is about pure ownership

When you sit down at your computer or pull out your phone to make a trade, every aspect of that interaction belongs to you.

Whether you did pre-trade preparation is your decision.

Like for example, did you go over your charts? Did you make a detailed trading plan?

Are you prepared mentally and physically for the session ahead?

And are you clear of emotional distractions?

Every step in this process, how you do it, why you do it, and how you use it, is yours.

No employer telling you what to do.

There is no HR department monitoring your attendance.

Forget some supervisor evaluating your actions.

There are only distractions that you choose to bring into your trading process.

After all, the only opinion that matters is yours until you put the trade on. Then it’s up to you to listen to the market’s judgement of your opinion once you are in the trade.

The outside opinion on BTC or ETH only matters if you let it

Remember when they say not your keys, not your coins?

Well, that applies to your trading ideas as well.

Develop your own trading ideas and plans. Own every part of the process so that you can learn and grow. The temptation to latch onto free advice on the interweb is strong. But without doing the work, you don’t own your idea. And when you don’t own the idea, you will lack conviction and open yourself up to the whispers of doubting trolls.

Will you let that anonymous internet troll change your mind and sell before the uptrend? Or will you be persuaded to hodl into a crypto winter when you know you should sell?

Will you accept the opinion of that guru that always has the same message no matter the situation?

Your trading plan will dictate your actions.

You benefit directly from your own ideas, opinions, and actions when you work for yourself.

Don’t let some mediocre report dictate your decision, and let the market show you the validity of your trading idea instead.

Freedom means owning the idea.

Do the work. Execute the trade. Be free.

Trading requires risk-taking and can be stressful.

You can stack gains or accumulate losses.

You can decide to be the boss and when to work or if you want to work.

Or maybe trading doesn’t feel like work because trading is the fun part for you. It’s the preparation for the trading session that is the work.

Being free means doing the work, gathering insights, and then some execution.

With active positions, you will be engaged in one way or another 24/7.

Then you can shape your interpretation of your results.

Engaging freely in the crypto market means owning your activities in every way.

Own your internal trading dialogue

As the trade unfolds, you will experience internal dialogue.

Should I sell it?

Buy more?

Don’t know?

You alone can embrace this dialogue and quiet it by following your plan.

Whether you keep the trade on, close it, or add to it — all of these belong to you if you’ve owned your process and done the work.

Listen to the internal dialogue. Give it room to breathe. What is it telling you?

Does it fit with your thesis, trading rules, and your plan?

You can answer these questions when you own your trades, and the results will give you further insight.

Your trades are a repository of insight

When you eventually close out the trade, your perception and evaluation shape the information you receive from that trade. If you have agency, wins and losses are simply outcomes of a series of actions and the whims of the crypto market.

Traders that own their results don’t claim the wins as genius and the losses as manipulation.

Instead, ask what you did well.

What did you benefit from that you didn’t expect?

Is that repeatable or an aberration?

Your trades are simply information about the evolution of a process and ideas.

The losses are information for you to benefit from. The gains are there to savor and learn from.

When you have absolute freedom, you no longer rely on someone telling you what you can make and when you will receive it. You are no longer required to do something in a specific way according to a manual.

Your entire trading experience becomes a customized personal performance activity-the expression of your authentic self.

Freedom is doing what suits you

If you are comfortable being a scalper, trading crypto in and out all day, then do that because it suits you. It doesn’t matter what the guy on TV or the politician thinks about short-term trading.

Prefer to explore longer hodling periods like a swing trader? Then, execute and manage your trades consistent with this methodology if it works for you. It doesn’t matter what that anonymous troll says on Twitter or Reddit.

Don’t have an idea of what to do in the market?

That’s ok. Put a little on, watch, study, and wait for the next fat pitch.

Prefer not to have a position for the time being?

Sit tight, but be ready to change your mind. You don’t have to have a position on, no matter what the various evangelists on the interwebs say you should do.

Tomorrow is a new day, and your next trading idea may reveal itself then.

Crypto trading as value exploration and personal actualization

The crypto world is a wondrous place of discovery and opportunity. This is revealed through interactions with others. And by being free and having agency, you can choose the interaction and shape your experience.

Participating in various elements of crypto allows you to develop a philosophy, ideas and express them with positions. You can explore community, finance, growth of a new ecosystem from startup to scale through various crypto assets and markets.

The key is agency and the freedom to express yourself.

Your only limitation is imagination, execution and interpretation.

And remember, the freedom derived from owning your trading process and results is something that no one can take away from you.

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Bitvo is a secure, fast, and easy-to-use crypto asset trading platform for crypto traders and enthusiasts.

Originally published at https://bitvo.com on January 10, 2022.