Wouter Cleymans: “Make more profits by caring less about how much profit you make”

Once I read a part of the whitepaper I was immediately hooked. The idea of having a passive income or making extra profits with trading was exactly what I was looking for. It’s really a win-win situation for both traders and followers.

He is purposeful and smart, pleasant to talk to and eloquently articulates his thoughts. He developed his own trading bot, and he is not afraid to talk about his failures and fears. And he also happens to be the winner of the Covesting Trading Competition! The Covesting team is proud to have traders like him as part of our family.

Wouter, tell us, how did you become a cryptocurrency trader? Are you a professional?

I was always inspired by the idea of passive income and automated trading bots in the stock market. But I soon realised that it would be very difficult to build a profitable system for the stock market. And so I started to learn trading in the cryptocurrency world with the ultimate goal of building a profitable strategy for my open source trading bot. Sorry for the shameless advertising. I learned the game the hard way. Buying at the top and selling at the bottom. But my performance gradually improved after reading some books about technical analysis and algorithmic trading systems. So I am still learning in this market and I certainly don’t consider myself a professional.

How did you find out about Covesting? How did you decide to take part in our competition?

I discovered Covesting by scrolling through a list of ICOs. Once I read a part of the whitepaper I was immediately hooked. The idea of having a passive income or making extra profits with trading was exactly what I was looking for. It’s really a win-win situation for both traders and followers. When I heard about the trading contest I decided to give it a try, I wasn’t expecting to win the contest.

What was your trading strategy within the TC?

I knew I had to play high risk to get a chance of winning the game. In the beginning, I was a bit careful and in hindsight, it was maybe the best thing I had done during the contest. BTC dropped and most of the traders had negative values. I saw my opportunity to go all in and improve my position on the list of traders. From then on I played with a higher risk because I saw an opportunity to end in the top 10.

What is your trading style; do you prefer intraday, swing, or pattern trading?

I’d prefer to look for all kinds of market opportunities. It doesn’t really matter when or how these opportunities occur for me. During the contest, I was mostly looking for triangle breakouts because those tend to be the most reliable for me. On the other hand, I also had some luck with timing a price bounce after a steep drop.

Do you use indicators while trading or trade based on the chart?

I’d prefer to use indicators. During the competition, I mostly used a basic setup with the MACD indicator in combination with RSI and triangle patterns. If you only use the price chart itself, it can be misleading from time to time. And you’re missing so much useful information that could help you in finding that edge.

What is your main trading instrument and how do you pick the coins for trading?

This is part of finding the right market opportunities. I looked through all the USD pegged charts on Covesting on a daily basis. And if I can find a visually appealing chart then I start to draw some triangles and look at the indicators. If the outcome is interesting enough I’ll wait for more confirmation and probably take a position if the price is doing what I want it to do. And of course, never forget about the news and the interest in certain coins. I knew there was something going on with ZRX and XRP lately.

In the end of the competition, the significant part of your trading assets consisted of COV. Why did you decide to buy this asset? Was it some instant desire or a deliberate decision?

The moment when I heard about the DLT license I almost immediately bought COV. Because I knew that the price would explode once the news got spread even further. And as we approached the end of the competition I wanted to secure my first place. So selling everything into USD would have been stupid because if COV would have exploded once again it would have cost me my first place.

What do you find most complicating in trading? How do you deal with emotions?

Emotions are probably the most difficult thing to deal with for me. My stress level tends to increase/decrease together with my profits or losses, especially during this contest. I try to control my emotions by distancing myself from the trades that I make. But from time to time I still have my FOMO moments.

What is your edge and how did you discover it?

I strongly believe in the following expression: «Make more profits by caring less about how much profit you make». I guess that this is something that you can only learn, discover or understand by learning it the hard way.

What can you recommend to novice traders who are just learning about the markets?

Learn, read and study as much as you can. And try to distance yourself from the profits or losses that you’re making. It will be easier to control your stress and emotions.

Are you planning to use the Covesting platform actively as a trader after full launch?

Yes! The life of a trader is like a rollercoaster of emotions. One moment you’re super bullish and 5 minutes later you might be turning bearish. But it’s so addictive! And it becomes much more fun when you have an awesome platform like Covesting!