Confessions of a Professional Crypto Trader
David Vizsolyi is a trader at DV Trading, the company that partnered with Newton to deliver Canada’s first no-fee crypto trading platform. Get Newton on the app store or check us out on the web.
It was 3:30pm on a Thursday, right after the trading day was over, when I sat down with David for a conversation about trading cryptocurrencies in the lobby lounge of the Hyatt hotel in downtown Toronto.
Thanks for taking the time to meet, David! Could you tell us about what you do?
I work at DV Chain [a subsidiary of DV Trading] and spend about 75% of my time doing crypto OTC trading [Over The Counter, i.e. trading large blocks for institutional investors] as well as management and development of crypto market-making applications. The rest of the time I delegate to doing research, development, and helping to manage DV Trading’s futures trading.
Why crypto? How did you get into the space?
I come from the traditional finance world with a mathematical background. I got into the space in early 2017 when DV Trading introduced DV Chain. Before dealing with crypto, I spent 5 years on trading futures and doing quantitative research for DV Trading.
DV Chain started off as a small group of traders who were interested in digital currencies and wanted to do it on a bigger scale. I pretty much jumped on the bandwagon to explore the promising opportunities with the rest of the team.
Ironically, when I first tried to buy crypto back in 2011, my wire to the now famously collapsed Mt. Gox didn’t go through, so I got kinda disappointed and forgot about it then.
What do you think the future holds for Bitcoin? Altcoins? Where do you see the most opportunity?
I still see Bitcoin as the king — it’s been the most resilient cryptocurrency out there over this bear market as we’ve seen cryptos return to earth after last year’s bubble.
Another big one is privacy coins like Monero. We’ve seen with the various data breach scandals in tech over the last few years that people are starting to become more conscious of their privacy and privacy of transaction data is something that is not currently possible with Bitcoin.
I also like Ethereum quite a bit despite being hit especially hard over the last year. Although I don’t think they’ve delivered results as quickly as the market was expecting, it’s a very ambitious project and they can do great things.
There are so many countries where people can’t trust governments and banks with their money. It’s become a big issue and that’s where I see the most opportunity for the future of the industry. In fact, I believe the developing countries will adopt crypto sooner than USA and Canada.
Essentially, Bitcoin held out that promise you just mentioned — taking power from the banks and governments and giving it to people using money. Do you think that the mission has changed over the past years?
I don’t think the mission can really be changed because there’s no one who controls it. Different people use BTC and crypto for different purposes. I think there’s still a long way to go to be able to determine this, and we may see an environment where some coins fulfill this mission better than others.
What do you think is the importance of volatility? How do you use it to your advantage?
Ideally, it will go down over the next few years as people don’t want to use something that is extremely volatile. Meanwhile, it is great for trading and if you are fast enough.
Volatility is something you have to take into account when measuring your risk. Stocks will be volatile based on news and macro events, but with crypto it’s more random — you need to be prepared to handle big moves 24/7.
Our chat was suddenly interrupted by a phone call, and David and I went upstairs to DV Trading’s office. The buzz and excitement in the room were palpable as traders went about their daily activities.
David escorted me to a desk ringed by twelve computer screens, all showing different kinds of charts and graphs.
What does your day look like? How do you spend most of it?
Every day I come into the office and start my day by checking what happened with OTC float overnight. Throughout the day I monitor trades that are taking place and all the market making of it. I also do research and a little bit of [C#] coding after trading hours.
What tools and data sources do you use for trading?
We have our own proprietary software at DV Chain that is my main source for data, but there are a bunch of tools available for traders online like cryptowat.ch, coinmarketcap, tradingview, and easy-to-use trading platforms like Newton.
What do you like the most about our platform? Why is Newton amazing?
Your fees are obviously the best, or should I say their absence. Super easy to send money too. The first time I used Newton, I was pretty impressed with how fast and smoothly I got my money in. This is something all the traders are looking for — a platform they can trust and low fees, Newton has both!
If I told my grandma to use Newton she would be able to do so and buy crypto.
Download Newton app here.
How can someone become a great trader? What are your top 5 tips?
- Manage your trade size and try to scale in and out of positions.
One common reason traders fail is not that they were wrong in their investment thesis, but because they put too much on too soon and can’t handle the pain as the trade continued to go against them before reverting back. - Technical and financial skills are important.
Know what you are trading and how it’s different from other things you can be trading. You have to understand some simple math and financial skills to measure your risk. - Be patient.
It’s the skill that is hard to master but absolutely needed to become a great trader. Be disciplined and don’t force getting into position. - Don’t be biased.
Try to get rid of as much bias as possible when trading. Don’t anchor yourself to an investment thesis that may have changed since entering the trade. - Read and consume as much information as possible.
Get more involved with the crypto community through forums like Reddit, Elite Trader, Stockhouse. Read more industry news and understand what kind of developments are happening in the space.
Also, if you have some spare time check out my favourite crypto-related books “The Internet of Money” by Andreas Antonopoulos and “Algorithmic Trading” by Ernest Chan.
Do you have a role model in the industry or someone you would want to connect with?
I was pretty lucky to work and learn from two really great traders: Dino Verbrugge (founder of DV Trading) and Tom Armstrong at DV Trading. Also, have great respect for David E. Shaw and Jim Simons — guys that came from math/computer science backgrounds to found some of the world’s most successful hedge funds by focusing on algorithmic and quantitative trading.
Last question: what advice would you give your younger self?
Buy Bitcoin in 2011!
But most importantly, learn to code a little bit earlier.
Looking for a crypto trading app that offers no fees?
Say hello to Newton. It’s everything we wanted in a platform: low spreads, instant approval, and no trading or funding fees. Get Newton on the app store or check us out on the web.
