This post serves as a book review for "The Crypto Trader" by Glen Goodman.
I scored A in Math my entire life but examining trends and forecasting breakout points in price charts has got to be my idea of a worst nightmare rather than a preferred way of spending my leisure time. Given that my crypto strategy comprises me extolling the virtues of Gemini so that people will be enticed to use my referral link ( https://www.gemini.com/share/ppkd6ra39 ; come on, what are you waiting for?), I don’t think I will be a trader soon.
Nonetheless, this was a fascinating and enlightening read. I actually suggest that you read Chapter 14 first because Glen Goodman lists all the common cognitive biases that can cause investors to let their emotions get the better of them and lose their money. When you have concepts like sunk-cost fallacy salient at the forefront of your mind, you will derive more value from the anecdotes Glen told about his trading disasters, I reckon.
Yes, Glen writes about his own experiences and uses actual price charts from 2017-18 (his book was published in 2019) to illustrate concepts like limit order and wedges and Japanese candlesticks. Not only that, he writes in a highly personal tone, speaking to you like a regular bloke you are having drinks with, his use of crude language somehow enlivening his explanations. He’s Brit - and I really love Brits’ dry sense of humour.
If you are a non-trader, you may fear that this book is not for you. Fret not! Glen has your needs in mind. I didn’t even know how to explain spread prior to reading the book but he anticipated my need and provided a footnote explanation when he discussed spread. Well done, Sir! And in a move that pleases the teacher in me, he BOLDS key concepts, thus facilitating easy retention!
More importantly, he puts forth points of view that easily contradict what wannabe investors hold dear. For instance, he advocates buying during the beginning of a breakout (as opposed to ‘buy Low sell High’). He also cautions people growing too attached to Bitcoin. And he backs it up by stating how one of his most profitable trades was for Santiment. (Nope, like you, I have never heard of this crypto before!) But it's such a refreshing sentiment from the prevailing opinion held by many people around me - do dollar-cost-averaging and accumulate as much Bitcoin as you can. I think it's amazing how he showed us through his real-life examples that there are profit-making opportunities other than Bitcoin.
Lastly, what will a non-trader-as-yet like me take away from this book? Well, I noted concepts like social sentiment indicator and NVT ratio (network value/daily transaction volume) that would help me sound intelligent during dinner parties! Particularly, I learned a new word "fractal". It means that market price patterns repeat themselves, albeit at different scales. I can't wait to sprinkle this term into my conversations!
