30 USD to financial freedom, the evolutionary path of a post-00s on-chain trader's mindset.

Obsession is the first element of success.

Written by: jack

Compiled by: Luffy, Foresight News

In early 2021, when everyone was obsessed with perpetual contracts and NFTs, I stumbled upon a post made by a now-deactivated user "CLs intern". This was my first real exposure to the world of on-chain trading.

Before this, I only knew of three ways to make money in the cryptocurrency space: perpetual contracts, spot trading, and NFTs. In this obscure post, he boasts about achieving a 500x return for the tenth time this week by sniping a certain variant of Shiba Inu coin, mocks people for their madness over 25x leveraged trading, and explains that for those with smaller principal amounts, on-chain trading is the biggest opportunity.

"Every transaction must be scanned, every wallet must be tracked, and every Etherscan page must be carefully scrutinized." This sentence left the deepest impression on me, beyond the flashy profit and loss data.

This made the teenager in me passionate and excited. As the difficulty of my studies increased, my interest in learning quickly waned, so I set my sights on on-chain trading as a life goal. Without any guidance, I spent three to four months figuring out where to start, and I made some trades on the FTM and ETH chains, but to no avail.

At this time, BTC has fallen from its historical peak, and the dark age of cryptocurrency has followed, with inevitable crashes and collapses coming one after another. With the end of the last cycle and the troubling financial issues in reality, I have gradually lost the initial enthusiasm.

Time flies. One evening in the spring-summer transition of 2022, I stumbled upon a "BSC Trading Guide" on YouTube, which had a Discord server link in the description. After joining, I discovered it was a trading community on the BSC garbage coin chain consisting of hundreds of people. My enthusiasm was reignited, and life began to revolve around Poocoin, waiting for newly deployed contracts and screening projects.

I have been staring at the Telegram channels and new deployed contracts for 18 hours a day like a madman for weeks, and I finally learned how to distinguish between scam coins and real project coins. The next stage is to predict which tokens can truly gain user recognition, and I find that I have an astonishing intuition in this area.

"Oh my god, I finally found something I'm good at?" When I started real trading with the 30 dollars I had saved up, the Discord server administrator noticed my ability and "hired" me to analyze the market every day for a monthly salary of 1 BNB. This was the best thing for me at that time.

In 3 months, $30 turned into $10,000; after another month, $10,000 turned into $100,000. In the first 6 months, I paid off the huge debts at home and helped my family start a new life.

When financial pressure was no longer like a sword hanging over my head, I restarted my investments with $5,000 to $6,000 and within a year, my net worth rose back to six figures. But unfortunately, disaster struck; in the same week I planned to take profits and withdraw most of my assets, the collapse of FTX caused my holdings to plummet by 95%.

So I was forced to start over for the third time, but without complaint, I accepted reality and focused on successful trading. By mid-2023, I earned back three times the losses from FTX; by the end of the year, I achieved my lifelong financial goals, all thanks to on-chain trading.

In 2023, I created this Twitter account with the intention of sharing content related to on-chain trading and guiding newcomers; because my most difficult and frustrating times were the days I spent exploring alone without any direction.

But the theme of this article is not just my plain story; this is merely a necessary self-introduction as the last post of my account. The purpose of this article is to summarize my trading insights: to keep up with this ever-changing, labyrinthine market, you need to reshape your way of thinking. Therefore, this is not a technical guide, but rather an attempt to change your perspective on on-chain trading and the entire market.

Obsession: The First Element of Success

Obsessive - noun, refers to the control of thoughts by persistent and intense ideas or feelings

Every genius you've encountered, every reliable trader you know, shares a similar starting point. They may have vastly different personalities, but at their peak, they all share a common trait: obsession.

They stared at the charts and clicked on the screen for 20 hours straight, and we would think, 'How did he do it?' But if you've ever been obsessed with something, the answer is obvious.

Just like when "Fortnite" was first released, you were willing to spend 12 hours immersed in it, enjoying every match of "Battle Royale" and eager to keep winning; that is obsession.

To invest enough time and energy in on-chain trading, you must reach an obsessive state. If your brain does not enjoy this, you will never be able to focus on doing the same thing for over 10 hours a day.

This is the first threshold for filtering out those who truly have the ability: you either enjoy and are obsessed with it enough, or you give up. This cannot be triggered instantly by subjective will.

A person who spends 3 hours a day just to earn 500 dollars will be far outpaced by the obsessives (those who invest 20 hours a day for several months in a row).

"I don't understand what this means, what do you want to tell me?"

I want to tell you: Change your mindset and make trading the focus of your life. What is the first thing you think about when you wake up? Does the first thing you do help you understand the market better and get closer to victory?

Are you really doing your best to win this game?

If obsession has not yet arrived, then actively approach it: make use of every waking moment to closely monitor new deployed contracts, observe charts, and sort out patterns.

No matter how tired, dull, or "useless" you feel at the moment, after a few weeks of persistence, you will find that you are thinking about trading from morning till night, even when watching movies, what comes to your mind are new contracts.

Well, congratulations, you have entered an obsessive state.

"I’ve been online for 12 hours every day for months, and I still suck! This is useless! Don’t mislead people; it’s all about gambling and luck!"

You are simply extremely stupid.

For months, you have filtered every new deployed contract, observed every rising coin, and yet your mediocre brain failed to notice any exploitable patterns?

Re-emphasize: Change your way of thinking. How to change? First, reset.

Discard all your previous stupid notions of on-chain transactions, and then discard your preconceived notions of "money".

("Memescope is gambling! It's all about luck! This is a loser's game!" These are all garbage ideas, throw them all away.)

On-chain trading is a game, and the dollar is your score.

This is a business model where you earn points in two ways: either by discovering market asymmetries and inefficiencies before your competitors, or by providing services in high-demand niche areas.

And your core goal from start to finish should be: to seek out and target market inefficiencies.

Think! Think! Think! Most people never think before trading, blindly following wallet movements and relying on callers, like incompetent losers. One must eliminate dependence on any external factors and trust only oneself.

Ask yourself: "What information have I noticed that most people have not?" "What trends can I foresee that others are not yet aware of?" "Are there such opportunities among the current targets of interest?" - If not, leave immediately.

In the end, among hundreds of targets, you will notice opportunities that most people have yet to realize. If you're wrong, change your thinking again: you must have misread the information or overestimated the potential of the target. Correct your mistakes and keep moving forward.

Repeat this process until you master the ability to identify lagging tokens perfectly. The easiest and most common opportunities are not the tweets from Musk or Trump, but the lagging opportunities that you catch earlier than others.

In short, the core weapon for recognizing "narrative" is this way of thinking. No matter how long it takes, you must master it.

Obsession is beneficial, at least until it recedes, your inner will is strong enough to endure months of brutal sitting time.

The only reason for obsession to fade is: the failure to produce any results. If a person invests themselves wholeheartedly for months and gains nothing, their enthusiasm will gradually extinguish.

How to avoid this situation?

You have completed the first step: be prepared to spend more than ten hours a day in front of the screen for several consecutive months. How to ensure rewards and results?

The answer lies in how to truly focus attention.

Under ideal conditions, humans enter a "trance" state: the brain is deeply immersed in the current activity, beginning to capture more patterns that are usually overlooked, achieving absolute focus.

Don't just be "online"; immerse yourself and engage with what you are observing. Staring at the screen is not enough; you need to understand it.

In basic psychology, this is referred to as the "flow state."

The famous F1 driver Ayrton Senna once described the state of focus during a race:

"I no longer drive the race car consciously, but operate purely on instinct, as if I've entered another dimension. I've far surpassed my limits, yet I can continue to break through. This terrifies me because I realize that my state has exceeded the realm of rational understanding."

I was very confused the first time I experienced flow: 10 hours passed in what felt like 30 minutes. I rapidly browsed all the available data, processed information, and quickly thought through the most likely outcomes.

How to enter a flow state?

Set challenges based on current skills and talents to achieve the highest level of focus:

• The challenge is too easy: you will quickly get bored and lose focus (for example, a trader with a monthly average income of $15,000 to $20,000 sets a goal of earning $5,000 a month);
• Challenges are too difficult: unrealistic goals can lead to anxiety and inability to focus (e.g., a trader with a net worth of $10,000 trying to earn $500,000 in a single month).

The correct approach is to set realistic goals. For example, a trader with a net worth of 100 SOL sets a daily profit target of 2.5 SOL, which is very achievable. With this goal in mind, he will focus on the market with absolute precision because the target is feasible.

In this state, you won't be half-hearted or lethargic in a chaotic market; instead, you will push yourself to improve, understand the essence of the market, and perform exceptionally.

Summary: Strive to master the ability to enter a state of absolute focus. In this state, you will notice the most patterns, make the best split-second decisions, and truly grow as a trader.

Current Market Landscape and Response Strategies

It is undeniable that on-chain transactions are becoming increasingly difficult. Four years ago, you could make money just by buying tokens with locked liquidity.

However, as the market matures, the importance of technical indicators declines. In short: the more you focus on the technical indicators of a token (such as the number of holders, liquidity, trading volume, charts), the more easily you can be misled, and the market will appear more chaotic.

The only thing that needs to be continuously monitored is: the participants' reactions to the tokens. This has never changed over the past four years. Human emotions remain consistent, and we need to leverage this.

Today, the starting point and core of trading is undoubtedly Memescope/Pulse.

People often ask about my trading style. Throughout my trading period, I manually sift through every graduating token, looking for narrative or technical outliers. For any project that seems unique and interesting, I will buy a 1-2% position when the market cap is below $200,000 and then watch how it unfolds.

"Why not trade before graduation?" Uncertain. Nowadays, the style of "buying 5 SOL when the market cap is $5,000, and selling 12 SOL when the market cap is $12,000" is becoming increasingly popular on streaming platforms. This reflects the external basic understanding of on-chain trading.

But I am convinced that sticking to this style in the long term is harmful. You must be flexible and adapt to the PVE and PVP markets. When the token peak cycles extend from several hours to several weeks, these traders will find it difficult to adapt, performing far worse than those who can still capture clear anomalies in the PVP market.

The PVP market will not exist forever, nor does it solely depend on BTC price trends. The market will shift when funds flow from inexperienced individuals to skilled traders and harvesters.

"Are trading volume tools useful? What about tracking wallets?"

I never use trading volume tools or related "alerts"; tracking wallets helps understand on-chain activities and popular assets, but I have never blindly followed any trades.

Information overload (using too many tools, tracking too many wallets) is only beneficial for those who can filter valuable signals from the noise.

I know some traders who track thousands of wallets at the same time and can achieve good returns because they are familiar with the activity patterns of these wallets.

Regardless, your task is to root yourself in these platforms for the rest of your life, filtering every trading pair after graduation until you figure out what will rise and why. I guarantee that even starting from scratch, if you vigilantly monitor tokens and filter them every day for two consecutive months, you will make significant progress (not necessarily in terms of profit and loss, but in understanding).

When you notice that a certain target may persist for more than 5 minutes, you need to engage in brief but deep thinking: understand how others might view it and assess how much attention it might attract from the present onward.

I will draw an "attention chart" in my mind; although it does not exist in reality, you can construct it in your imagination.

After formulating a reasonable strategy, determine your position size (simple formula: the position size should give a sense of achievement when profitable and not severely impact the account when losing), and then patiently wait for the results.

Wrong, reassess and leave; right, congratulations, you see further than ordinary participants!

Good at identifying and interpreting the market's attention to the underlying assets, associating attention with price, this is a method to evaluate its value before narrative repricing. I have always said that entry, position, and exit are technical aspects that can be gradually improved; however, being skilled at independently assessing technical/narrative value is crucial.

The same applies to technology-driven trading. When the AI concept exploded, hundreds of projects lingered with a market value of under 1 million dollars for hours or even days, before soaring above 10 million dollars. Those who understood its technological value before others captured the inevitable repricing opportunities in advance.

A certain project may stay at a market value of $100,000 for several hours, while its reasonable valuation should be at least $5 million (derived from comparison with the current overvalued mature token market value/chart), which is the lagging anomaly opportunity of practicality.

Sometimes, a token looks good at first when there is a lack of information but a surge in trading volume. I will first establish a regular position of 1/3 and continue to assess: if it is mediocre, exit immediately; if it is indeed of high quality and not close to the expected ceiling, then increase the position.

Key takeaway: The core of capturing the narrative and technical repricing in advance lies in your ability to read the flow of attention in and out.

"Is news trading worth it? What about Musk's tweets?"

It is certainly worth it, but many people lose money by blindly chasing rapid trading volumes and steep price curves.

They are not even willing to spend 10 seconds thinking: has this news trade peaked? A month-old news has no potential to catalyze attention, while Musk's newly launched pet coin could attract a lot of attention. I hope you can understand the difference.

If you want to participate in this type of trading, you need to make rational decisions within 10 seconds: assess value, plan the best position size, and exit point. This is why I emphasize increasing screen time, as it is the only way to hone this skill.

The top traders I know have their entire trading system built around "pre-assessing narrative value."

High engagement yet stagnation, why is this happening?

Among seasoned traders, the most common reason is a lack of accountability. They miss trades that they shouldn't have missed due to inexperience, yet blame external factors and do not seriously analyze the reasons for their failures.

Missing obvious opportunities is equivalent to losses and should be taken seriously. Humans are inherently inclined to make excuses for their own incompetence: "So what if I missed X coin, there will be another one!" This situation repeats hundreds of times, and they constantly console themselves. When you miss an opportunity that you should not have missed, you must be harsh on yourself, truly feel the failure to understand the problem and grow, rather than ignoring it.

After the Trump trade, I clearly saw this. There are two types of reactions among those who missed out: one completely ignores the failure and remains unambitious; the other falls into deep despair and struggles to focus for a long time. Those who reflect on themselves due to missing out are performing the best today.

Feeling despair over failure is a necessary path to growth. You can't keep ignorantly saying "there's always next time"; you must make changes to avoid "next time" from happening. Indeed, excuses can bring temporary relief, but if there are no changes, what will you be facing months later? You will find yourself stuck in place, exhausted.

Is it really worth sacrificing a part of my life for this?

I will believe until my death: it's worth it. If you have the ability to change your trading strategy multiple times based on market demand, it is all worth it. For those with little capital but drive, on-chain trading is the best opportunity.

I wish I could provide a simple blueprint for success, but no such formula exists. It's like asking a successful football player how he scores so many goals; his most detailed answer might be: "Just kick the ball in front of the goal."

Some people are inherently stupid and will never realize that on-chain transactions require a mental game, and will never understand that you are competing against thousands of similar brains and need to learn their way of thinking.

But many of you have potential; you just replaced action and investment with doubt. Don't waste your abilities for a mundane life.

Dedicated to unraveling this puzzle, follow your trading process and rebuild the process multiple times if necessary to win.

Conclusion and Personal Reflections

The above is a complete summary of my trading style, and I have tried my best to describe my way of thinking with precision in words. It seems simple, yet it is precisely the core of my ability to achieve astonishing profits.

I have published dozens of on-chain trading technical guides, but never truly explored the psychological aspect, as it is difficult to express in words. I tried to convey how to achieve focus and pointed out the direction of focus.

There is no doubt that this game is difficult, but don’t be intimidated, don’t fear the market, face the challenges head-on. Embrace this puzzle and enjoy the process.