A friend recently shared his practical experience in the crypto world with me, which made me revisit an old topic—what truly constitutes competitiveness in this market.

He is a complete beginner, having never worked with candlestick charts before. At that time, the market provided a good learning opportunity: Ethereum had been falling from a high level, with a weak rebound, and key resistance levels were obvious. We opened a short position at 3030, and he followed suit with the same trade. As expected, the market slid to 2810 without any suspense, and he saw his first real profit in his account.

He was excited and asked if that was what they call "the right direction." I told him it’s actually very simple—if you get the direction right, even if your execution isn’t perfect, you can still make enough profit. That’s why many people lose money in the crypto space—not because they don’t see the right direction, but because they keep making mistakes in execution.

Interestingly, the next day, the market started to fluctuate sideways. My instruction was to stay out of the market and observe. He was a bit confused—according to conventional thinking, isn’t this a good opportunity to buy the dip and rebound? I explained a concept that later changed his trading philosophy: with small capital, you shouldn’t focus on frequent trading techniques, but on learning restraint. Only take high-probability opportunities, trade less but more steadily, and the power of long-term compound effects can be terrifying.

By the third day, Ethereum dipped again near 2720. This time, we didn’t hesitate and opened another short position. The result was again textbook-like gains.

Over these seven days, there were a total of seven trades, six profitable and one small loss. The entire process involved no intense all-in moves, nor any decisions driven by emotions. The risk was kept within controllable limits from start to finish. Later, he summarized that it wasn’t that he didn’t know how to make money before, but no one had ever taught him how to understand the rhythm of the market.

This actually reflects an essential issue in crypto trading: most losing traders fail because they lack a sense of rhythm. They either react too slowly, missing obvious opportunities; or react too quickly, frequently stopping out in sideways markets. True experts are often those who can accurately grasp the market rhythm, knowing when to act and when to wait.

In a highly volatile environment like the cryptocurrency market, mindset and discipline are often more valuable than precise technical analysis. Because no matter how perfect your technical analysis is, if your execution rhythm is off, it’s useless. Conversely, even if your analysis isn’t top-notch, as long as your trading rhythm is correct, you can achieve stable profits in the long run. This might be more practical than any quick-fix money-making secret.