Q&A with @ledgerstatus
1. Who is @ledgerstatus, what is his background?
I’m just a guy looking at charts. I first invested in the stock market around age 15 (I’m a little more than twice that old now), and have stayed invested in one way or another ever since. I’ve alway been fascinated by markets, but have never been so involved in them as I have in crypto — mostly due to the massive volatility and the opportunity that exists due to it.
I run my own very small business in real life, and Ledger Status (the website/podcast/membership stuff) is the second leg of my work.
2. What are you currently working on and what are your plans for 2018 onwards?
I’ve been finishing the launch of my Ledger Status Learn program — a project to help people learn to trade crypto assets responsibly, both from a fundamentals and technicals standpoint.
There is so much opportunity in this space, yet so many come in, do everything wrong, and manage to lose money in a growing sector. This program is my attempt to help folks avoid that.
3. What your first month of crypto looked like?
I was a Spring 2017 entrant, like many others. I fomo’d into Ethereum on its way up, and managed to sell the top. I then got into Litecoin as it performed well as bitcoin had great uncertainty heading into the fork. It was a lucky start, even though I only got the last 3x or so of that amazing Ethereum run.
I continued to deposit fiat on the summer dip and again on the September dip, but I was (and still am) addicted to alt coins. I learned hard lessons during the September alts-fakeout about market cycles, and the true power of, “Bitcoin is king.” I didn’t get made whole on some of those bags until December.
From 500 to 50,000:
4. What was your game-plan to achieve such fast success?
I didn’t have a “plan” for success — nor do I consider a Twitter following alone a success. Like I’ve done in my other life (web stuff), I just started sharing what I was learning.
I started my crypto-specific Twitter account in late August, because crypto Twitter was clogging my normal feed that I use for web stuff. When my second son was born a couple weeks later, I used time up late at night soothing him as a newborn to dive much deeper into all things crypto.
I started sharing things I was learning, and interacting with people I realized were smart, and got picked up by some notable names: Alvin Lee, Notsofast, Crypto Bully, JackFru1t, and CarpeNoctom all followed me early and each shared something I put out there.
If you consistently and humbly share, respectfully engage with people you like, and improve over time, you’ll get discovered. Now I’m aiming to put energy toward more lasting online materials than just Twitter.
5. How your execution differed from your plan?
Trading wise, I have made plenty of mistakes. I’ve made money in crypto, but there are several routes where I could’ve made 5–10x more than I have. I learn every day, every week, every month, every cycle.
No matter how much you know you should do something, you still have to follow that plan with money on the line, and that is not easy.
Also, I wouldn’t have expected to turn crypto into a part of my business — but now I’m actively working to make it a significant part of my day to day business life.
6. ZEC or XMR? Why?
XMR has great brand value and fundamentals, but needs more marketing and hardware wallet support. ZEC has a super smart team but not-anonymous-by-default bothers me, as does the high rate of inflation.
I like both, but give the edge to XMR by a fair amount.
7. What those long term bags look like?
I’ve held Ubiq for ages, for better or for worse. I could’ve put that bitcoin to better use elsewhere, but I “married the bag” as they say. At this point I’ll probably wait for long term capital gains to cash it out.
I’m long on the 0x project and have traded ZRX since the first day it hit exchanges — a little over 4k sats. I didn’t cash out enough above 15k but I keep a long term bag of this one.
I got a good trade cycle on the last Vertcoin pump and have kept a free bag that I like. I like the community centric team and keep an eye on it for a new cycle.
Overall, bitcoin is king and I want more of it. I’ll trade anything (short term or long) to earn more bitcoin. I’m excited this year to mix ICOs and other mixed strategies to further that goal.
8. Jihan Wu or John McAfee? Why?
Jihan Wu, if I must. He’s built something significant with Bitmain, even if I don’t like some of his political and business decisions.
9. Charlie Lee or Craig Wright? Why?
Charlie Lee a hundred thousand times over. Charlie Lee for crypto president would be fine by me. Long live chikun rock.
10. Roger Ver or Barry Silbert? Why?
Barry Silbert is a business man and a wicked market maker (assuming he’s the ETC and ZEC market maker). Roger Ver has lost his way in the biggest way. This battle is not even close. Shillbert for the victory.
11. Are ICOs good idea for investors 2018 onward?
Some ICOs will be a good idea, some will not. Don’t go all in, don’t pick garbage projects, don’t expect much back.
I look forward to when folks come to the realization that the majority of these should really be equity tokens and not try to shoehorn a “utility token” where a token shouldn’t exist. Sidechains of major networks for dApps or specialty blockchain applications make more sense running with the parent chain’s native token, than trying to make a token for every little thing in life. I’m not a big believer in the “token economy.”
There will be a lot of broken hearts from failed investments. Anything I leave in a long term ICO bag would have to be “free” tokens several times over from having already taken profits. This space has a great deal to evolve yet — meaning there is still opportunity, but we won’t know who the winners will be for a while.
12. 5 musts for crypto people?
1) Understand market cycles for btc/alts.
2) Apply risk management and know when to cut the bag on a bad trade, before you enter the trade. Take profits on the way up to secure the win; don’t get allured by the 10–100x stories, but let at least part of the bag ride if you really want to go for it.
3) Pay attention to fundamentals, even if you’re trading technicals. Bagholding garbage is harder than bagholding a decent project.
4) Never settle. Always be learning.
5) Be nice. The golden rule is a good rule.
13. 5 don’ts for crypto people?
1)Don’t have a terrible profile picture or no profile picture. Be original.
2) Don’t margin trade if you have no idea what you’re doing.
3) Don’t think something will not go down more. They can all go down more.
4) Don’t forget the trend is your friend.
5) Don’t be an absolutist. This is a world of probabilities, not certainties.
I am truly fascinated with @ledgerstatus, he has two small kids, has own business, hustles hard to learn TA and FA, is the nicest person out here, you can see him simultaneously do TA in Twitter, and chat in Telegram. I honestly don't think @ledgerstatus sleeps at all, on top of that is killing it. Gotta love his work.
If you enjoy the read, follow me on Twitter, is good for Karma.
