Many people mistake short-term trading for speculation, but this is a misconception. I have interacted with many short-term traders, and those who are truly successful are investors who have mastered certain market patterns and possess strong technical skills and psychological resilience.

Short-term trading tests your skills and patience. I’ve found that those who excel in this area generally spend a lot of time studying candlestick charts, repeatedly analyzing historical trends, and identifying probabilistic patterns. But it’s important to clarify that the market is driven by multi-dimensional factors such as emotions and information, with emotions being the hardest to predict. Therefore, we can only make rough judgments and cannot be 100% accurate.

How to do it? The key is to systematically analyze historical trading data to see what patterns tend to emerge under certain conditions. The candlestick chart plays a crucial role here; it reflects short-, medium-, and long-term fluctuations and helps us identify the behavior of large traders (whales).

Recently, I’ve seen some altcoin candlestick charts that have been declining steadily since listing, with almost no volatility—like sliding down a slide. From the charts, it’s clear that the whales no longer hold large amounts of tokens; most are concentrated in retail investors’ hands. No one is pushing the price up, and the coins are basically trapped. Many people have gone from short-term trading to mid-term, then to long-term, and finally ended up permanently trapped.

As a beginner, I think there are a few points to keep in mind when trading short-term:

First, ensuring a high probability of success is more important than increasing trading frequency. During short-term trading, progress should be gradual, and the core principle is to avoid significant losses. Quality always outweighs quantity.

Second, be content with profits and rational about losses. Trading cryptocurrencies is essentially an art of regret; don’t set your expectations too high for yourself.

Finally, practice leads to true understanding. If you can find a mentor or expert guidance, your progress will be much faster.

By following these three points, at least as an investor, you won’t lose your way in the crypto space. I’ve also been paying close attention to the trends of some mainstream assets like SOL and ETH; their performance is still worth tracking.