Vexel

new trader and losing money in an onchain bull market? Sometimes, reading through a lot of what's on the CT TL, I get the feeling that new capital is coming into crypto with a three month time horizon, hoping to become a millionaire as fast as possible. Meanwhile, every profitable trader got completely wrecked in their first years before slowly fighting their way through, strategy by strategy, into some kind of discipline until consistent profitability became a thing. That process can easily take a decade if you're going through different life stages, studying, building a career, starting a family. When I first started experimenting with crypto and onchain trading, it was one of the most glorious bull markets ever, coins were running to billion dollar valuations, printing god candles daily, and I still walked out of it with losses. Clueless, overconfident, greedy, overtrading, and chasing without any self awareness. I get the inner urge, especially when you're coming from tight financial circumstances, to want to make it as fast as possible, especially when you're staring at all the huge PnLs on your TL. But if mindset and skillset aren't there yet, you might land one or two lucky wins, only to trade them right back away just as fast, simply because the hard, necessary experience of practicing real capital protection is still missing. Two books I consistently recommend as foundational reading, one for mindset, one for execution. The Psychology of Money - Morgan Housel This book builds the mental framework required for long term success: understanding risk, patience, probabilistic thinking, and emotional control. Trading is less about intelligence and more about behavior, this book helps you develop the discipline to survive and compound over time. Technical Analysis of the Financial Markets - John J. Murphy A cornerstone of technical analysis. It teaches you how to read market structure, trends, momentum, and price behavior, the practical tools needed to identify setups, manage risk, and systematically build capital through trading. Together, these two books cover the core pillars of trading: mindset + technical execution If you’re serious about getting better, this is where the work starts.