Crypto Twitter truly is a weird and wonderful place full of colourful cartoon characters, self proclaimed 'influencers' and ego-centric traders locked in a fruitless battle for followers and engagement.
The 'mood' of this surreal place we call home is often dictated by the current market conditions and usually changes on a daily basis. For example if Bitcoin happens to drop by 15% that day then you can expect drama and in-fighting to take place. One of the most powerful tools to affect human emotion is money and it's easy to forget that the majority of accounts you see on a day-to-day basis are currently in trades or have either just made profit or been liquidated.
Amidst a sea of memes, charts, in-jokes and rocket emojis you have a solid core of highly talented developers, projects and media outlets looking to provide the most up-to-date and important news. If you are new to this unpredictable environment it can certainly be a big shock to the system as you attempt to navigate your way around.
So how do you cut through the noise? How do you determine who is a helpful resource and who is just there to troll or even worse scam you of your hard earned money?
Although you may be on Crypto Twitter for a number of reasons, this guide is solely dedicated for people who want to use it as a tool to make money. I partly base this on a recent poll I ran of 228 participants, only 4% of which voted they were in Crypto for the technology.
Size Doesn't Matter
I feel the perfect place to kick this guide off is with follower count. Follower count in Crypto really isn't everything. It's a very common mentality when you first join this space to think that the more followers someone has, the more they must know or the more helpful they will be. Over time you will realise that this really isn't the case for a number of reasons.
Firstly there are a whole host of 'dead' accounts. Many of the accounts with high follower counts gained these in the peak of the 2017 bull run, or perhaps earlier, where everybody was a genius. You could make a call and it be up 5x overnight and this happened on a regular basis making the average Joe think these people were almost prophetic. As the euphoria ended and the bear market kicked in, many of these followers left the space.
These accounts are easy to find as they will usually have only a couple of likes or retweets on each tweet but 10s of thousands of followers. Now this isn't to say they aren't useful, but don't think that everything they say is accurate or gospel just because their account size dwarfs yours.
Secondly, bigger accounts can have a ton of fake followers that are easily bought. These people usually have an ulterior motive such as a paid group and it's important to figure out what their motives are.
Lastly, some "OG's" who have been around for a long time have usually made their riches in years past and are just here to troll and have fun. Whilst there's no harm in this, you shouldn't be looking for educational content here.
The key here is to find people you trust. Look for accounts who are sharing a wealth of detailed charts or useful content on a regular basis and are themselves always looking to learn and grow. These smaller accounts will usually do an #FF, Follow Friday, which is a good way to find new accounts to follow as you will trust them and their judgement by association.
Be Adaptable
Being adaptable is an important skill to master if you want to keep your feed fresh. You should always be looking for new accounts as there are so many things to learn in this space and everyone has a different method of sharing knowledge.
I personally have a regular cleanse where I will go through my following list and unfollow people who are either inactive or seem to be providing little value. As we are here to make money, we want people who will challenge us and provide the content we require in order to succeed and learn.
When you have a set group of core people you like to follow, look to see who they interact with on a regular basis and consider also following these accounts as well.
Avoid Drama
An important aspect of being adaptable is getting used to unfollowing people. You will always find drama on Crypto Twitter and this is part of the noise I mentioned earlier. Whilst this can be fun to watch sometimes, don't let it distract you from what you're here to do.
Try and not get involved if possible. You will waste far too much energy on trolls who are only looking to make you feel negative emotions and get in your head. If you find yourself getting angry over what someone on Twitter has said, you really need to take a step back and evaluate your approach and mentality. This is precious energy that you need to stay focused on learning and improving yourself as you work towards your goals and these people aren't worth the time.
Remember — there is a reason Twitter has the mute and block button!
Traders
There are many talented traders on Crypto Twitter that you can learn a lot from — some of which will also post links to their YouTube content or written guides which can be an incredibly valuable resource that you wouldn't necessarily find just searching on Google.
There are many different types of traders and you will want to find ones that align with your own style e.g. some like to scalp for small % gains whilst others focus heavily on the larger time frame swings. Some favour the fibonacci retracement tool and some use Elliot Waves.
Whatever it is that you find yourself most comfortable with you will want to look out for the following:
Look for those that post setups and update these setups as they are progressing, preferably whilst also leaving a running commentary. This will give you a great idea of how a trade can take place over time and also offers an insight into the trader's thoughts and mentality.
Make sure these traders post take profit points. A good trader will already have a number of pre-existing targets they are looking to hit before they take the trade so you know where to set your sells. Setting a stop loss and already knowing your targets before entering the trade will help you manage your emotions as the trade is underway.
Also look out for those that post an R:R, Risk to Reward ratio, as these are often seasoned professionals who know exactly how to manage their stack. For example if they are opening a long they will note if they are willing to lose 3% of their stack in order to make 9% giving an R:R of 3:1.
I will star this next point as I feel it's one of the key factors that often gets overlooked.
*Be sure to follow traders who post setups that fail! A good trader will always post their failed setup and how/why they got stopped out. This is key in understanding why setups breakdown and also means they are being sincere and honest. If you see a trader who only posts winning trades, doesn't follow up on his failed ones or even worse deletes them, then this is insincere and they most likely have an ulterior motive such as a paid group or want to seem unrealistically skilled at what they do to boost their ego. No one has a 100% strike rate.
And finally…
Be Wary of "Gems" Groups
Gems groups or 'microcap hunters' are a big part of Crypto Twitter as people are forever searching for that elusive 100x. Let's be honest, the chance of a 100k market cap project going to $10 million is a lot more realistic than a $10 million project going to $1 billion. So it makes sense these exist and I'm not saying they are all bad but there are a couple of things to look out for:
Liquidity. If a small cap 'gem' has done a 2/3x and you see an account bragging about it on Twitter then check the order books. Most of the time it's only required a small amount of capital in order to do this. If it took $3k to hit that 3x then there is very little liquidity here and if you get caught up in the fomo then chances are there won't be enough volume to cash out. You will inevitably get stuck holding a bag most of the time and will have to take a heavy loss.
Always try to think rationally. If this small cap has already done a 3x and is getting heavily shilled on Twitter then the people who are tweeting about it will already be up 3x and want it to go further — with you to dump their bags on. So be vigilant and always question everything.
It will be incredibly beneficial to your success in the space if you begin to question the genuine from the fake in order to tell the fact from the fiction.
I hope this has helped in some way and you can use what you've learned here to improve your experience in the space.
Article by Alex Libertas
Founder of The Daily Chain Inform. Educate. Succeed.
Originally published on The Daily Chain
