What you need to know about private (paid only) trading channels

I'm not much of a trader, however considering my background I'm very interested to figure things out. That's why I started trading crypto a couple of months ago and tried to follow different strategies here and there to understand how practical it is to
make money this way!

About three months ago I had the opportunity to know about a group in BitcoinTalk that were giving away trading signals in their private Telegram channel. The membership at the time was around 0.15 BTC which one week later changed to 0.2 BTC for a lifetime subscription. The group claimed they are making 50% to 150% for each 1 or 2 weeks which obviously was an unverified marketing claim but even so I wanted to try my chances.

I sent them an email to ask for a one week trial which they said is available and received this message:

Well I admit the fact that they rejected to provide my promised trial for one week and wanted to charge early looked a little scammy but since I didn't see anything bad about them in their forum topic I decided to risk 0.05BTC and see if there is a real channel or not.

After I sent the money it was pretty straightforward, they invited me to their Telegram channel and I had access to previous signals and new ones there. After one week they asked me if I'm willing to pay the full membership and I agreed to transfer the other 0.1 BTC even though I didn't make any significant profit at that point.

Fast forward three moths later and the number of members increase from 40 (the time I joined) to +350. They were caring enough to do a couple of anonymous feedback enquiry and thanks to their transparency rules we figured out that there are members there that are trading with a volume of 400 BTC.

Were signals legitimate?

From what I figured out they are doing some basic technical analysis on coins to anticipate the movement. I can say their hit-rate is around 50%-60% on most of the altcoins they are covering (more than 25) but I never observed a wrong prediction on the direction of Bitcoin. I believe that is more related to the volume of assets like bitcoin which perform more similar to real world stocks compared to some low volume cryptos that are vulnerable to market manipulation.

How much money you made?

I cannot say I made much from their signals since they couldn't predict the movement of Ripple and Etherium on time. Even though I made a lot from Ripple it doesn't contribute to them since I traded on my own decision. Even so I can say that 0.2 BTC totally worth it if you are trading with more than 1.0 BTC. You can easily make the subscription fee in less than a month if you distribute your portfolio across all of their signals. Never go all-in in one signal as it may fails you miserably. 10% of your capital on each trade is a good old-fashioned discipline.

What are the problems?

They are not open much to agree their mistakes and due to the volatility of crypo market, the strategy on failed signals is usually to HODL until it come back to the entry point (or even higher). So many times your money is stuck in a losing trade and even after 2-3 weeks if you make 20% it doesn't worth it since market is growing faster than that rate in a normal condition. You can always use your money in better deals so make sure to not follow them with a closed eyes. Always confirm the legitimately of the chart by yourself with simple technical analysis tools (volume, trend-line, previous movements) to make sure it is a deal you want to stay in.

What about other channels?

I know there are other channels out there with more expensive prices which some of them are good to follow. As an example, Crypto Yoda's twitter shows that he has a good understanding about the market and he is offering his special signals for 0.1 BTC per month. Unless you have a good (read double digit BTC) initial capital I wouldn't suggest to start from there. You can easily grow your portfolio by spreading it through the first 10 top altcoins in CoinMarketCap similar to how index funds work in stock markets. Yes you wouldn't be able to beat the market in terms of growth but you are still making money and not losing it for expensive membership prices or as Tony Robbins says "Hidden fees".

I found a free channel

Great! Do yourself a favor and just get out! I saw many Telegram channels with the idea of letting users know about pumps for free. They are actually not letting you know about anything but what they do is to gather enough users to make the real pumps through them. They will accumulate cheap coins for some time and trigger the pump through you. After you pumped the price they will sell out and then channel is not going to work anymore. If it's too good to be true, it probably is.

Conclusion

I'm not much involved with the trading community to give any financial advice about it. I just wanted to share my experience but what I believe is that experience in trading is important and if there are some people that are willing to give away that experience for a fee you can consciously use it. I say consciously because many people can't even read a chart and are looking for trading advices. Don't do that! The first rule in receiving a trading advice is to understand that risk is all yours. No one cares more about your money than yourself, so if you are receiving a trading signal and cannot confirm if it's legitimate or not (at least in some ways) it's much better for you to stay away from it and put your money in top coins of the market or even better, learn how to read a chart!

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