Bitcoin Forum

Lately, futures trading has been really unpredictable. The market has been moving in unexpected ways, and the high volatility is making it hard to keep a steady return.

Just yesterday, I went 100% long on POPCAT with 20x leverage. Things looked good at first, but within 30 minutes, the price came back to my entry point and I ended up making nothing on the trade.

Moments like this are making me rethink my strategy. I'm starting to feel that spot trading might be a better option for now. It’s more stable, and I don’t have to worry about getting liquidated. I’m thinking of growing my holdings in coins like BGB, SOL, and SUI instead.

But before I fully switch, I’m wondering if there’s a way to manage or hedge against this kind of volatility while still trading futures. Is there a smart way to protect my trades or reduce the risk? Any advice would really help.

I would say that you are the one shooting yourself on your foot but trading with a 20x leverage on popcat that is a token with higher volatility, because by doing so your liquidation price will be much more closer to your entry price.
Stop trading with high leverage, if you can trade without a leverage it would even be much more better because by doing so, your liquidation price will be far off from your entry price.
Additionally, with what you explain above, even though it's Bitcoin that you are trading, you are still going to be  losing a  trade that you should be winning because you are not letting the trade to breath, any small volatility will take you out, so try trading with small leverage like 2 or 3x or no leverage at all, and you are going to see the result.

The way is to have a logical size from the calculation of losses if it occurs, in addition to the target increase there must also have a target of decline if there is a rejection when it will penetrate price resistance, this needs to be considered because most people do not measure their value correctly and ignore it, they only follow Tredn without seeing risks and opportunities as well as fluctuations that will be made by the market about coins.

From here more details TP and SL need to be made in every ecnical measure that you make, if you don't have it you will be easy to liquidate especially if you are greedy person without size you will lose your money in the market.

It's a lie if you speak no matter if in your liquidation, this is a trader where you must have a profit to profit about the efforts you are doing in this field, with that thought you will be wiser in taking the point so that you have a mind to calculate all the possibilities that can occur in a volatile market structure.

It's good that you didn't lose money because many traders including me have lost money trading high Leverage. That's the most common way people lose in trading because people become greedy and trade with getting quick money in their Mind. So the First thing you should do is become disciplined and then trade with capital that you can bear to lose. Another thing you should not do is going against the trend you should always go with the trend and don't trade every move but trade with perfect setups. And it won't be long till you become profitable.

You made at least two mistakes. The first mistake is that you decided to trade with high leverage and your position could have been easily liquidated. And the second mistake is that when you saw that your position was in profit, you did not fix a part of it.

20x leverage is very dangerous and liquidation comes when price changes about 5% opposite to your trading position. It is not a leverage to use especially with shit meme tokens which can have rug pulls and crashes anytime.

When trading, use a stop loss order to prevent your loss or at least reduce loss severity. When your open position is in profit, set up an order to stop loss for kind of profit if the market suddenly turns oppositely. It is like positive stop loss and you can set it up proactively for having kind of profit to enjoy and also protect your initial trading capital.

Solid point!! You know this is another tip i’m seeing for the first time, positive stoploss, but it’s also like setting TP so as not to loss all the profits gained within the short time frame. I’d keep that in mind as i’m considering joining Trading club championship on Bitget but i won’t be trading futures but would trade both spot and Onchain instead. It’s good as the Op didn’t end up losing cause most times if a futures trade go against the trader it mostly end up in loss.

Most altcoins price moves the same way so there’s no way to hedge against while continuing trading. It’s either you will lower your leverage or do a DCA leverage trading to lessen your risk.

But normally, I do switch to spot trading when the market is too volatile and hard to predict the price movement.

It’s better that way rather still risk just to chase profit on unstable market.

I think you need to consider the trading volume of the pair you are trading, POPCAT is far low trading volume compared to these top altcoins like SOL or SUI.
So expect huge votalities too and less trading activities as trading volume are low plus market cap also low - it could add about volatility in trading futures.

I rarely trade futures. However, I sometimes enter when market conditions truly look easy enough for me to exploit. However, I rarely use leverage above 20x. My maximum limit is only 10x. I also employ fairly strict risk management. I set stop-loss and take-profit orders from the start, as I've calculated my acceptable loss limit. I've also determined the profit percentage I want to take. This way, I can feel more at ease even if I don't open the market after my position is filled. By setting stop-loss and take-profit orders, I believe market volatility won't surprise or panic us, as we're prepared for it. So, my advice is to reduce your leverage and employ fairly strict risk management. However, it's best to avoid markets where price movements are still difficult to analyze.

In unpredictable market conditions, I find spot trading much more comfortable. Although it does require more patience to generate profits, the risks involved are not too great and won't affect our psychology.

Maybe you can handle the unpredictability by mastering the movement of a few coins and not just randomly trading. If you are able to master by following up on the movement of a coin, maybe then your chances of profiting will be higher than when you are randomly trading different coins daily. There is a higher risk trading coins that you are unfamiliar with this is why extreme caution is necessary, and you knowing how to enter and quickly exit the trade. When dealing with a very volatile coin, expect volatility both ways, so you have to monitor it and try to be in and out quickly before the market gives an opportunity and takes it back without you profiting like it has happened in your case and situation.

Honestly this method doesn't always work but it's quite useful for minimizing losses. First don't invest 100% of your money at one point, especially if you're using high leverage, as this is like a double edged sword: you might make a quick profit, but you'll mostly lose in the long run. Instead, divide that 100% into three parts, for example, with the first entry point being 50%, the second 25%, and the last 25%. Or you could divide it into four parts. Don't use high leverage, as the saying goes, "Slowly but surely"
However it would be better to switch to spot trading, which is safer.

@Iamcrypticguy, hope you understood what the first comment said? You are using too much leverage to trade altcoins, 20x is way too much to trade altcoins with it because they are already highly volatile cryptos, the simple solution to reduce the risk of liquidation is at the tip of your fingers which is reduction of your leverage setup. You can not hedge or do anything about altcoins volatility while trading futures. What you should do is not take trade with high leverage because higher leverage leads to quick liquidation when the market is not moving in your buy or sell position.

The leverage posting talking is what matters most, from experience, if you're not the greedy type or high risk taker, then 1x multiplier enough and you have a reduced chances of losing along the line, but when you're onto something like 10x and above, then you see the way a little drop or rise could mean a lot to you in determining your loss or income, so if you don't want to take much risk as a trader, 1x to 5x is moderately advisable to use for any position.

It does not make sense to use leverage equal to x1 for futures trading, as this is akin to spot trading, where it is safer to trade. Do not forget that when trading with x1 leverage, your position can also be liquidated.

Spot trading is less risky than futures trading, so you’ll definitely find it less risky here but you just have to be patient and also make the best out of them through extensive research about a project you intend to invest into. Spot trading is just you buying a coin and hoping that it grows in price value. These are moments we see rise in price value of coins, but not all coins you’ve invested into may rise along, that is, you need to research for the best project to get to invest into.

Futures trading can present huge rewards, rather with 20x leverage, the risk of quick reversals like POPCAT trade is massively high. When you begin to see repeated volatility wiping out your gains or leaves you exposed to liquidation, then it wise to try less aggressive methods or shift a little attention to spot trading mostly with solid projects like BGB, SOL, and SUI

Not really ready to stop futures consider these few steps to manage risk:
* Reduce your leverage
* Set rigid parameters and stay with them
* Hedge with options or inverse positions
* Refuse complete exposure

Most of it all it's smarter to prioritize funds preservation over fast profit. Combination of futures with spot trading may give you the best balance for the now

I never tried hedging for unexpected volatility.
The only thing that I use to protect my capital is the risk management position sizing and using stop-loss.
I don't trade consecutively after my stop-loss hits, but I do a manual trail-stop. Once the target 1:1 RR breaks, I adjust SL to breakeven for risk free trade and everytime multiple TP hits I adjust them to secure profit.

Honestly, with popcat that's volatile coin you should always have a stop-loss and adjust it later to breakeven to avoid unexpected moves.

All coins can experience unexpected situations. If you're trading futures, after seeing that you've reached 100% of your initial, better to take it for the initial, leaving the remaining balance is far better than setting a negative stop-loss in case an unexpected market event occurs. However, if your position is wrong, with 20% leverage, the risk is very high, even if you set it to minus -20%, it can be triggered quickly. The safest way is only when you're in profit, taking the opportunity to withdraw the initial plus trading fees. I think futures and trade on memcoins spot, have same strategy. take the initial and some profit if possible.

It is a good idea to have a specific plan before entering each trade because on some platforms, futures traders can use options to hedge their positions. If you are in a long position and fear that market volatility will increase you can open a small short position this will limit your potential losses. But it is a complex strategy and requires good market knowledge to use it correctly invest a small portion of your portfolio in a particular trade to avoid risk. Generally it is best not to risk more than 1% to 2% of your total capital on each trade this will protect you from losing your entire capital due to one bad trade.

The higher you try the luckier you could get. That is what they believe in, and that is why they keep on trying the do a wild deal and if they are lucky then they will get what they want. However in most cases they do not do what they want and results are almost always a bad one.

Volatility is great for a trader by the way because if you know what you are doing a good job and that should be the worst part if you as a trader fail to use that. I get that not everyone feels that safe, but if you are worried about volatility then maybe trading isn't for you. Like for example I do not use most of my money on trading, over 90% of my money is on long term bitcoin holding, why? Because I dislike volatility, so you may consider that too.

Rn ETH AND VRA are trending.. Eth is getting lots of volumes ngl. Hence I'll double down on it. We could see $4k though.. while VRA is a new alts I'm looking at, wanna use it to boost volumes to keep up on this challenge
 BG Trading championship challenge  (https://x.com/bitgetglobal/status/1947966817273819203?t=9uVYsbCr8WZdNnBFvDsYJw&s=19)