Why Do People Think Trading Competitions Are For Whales Only?

[programmer3666]

I was in an X Space earlier where someone mentioned that the reason he doesn’t participate in trading competitions is because he’s underfunded, as most competitions tend to favor whales.

The host debunked this idea and gave an analysis of three ongoing events that actually favor retail traders even more:

1. BitDelta Winter WonderTrade Festival

2. Bitget Crazy48H trading event

3. Zoomex Fair Play Cup

He explained that these competitions stand out because they are more accessible, especially when compared to events that require $30,000+ in minimum trading volume.

So my question is: why do people often assume that trading competitions are only for whales?

The main reason why people have that notion that trading competition is mainly for the whales is that due to past events, a large sum of trading volume is required and that makes it very difficult for smaller traders to participate and it gives that general perception that only the big players could win! but lately there are some platforms that have created good competition that transparently reawrd good strategy, consistency and also small volume. This in turns gives some retail traders a very good and fair chance of winning.

[Victorybit1]

They can easily manipulate the chart of any coin and generate volume. That's why we can safely say they consistently rank in the top 10 in their trading campaigns. People with small balances don't stand much of a chance in these competitions. Even if you leave it to a grid bot, you still can't achieve the volume you want. Those with money can always make more money and do so effortlessly anywhere. They place buy orders at low prices and then effortlessly place sell orders at high prices as if nothing had happened, and wait.

If you have volume then it's very much possible that you can influence the market to your favor and that's what all these big companies have been doing overtime. I believe so many times that the price of the market on some coin shifts it's all the doing of a major institution that stands a big chance at gaining over the whole process.

[execijutiere]

They can easily manipulate the chart of any coin and generate volume. That's why we can safely say they consistently rank in the top 10 in their trading campaigns. People with small balances don't stand much of a chance in these competitions. Even if you leave it to a grid bot, you still can't achieve the volume you want. Those with money can always make more money and do so effortlessly anywhere. They place buy orders at low prices and then effortlessly place sell orders at high prices as if nothing had happened, and wait.

If you have volume then it's very much possible that you can influence the market to your favor and that's what all these big companies have been doing overtime. I believe so many times that the price of the market on some coin shifts it's all the doing of a major institution that stands a big chance at gaining over the whole process.

The reason for daily drops of 40-50% in many altcoins is whales. They no longer wish to hold the asset and feel the need to offload it, which is why we have witnessed such dumps. Take Flow, for example, just the other day. Additionally, we can see drops of 30-40% or even more in several coins every day or every week, sometimes within just a few hours. If you're a whale, it means you have enough money or coins in your possession, and you can manipulate the market as you please. Even limit orders on the exchange can't interfere with this.

[uneng]

Whales have influence and power inside the market, while average investors have nothing, but can only expect to be following the moves of the whales at the right place, on the right time. Whales play with prices and have much more ammo to spend than everyone else. If it's a competition to conclude who has more volume of trades or who profits more, it's likely whales are the favorite ones.

Better to not waste small funds in a competition doomed to failure against whales, doesn't matter how exciting the potential rewards look to be.

[tech30338]

...
So my question is: why do people often assume that trading competitions are only for whales?

Because whales have much more leverage and influence over the market in general than the average trader which only have a few thousands of dollars to trade. whales can set up red and green walls in order to manipulate the price of Bitcoin or any other alternative currency at their will, so they can accumulate or sell at the price range they see for suitable for their profits and in order to win the competition.
For example, a whale could set short orders on the futures market and then use part of their fortune to dump a massive number of crypto in the spot market, prompting the price to drop and his short orders to bring them a lot of money, those are movements which are impossible by someone who does not have millions or billions at their disposal.

I agree having the funds to shake the market is for the wealthy because they have the money to do so, if you are just small trader, you need to wait for the big player to be able to see where its going, this is very hard for small players, but if you can strategize and also know when to position or where to trade, that can compensate on unable to be able to move the market, also being experience will also help you, so there are some path you need to take to be able to bypass the lack of funds or having a small funds, but that is not easy from the start.

[jems]

...
So my question is: why do people often assume that trading competitions are only for whales?

Because whales have much more leverage and influence over the market in general than the average trader which only have a few thousands of dollars to trade. whales can set up red and green walls in order to manipulate the price of Bitcoin or any other alternative currency at their will, so they can accumulate or sell at the price range they see for suitable for their profits and in order to win the competition.
For example, a whale could set short orders on the futures market and then use part of their fortune to dump a massive number of crypto in the spot market, prompting the price to drop and his short orders to bring them a lot of money, those are movements which are impossible by someone who does not have millions or billions at their disposal.

I agree having the funds to shake the market is for the wealthy because they have the money to do so, if you are just small trader, you need to wait for the big player to be able to see where its going, this is very hard for small players, but if you can strategize and also know when to position or where to trade, that can compensate on unable to be able to move the market, also being experience will also help you, so there are some path you need to take to be able to bypass the lack of funds or having a small funds, but that is not easy from the start.

In my opinion, it is very difficult. If we only have small capital, we only need to follow market movements and hope something happens without being able to change anything like big players. It cannot be denied that the influence of large capital is very large in manipulating or moving market prices. We do not have the power to do that.

[Antona]

I think people generalize one bad experience or hearing about a whale dominated event makes them write off all competitions. That host did a service by pointing out alternatives with fairer structures it's always worth reading the fine print on the eligibility rules before assuming you can't compete

[allthebitandbobs]

I think people generalize one bad experience or hearing about a whale dominated event makes them write off all competitions. That host did a service by pointing out alternatives with fairer structures it's always worth reading the fine print on the eligibility rules before assuming you can't compete

A general opinion cannot be just an assumption or a rumour. People are avoiding trading competitions after lots of bitter experiences due to insiders. Yeah, not just the whales but exchanges themselves may take over the trading competitions because they do not need to pay any big money as a reward. When there cannot be any transparency with exchanges about trading competitions, then people will assume about all kind of manipulations. Moreover, casinos also not an exception with this kind of manipulations.

Personally I as well avoid trading competitions because it is not about our trading skills but exchanges look for only volumes because that way alone they can make more money than what they need to pay as a reward to winners. If a trading competition is really intent to test our technical skills, then I guess more traders will participate but for that exchanges must conduct competitions on demo environment alone.