How I Made $3100 In Just Day 1 Of This Challenge
In this solo commentary, the creator of The Art of Crypto walks through a live trade from his 10K‑to‑100K challenge, explaining every step from market‑theory to execution and post‑trade reflection. He begins by revisiting the weekend high/low liquidity theory – after a Friday high is taken out, price often targets the Friday low or the 0.5 Fibonacci midpoint between the two. He shows how this concept guided his expectation of a downward move on May 24, and why he chose to scalp the move rather than hold for the full risk‑to‑reward. He then details his session‑based approach, emphasizing the New York open as a high‑probability window, and how he scans higher‑timeframe (15‑minute) structure before drilling down to 5‑minute and 1‑minute charts. Key technical tools include market‑structure breaks, bearish order blocks, fair‑value gaps, and Fibonacci mid‑range levels. He describes his entry timing, stop‑loss placement above recent swing highs, and a tiered profit‑taking plan (partial exits of $800 and $470, totaling about $1,250 on a $10K account). Throughout, he reflects on trade‑management psychology—balancing greed, pain tolerance, and the decision to exit when 1‑minute structure shifts—while acknowledging that missing a larger move is acceptable if risk is managed. The video concludes with a call to action for viewers to engage with the series, watch his “bread‑and‑butter” strategy video, and consider his paid trading course or Patreon support.
Chapters
What's up everybody? This is my first time recording a video in a while, like a week actually. And for those of you wondering, if I do sound a little bit different, it's because I just got COVID and currently I'm still recovering from COVID So if I sound just a little bit off, do forgive that. But currently, welcome back to the second episode of the 10K to 100K challenge, where I try to walk you through the process of trying to grow a small $10K account into $100K, which is something that a lot of people would like to do. And hopefully after watching this series, you guys are going to be able to learn exactly what to look out for, and hopefully you guys can then be able to replicate these results for yourself. And so without any further ado, let's jump right into it. So if you haven't watched episode 2 already, that goes into this trade right here where I was able to catch, you know, basically the exact top and got out around somewhere about Now, this trade in particular that I'm about to talk about is a trade where I caught again the top here and took profit right at the bottom. I don't know if you guys can see that, but that's sort of where I exited. So how was I able to do this? So if you guys remember from episode 2, I talked about the weekend high and low theory and how after you do take out Friday's high, you will tend to target Friday's low because that is where the second point of liquidity is, right? This is where the liquidity is. And so until this level is taken out, I will not expect price to make any significant upwards prices, like price moves. And as you can see, as the moment this level got taken out, price immediately did a 180 and had a really powerful up move. So just this concept alone is going to make a lot of people a lot of money. This concept alone is really, really powerful. So if you haven't already watched episode 2, you're going to want to do so, right? It's going to teach you how to catch trades like this. Then you might be asking, you know, why not— if you open the trade here, why not just hold until the Friday's low? Like, that would be a no-brainer decision, because if you did, right, then your profits would have easily, easily— like, imagine, just look at this, right? It's about a 10 risk-to-reward ratio. And I remember my stop loss was above that high instead, so this would have been 11% on the account. And given that I was risking about 3.5% of the account, this would have made me about 36 to 40% on my account in just a singular trade. But here's the thing about the Friday high-low theory. After crunching the numbers basically over the past 100 weekends, or is it 50, I'm not too sure, but my right-hand man Ridge did, you know, do the test. And the numbers found that if you take out Friday's high, you will only go to take out the other level within the same week, or like within the same move, only about 50% of the time, or Either that or it's 40 or 60%. I'll have to pull up the data, but that was the consensus. So it is not as simple as simply taking a short there and taking your profit there, or taking a long here and taking your profit there if this situation were to have been reversed. There is a lot more nuance than that. But, but what we have found is that a lot of the time, right, a lot of the time, it tends to revert to the midpoint Right? The mid-range of Friday's high and low. So in this case, you're just going to want to draw a fib from this, you know, Friday's high and Friday's low, and you want to look for the 0.5 fib, right? That's the mid-range. And a lot of the times it does revert back to the mid-range. And in one of the videos, I actually talk about why this is. Why does price like to revert back to the 0.5 so often? If you want to figure that out, you're going to want to watch that video after you finish this video. That video also just lays down the exact kind of bread and butter setup that I like to look for on a day-to-day basis, that in, you know, in order to generate consistent profits. So then you might ask, hey, if I knew that it was going to go back to the 0.5, why did I take my profit here? Well, that is just, you know, nobody's perfect. I can make mistakes as well, and it's fine. You know, small gains compound over time. Now, before I get into the actual, like, reasoning behind how I took this setup, Let's just take a look at you know the money that I made on this particular trade right here, and as you can see, this trade is actually on the same day actually on the 24th of May, right? And I closed the trade out in two portions: one for $800 profits and the other one for $470 of profit. So I made in total about $1,270, $1,250 on this trade, and you can see right there, right? I shorted once and I took profit twice, right there and right there. Now, this trade is beautiful because I was able to identify the bottom as well, and, you know, the bottom was in fact at the Friday's low. But anyways, you know, let's dive into the thought process behind why I took that trade. And in order to do that, we're going to have to zoom out to the 15-minute. Firstly, you're observing the situation of the markets prior to the New York open. In this case, that would have been 9:00 AM, right? I took this trade right at about 9:30 AM, which is a similar time to when I took this trade right here at 9:30 AM as well on the 23rd of May, but I closed it on the 24th. As you can see, you know, 9:30, like that period of time, 1 hour around the New York open, that is a really good time to be trading because price tends to be very predictable, you know, around that time. And of course the rest of New York is very fun to trade as well. So it is a pity that I'm staying in Asia at the moment, so I find it hard to trade in New York. So for anybody out there who is able to trade in New York, it's one of the best trading sessions sessions, period, on a day-to-day basis. If I could trade in New York, I would be making twice to 3 times the amount of money than I would right now. But I digress. So you want to look at the market, right, prior to the New York, and that's going to be the London, right, the London session that opens right at about 2 PM— 2 AM New York, as well as the Asia session. And you can see that throughout the entire day, price has been just consolidating and doing absolutely nothing. And that's the importance of knowing, you know, what kind of sessions that you like to trade. Like, every session is different, right? Every session, every day is different, and every day you're going to get something different. And the trick to being profitable, in a sense, is to be able to identify what today is going to give you. And this day in particular, it could also be read as Asia was up, you know, London was just sort of holding. Then you have to think to yourself, you know, why is this situation happening? Is price perhaps trying to build up liquidity, right? Just getting— tricking retail buyers and sellers, just retail traders in general, tricking them into getting into these positions right here before they reverse, like before they bring the price to somewhere that they want to bring it. Then if you look at this, then yeah, you know, up and down moves tend to happen in 2 impulses, right? Just general rule of thumb. You can see that, you know, this was the first down move, right? This is the first impulse. And then you get a consolidation, and then this right here you can call it the second impulse. Same thing for an up move actually, right? You got the first impulse here, you got a consolidation, you get the second impulse there, right? Sometimes it can be three, but for the most part it tends to happen in two impulses. So every time you get the first impulse, know that it is almost always not going to be done yet. So again, going back to what I was talking about previously, now that this has happened, you have to wonder, you know, is there a higher just level that the market makers are trying to target. Because clearly, if they're consolidating price here instead of just reversing it to instantly just reversing it, it means that it's not done yet. You know, there's— they're trying to induce people to come in and take bets. When retail traders see this happening, they are immediately going to be trying to trade all of these little moves right here. But that's not what we're trying to do here, right? We're trying to catch the bigger move. And you could argue that the bigger move would have been this upswing right here, which I actually To be fair, I actually wanted to get in on. It's just, you know, given that it is about time for bed for me, I didn't. And did I regret it? Well, yeah, because I would have made a lot, a lot of money because I knew this was the bottom. But hey, it's fine. The way to profits and the way to growing your account is not through, you know, jackpot home run, you know, giga trades. From many, many small ones compounding over time, and that's how you grow your account. After you've identified You know, the fact that price is trying to take out another level prior to, you know, just doing something else. Then you have to think to yourself, you know, is that level down or is it up? Well, clearly in this case it's going to be down because you already took out Friday's high. So there's no reason to expect that price is going to, you know, just reverse here all of a sudden in the middle of nowhere before taking out a key level. So then I want to bring your attention to this level right here at 28,730. Clearly there is Friday's low there, And a key level that price would want to take out. And then when you get near to the New York open, that's when you start looking for a setup. Now in this particular instance, the setup that I would like to go for is after you get a break of both of these lows right here on the 15-minute. Remember, you always start your analysis out from a higher time frame first before you dive into a lower time frame such as the 1-minute, such as the 2-minute, in order to narrow down your entry. In this case, my high time frame is going to be 15 minutes, right? Notice how after you broke structure on one occasion, right, this was the first hint that you wanted to take. But in this same move, I want you to notice here, in this same move right here, you also took out another level right there, which indicates that 2 levels has been broken to the downside. And if you know anything about my trading methodology, is you never chase, you know, Dumps or pumps, right? Every time after structure has been broken, price always tends to reverse back to give you an entry, right? This pullback right here is not for you to be buying, right? Because retail, when they see price going up, they're going to want to chase it. That's not how it works. When price goes up after taking structure, you always look to sell. And will there be times that you are wrong? Absolutely. But is this a higher probability trade? Yes. Is this the higher probability action? Yes. And remember what I said in episode 2, the successful trader is the one who consistently takes the higher probability move over the lower probability move, basically many, many times. Then you narrow down into a lower time frame, right? In this instance, we're going to look at the 5-minute. So once price broke these 2 structures, then you have to look where is a realistic level that you could dive into If price were to reverse, then in most instances, what I'm going to be drawn to is going to be this block right here. This is what you call a bearish order block, and you should only start looking for bearish order blocks after you have broken structure towards the downside. I want you to pay attention to this right here. So after price breaks structure with this move, right, structure was here, you broke structure with this swing low right here. The moment that happens, then there are 2 things that forms, right? First is the fair value gap. I talk about that in my bread and butter you know, trading strategy, right? So this right here would have been your fair value gap because notice how there is zero price action here, right? So the most optimal entry would have been right here, right? Right here when price retraced back into a fair value gap after taking out a low, right? After you broke market structure, price reverses back into a fair value gap and bam, right? Takes out the second bit of structure right there. So that would have been the optimal entry. However, I wasn't paying attention to the charts at the moment. But I just want you guys to know this is the optimal entry, right? But then at the same time, that is what you call a fair value gap, right? This right here would be your bearish order block as well, right? So if price were to have reversed all the way here, that could have been the entry as well, right? At the entry of the bearish order block. So in this case, this right here would have been the entry. I entered pretty close to that, right? I was giving price time to sort of do its thing to get some before I jumped in because I wanted to see like, hey, is price trying to make a move downwards, right? And then your question would be like, how do you tell if price is trying to go downwards or not, or if price is actually, you know, just faking you out and it's actually going to go to the upside? And to this I would say it's very much up to experience, so it's very hard for me to explain that to you, but the rest of what I'm explaining here should still be helpful. Right? So the ideal entry, you would have had three times to get into this entry, by the way. One there, you know, it's close enough. But two, two times. One, two. Right? Those would have been the second most optimal entry. And if I were to enter there, then I would always, you know, just place my stop loss above this high right here. Right? The previous swing high. Or if you wanted to be safe, you could have placed it above there. Right? That is a more key swing high because oftentimes price might go back into a fair value gap multiple times to. you know, just accumulate more orders, accumulate more short orders before price actually dumps. For instance, in this case right here, imagine if you just went short there, then price would have came into this bearish order block 2 times before, you know, ultimately moving in the other direction, in the direction that you want it to. So there are 2 ways you can go about putting your stop loss. So after, you know, price fills in this order block, then you just simply take target, you know, take your profit. At a key level, right? How do you determine a key level? In this instance, it is the Friday's low. Sometimes it could be a Fib level, sometimes it could be a swing low, sometimes it could be relatively equal lows. Whatever it is, every situation is going to differ, and the important thing always is to know beforehand, right? You want to take a bet on what the direction is going to be, right? You don't want to just blindly jump into a trade and then pray that it's going to work out in your favor. Notice how in this instance I first identified that the price was going to target this level before I started hunting for confirmation signals, essentially. And I got the confirmation signals after price broke structure twice prior to the New York open, right? And then basically, once the time came to execute, voilà, you catch the perfect entry. And then you might wonder, if I knew that price is going to target 28,700, why did I take profit 2 times right here instead of just taking it all? At this particular level there. Now the thing is, I was actually, you know, a little bit greedy and I was trying to hold on for price to go lower, but clearly it did not. So then I want to walk you through what did I see in price in order to determine that, hey, it was time to get out before price reversed. And this is actually the genius part about understanding how to read the 1-minute chart, because a lot of the times you can see when, you know, price is essentially trying to reverse, and you will be able to make a pretty quick reaction in order to secure your gains, essentially. So as you can see, we are in a 1-minute chart now. This was where I was in when I decided to take profit here. So I want you to pay attention to this. Price came down to that level right there 3 times, but I was greedy. I did not take my profit right there. It's either that or I couldn't react quickly enough. You know, it happens. It's all right. There are always ways to rectify the situation. In this case, I did take my profit relatively close to the bottom, so it's fine. Now, what made me want to take my profits there? Well, the thing that I looked for was this swing high right here, right? The moment you formed that swing high right there, I determined that if price were to break that swing high right there, it would signify that market structure has been shifted to the upside in the 1-minute, right? And this is happening at the exact same time that a key level has been taken out. So remember how when we shorted this initially, right back in episode 2, we looked for a key level to be violated, and then we looked for a break of market structure right there, and then on the retrace we entered, right? So similar, like similar story, right? You take out a key level here, indicates that price is likely to reverse back to the upside at the moment. So once you broke this, you form a swing high, you take out that swing high, And you fail to take out this swing low right there. I want you to pay attention to this, right? You fail to take out that swing low right there, and then, you know, the rest is history. I could have entered here, right? I was stupid not to. This would have been a very beautiful bread and butter setup. And if you were considering entering into a long based on this setup right here, honestly, I wouldn't have entered here. To be honest, there was just no entry for me there. But what I would have done is after breaking this swing high right here, price You know, break broke the swing high. Now I want you guys to pause this video here and tell me what did price leave behind, right? And exactly where. If you saw it, good because price left behind a fair value gap right there, right? Notice how there was no price action at all in this level right here. So market makers, what they're going to do, they're going to bring price back down to fill in the imbalance before you know showing the true direction essentially or continuing the direction. So in this case, this would have been my entry. So if I were to have went long, just place a stop either there or there. In this case, probably there because, you know, it's wide enough already. 0.35, it's pretty wide for me, at least for the type of trades that I take. And as for profit targets, you know, you just literally zoom back and there, right there, you see that you have an imbalance there as well, right? Right here, no price action at all. So that would have been the target right there. And notice how it came exactly very close to there and then it reverses, right? So I was seeing all this happening in real time actually. It's just that's why I was regretting not taking this trade, but it's fine. You know, I still made money and that's all that matters. So right there, the moment you broke structure, you know, it's time to get out. You don't have to hold on to your positions. A lot of the times people get emotional about their trades. They're like, ah, it can go lower. You know, I'm already up $1,200. You know, So much more money to be made if I hold on to this position. And you really have to get out of that mindset if that is you, because you had an initial target, right? Target has been hit. Market structure is shifting on the 1-minute, which indicates that things could be changing. Even if it was just here, even if price, you know, maybe it just shifted so that price could take out this high right here and it went even lower, then do you have to regret your decision if you got out early? No, because There are also instances where after taking out this high, price will not reverse back down this low, and price will shift market structure again to the upside. And you just have to live with that, you know, because almost everything that you do in trading is— from the moment you open a position, right, everything that you do from that point onwards is painful. I want you to visualize this, right? If you take profit here and price goes even lower, right? Oh, you missed out on potential gains. That's painful, right? Yeah, true. But at the same time, what if you take profit here and then price, you know, just that, that is the bottom, you know, and price just reverts? Now you save yourself a lot of pain. But what if after it comes to here, it goes down again? You know, everything is painful, right? You just gotta be able to accept what kind of pain that you want to tolerate. For me, I would be much happier accepting the pain of taking profit too early than losing money, right? The pain of losing money. Is very, very painful indeed. So that's the thought process that should help a lot of you. And if it has been helpful, by the way, I need you to drop a like on this video and comment down in the comment section below 10K, because it is just to show your support for the series and to show that how many people have watched this video until the end. You know, depending on the amount of support this series gets, I'll be definitely pumping out more and more videos. But definitely let me know if you enjoy these kinds of long-form commentary and deep dive explanations about why I take certain trades the way I do. For now, remember to watch that bread and butter video that I posted. Just super valuable stuff that I would teach in the trading course— in my paid trading course, by the way. And if that's something you might be interested in, I have a link in the description box below, or head over to patreon.com/artofcrypto to sign up. I will see you inside.
