Bitget VIP trader Steve said his move from A-shares and U.S. equities into on-chain assets was not just a switch in what he traded. To him, it was also a hunt for a different kind of market edge.
In the interview, Steve described himself as a short-term trader driven by news. After one heavy loss, he started spending more time on a separate trading problem too: the gap between knowing the right move and actually making it.
From A-shares and U.S. stocks to on-chain markets
Steve said his trading path has taken a few turns.
He began with China A-shares. Around 2020, he moved into U.S. stocks, mainly through Interactive Brokers, or IBKR.
Around June this year, as the environment changed for mainland users taking part in traditional markets such as Hong Kong stocks, he started rethinking how to reach markets more directly. And at the same time, on-chain markets entered the picture.
For Steve, one of the most obvious differences in crypto trading is simple: opportunities are no longer locked to set trading hours. On-chain markets run 24/7. If something happens outside the session for traditional markets, prices can react right away instead of waiting for the next opening bell. For a trader used to reading information and events for direction, that means he can watch the market respond the moment news breaks, then decide whether to get involved.
Trading is now his full-time work. He said he spends about 10 hours a day watching markets and has gradually put together a steady group of information sources, including overseas channels and small private groups with friends.
Describing his style, Steve said: "I mainly do short-term trades driven by news."
A June storage trade reinforced the value of directional judgment
Steve said not every piece of information deserves a trade.
When news appears, his first question is whether it will really affect the market and whether that effect can produce a fairly clear direction. He said he enters only when the information has enough trading value and market action begins to match what he expected.
He cited a storage-themed move in June as a standard example.
Storage has been one of the sectors he has tracked this year. After related information and market changes appeared, he followed the theme and used price action to judge whether the move was developing in line with his thesis. Once he confirmed direction, he traded it through futures, usually keeping leverage around 3x to 5x.
That, in Steve's view, is what "news-driven" trading actually means. The news itself is not the answer. The real decision point is whether the news creates a direction you can trade.
Looking back on where his profits came from, he said it like this: "Most of the time, it still comes from combining news catalysts with judging market direction."
A severe loss in July changed how he viewed himself
If the June storage trade showed him the value of making the right directional call, a severe loss in July pushed him to face another side of trading.
That trade happened on another exchange. After the position turned negative, he did not exit in time and kept holding until he could not take it anymore and had to stop out.
Looking back, he said he knew what he should have done. Once the trend no longer matched the original expectation, he should have exited. But after the loss was already there, a psychological gap opened up between knowing the rule and carrying it out. He connected that to the common trading problem of loss aversion, where people have a harder time accepting a loss that has already happened.
Steve put that conflict bluntly: "The easiest mistake to make is to keep stubbornly holding on when the trend no longer matches expectations. The simplest rule is not to hold and hope, but psychologically it's very hard to truly do it."
After that experience, he began to recheck where his profits and losses actually came from. He found that most profits came from directional judgment, while losses more often came from irrational behavior, especially refusing to cut a losing position. Put plainly, trading results are shaped not just by whether the market call is right, but by whether a trader can accept being wrong once the market proves it and still follow rules he already knows.
As he said: "I know the right answer, but actually doing it is not easy."
As trading became routine, platform details mattered more
As trading became part of daily life, Steve said his demands for a platform got more specific.
He prefers futures trading, and liquidity is one of the main reasons. Once information appears, he needs to make a call fast. If the setup is valid, he then has to turn that call into a real trade. In his experience, Bitget has shown solid liquidity, and that has made execution smoother.
For a short-term trader like Steve, information itself is part of the trade. He said the weekly industry updates, market information, and strategy content offered through the VIP service can give him extra reference points when he is judging market direction.
He also watches smaller things that still directly affect the trading experience. He said he wants the mobile app to display OI, or open interest, directly, and he wants asset name changes to be updated faster on the platform.
His feedback was direct. He recognizes the current trading experience, but he still judges it from actual use and keeps spotting places where it could be better.
Turning knowledge into action
After several rounds of trading, Steve said his understanding of the craft has started to shift from reading the market to understanding himself.
In his view, loss aversion has a real effect on a trader's decisions. A trader may know the trend has changed and know a stop-loss should be taken, yet still get pulled around by emotion when the loss is sitting on the screen.
For Steve, the next step may not be finding a more complicated method. It may be repetition. Practice. Stepping back from immediate profit and loss, then looking at each decision in a more rational way.
This article is based on an interview with trader Steve. The views cited represent the interviewee alone and do not constitute investment advice. Futures trading carries high risk and may result in the total loss of principal. Decisions should be made according to individual risk tolerance.