Bull Market Discipline — Taking Profits Before the Crash
Bull markets make greed easy. Simple rules — scale out in parts, do not HODL everything, keep a reserve — to lock in gains instead of giving them back.
The trap: greed feels rational in a bull market
When BTC runs from 20k to 60k, it is easy to think "it will surely hit 100k" and hold everything. Then it retraces to 30k and the paper gains are gone. Someone who took profit in parts along the way keeps far more of the move.
Two ways to take profit
1. Scale out. Split the position and sell in tranches as price rises — for example 20% at +20%, another 20% at +40%, +60%, +80%, and let a final piece ride. You realize gains at several levels, so a crash after the top still leaves most of your capital banked.
2. Trailing stop. Set a stop a fixed percentage below the running high. If the high is 70k and the trail is 10%, your stop sits at 63k and rises as price rises. You stay in while the trend continues but exit automatically when it reverses.
Rough signs of a top
None of these calls the exact peak, but together they warrant caution:
- RSI above 80 for several days in a row
- Volume fading while price keeps climbing
- Uniformly euphoric headlines
- A surge in leveraged positions
Holding 100% through a bull is rarely optimal
Consider an entry at 10k with a peak at 100k. Holding the whole way and riding it back to 30k leaves you up far less than someone who sold in parts on the way up. Locking in some gains beats round-tripping them.
fastbot lets you set multiple take-profit levels and trailing stops, so profits are taken automatically at the levels you choose. Set your take-profit levels.