• Graham Bullock had worked in the oil and gas sector for 16 years before he heard about crypto trading and decided to give it a shot.
• The 50-year-old now trades full-time from his home, with his portfolio of Litecoin, XRP, Sandbox, Decentraland and other altcoins now up by 1,650 percent.

Cryptocurrency trading has become one of the most lucrative opportunities in the world, but only for those who do it right. One of these is Graham Bullock, a British national who quit a career he had engaged in for decades to pursue the risky, yet rewarding venture. He has invested in well-known altcoins like XRP and Litecoin and some lesser-known ones like Evai and Contentos, but overall, his portfolio is up by over 15x.

It all started four years ago when Graham decided that he was fed up with having to spend time away from his family. He told Abu Dhabi-based newspaper The National News:

Four years ago, I decided I had to resolve this but the money in an offshore job was very good. I wanted a job where I could stay at home and earn a similar income.

It was only in June 2020 that he heard about cryptocurrencies. He was sold, and he ended up investing $3,000 in Evai, the native token of a similarly-named “decentralized unbiased cryptoasset rating platform powered by AI and ML.” Evai is trading at $0.22 at press time with a market cap of $114 million.

The bet paid off and since then, he has become increasingly more skilled at spotting the right trades. He quit his job just months after his first investment and has been trading from home since then. He told the outlet that he has invested $20,000 in XRP, Decentraland, Sandbox, Litecoin, Evai, Crypto.com’s CRO and other altcoins. This investment is now worth $350,000, he says, a 1,650 percent spike.

Graham has, however, steered clear of Bitcoin and Ethereum, which he says have lower upside due to their high prices.

Quitting your job to trade crypto

Graham’s story is not unique. In the past five years, more and more people have quit their jobs to try their hands in crypto. The crypto market’s performance in that time has justified most of these decisions. In that time, Bitcoin has shot up from about $700 to now trade at $43,743, a 6,100 percent surge, while Ethereum has recorded a 31,000 percent spike from just under $10 in 2016.

A recent study found that 4 percent of U.S adults had quit their jobs over the past year to trade crypto. It also found that 7 percent of people knew a colleague who had quit their job due to the financial freedom that crypto presents.

Matt Dixon, the founder of Evai, commented:

Cryptocurrency trading is becoming an increasingly attractive option for people wanting to achieve financial independence and freedom from the daily grind of office hours. The flexibility of trading from anywhere in the world is also an appealing prospect for many people. However, the decision to make a full-time career needs to be carefully considered and based on a number of factors.

One of the key factors that traders need to consider is whether they can weather the uncertainty that comes with crypto. Bitcoin sheds 10 percent of its value in a day severally, and this trend is even worse with altcoins which can lose over 30 percent of their value overnight. Some newer cryptos have been known to lose over 75 percent of their value in hours.

For Graham, the uncertainty is a blessing. He bets on the volatility and he has become quite good at it.

There’s so much money to be made and I get to be with my family, which is invaluable.

Buying the bottom, selling the top

The crypto market has traditionally been a retail environment. Many institutional traders kept away, believing that there was way too much manipulation and the market was unstable. This is slowly changing, however, with some of the biggest asset managers trying their hands.

This shifting dynamic has made the market much more competitive. Traders have to employ advanced techniques to make money.

For Graham, one of the strategies is diversification. He explained:

I am learning every day. You have to diversify and keep six to seven cryptocurrency assets in your portfolio.

He has also been staking his crypto and earning passive income from it. He says that he makes more money staking than he did on his previous oil and gas job.

He has also become quite adept at technical analysis, telling the outlet that what he depends on the most is the Elliot Wave theory. This technical analysis mechanism identifies recurrent long-term price patterns related to persistent changes in investor sentiment and psychology.

He commented:

Experts tell me when to expect the market to drop and later recover. This helps me to sell at the top and buy at the bottom.

Crypto trading comes with its hazards, however. For one, it requires extreme involvement. Unlike the stock market, crypto never stops, all day and night. And even when traders in one region lay off, another region picks up the mantle.

Srinu Chowhan, an executive at BitOasis crypto exchange, stated:

The cryptocurrency market is open 24×7 unlike the stock market or forex market, so trading can become an all-day commitment for many, demanding patience, non-stop analysis of trading patterns and concentration in equal measure.

Related: New survey reveals that crypto investing has massively hurt personal relationships