It all started with a game…
Since I was in high school, I played CSGO during my free time. In this game was a newly created synthetic economy. I got interested, delved into the market and spotted an opportunity to make some money on the side. People paid real money for intangible items, and I found that hilarious but I understood the market and why people buy such things; mostly for social status and show, but rarely ever as an investment.
Having started from (almost) nothing. In early 2014, I’d work through nights negotiating deals with other traders on items valued around the $50-$100 ballpark. It took a lot of time to get to understand the market, a lot of practice and skill was required to succeed in the area. I used this time to focus on honing the craft rather than make a profit.
After building a large network of clients by doing small-time trades, I turned to higher-end rare collectibles valued in the thousands of dollars. Profit margins made in this area have exceeded 90% and often involved information asymmetry exploitation (known as “sharking” in the biz, don’t look at me like that, it’s about the survival of the fittest :/), reaching out to my network to target potential buyers and maximizing profit based on sentiment, which often requires a fair amount of experience in the field and strong negotiation ability.
Because I’ve suffered from mental health issues and gone through a dark phase, I stopped actively trading in 2017 prior to complete retirement in the summer of the following year. This was done in favor of allocating more time into studies and self-improvement, as having to keep tabs on so many clients from very different time-zones has done quite a number on my daily functions.
Albeit having some negative impact on life and studies, this has been a great learning experience. I’ve made many friends and connections all over the world throughout this journey. Made friends from Sweden, Norway, Russia, Denmark, Romania, Germany, US, Canada, Russia, South Africa, China, Japan, the GCC, Bolivia, Brazil and the list just keeps going. People from all cultures and backgrounds, young and old.
I have met some of the most amazing people, been badly betrayed by some. Hung out with guys on Discord/TeamSpeak, played Cards Against Humanity (online) with others. Lived through drama between trading groups, had two of my trading partners die in tragic incidents, manipulated a niche market, witnessed the crypto bubble and made loads of profit.
It all makes up for a life-changing experience. It was no easy task, neither was it a smooth-sailing journey or one without risk, loss, blood and tears. Okay maybe not blood, but definitely losses and tears.
Memories
One of my clients, we met while I was on vacation in France.
She is based in Australia, and I am based in Qatar. And we ended up meeting up in France of all places. If that doesn’t say something about the world being small, then I don’t know what would.
Another person I befriended during my trading journey.
I became his trading mentor and advisor later on. We’re still in contact and he is a good friend of mine. We perfectly click, as you can see.
The man who was there from the start.
We became friends online before I started this venture, he was one of my first friends on the platform, we started as gaming buddies. And as time passed, we started trading together and we would exchange advice. After I stopped actively trading in 2017, we talked a lot more. Hours and hours of chats about all kinds of stuff.
We met while I was on tour in Jordan during the summer of 2019. That was our first meeting in real life since we became friends in late 2013. I already miss the guy but we still talk.