The winner of Bybit’s World Series of Trading, 2023, has opened up about generating over 5772% profit in 30 days of intense crypto trading. Maksim, leader of the Openworld trading squad, who took home the lion’s share of a total $8,000,000 prize pool, says he trades for the love of the game.
On his massive profit, Russian Maksim (who prefers to only be known by his first name) says it came down to the factor of WSOT trading tournament spurring him on to take bigger risks. “The framework of a trading tournament is a whole different thing,” he says. “It involves additional factors such as rewards. This spurs you to take on higher risks and even employ strategies that might be loss-making outside the tournament.”
Bybit’s WSOT is the world’s largest crypto trading competition, now in its fourth year. In 2023, despite tough market conditions, the competition attracted nearly 120,000 traders from 188 countries and regions worldwide. This resulted in a remarkable year-on-year trading volume surge of 42%, reaching a total trading volume of 70.5 billion for the competition.
“It's hard to say how exactly I got here,” Maksim says. “At first, I was probably just interested in the phenomenon of Bitcoin. Then I bought some and got myself into the wild ride that is the journey of a novice trader.”
“The best trading strategy is living in harmony with yourself,” Maksim says. “Without that, any trading achievements are worthless. But if you have your inner game sorted, any trading strategy could lead to success. There is a style for anyone. Some find that scalping works best, but for others, it's arbitrage, fundamental analysis, or even technical analysis.”
“Being a trader, I think it's important to have a wide skillset so you can use the instruments most suited to the market conditions you’re working with; so you can exploit any inefficiencies,” Maksim says. “I see the market as a game, which allows everyone a chance to compete in their own unique way.”
When it comes to AI trading, Maksim uses it like a chess player: to tighten his game. “I like to practice against AI market makers; I think humans still have an edge,” Maksim says, alluding to the way human expectations shape market movements. He says that price discovery is such a complex process, even the best AI models are still a long way off being able to continuously extract value from markets.
Maksim’s winning strategy is as much to do with inner strength as it does with trading prowess. “I’m not interested in giving the details of specific trades, or posting flashy pictures of PnL, as this stuff only constricts creativity, creates FOMO, and puts you in a state that is unsuitable for effective trading. I would rather inspire people to take their own journey and find a style that works for their unique circumstances.”
He left his final words to show appreciation to tournament creators and hosts, Bybit. “I want to thank Bybit for holding trading tournaments and for WSOT in particular,” Maksim added. “It's an invaluable contribution to the development of crypto community — its entertaining and educational too.”