My Bus Interchange Lesson in 2017

Let’s backtrack to 2017.

I still remember it vividly.

I was sitting alone at a bus interchange,
looking at my phone,
staring at my altcoin portfolio
a portfolio that had gone from green dreams to deep red despair.

Some of the coins were down 70%.
Others were practically worthless.

Every refresh on my app made my stomach sink further.

The Breaking Point

I was fully emotional.
My chest was tight.
My brain was screaming, “Get out before it goes to zero!”

It wasn’t a trading decision, it was panic.

And in that moment, I told myself:

So I did.
I sold.
Everything.

Every coin, every position, every ounce of conviction I had left.

And I’ll never forget what happened next.

The Itchy Finger That Cost Me Everything

The market bottomed days later.

Not weeks. Not months.

Days.

Then the impossible happened
the charts that once made me sick started to climb.

First slowly.
Then violently.

Alt after alt began breaking new highs.
Names I had held and sold at a loss were printing all-time highs,
smashing through my entry levels like they never mattered.

I sat there, watching in disbelief.

The same finger that hit “Sell” at the bus interchange
had just cost me what could’ve been a life-changing run.

The Emotional Tax

That day taught me something that no course, no YouTube video,
and no trader could’ve taught me:

Emotion is the real tax you pay in this game.

Not fees.
Not slippage.
Not losses.

Emotion.

Because once emotion takes control, logic disappears.
And once logic disappears, your edge is gone.

I didn’t lose that portfolio because of bad analysis.
I lost it because I couldn’t sit through pain.

The charts didn’t break me, my patience did.

The Hardest Truth About Trading

Here’s the truth most traders don’t want to hear:
You don’t lose because of volatility, you lose because of yourself.

Markets are designed to test your belief.
To shake your conviction.
To force you into selling your future to someone else at a discount.

That bus interchange moment was the market doing exactly that.
It was testing if I had the discipline to stay in the game when it hurt the most.

I didn’t.

And that mistake has stayed with me longer than any profit I’ve ever made.

The Pain That Builds Character

In hindsight, that was one of the most expensive lessons of my life.

Not because of the money, but because of what it revealed.

It showed me that trading isn’t about IQ.
It’s not about charts.
It’s not about news or timing.

It’s about emotional mastery.

If you can’t manage your emotions,
you’ll repeat that same bus interchange moment in every cycle.

Maybe not at the same place,
but with the same feeling
panic, regret, disbelief.

And each time, you’ll sell at the bottom,
watch it pump,
and swear you’ll never do it again.

Until you do.

How I Changed

After that loss, I made myself a promise:
Never again will I let panic make a decision for me.

I started building structure around my trading
rules, frameworks, and systems that remove emotion from the equation.

That’s why I built the Crypto Exit Manual.

Because you can’t trade this market purely on feeling.
You need guardrails.
You need checkpoints.
You need a plan that tells you what to do before you feel it.

That’s the only way to survive long enough to win.

My Take

If you take anything from my story
remember this:

The biggest mistakes don’t come from bad charts.
They come from bad emotions.

That itchy finger at the bus interchange?
It wasn’t just a sell order.
It was fear taking the wheel.

Fear of being wrong.
Fear of losing more.
Fear of looking stupid.

But in trading, fear is your worst entry signal.

So the next time you feel that same panic creeping in
pause.
Step away.
Breathe.

Because the market’s goal is to make you react.
Your goal is to stay rational.

Closing Thoughts

If I had just held a little longer,
my portfolio would’ve flipped from -70% to +500% within months.

But it wasn’t meant to be, because I wasn’t ready.

That experience broke me
but it also built the trader I am today.

You can lose a trade and still win the game
if you learn the lesson before it costs you again.

Learn from my mistakes before you make them.
Inside the Crypto Exit Manual
you’ll find the frameworks I built from scars like this
so you can trade with conviction, not emotion.

Join us for $117/month 
www.whop.com/digitalvault1

Every trader has their “bus interchange” moment.
The difference is whether it breaks you
or becomes the story that makes you unstoppable.

Victor