A crypto desk. A trader who takes its calls.

How it works

• Public data only. Binance and Hyperliquid for prices, funding and open interest, Deribit for options, DefiLlama for stablecoins, plus Coinbase, CoinGecko and Alternative.me.
• Code writes every number. Every figure in the issue comes from the data, and every number in the prose is checked against it. An issue that fails is held.
• The rules sit in code. With the trend, one entry price, at least 2R to target, a stop at least one day's average range away but never more than 6% from the entry, $50m of daily volume and no crowded positioning. The desk cannot override them.
• Logged first. Every call goes to a public, hash-chained ledger before the issue is sent, and is graded in R from the first full hour after.

A morning at the desk

The run starts at 07:00 UK time, Sunday to Friday. Code pulls the overnight data for BTC, ETH, SOL and the next 30 perpetuals by open interest, then tests each coin against the rules above. Only coins that clear every rule reach the list the desk may call from. The desk reads that list and the market data, picks at most one trade or passes, and writes the issue. On a pass it names the closest trade it turned down, with its levels and what would change its mind.

Before anything is sent, a check compares every number in the prose with the morning's data, and checks the wording. If anything fails, the issue is held, not sent. If there is a call, it is written to the public ledger and committed to GitHub first, and only then does the issue go out. Every number the issue prints is explained in the derivatives track of the Academy.

Sizing and losing streaks

Every call comes with a size: the position that would lose 1% of an account if the stop is hit, and the margin that position needs at different leverage, with a warning when a leverage level would be liquidated before the stop.

The desk has rules for losing as well as for entering. After three losses in a row, or once the record is 5R below its peak, risk per call halves, and the issue says so. If the record falls 8R below its peak, the desk makes no new calls for seven days. A coin that is stopped out or invalidated cannot be called again for ten days.

Sundays

Sunday's issue adds The Review: the week's calls, losers first, how far each one went for and against after the fill, a short post-mortem on each, where the losing-streak rule stands, and a question from a reader when there is one. The full history is on the record.

Who is behind it

I am degencoder. I have traded for over eleven years and I build trading systems. The desk holds no keys and places no orders; I take every call after it is published. Most days it passes, because most days nothing clears every rule.

Disclosures

A trading diary published for information, not financial advice. Crypto is volatile and you can lose everything you put in. One partner link appears on this site: PU Prime, the broker degencoder uses, which may pay the desk a commission. Partner links never appear next to a call.