Wolong: The Game of Deception (unedited version)
If you are new to cryptocurrencies, chances are, you have never heard of Wolong, or had an encounter with him or his pumps and dumps, although this can not be confirmed as a fact, as no one knows if Wolong ever exited the pump and dump scene. Whether he actually quit, or still lurks in the background nobody knows. But he left us with his manifesto, " The Game of Deception " a true account of his work on the famous Dogecoin pump and dump. Remove the name dogecoin from this manifesto and replace with many other coins to find out Wolong is not one but many, and his legacy in crypto never died, but went on to prosper. I present you an unedited version of Wolong's Manifesto to educate yourselves about the risks of altcoin investing. @joseph
Majority believes that markets move randomly and reflect the collective
wisdom of investors, the truth is quite the opposite. The invisible hand is a
myth. Market prices has always been manipulated by the government's
visible hands through influencing laws and regulation. Insiders control markets
and manipulate them up or down for profit. Manipulation is everywhere,
undeniable and unavoidable. It happens on a very large scale throughout
every single financial markets out there, stock, bonds, commodities,
currencies and so forth. There are other types of manipulation, such as social
and news manipulation, hence I called it: The Game of Deception.
"Whale watching" is a trading strategy of monitoring the trades of the most
influential or wealthy investors, known as "whales". "Whales" refers to
traders with significant bankrolls that their actions impact heavily on the
markets. The purpose of this book is to trade in the shadow of the smart
money, understanding how market manipulation works, and become
profitable by understanding.
Most traders do not understand volume implications and how vital it is in
their analysis of any of the markets. Given at any point of time, traders are
constantly long, short, holding, some waiting to get into the market, some
already in profitable positions. "Long" means when a trader buys, in this
example: DOGE/BTC hoping that the value of Doge will go up against BTC,
the "Short" means the opposite. Whenever a trade is entered, the exchange
will register this as volume on a continuous ongoing basis. Volume represents
activity and it relates to the price bar on your chart. Chart reflects clearly and
is the reason why it is behaving the way it is. "Whales" contributes 70-80%
of the volume you see, which is why it is large enough to alter the direction
of a market. I will not go into identifying the traces of a whale activity in book
one, but rather my primary focus would be explaining how manipulation
works, and the thoughts of a market manipulator.
"If you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a
hundred battles" - Sun Tzu
Individuals trade the market for a purpose, and that is to profit. Many of you
are meticulous in entering a trade, cracking your head whether the price you
are about to buy or sell is too high or low, although some might possess
knowledge of technical analysis, you are still at a loss in the end. This is quite
common, for you have not understand the characteristic of a "whale". They
are ruthless, swift, cunning, very very patient and most importantly, they do
not obey the rules of the game. A price will never be too high or low for
them. Prices might have soar 100%, 200% and it will never be too late for
them to enter. Buy high? Sell higher! Sell low? Buy lower!
To almost everyone, it is simply just pump and dump. However, the truth is,
there are many stages to make a pump and dump successful. The stages
includes:
- Position Building
- Suppressing prices
- Test Pump
- Actual Pump
- Shakeouts
- Re-allocation and distribution
- Exiting - The Dump
Position Building
There are multiple ways to build a position. This is the stage where we will
require a significant amount of market share to do pumps. The most
common method will be micro buys. Through placing of buy order in
relatively small amounts, it avoids driving up prices and also masked our
existence. Some alternate coins, however, has really low amount of volume,
and it will take ages to build up our position through micro buys. In such
cases, we will be force to do a pump up, to encourage sellers. Pump waves
will be gradually decreasing, smaller and smaller, forcing out all sellers so that
we can have what we want - market share. This has happened many times
infact to date, such as Doge/BTC, UNO/BTC, Dev/BTC and GLC/BTC.
Suppressing prices
Contradicting isn't it? That we are willing to pump altcoins up a few times of
it's value worth before driving down it prices. And yes, like I have stated
earlier on, prices does not matter to us as long we can sell higher. However,
like every other business on the industry, everyone would want their costs to
be as low as possible. In this very stage, we will pile up whatever we have
bought, to suppress prices as much as possible through sell walls so that we
are able to do our buying cheap. Our sell walls are usually just enough to
appear as though as it's the invisble hands of the market, minor supply over
demand.
Test Pump
Before a real pump happens, whales like us tends to test the market. Why?
Reason is simple. It is to ensure that we have absolute control of the
market. Test pump, like shakeouts, actual pumps, re-allocation and
distribution, happens many time throughout the pump and dump process. By
doing a test pump, we will roughly get an idea on where our next resistance
will be and how much floating chips are around ( Floating chips refers to
weak hands). Whales hate weak hands, they do not act as any form of
support for us during a pump, and we will are always determine to get rid of
them in the early stages, no matter how long it takes.
Actual Pump
The term pretty much explains everything. When weak hands are being
forced out, and we have gain the market share that we expect, we are ready
to move.
Shakeouts
deliberately forced price reaction, whose purpose is that of
stimulating public selling in order to facilitate the accumulation of speculative
positions. This is the most aggressive part in wiping out weak hands of their
positions. Sometimes during a shakeout, we can be so aggressive that we
drive prices so low that's it's way below our cost price. Losses does not
matter to us, it is only on paper, and we have enough bankroll to pump
prices back up. Individuals who have no experienced or unable to withstand
such psychological torture will usually exit the market at this stage.
Re-allocation and distribution
Re-allocation and distribution usually serves the purpose for us to re-balance
our portfolio. In a test pump, we might distribute you some of our shares
(coins). The logic is quite simple, sometimes during a pump, buying into our
own walls and others, we bought more than expected. We will have to
release a few back to the individual traders. At times, it serves as a support,
and reduce our risk exposure or being a "safe trap". What do I mean by
that? For example if you were to distribute you at $5 and then we were to
drive prices back down to $4.50, we will know that the total amount of
shares being distributed at $5 will not be selling at $5. Traders tends to exit
when in profit and are unlikely to exit with breakeven costs. I used the word
"safe" is because, this is not the part where we will be dumping. There are
alot of re-allocation and distribution, like shuffling a pack of cards throughout
the entire process, and prices tend to go much higher than the price that you
are "trapped" at.
Exiting - The Dump
This is usually the last stage. The part where we take our profits and
completely exiting the market. There are many exit strategies available to us.
I will be revealing some of it and explain. The most common mindset
everyone had is that we either micro sell or massively dump into buy walls
during a dump. Theses are just the basic. Usually by exiting via this method,
gives us really a bad price to sell at.
One of the exotic methods we used : "Exit during a pump". This works by
having sell walls in place, and buying into our own walls again and again
aggressively until the crowd follows. Once they follow, they will be biting into
our walls. Hence we are able to exit portions of it, bits by bits, rinse and
repeat a few times, we will be able to exit the market completely.
Another method is known as "Exit by putting a sell wall". Well, many of you
who follows my trades on #dogecoin-market, knows that I like having sell
walls up to suppress prices and buy doges cheap. However, I am able to
imply this strategy by deceiving everyone into thinking that I am merely
capping prices but the fact is, I am micro selling my way out.
Exposing and unraveling the secrets behind my pumps and dumps.
By now, everyone should be very curious and if not dying to find out how I
orchestrated my pumps and dumps, especially with dogecoin. I will give a
very detailed account on what actually happened and how I played the Game
of Deception using the art of war to my advantage.
I must admit that I got into Dogecoin few weeks late, that was when prices
were trading about 120-140 satoshis. I started out with only a few MH/s as
gpus were really hard to get. Prices fell to 90-80 satoshis, it appears to be
normal to me at first, but something caught my attention. Things were not
right. Based on years of trading experience I had, it seems to me that
someone is intentionally suppressing the prices to buy in doges. There are
whales playing around with dogecoin!
Well, like many others, I siezed the opportunity by contacting by ultra rich
friends to be involved in this pump and dump process. Doge was dead cheap,
everything was right. The increasing growth in subscribers on reddit, the
tipping community, were a perfect condition to manipulate doge prices
effectively. The fundamental factors and elements determine the outcome of
a military engagement. A battle is won before it is even fought. All the
conditions were met. Pricing, volume, the community backing it and the
growth that is gradually increasing.
I heavily bought into dogecoin 26-50 satoshis. I shared my trades on
#dogecoin at first. Why? Simple! I am a nobody there. I have expected and
predicted that no one will listen to a trade recommendation by someone new
in there. It will not affect any of my position building but rather gain me some
sort of fame and reputation for future use.
While dogecoin hits 50-70 satoshis, the truth is, I did not owned 10 billion
doge, but rather a mere total of 4 billion. The amount of holdings I had were
overstated so as to aid me and mask by exit strategy in the near future.
Now, came the part of Jamaican bobsled team. It was a perfect time for
other whales and myself. We signal through buy/sell walls that we are ready
to move. It was a test pump. We wanted to see if the dogecoin community
were gullible enough to think that it was the Jamaican bobsled publicity that
have drove dogecoin prices up. The bobsled team brought value and publicity
to dogecoin, but people are always confuse with prices and value. Having
value does not mean having a price, and having a high price does not mean it
has value. In the world of manipulation, we used the news, the social
network as our advantage. We were right, by droving prices up, the
community gave credit to the bobsled team for moving dogecoin prices up,
which is what I wanted.
Over a course of a week, I begin appearing frequently on #dogecoin and
#dogecoin-market giving trade calls and announcing pumps. To cut the story
short, I turned aggressive, driving prices up to 280 satoshis where the crowd
bought into my sell walls. I was able to exit near 270 a portion of my
dogecoins. I wasn't done with it. Driving prices higher will put me into a risk
of buying dogecoin high and unable to exit safely.
This is the part where I gave everyone on #dogecoin-market a floor, 160
satoshis. A precise floor that I will support, and 230 as resistance. I moved
prices up and down within this range to gain confidence and support from the
community that I am backing it and able to control doge prices at will. Then
came the part of which I need more faithful followers, who will ride the
waves with me, gurantee a few profits, and act with me. Why? Reason is
simple. I sold most of my doges high and I have lost a significant amount of
market share. I need to regain the market share, without physically
possessing it.
The most memorable event that happened during this phase was that 4chan
and reddit laughed and mocked "TheMollyMachine", one of the guys in my
private channel. Logs leaked on the internet showed how "TheMollyMachine"
was bleeding at that time when someone big dumped doges into his btc buy
walls. I had to change a course of actions, to move doge down to 170
satoshis , and with a target price of 130 satoshis in mind. I forecasted that
not everyone will act accordingly as they have no idea of what a short sell is
( To sell low and buy back lower). One example in this case which is freenode
user "hinv". The purpose of me initating this without giving a clear
explaination on what we are doing to followers of mine which holds no
knowledge in trading, is pretty clear. I knew and had reports from OPs in my
channel that freenode channel is not secured. Anyone would be able to spoof
a nick that is on the invite list to freely enter that channel when the nick is
not in used. I took advantage of that again, to create chaos and leak logs
that I failed in the dump, of which after the dump failed to 170, I drove prices
back up to 190. The purpose of this is crystal clear. I need someone to buy
into my dumps high, while slowly driving prices to 130. To those who are in
the private channel especially ops such as randomclown, Tuxedage,
Sir_Knee_Grows, SuchWow and taner, would have clearly known that 130
will be the bottom price. Taner appeared to be more excited. He had a bet
with me earlier on that prices will hit 80 satoshis, which I told him 130
satoshis will definitely be a rock bottom.
Now, remember the part that I have told everyone that I had no access to
investors funds during the holidays of Chinese New Year for the traders that
listens to my order to buy or sell are away. And the part that I stated
dogecoin will be trading above 200 once Chinese New Year ends? Yep, you
now you recalled. Well, I orchestrated another plan. Which is to move my
people inside my private channel to UNO/BTC for I saw value in UNO and
were at a good price to buy at. This serves two purposes. If they are out at
160 and bought in UNO heavily, it will be less selling pressure for me to exit
my investors funds. At this point of time, investors holding of doge are not
yet fully sold. To others, it might have appeared that I used my members
into selling DOGE/BTC and UNO/BTC but apparently, it is not the case. I gave
them the chance of buying UNO/BTC at a lower price, having sufficient time
to build up their position for UNO/BTC has much greater potential and
without having worrying that they will be affecting my dumps on DOGE on a
later date. Killing two birds with one stone.
Now, halving date for DOGE is now nearer and nearer. People are gullible and
naive thinking that during halving their doge prices will be worth double of the
280's initial tops. They forgotten that it is us the whales, that drives prices
up. Again, they fell for the deception that I long for. Near halving day, what a
perfect day for my dumps. I will have a lot of people that will actively and
happily buying out whatever I dumped to them. On Feb 12, I dropped the
nuclear warhead. It was what I expected and I managed to exit my position
entirely on DOGE.
Sad, but true, I used all bad news on me as an advantage to maneuver and
engage the opposing force. And to those who loses out in the end are usually
my haters because they are the ones that are arrogant and acted late.
People in my private channel knows how I trade and usually holds even
though prices are being suppressed or shakeouts by me. It is usually the
people without patience that lost in the end game.
This is a brilliant piece of education, if not at least to create awareness, needing to see the light of day in many many places!
Thanks a lot, this is fully upvoted, resteemed and shared.
All for one and one for all! Namaste :)
Excellent write up! Thanks so much for giving Steemit a fair shake on such a popular website like Wired. We definitely need more publicity like this.
Eric-boucher your all post intaresting
Wow, thank you so very much! Namaste :)
Fantastic! Amanzing!
Never heard of it, but this changes everything, thanks. Will look up into it. Brilliance!
I used to know [-wolong-] back in the day, it was so much fun trying to predict his pumps, because of him we could make a fortune with very little invested in dozens of coins. I really miss that guy.
Btw by taking a payout on this I am not sure if this is considered copyright or intellectual property infringement.
My pool was left with 80 million Panda coins after his drama and dump on Mintpal, I think he owes me a lot more than the payout on this post. :D
lol
I avoided panda like the plague, then I saw there were like three panda coins.
Excellent write up! Thanks so much for giving Steemit a fair shake on such a popular website like Wired. We definitely need more publicity like this.
Thanks for the post.
Thanks for the great post :)
Hey @joseph, really appreciate that you shared your strategies here. It's a good lesson for us small players.
All warfare is based on deception.
The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.
Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win.
Know your enemy and know yourself and you can fight a hundred battles without disaster.
Sun Tzu
I think he would nod with approval. The market is indeed a battleground.
I've learned a valuable lesson and will keep my eyes open. Looking forward to more of your insight.
Cheers.
I know about cryptocurrency but really never heard about this.
I'm sure you don't need my little vote but I'll give it anyway. This is an interesting post and shows how everything can be manipulated. As if I didn't know already. However, it refers to things that happen here in this community. My plea is that all those wealthier Whales should not neglect the reason we are supposedly all on Steemit. Yes we want to make money, we should be happy to be patient, learn the rules, learn how it works, manipulate only in that you do what you are allowed to do. It's a pity that what you describe here simply reflects what happens on Wall street anyway!
The days of trading on cryptsy. I remember it well.
First of all, thank you for the summer. You are one of the greatest whales. Do you know any of the horns that play with BTC?