Why Bitcoin Is Now My Favorite “Trading System”

After 27 years of trading, I found something that beats my algorithms.

And it's embarrassingly simple.

I've been trading since 1998. Those early years were spent as a discretionary trader—and they were losing years. Somewhere around 2008, I got serious about algorithmic trading, and that changed everything.

Execution became consistent. No more moving stops or taking profits too early. I could finally leverage multiple setups across different markets. My trading became much more consistent—and so did my profits.

I never considered myself a great trader. But I was a good one. With enough effort in backtesting and validation, I could make decent money. I also loved building frameworks and templates around my trading—and sharing those frameworks with others was just as rewarding.

But about a year ago, something shifted.

I had a revelation. I discovered another technology—one I’d been watching for years, occasionally dabbling in—but this time, it clicked. In the winter of 2024, I had a lightbulb moment.

I’m talking about Bitcoin.

Bitcoin isn’t a meme coin. It’s a protocol—a computer network for money. Just like TCP/IP or HTTP powers the internet, Bitcoin is designed to store and transmit wealth. If you're not familiar with it, you probably don’t grasp the full scope of what it is—or what it could become. But I’ve become a believer.

And here’s my alternative to algorithmic trading:

Buy Bitcoin. Hold it. That’s it.

No charts. No backtesting. No Walk-Forward Analysis. No optimization. Just buy and hold.

If you’ve opened a trading account since 2010, try this mental exercise:

Take the money you deposited for trading, and pretend you bought Bitcoin instead. Then compare the returns.

You might be stunned. I was.

For example, I opened an additional futures account on August 28, 2022, with about $80,000. It was a sandbox for testing new strategies using a new development tool. As of today, that account has returned roughly 23% per year. Respectable, in my opinion.

But what if I had bought Bitcoin instead?

That $80,000 would’ve bought me 4.078 BTC. At today’s price of $109,491 per BTC, that’s $446,519.

That’s an 87% CAGR.

I can’t beat that as a trader. I bet you can’t either. In fact, I bet it outperforms 99.9% of all traders.

And now compare the time it takes to be an active trader versus the simplicity of just buying Bitcoin.

It’s a strange realization: Bitcoin may be better than algorithmic trading.

This hits my psyche—and ego—hard. But I can’t get the idea out of my head.

Bitcoin still has room to run. I won’t get into all the details here, but I believe double-digit returns could continue for the next 10+ years.

Just wanted to share where my head’s at lately—and I’d love to hear what you think.