My Story: How I got started in trading...

I'd like to take the time to tell my story and how I started trading.
In 2016, I was in the US Navy busting my ass doing manual labor. It was then that I realized that I was tired of working for "the man" and I needed to change how I was going to make money for the rest of my life.
I started researching investments and I learned how difficult it was to manage my own money. Most index funds at the time wanted 5k-25k to get started. I knew there had to be another way.
I learned about bitcoin and how other investors became a millionaire from their investment.
It was then that I decided to buy a little Bitcoin to see how it did. On or about January 3 of 2016, I bought about 250 bucks worth of bitcoin.
I forgot about it and a year later (in about March) I decided to check my portfolio. It had risen to a value of $630!
It was then that I decided to do more research. I researched everything I could find at the time about bitcoin. I even learned some basics about reading chart patterns.
After about a month of research I decided to borrow money and buy a substantial amount of bitcoin.
I didn't know what I was doing and you could say that I got lucky.
But the end of 2017, I was euphoric, but I didn't know it.
I bought the shitiest of shit coin Unikoin Gold with half my portfolio at the top of the market. Therefore, I lost that money because it definitely went to zero. I have a lack of trust for shitcoins and Mark Cuban since then.
At that time, I also decided to take trading more seriously (before I was just watching bitcoin maxi channels that were only about hyping up the price of bitcoin). During the 2018 bear market, I learned how to trade using various resources and watching YouTube Channels like Tone Vays and Krown's Crypto Cave. They were my top choices. I then learned some basics of statistics and probabilities. In the meantime, I started chopping my account up slowly but surely.
By the time September 2020 came around, my account was completely gone except for about a thousand bucks.
After realizing I was better with long term trends and seeing big bull markets before they happened, I used whatever money I could find to go long in BTC in October 2020.
I was was right about the bull run again and I made back about half of what I lost in 2018.
Then, the May 2021 sell off happend. I had over leveraged myself at that time because I was not expecting a market top. One thing lead to another and I ended up chopping my account up by the end of July 2021. I had to sell my house and find a real job to have any money.
I worked for low pay training dogs in the civilian sector for 2 years trying to save any buck I could find.
Then, 2023 came around and I was building up my capital once again, even in my day trading. However, I still knew my strength was in identifying the big bull markets in Bitcoin.
I went long again in March 2023 and so far, I have not looked back since.
Have I just been getting lucky? Or is the work I put into trading the markets since 2016 finally starting to pay off?
We will see. My current target still remains at 57k.
My hope is that someone else with read this and learn from my mistakes.
Stay safe trading out there and God bless. 🙏
-Handy