"7-8" years isn't technically considered "a few years"...a few years is generally speaking two. Trading strategies are meaningless in the wrong hands or person. You can sit down with a very successful trader over lunch and he can divulge everything to you...but the chances of you replicating his success are extremely remote. Trading is anything but a Fixed formula or recipe....if you are a square, you are kind of doomed for failure in the trading world. Turning 5 figures into 7 or 8 is extremely rare -- and I highly doubt anyone who did has visited ET, or any other online trading forum. Those kind of guys are in their own world, or Buddhist mountain monks. People who hangout in trading forums are sardines.
There are here on ET several Bitcoin freaks (their posts you don't see in the "new posts" section, but in the thread: Cryptocurrencies). Some already posted in 2011. I started posting about Bitcoin from 2013 when Bitcoin was at $100. It's not that rare....
I would hardly call Bitcoin 'investors' who bought it 5 years ago applicable to Trading, or this post. They are a relatively rare and strange and unique anomaly in the greater scheme of collective trading. Most of those guys are random computer nerd dudes who did it on a whim because they had a few bucks laying around. Good for them, and the 'traders' who cashed in during the dot com market craze. But you know what they say...Easy come, easy go...and...Everyone is a genius in a bull market.
From 2013 (that's 4 years) there is a huge traders scene. Only a few here on ET, but that changed last year and will become bigger and bigger. It very well applies to this post especially because the OP likes to know/learn from others doing the "unbelievable". And, as you say yourself, crypto trading is still rare strange and abnormal: which is why there are still huge opportunities to archive those figures again in the coming years. (you may remind me late 2020).
The years 2014 and 2015 were huge bear markets! Bitcoin dumped from $1200 to $150. But we still kept trading and believing it. Many bought hugely ending 2015 on $200. Bull market started just after that and will not end until 2021. My guess is that we will see $20000.
I hate anecdotal evidence but here it is...I have a few friends who've been heavily involved with btc. By far the one who has made the most is the one who bought and held. The others who traded btc all regret it.
When I was younger, I read every trading book I could get my hands on. If I found one sentence that taught me something, I was satisfied. If I found a paragraph, it was like the holy grail. I'm a pro. I've been on some forums. Not to learn. But because I'm recently single. lol
Good Luck with that... As to "Those kind of guys are in their own world, or Buddhist mountain monks. People who hangout in trading forums are sardines." I know a guy a little like that, very unusual thinker. Smart as hell, grew up utterly poor. When Gold made it's big run up he turned 10k into over 600k. But then he sat there and watched his futures account drop back to 100k. He decided to take his profits and go do something else.
There are many who turn $10-$100 into 7 & 8 figures by winning the lottery. Luck is often mistaken for brains. Dan Zanger turned 5 figures into 7 figures in a short time during the tech boom and rode Google for millions. He has not replicated that success since then otherwise he would be a billionaire by now. However if you have luck and brains...
I would hardly call Dan Zanger's story 'luck'...or even Tim Syke's story (if it is legit)...accomplishing that feat takes tremendous skill and mental fortitude. You should also lookup Japanese traders CIS and BNF...but they are a recluse, there's hardly nothing about them online. I don't think there is no great trader in history...who has made a killing his entire continuous life. Really great traders are like professional athletes, they have a relatively short or temporary lifespan. Lottery is luck...dumb average Joes win that; Trading is far from luck...there are so many variables that you have to assume and put into play to make all that magic happen. Luck along with Brains though would make you an absolute killer in the market. Each trade kind of feels like sailing across the Bermuda Triangle alone, or climbing a mountain alone.