Home › My stack

The exact stack I run this on

Five tools. That's the whole operation — no exchange referrals, no trading bots, no leverage platforms. If a tool isn't on this page, I don't use it, and I'm not going to pretend otherwise for a commission.

Disclosure: where a link on this page earns me a commission it says “Affiliate link” directly underneath it, and where it doesn't it says “Direct link — no commission”. Either way it costs you nothing extra and it does not change what I recommend: the honest limits of every tool are written under it, including the reasons you might skip it. Nothing on this page is financial or tax advice.

Custody — the part that actually matters

Everything else on this page is convenience. This part is the difference between owning Bitcoin and owning an IOU. If you buy one thing from this list, buy a hardware wallet, and buy it from the manufacturer directly — never from a marketplace reseller.

Ledger

~$79–$279 one-time

Cold storage · what I hold long-term positions on

A hardware wallet keeps your private keys on a device that never touches the internet. Every tier that fires in my buy plan ends the same way: coins move off the exchange and onto cold storage within the week. That step is not optional in this house.

Where I'd skip it: if your entire position is smaller than the cost of the device, buy the Bitcoin first. And know that Ledger's 2020 customer-database breach leaked buyer names and addresses — the coins were never at risk, but the privacy failure was real and I'd rather you hear it from me.

Ledger →

Direct link — no commission

Trezor

~$49–$219 one-time

Cold storage · the open-source alternative

Same job as Ledger, different philosophy: Trezor's firmware is fully open source, which some people consider non-negotiable and others don't care about. Both are fine. Owning one of them matters far more than which one.

Where I'd skip it: the cheapest model has a smaller screen and fewer supported coins. If you only hold Bitcoin that's irrelevant, which is most of this audience.

Trezor →

Direct link — no commission

Tax — the bill that shows up whether you planned for it or not

Every tier that fires is a cost-basis event you'll have to account for later. Reconstructing a year of laddered buys in April, from memory, is how people end up guessing on a tax return. Both of these connect to exchange accounts and generate the forms.

Koinly

Free to view · ~$49+/yr to file

Crypto tax reporting · what I use

Imports transaction history, works out cost basis, produces the report your accountant actually wants. The free tier lets you see the whole calculation before paying anything, which is the right way round.

Where I'd skip it: if you have fewer than about twenty transactions a year, a spreadsheet is genuinely fine and free.

Koinly →

Direct link — no commission

CoinLedger

Free to view · ~$49+/yr to file

Crypto tax reporting · the US-focused option

Same category as Koinly with a tighter US focus and direct export into the mainstream filing software. Try both free — they'll disagree on your numbers if one of them is mis-importing an exchange, and that disagreement is worth finding in February rather than April.

Where I'd skip it: outside the US, Koinly generally handles local rules better.

CoinLedger →

Direct link — no commission

Charts — for looking, not for trading

TradingView

Free tier · paid from ~$15/mo

Charting · where I check the levels in my ladder

I use it for exactly two things: drawing the tier levels from my buy plan, and setting price alerts on them so I don't have to watch anything. The free tier does both. Everything else it can do — indicators stacked twelve deep, strategy backtesting — is the part that gets people into trouble.

Where I'd skip it: honestly, most people here don't need the paid tier. Free alerts are enough for a ladder that fires a few times a year.

TradingView →

Direct link — no commission

What's deliberately not on this list

Things I've been offered and turned down

Exchange sign-up bonuses. They pay the most in this niche — often a share of your trading fees for months. That's a direct conflict: I'd be paid more the more you trade, and this entire site argues you should trade less.
Trading bots and copy-trading platforms. Recurring commissions, and the exact opposite of a written plan you execute yourself.
Anything with leverage. Not at any commission. Leverage is how the 2022 version of me would have turned a $30,000 round trip into a zero.
Altcoin launches, presales, "gems." Retired that entire surface on purpose.

The rule I hold myself to: I only put a link on this page for something I already paid for with my own money before anyone offered me a commission on it.

The tools are the easy part. The levels are the hard part.

My Bear Market Buy Plan is the nine-tier ladder I'm actually executing — the exact prices, what has to be true at each one, and a timestamped receipt every time a tier fires. $29 once, no subscription.

Get my plan — $29, once →

Or start free — the live Score, the daily brief, the open Discord →

Read this first. This page lists tools I personally use and is educational content, not financial, tax, or investment advice. I am not a registered investment adviser and I am not a tax professional — crypto tax software produces a report, it does not replace an accountant who knows your situation. Some links are affiliate links, marked as such, and I may earn a commission if you buy through them at no additional cost to you. Prices shown are approximate and change without notice. Bitcoin can lose most of its value; never invest money you cannot afford to lose.