Hi OP,
Semi-newbie here. I've started trading about a week ago, every night, and sorry to say, reading about it and watching YouTube clips only goes as far as to familiarize you with the procedures, different tools and meanings etc. Nobody in their right mind can tell you what's going to happen, so even experienced traders who sometimes recognize certain patterns that can lead to spikes, will tell you that it can also go the other way at any given moment. It's a lottery more or less.
Here's what I've learned:
1. Don't count your $, only count the amount of crypto you earn/lose
2. 24h volume matters WAY less than 24h change - which is the exact opposite of what some of these YouTubers say. Looking at the 24h change is the best way to KNOW for a fact which coin is truly on a roll compared to either BTC, ETH or whatever. By dominating the exchange, those coins always offer the largest spikes.
3. If you're investing a considerable amount of money, as in thousands of $, always check the 1m mark on the exchange, as things can go south pretty quickly.
4. A spike doesn't always happen when you buy low. Some spikes follow small dips that follow other spikes. You need to look at the 24h change % (seeing it rise quickly means the price will rise along with it, in real time), and if you match that up with a candle over candle min by min progress, then odds are you should jump in.
5. As soon as you purchase, enter your whole amount in the SELL section and either keep your mouse coursor on the button or set a sell limit. Sometimes i prefer to wing it and do it myself, because volatile coins (which provide the highest and fastest spikes and also dips) can shift trend in a matter of seconds, and by the time you're done entering all those numbers like 0,000XXXX for STOP and another 0,000YYYY for Limit and then your whole amount, while keeping one eye on the prize, everything can already be going downwards. I find that it can take me as much as 10-15 seconds to set a limit, and in 15 seconds you can lose everything you've put in.
6. At the same time, don't panic too much if you see a red candle on a coin that's clearly moving upwards in terms of 24h change %. If this minute it's at 20% and the next at 25% and you suddenly have a big red candle next to all the green ones that have gathered - keep at it, it will probably (as in likely) keep going up.
7. Luck is also a factor, but to truly be successful you unfortunately need to dedicate a lot of time to it, as in a full work day of doing nothing but trading while eyeballing the screen like there's no tomorrow.
8. Follow multiple high 24h change % coins at the same time, you NEVER know when one might start spiking and you'll be kicking yourself for waiting on one coing while the other goes up behind your back.
9. Be a sniper most of the time. Don't get greedy. I know it's super hard, but if you're playing with a lot of money, just take a small % win and walk away, don't wait for the drop. A few % points of a couple of grand is a great haul, even on a daily basis. Do the math.
10. Use an APP - don't rely on the websites themselves. I once lost $150 on a trade in a matter of seconds because my browser froze and it actually took me half a min to get it to power up again and log back in and so on. It happened on Binance. That was the night i downloaded their app for Windows.
Cheers mate!