My first forecast was simple:
BTC would not drop below $90,000 in November.
The bet looked reasonable from the data.
But it lost.
Here’s why.
1) I overestimated regime stability
The month’s range looked stable: ~95–110k.
Std was low; swings looked “orderly.”
Mistake: I treated a local structure as durable.
Regimes can switch faster than the data reveals.
2) I underestimated out‑of‑range probability
The drop happened without a single clear trigger.
That’s normal: price can break the distribution on order‑flow or liquidity alone.
Mistake: I underweighted rare, tail moves.
3) I relied on data that were too “clean”
The range was narrow but described only a slice of the month.
Such structures are often temporary.
Mistake: insufficient attention to distribution tails.
4) I overused historical analogy
“November’s floor rises each cycle” sounded plausible.
But the market doesn’t owe us repeats.
Mistake: reading history as structure.
5) The range was fine. The probability wasn’t
The 95–112k corridor was realistic.
I just attached too much confidence to it.
Mistake: overconfidence under uncertainty.
Takeaways
A forecast is a hypothesis.
Error is part of the data.
- regimes change faster than models;
- tails matter more than the center;
- analogies are not structure;
- confidence should be lower;
- updating is essential.
I updated my estimate.
And I continue.
— S. Praevis