If I had to recommend one habit for new P2P traders, it would be running this 30-second checklist before clicking on any merchant ad. The vast majority of bad trades fail at least one of these checks; if you'd run the check, you'd have skipped the trade.
The 8 checks
1. OpenRate confirms the price is within 30 paise of cross-venue median.
2. Merchant has 1000+ completed trades.
3. Merchant completion rate ≥ 95%.
4. Merchant active in last 24 hours (last seen visible).
5. Average release time < 10 minutes.
6. Trade size within ad's min/max limits.
7. Payment method one I can use cleanly (UPI/IMPS to my own KYC-named account).
8. No off-platform communication request from the merchant in the trade chat.
What if a check fails
Skip the ad. Find another one. There are always multiple ads at competitive prices; you don't need to settle for a flagging one.
Key takeaways
- 8 checks; all fast; running them takes 30 seconds.
- If any fails, skip — don't compromise to save a few paise.
- Skipping bad trades is a higher-leverage skill than executing good ones.
