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Hello everyone it is another great time to be participating in the Steemit Crypto Academy Trading Contest. This time around I have decided to join the Team Frontline for my trading venture this week. I took some trades and I wish to update you with my results presented here.

The name and introduction of the project token, and which exchange it can be traded on, project/team/technical background,etc.

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Factors	Statistics
XRP Price	$0.7856
Price Change (24h)	$0.02891
24h Low / 24h High	$0.7562 /$0.8006
Trading Volume (24h)	$3,243,749,193.87
Volume / Market Cap	0.08628
Market Dominance	1.96%
Market Rank	#6
Market Cap	$37,594,664,221.88
Fully Diluted Market Cap	$78,405,063,286.93

Name And Introduction:-

XRP is a digital currency that was developed to run on the Ripple Network which is a digital platform for the processing of payment. RippleNet is developed on the XRP Ledger which is an open-source distributed ledger database. The ledger is not based on any known blockchain. Instead it is made to run on the distributed ledger database which has already been mentioned.

RippleNet system for the processing of payment functions as a Real-Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) network which has the aim of making instant monetary transactions possible all over the globe. XRP is the native token of the ledger, even though any currency can be used to perform transactions on the platform.

Traded Exchanges:-

There are a lot of exchanges where the Ripple token can be purchased or traded. Some of the major exchanges which number above 100 are shown in the image.

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A few of the most important exchanges where the coin can be traded currently include:-

1. Binance
2. Bithumb
3. KuCoin
4. FTX
5. Huobi Global
6. Bitstamp
7. Bybit
8. Coinone
9. Gate.io
10. Kraken

Project Team/Technical Background:-

Initially, the idea behind the creation of this digital system for the processing of payment was first propounded by Ryan Fugger in 2004. However, it was not until 2012 when Jed McCaleb and Chris Larson became in charge of the project that the network began to be built, initially called OpenCoin.

Objective Of The Token/Project:-

The objective behind the creation of the token was to create an intermediate mechanism that can be used for the purpose of exchanging two different currencies or making exchanges between two different networks. Hence, it temporarily serves as a layer of currency denomination for settlement.

Operation:-

The XRP was developed as a digital currency that would be more scalable, less costly and have very high speed and function as a great alternative to other digital assets that are already being used for the purposes of monetary payment systems like the SWIFT.

The XRP global community is responsible for the maintenance of the RippleNet Ledger. The ledger is capable of processing transactions in every 3 to 5 seconds. Also, it can perform a transaction anytime an independent validator node reaches a consensus on the order and validity of a transaction carried out with XRP.

Why are you bullish on this token today and how long do you think it can rise?

First my major reason for being bullish on the crypto asset this time around is that at the onset of this week the entire crypto market seemed to have started experiencing a rally in spite of the growing concerns over the Russia-Ukraine crisis. Actually, the coin even stands to benefit from the crisis looking at the fact that Russia may start looking for alternatives to the SWIFT system from which they have been disconnected. So, based on this level of sentimental analysis the coin has potential if going bullish even in this crisis.

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If you look at the image above you will discover from the EMA crossover - at around the period I took my entry (20:44) - that the coin was about to begin a tremendous rally in line with the general sentiment of the crypto market currently. So, I hope to profit from this bullish run but I will also be at alert for any possible strong bearish signals.

How to analyse the token? (In this part you should preferably use the knowledge you have acquired in these weeks of learning at the academy, for example follow what I learned in my class or that of my teammate.)

My trading system for the XRP simply relies on the use of the Bollinger Bands. Bollinger bands were developed as a tool to be used to generate signals of either overbought or oversold. It consists of three lines which include a simple moving average in the middle together with upper and lower bands above and beneath. These bands are typically constructed to two standard deviations - that is, positive and negative - from a simple moving average of the 20-day. This can however be modified.

Usually, with the Bollinger bands it is understood that when prices begin to move to the upper band, there is an interpretation of overbought condition in the market. Conversely, when the price begins to move to the lower band there is an interpretation of an oversold condition in the market.

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From the image above you will discover that an uptrend in the market has already come into play considering the fact that the price was now trading above the SMA which is the middle band of the Bollinger bands. At the same time the trend line which I have drawn indicates that the price had started creating higher highs which is the hallmark of an uptrend in the market.

During uptrends the market usually trades between the upper band and the middle band. This was also the case. Quite clearly an uptrend was in place. To benefit from this uptrend I had to wait for the price to pull back to the middle band and then take my entry there. From the image you will discover that I took my buy entry with the green candle indicated and set my stop loss at the proceeding swing low or support level.

I was willing to leave the trade to run as far as possible. However, the price quickly moved above the upper band and came down below it as quickly with the creation of an inverted hammer. This signalled a reversal and I had to close the trade with some gain, actually.

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The image above shows my running profits. Below you will see my trade history as to where I entered the market and where I closed it in profit. You should note that I had entered first at 0.7591, later added more positions at 0.7592 and eventually took profit at 0.7616.

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Your plan to keep it for a long time or when to sell it?

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The green line shows the area around which I had gone long on the coin. From the image below to see the point I have designated as the first resistance. I would have to close the trade shortly before that first resistance or shift my stop loss there. But if the market should break the first resistance, then I would have to enter again and then target the second resistance.

By looking to the right of the green line you will discover that this eventually played out with a rally that got as high as the second resistance even though I had exited the market before then due to a few unfavorable signals I had encountered earlier and due to the fact that I am majorly a scalping trader that doesn't hold positions for too long.

Do you recommend everyone to buy? Give reasons for recommending or not recommending.

The XRP boasts of a technology that makes it possible for negligibly cheap and almost instantaneous monetary transactions with tremendous scalability that has the ability of processing up to 1500 transactions in a second to be carried out. This speed is more than 1,000 times that of the Bitcoin network. There is a strong case for the xrp having gone through the onerous ordeal of an SEC lawsuit and still gaining quite a tremendous level of adoption.

This great level of adoption is the major reason I strongly believe that everyone should be buying and hodling the coin because it would eventually pay off with huge gains and profits in later time once this current crypto dump is over. In the early period of April 2021 the price of the token has been observed to have rallied to the extent of rocketing past $1 and almost got as close as $2. This was the first time the coin was going close to $2 since 2018.

To increase its adoption, the network made a very important effort that succeeded in granting Coil, a content platform, as much as 1 billion XRP. With the network there is an ultimate goal of creating a seamless and fast system for the remittance of monetary value as a way of replacing the SWIFT system with a higher security level. This increases its potential use case and adoption which will eventually underscore its usefulness and give it an underlying strength.

Considering all these important use cases and the extent which the coin has come I wouldn't hesitate in encouraging people to buy up the coin especially in this current market dip knowing fully well that it has a lot of usefulness that will make it completely relevant to the entire global monetary exchange system, even possibly replacing the SWIFT system. That would be a great achievement and could potentially see the price of the coin skyrocket again. So, you can't afford not to buy more of it, especially in this current situation where the market is really down.

Anything other users want to share about the token/project.

Another thing I would like to point out based on the fact that I have done some personal research is that the XRP and its underlying network were created as a medium for the processing of payment in real time. Looking at the current Russia-Ukraine crisis you will discover that the United States, the UK, the EU and most of the world have sanctioned Russia by excluding most, if not all, of its banks from the international SWIFT system of payment.

Interestingly, this SWIFT system is what makes interbank transactions possible both locally and globally. Disconnecting Russia from the system means they would invariably have to look for alternatives on how to beat this sanction that could be very severe on their national currency which has already been nose-diving due to harsh sanctions in these few days. Consequently, there have been speculations on them looking for alternatives on how to beat this sanction by turning possibly to cryptos.

Ripple being a system that was developed to function just like the SWIFT could become a high target of Russian resort as a way of looking for possible ways to replace the functionality of the SWIFT network from which they have been removed. We should maintain an open mind and know that the XRP could gain tremendous strength if the crisis persists and Russia possibly decides to consider it as an alternative to the SWIFT system.

CONCLUSION

I feel quite happy and elated having to participate in the Trading Contest which has now entered the second week. This is particularly because the trading contest does not only teach us to properly apply the knowledge of technical analysis we have been taught in the Academy in identifying trading opportunities but to also understand the need for proper fundamental analysis of a coin to determine its strong prospects before trading on such cryptocurrencies.

My trade on the XRP was a huge success. The coin has a very strong fundamental use case of a fast, seamless and cost-effective mode of monetary exchange just like the popular SWIFT system. Consequently, I would recommend everyone to buy especially in this current market dip. My special regards to our highly esteemed professors @abdu.navi03 and @shemul21 for leading our team this week.