❓Answering Common Questions: What should I Know when I Start Trading Cryptocurrency? 💱

in #steem-help6 years ago

Many of us never did any currency trading before starting here. Here are a few beginner tips to get you started.

This guide will cover the pieces you'll need to get started (like exchanges and wallets) as well as some common mistakes made by beginners. I don't consider myself an expert by any means, but I did have to learn a lot of these basics the hard way.

First off...If losing the money you're going to trading with will cause you a problem (like not paying bills) then DON'T trade with it. Not only will you run the risk of losing some money you needed, but the pressure to make money off it right now often leads to poor decisions.

Q: What's something most people do wrong when they start cryptocurrency trading?

The mantra of trading is always buy low and sell high. But our emotional reactions often make us do the opposite. A prime example of this is:

  • You're holding some Steem (or whatever crypto) and you just saw the price go down, meaning you've lost money. The emotional voice in your head starts screaming "Oh my god, Oh my god!! I'm losing money! I have to sell NOW!!"

So think about what just happened here. The price was already down and you're emotions are telling you to sell since you're losing money. Then when you see it's gone back up, you feel that you should rebuy it because you don't want to miss out! In this case...you sold low and bought high, the opposite of what you want to be doing.

Now I'm not saying there isn't a time to sell when the price is down, but have a logical reason why you're doing it.

Don't trade on emotional reactions!!

Q: Do I need to create accounts somewhere to let me trade? Should I keep all my money in there?

  • Cryptocurrency Exchange Account: You'll need to signup at a cryptocurrency exchange like Bitshares, Poloniex, Bittrex or at one of the other exchanges. Most have their own pro's and con's, so it is worth finding which one(s) you're most comfortable with. This is where you will send you're money to and actually do the trading. Often it's better to set a price you want to buy or sell at instead of just using the first available (lowest sell or highest buy.)
  • Cryptocurrency Wallet: It's generally recommended to NOT keep all of your money on an exchange. There have been hacks before where coins were taken from accounts on an exchange. So investments you plan on holding for a longer period of time are better off in a wallet.
    • There are many online wallets out there (Coinbase is just one example that holds Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash), each differing somewhat with what cryptos they hold.
    • There are also "cold storage" options which are hardware devices that store your crypto. This is a physical item (like a flash drive) that you can attach to computers to move the currency in and out of. The Nano Ledger is one example, though there are others available. Often these are the more secure option.

Q: How should I start? Which crypto should I buy?

Personally, I watched the charts on the exchange (i.e. Poloniex) and a listings site like Coin Market Cap or World Coin Index for a while before even putting my money in. This let me get used to what I was actually looking at. Once I got a bit more comfortable, I put in my first small amount. START WITH SMALL AMOUNTS!!

I also went through the material at Baby Pips on Forex (foreign exchange) trading. This a fantastic, *free resource you can go through explaining basic all the way to more advanced topics. One to make sure you look at is on Chart Patterns to help give you an idea if a crypto will go up or down in price. (Nothing is ever perfect, even these patterns!) START READING AND ASK QUESTIONS!

As far as which crypto to buy..I really can't tell you. It's tricky and a bit dangerous to give trading advice. It would suck to have some one come back and say "I lost money because of you!" So always remember What you invest in is ALWAYS up to YOU!!

Please upvote and resteem if you found this guide helpful.

The full list of my guides can be found HERE.





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Ye and really really emphasize on not making emotional decisions. That's key point to trading and it's always so hard for me to stick to this rule.

I know I lost money learning that aspect to it. Funny how it's completely backwards from what you really want to do (most the time.)

And that's why I couldn't invest larger sums in crypto, at least now while this market is so unstable. I am checking coinmarketcap even now All The Time even with my small amount in crypto. If I had larger sum I wouldn't be able to sleep at night!

For me it helps that all the money I'm trading with came from Steemit post earnings. I will admit that I got lucky getting in at a great time and not even really knowing it.

I tried the short term trading, but reached my limit both on the stress and the time commitment of wanting to be at the computer all the time. For a long while now I've enjoyed holding for longer periods of time across a handful of coins. Periodically I cash some out after have fantastic gains, sometimes moving to other coins, more often my fiat bank, and I've recently gotten interested in potentially putting some into gold.

While I get how people view a drop in their holdings value as 'I lost money', I tend to keep the focus that I paid in nothing originally and/or what my total gains were from when I bought in. Takes a lot of the stress off me to make calm, rational decisions. (just like when I play poker, lol)

Oh it must help with stress if all you invest comes only from Steemit. Who knows, maybe I'll be able to say the same in a year or so ;) cheers!

Nice and simple. I appreciate your style. :)
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With experience, I would suggest people keep a journal. There are significant differences between traditional markets and cryptocurrency markets. One difference is that traditional markets tend to obey technical analysis more than cryptos which are still heavily influenced by fundamental analysis, which can be summed up as news & rumors. Likewise, with cryptos still unregulated, there are many pump and dump clubs out there which influence huge price swings that will subside back to normal after the initial profit taking. Therefore it is important to remember something you mentioned, always keep your emotions in check. It is wonderful to go to an improv show or the movies or spend time with friends and family and appreciate the emotional connections. But the markets are cold hearted, and should be treated as such.

I have made some recent posts that are both sincere as well as satirical in regards to reading charts. I am only sharing one as I was able to video the actual moment when Bitcoin hit it's bottom and bounced this morning. I have others that are more satirical, but this one from this morning I believe is timely and shows some technical analysis worth noting.

https://steemit.com/dtube/@jacobts/sed7mw0a

Much love and appreciation for you sharing this article.

I LOVE the journal idea. I've had to 'guesstimate' certain things where having the hard numbers available would have been better. Haha...make sure to right My Blockchain on the front of the journal! :P

I'll def check out the video. I'm gonna pick your brain a bit when we get to hang out. :)

Thank you very much for this great effort in helping others with your effective publications
Greetings to you
@walidsalah

I have just started trading it will help me alot thanks.

I have started Cyrpto few months ago and still on learning stage and time I did not had a proper knowledge about it. So I started to learn it and I really on people like you. But every one not given everything about it, But I managed to grab little by little and move forward with experience. Still I am learning.
This is a great guide for a beginner and I wish I had a your assistance when i started. Great tutorial for newcomers.
Thanks @sykochica

thanks for sharing syko

You were so helpful to me when I just got into crypto. Always nice to the newcomers!!! Your like the crypto ambassadress.

thanks, really helpful, we need more posts about this topic

Thanks a lot for your suggestions i was thinking to do it will start with a small amount :)

You really took your time in doing this.....thanks for the enlightment

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