Investing into crypto at this time may change your relationship with money for the rest of your life.

That is certainly how it has been for me.

My two friends are travelling all the way from the UK to the South of France to spend 3 days here because they recognise the importance of what is happening right now in our human history. This revolution is not being televised but you can be in no doubt it is happening.

It is my intention to give an intensive course (along with some fine red wine and mountain views) so that they can return to the UK with the knowledge they need to change their lives.

This is our new French home from which i will be conducting the three days of training.

Turning $/£/€ into crypto

The first thing most people want to do is move their fiat to BTC.

• Coinbase is the most commonly used, but it ain't cheap.

• Uphold is lesser known and whilst it may be slower, it is cheaper.

• Localbitcoins helps find people near you who are wanting to buy or sell BTC.

• Localethereum works same as the above but using ETH provides the cheapest option without those crazy BTC fees.

• Bitcoin shop/ATM - personally I enjoy the experience of walking into a shop and slapping my cash down on their table. As far as I know there is no limit to how much you can invest in a single visit.

When searching for your nearest shop/ATM (using coinATMradar) make sure you check the right boxes. In the above example I am searching for a BTC teller offering fiat to crypto and it would seem that Barcelona is my closest option.

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Which markets?

There are many different options to choose from. These are the ones I prefer:

Bittrex - Clear & easy to use but struggling to keep up with demand, so it is not always open to new accounts.

Poloniex - Also pretty simple but doesn't show % change on the wallets page as Bittrex does. And their SBD wallet is still out of action so for now this site isn't much good for Steemians.

Bitfinex - With a hefty entrance requirement of $10,000 I don't trade from here, but do enjoy watching BTC movement using their interface. I ALWAYS have this page open.

Binance - One of the best out there, now listing STEEM, and hopefully SBD soon. They also provide a handy info page for every coin they list.

Cryptopia - Looking for new coins not yet listed anywhere else? This is where you will most likely find them. I have seen coins increase by 500% in a day here.

Gate - I use this site because they list a few coins not available anywhere else.

BitZ - Same story as above.

Please note that you should not treat any of the above sites like a bank account. These centralised exchanges are prone to hackers and potentially fraud, so make your trades and get your money out of there onto a private wallet. There are a growing number of decentralised exchanges which will be safer, but they don't always list the coins you are after.

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Which coins?

No matter how the short term fares, you can be sure this market is growing and all the tried & tested coins represent good long term investments. Check out how prices looked at the beginning of last year.

The site I use more than any other (with the exception of Steemit itself) is Coinmarketcap where you can view the life of pretty much all listed cryptocurrencies. I enjoy being able to see 1h, 24h & 7day % change in one place.

It is also particularly useful for finding out which markets are listing the coin you are interested in.

Just hit the Markets tab when looking at your coin of interest:

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Market overview

It's useful to be able to see the bigger picture and Coin360 does this rather well. Here is what the big picture looks like in this moment.

It ain't too pretty out there right now.

All the more reason to be wise and seek to understand as much as you can about the investments you are making.

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Further coin info

To find out more about coins I am interested in I use Cryptocompare which is similar to coinmarketcap but also lists in one simple paragraph the function of each coin and has a decent forum for discussion.

Coincheckup is another good one for this.

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News

This market is driven by news so it's worth keeping an eye on.

Cointelegraph provides lots of useful information, but beware the FUD.

Cryptopanic provides an up-to-date feed of crypto related news in an easily viewable format.

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Events calendar

The market is also driven by events, so just like the news one would do well to check in on the following sites regularly:

Coincalendar shows one simple list of upcoming events.

Coinmarketcal shows a more detailed list.

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ICO calendar

If you are looking to make the most of your money the pre-sale or ICO is the best time to invest.

To get in on pre-sale prices you will need to have a minimum investment and it won't be a small number. This is where trading groups are useful. Create a pool, work as one. I was able to get in on an ICO recently which had a minimum investment of $100,000 at the pre-sale stage, but was able to invest with just $1000 thanks to my trading group who have a fair bit more money than I do.

Cointelegraph provide a pretty compete ICO calendar.

The most talked about ICO at the moment is NEX (a platform for complex decentralized cryptographic trade and payment service creation) who have had to create a lottery draw system for their ICO due to its popularity. Get lucky and be gifted the chance to invest. You still have a few days left to get your application in.

For those of you looking to remain faithful to the STEEM blockchain, APPICS is the first SMT which begins its ICO tomorrow amongst a fair bit of buzz. Simplifying the Steemit system they have an app designed for mobiles & tablets which aims to bring crypto integrated social media to the masses.

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Stable coins

In order to make the most of big market crashes you will be needing a stable coin to move your fortune into. Here you will hide till the market is on the rise again, giving you an opportunity to buy back in at a lower price.

There are a growing number of stable coins to choose from now with a growing number of mechanisms designed to keep them stable. This is a really useful article to help you understand your options better.

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Great advice from an experienced trader

I saw a fantastic article recently on Hackermoon written by Potato McGruf entitled Things I wish I knew when I started Crypto Trading. It's highly worth a read as a beginner. Amongst other things it will help you establish what you are:

• Day Trader (you make a daily trade or more)

• Swing Trader (you make a trade every 2–7 days, sometimes longer if that is what the trend requires)

• Investor (buys the dips, holds long term)

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Final thoughts

Please understand I am by no means an expert in this field and I am relying on you guys to add to the above list if you think I've missed anything important. I have learned much in my year of trading but there can be no question that together we are stronger, so if you are looking to progress quickly it is therefore important to join a trading group and make the most of shared knowledge, learning from the experience of others.

Happy trading folks!

Who is @samstonehill?

He was a London based filmmaker until he sold everything and set out on a barefoot journey around the world, currently based in the south of France.

He is travelling the world with his partner & two children and with no bank account he has been living on STEEM & crypto for over nine months.

All content created for this account is 100% original (unless otherwise stated), produced by @samstonehill who invites you to use & share freely as you wish.

@samstonehill is the creator of:

@steemshop account where you can buy or sell anything you like using your steemit wallet SEE MORE

@steemmasters which provides FREE TUTORIALS, personal training & resteeming services. Website HERE
Contact me directly on steemit.chat if you want to know more about this

@steemholidays which encourages resort owners to offer holiday packages in Steem or SBD

@steemtv which aims to provide the best in decentralised films, exclusive to Steemit & DTube

The dailyquotes tag initiative designed to encourage steemians to share their most life changing quotes with the community on a daily basis.

The Aspiring Steemit Whales & Dolphins group on Facebook which seeks to help newcomers make the transition from Facebook to Steemit, providing them with detailed notes and personal assistance with their posts... resteeming them when he can.

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Here is a list of Steemit Witness I have voted for & recommend you do the same:
@teamsteem @timcliff @jesta @good-karma @someguy123 @blocktrades @pfunk @klye @krnel @blueorgy @ausbitbank @thecryptodrive @ura-soul @pharesim

Without them our beloved Steemship would not fly.

Learn what this means HERE and place your vote HERE

All non original photo sources can be found by clicking on the image