8 must read tips for trading Bitcoin and Altcoins
1. Have a reason before entering each trade: Start a trade only when you know why you’re starting and have a clear strategy for afterwards.
Not all traders make gains from trading, since this is a zero-sum game (for everyone who benefits someone else loses on the other side).The Altcoins market is driven by large whales (yes, the same ones responsible for placing huge blocks of hundreds of Bitcoins on the order book). The whales are just waiting patiently for innocent little fish like us to make mistakes. Even if you aspire to trade on a daily basis, sometimes it is better not to earn and do nothing, instead of jumping into the rushing water and exposing your coins to losses. From my experience, there are days where you only keep your profits by not trading at all.
2. Target and stop when starting a trade: For each trade we must set a clear target level for taking profit and more importantly, a stop-loss level for cutting losses. A Stop-loss is setting the level of loss where the trade will get closed.
3. Meet FOMO (fear of missing out): Indeed, it really isn’t fun to see such situations from the outside – when a certain coin is being pumped up like crazy with huge two-digit gains in minutes.
4. Risk Management: little pig eats a lot, big pig gets eaten. This statement tells the story of the market profits from our perspective. To be a profitable trader, you never look for the peak of the movement. You look for the small profits that will accumulate into a big one.
5. The underlying asset creates volatile market conditions: Most Altcoins are traded according to the Bitcoin value.
6.Tips for trading Altcoins: Most Altcoins lose their value over time. They simply bleed their value away slowly (sometimes rapidly).
Take this into account when holding Alts for the medium and long term, and of course choose them carefully. What kind of Alts are recommended for the long term? Remember, this is only when there is a reason for making a trade. The projects/coins that have a higher daily trading volume and which have a widespread community behind them, with continuous development, are here to stay with us:
Ethereum ETH, Monero XMR, Factom FCT, DASH, are all leading coins and traded the most volume daily. You should follow the coin’s chart and identify low and stable periods. Such periods are likely to be a consolidation period by the whales, and when the right time comes, accompanied by a good press release of the project, the pump will start and they will sell in profit.
7. A word about public ICOs (crowd-sales): Many new projects choose to make a crowd-sale where they offer investors an early opportunity to buy a share of the project (tokens or coins) in what is meant to be a good price for the tokens.
8. A final tip – practical steps to implement right away:
Fees, fees, fees: Multiple trade actions = More fees. It’s always advisable to post the command (maker) and not to buy from the order book (taker). In Poloniex exchange, the difference is 0.1% in favor of the maker. That’s quite a bit.
Traders with no pressure: Don’t start trading unless you have the optimal conditions to make the decision to start a trade and know when and how to get out of it. Pressure almost always creates losing trades. Wait for the next opportunity, you will get there.
Setting goals and placing sell orders: always set your goals by putting sell orders. You don’t know when a whale will pump your coin up to catch your command (and pay a reduced fee on the “maker” side, remember?).