If you’re already familiar with the traditional financial world, and in particular with stock trading, cryptocurrency trading can be a lot easier to understand. Read on to learn a few important things you must do to begin cryptocurrency trading like a pro.
AtoZ Markets – The cryptocurrency industry is currently growing impressively, with many people showing an interest in this area.
Bitcoin (BTC), the largest cryptocurrency, is just a little over 10 years old and has proven itself to be the best performing asset in all world markets. Today, there are more than 3,000 different crypto assets, which boast a combined value of $252 billion and an $84 billion 24-hour volume.
If you’re already familiar with the traditional financial world, and in particular with stock trading, cryptocurrency trading can be a lot easier to understand. Read on to learn a few important things you must do to begin cryptocurrency trading.
Do your research
With crypto trading, everything boils down to research. All the points listed below and pretty much every other thing you do as a trader must be backed by extensive research. As a beginner, you have to assume that you can’t get all the information you need from just one source. The advisable thing to do would be to check multiple sources and try to find some common ground before you make any decisions. Research is key.
Choose a cryptocurrency to trade
As stated earlier, there are thousands of assets in the market for you to choose from. There is usually a lot more information for the largest assets, therefore, it makes sense to go down this route.
However, it’s also important to not just follow the crowd with the most popular ones; again, this is where research comes in. A good understanding of assets will guide you with your decision.
Choose a crypto exchange platform
In simple terms, a cryptocurrency exchange is a platform where cryptocurrencies are traded. You may think of a crypto platform as the marketplace where you can go and buy some of your favorite products – in this case, cryptocurrencies. Some people also use trading apps like Bitcoin Compass to trade Bitcoin, you can read here more about the Bitcoin Compass Review.
There are advantages and disadvantages to these exchanges, just like there might be some commercial banks that are more reliable and trustworthy than others. Consider how you came to the decision of keeping your money in one bank over another and consider doing the same for crypto exchanges.
A few exchanges to choose from are:
Choose a cryptocurrency wallet
Just as the name implies, a wallet is where you keep your cryptocurrency. With wallets, you can easily store your funds or send and receive funds. Each cryptocurrency will have its own wallet, so if you’re holding Bitcoin as well as Ethereum, you need to have both a Bitcoin wallet and an Ethereum wallet.
There are different types of crypto wallets but most of them usually fall under hot or cold wallets. Hot wallets are online and require an internet connection for access. Crypto exchanges have their own wallets and require an internet connection.
Cold wallets are the opposite. This describes an offline wallet that doesn’t require access to the internet. Because they are offline, cold wallets are not susceptible to hacks and are therefore safer.
Start Trading
After you have completed all the above steps, you are ready to start trading. Here are a few steps to keep in mind before setting off into the cryptocurrency trading universe:
Tip #1
You don’t have to buy a whole coin. cryptocurrencies allow traders to buy fractions of coins. This is a feature not a lot of new traders know, thus demotivating them not to start trading due to the high price of coins such as BTC. You simply do not need to buy 1 whole Bitcoin and can simply buy a fraction of a Bitcoin. This is the same across most of the tokens created in the cryptocurrency market.
Most of the top coins are expensive, so consider buying fractions of these coins to start if you don’t want to start trading with enormous amounts of money. Rather consider and predict which cryptocurrency is most likely to increase in and retain value and focus less on its current price.
If you would like to own for example 5 Ethereum (ETH), you can periodically buy additional fractions and grow your portfolio whilst still keeping your balance. This is also a good strategy to optimize the average price, known as dollar-cost averaging.
Tip #2
Keep in mind that the cryptocurrency market is volatile at this stage of its life! There is always the chance that the market will move rapidly in any single moment. Thus, include this into your trading strategies and adapt as the market changes.
Tip #3
Don’t trade with money that you cannot afford to lose! If you have been in the trading scene for a while you will hear this phrase a lot. This term must not be misinterpreted. This phrase does not mean that you must be willing to lose this money, it only means that if the worst-case scenario plays out, you will not feel the impact of losing this money and still be able to live your life as before losing this money.
If you have the mentality that you can lose this money, you have already made your first mistake. The aim is not to be comfortable with losing money, but if this happens, you still have a basis to work from and not have to start from scratch again.
Having said that, with prices only consistently decreasing, surviving a bear market can appear impossible. But how can you scale through when the market is bearish?
How to survive a bear market
A bear market is a prolonged period of time in which a market declines in price or value. Cryptocurrency has been in a bear market since the start of 2018. Bear markets can be crushing for investors and traders alike.
Don’t let the bears win.
Short
If prices are constantly decreasing, and you can only see them going lower, why not open a short position? Shorting allows you to profit if an asset decreases in price. Therefore, if you short Bitcoin and the price falls, you stand to make a profit.
Lend
Crypto investors are unwavering and quite often impressively stubborn. If you are sure you want to hang on for the ride, try lending. You will be able to increase your stack of crypto while you ride out the bear market. If the bulls gain control of the market, you would have a larger amount of crypto, putting you in a great position.
Trade the rallies
Shorting isn’t the only way to profit when trading in a bear market. Prices may be only going down over the long term, but in the short term, there is still price fluctuation. After a big sell-off, there are often positive rallies that you could take advantage of.
Learn how the markets move and trade the rallies to profit from the market volatility. Positive market movement is not uncommon in a bear market, it’s just not consistent or reliable.
Hunt for gems
If you think the bear market isn’t going to last forever, and that bulls are right around the corner, keep your eyes open. You can scour the markets for up and coming cryptocurrencies with a promising future.
If you find projects that have strong fundamentals and a small market cap, in a bull market you could stand to make a killing. It’s like finding a gem.
Be patient and learn
Bear markets have come and gone in crypto and in traditional asset classes. Although past market performance does not dictate future performance, it’s something to keep in mind.
While you are patiently waiting for the bears to leave, take some time to reflect and learn more about crypto, trading, and fundamental analysis.
With more knowledge, you will be in better standing if the bulls decide to show up again. There are several websites that track the price activity and state of cryptocurrencies. CoinMarketCap and Coin360 are two of the most popular sites usually used by the crypto community to follow price movements.
Take away
That’s it for this lesson on the exciting world of cryptocurrency trading. We hope it has been useful and that you're ready to trade like a pro. As you can tell, there is a lot to learn - but there is no need to feel daunted. Remember, start small and learn as you go.