Introduction
Cryptocurrency trading is a volatile market, so you have to be prepared. But first, let’s talk about what exactly cryptocurrency trading is and how it works.
Cryptocurrency Trading
Cryptocurrency trading involves buying or selling cryptocurrencies. You can trade cryptocurrencies using many different platforms, including a crypto exchange (like Coinbase or Gemini), an over-the-counter (OTC) platform like LocalBitcoins or Bisq (which offer more privacy), via peer-to-peer (P2P) marketplaces like Paxful and LocalMonero, and on social media sites like Facebook and Reddit (where many users use pseudonyms).
The best way to protect yourself from the extreme volatility of cryptocurrencies is to have a trading plan and stick to it.
The best way to protect yourself from the extreme volatility of cryptocurrencies is to have a trading plan and stick to it.
A trading plan will help you decide when to buy or sell and how much money you can afford to lose if things go wrong. It’s also important that you stick with your strategy – don’t let emotions get in the way! The crypto market is notoriously volatile, so it can be easy for traders to panic and make rash decisions. However, by having a strategy in place before they take action, they’ll be able to avoid making impulsive moves based on emotion alone.
If you’re new at trading cryptocurrency then we recommend reading an article about risk management before proceeding any further.
Trading strategies should be based on the individual. What works for someone else might not work for you.
The best strategy for you may not be the best strategy for someone else. It’s important to understand your own strengths and weaknesses, as well as what works for you, when trading. For example, if a trading strategy requires patience and careful attention to detail—two things that aren’t in your wheelhouse—that doesn’t mean it won’t work for someone else who has different strengths than you do (and vice versa).
The bottom line: Trading strategies should be based on the individual. What works for someone else might not work for you, so if you’re looking at other people’s trading strategies, don’t feel like they’re applicable to your own situation unless they’ve been proven effective over time with consistent results.
Invest what you can afford to lose. The cryptocurrency market is highly volatile, so only invest an amount that won’t hurt your finances if you lose it.
One of the most important tips for investing in cryptocurrencies is to invest only what you can afford to lose. The cryptocurrency market is highly volatile, so only invest an amount that won’t hurt your finances if you lose it.
When investing in any type of investment, don’t invest more than you are willing to lose. Instead, spread out your investments over a number of different currencies and coins so that if any one of them fails, you still have others that are working well for you.
This strategy also allows you greater flexibility because you may want or need access to some of your money at any given time without having to sell all your assets at once—you’ll simply sell some while keeping other tokens as investments until they increase again.
In addition to trading fees, there are often other costs associated with buying and selling cryptocurrencies, so take these into consideration when investing.
- Trading fees are the cost you pay to buy or sell a cryptocurrency.
- Exchange fees are the cost of using an exchange to buy or sell cryptocurrencies.
- Withdrawal fees are the costs associated with withdrawing funds from an exchange to your bank account.
- Processing fees are costs associated with depositing funds onto an exchange, as well as withdrawing them from there back into your bank account.
- Taxes vary from country-to-country and state-to-state, but they range anywhere from 0% to 20%. Some countries don’t impose taxes on cryptocurrency trades at all! In addition to trading and exchange fees, there may also be other costs associated with buying and selling cryptocurrencies like storage fees (i.e., keeping coins on exchanges), electricity usage for mining rigs (if applicable), etc…
Diversification is key in any investment portfolio. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.
Diversification is key in any investment portfolio. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.
Cryptocurrencies are risky investments, but you can reduce your risk by investing in other cryptocurrencies beyond Bitcoin and Ethereum. There are over 1,500 different cryptocurrencies available for trading on the market today, with more being created every day! You don’t need to become an expert on every single cryptocurrency out there; just familiarize yourself with some of the most popular ones (Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, Dash) and a few promising new coins that have been gaining traction lately (Stellar Lumens). If you want further advice about how to diversify your crypto portfolio for maximum gains without undue risk, check out this article from our friends at Blockgeeks!
The same rule applies when it comes to exchanges where you trade cryptocurrencies: don’t put all your money into one exchange! Some exchanges are more reliable than others; some offer better customer service than others; some don’t require extensive verification before making trades or withdrawals while others do. By spreading out across several different exchanges—or even using multiple accounts on one exchange—you can avoid losing everything if something goes wrong with one platform’s security system or customer support issues arise between its employees and customers
Be aware of the different stages of the market cycle. What may be right for the market tomorrow may not be right for the market today or next week.
Understanding the market cycle, knowing when to buy and sell, calculating your risk tolerance, and understanding the difference between short-term and long-term investing are all key components of a successful investor.
- The market cycle refers to the ups and downs that happen over time in any financial market. How extreme these fluctuations are depends on factors like economic growth, interest rates, inflation levels, government policies and geopolitical events. You can think of it as a rollercoaster ride: while some people may enjoy excitement at every turn or even want their stomachs in knots all day long (high risk tolerance), most prefer an initial calm before things start getting crazy (low risk tolerance).
- Knowing when to buy or sell is key if you want your investments to grow over time rather than losing money on them. In addition, understanding how different assets perform during various phases of this market cycle will help you make wiser decisions about where to invest your hard-earned money so that it works harder for you instead of against you!
Keep a trading journal to track not only your wins but also your losses so you can learn from them later on.
- Keep a trading journal to track not only your wins but also your losses so you can learn from them later on.
- Write down the reasons why you made the trades you did, and keep track of your trading plan.
- Record your emotions and how they affected your trading decisions.
When things start going poorly, remember that it is often good to stay away from a market for a while before it corrects itself again (and if you’re right in waiting for that correction, then great! But if not…).
Do your research and ask questions before investing in ICOs or altcoins (alternative coins). Many of them will never go anywhere, and you don’t want to waste time or money on something that won’t take off.
While it’s possible to make a good deal of money in the cryptocurrency market, you need to be cautious and do your research before investing. You should never invest in something that you don’t understand. If a project sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
Ask yourself: Is this project really solving a problem? Does it have a unique use case? What technology does it use? How long has the team been together? Do they have any previous accomplishments under their belt? A great way to get answers is by asking questions of the founders directly on social media or through email.
Before buying on an exchange, find out about its reputation and don’t give them more information than what’s absolutely necessary to make a purchase.
Before you make a purchase on an exchange, it’s important to look up the company to see if they have any negative reviews. If there are no bad reviews, that’s good news—but it doesn’t mean it’s a safe exchange just yet!
It’s also crucial to check if the site is regulated by any government agency and whether they have been hacked before. You’ll need to go through this process with every single exchange you consider using.
Finally, make sure that you’ve read all of the terms & conditions before going through with anything else so that you understand exactly what type of information they’re going to ask for during registration. This can include things like your full name and address (which may not be necessary), but also things like social security number or driver license number (which definitely should not be given out).
Know the risks of investing in cryptocurrency
Cryptocurrencies are a risky investment, and it’s important that you know all the risks before making any decisions.
Here are some of the main risks:
- Cryptocurrencies are a completely unregulated market. This means there are no guarantees to protect you from fraud or theft, nor from loss due to changes in price or value. The value of your investment can go up or down at any time—and even fall to zero! It is entirely possible for someone with very little money invested in cryptocurrency to lose everything they have invested if they buy at a high price and sell at the wrong time (or vice versa). Since cryptocurrencies aren’t created by governments or banks, there’s no way for anyone but you as an individual investor to recover any losses incurred when buying and selling cryptocurrency assets on exchanges like Kraken, Bittrex and Poloniex which can be accessed through an app called Coinbase Wallet installed on Android devices (iOS version coming soon).
Understand that volatility and risk is inherent to the cryptocurrency markets
Volatility is a measure of how much the price of an asset fluctuates over time. It can be measured in different ways, but the most common way is to look at how much the price changes within a given time period. So if you were to look at one day’s range of prices for bitcoin (BTC) on Coinbase, it would be somewhere between $9,000 and $9,500. That’s quite a large range for just 24 hours!
The amount of volatility varies from market to market and cryptocurrency to cryptocurrency. Volatility also has some correlation with risk—the more volatile an asset is, the higher its risk profile will tend to be because there is more potential for loss associated with that asset or investment holding than there would be with a less volatile holding or investment opportunity. There are many factors that influence volatility across markets:
- The size and liquidity (or lack thereof) of an exchange
- Regulatory actions by governments around the world
- Global macroeconomic conditions like interest rates
Apply risk management techniques when trading cryptocurrency
Risk management is all about setting up rules for yourself and sticking to them. It’s about having a plan, knowing your limits, and staying within them. You never know when a cryptocurrency market might crash or rise unexpectedly—and risk management helps you deal with this uncertainty by setting up boundaries so that even if something goes wrong (or right!), you’ll still be able to stay in control of your finances.
Here are some basic tips for applying risk management techniques when trading cryptocurrency:
- Have an exit strategy for each trade before entering it
- Diversify your portfolio across multiple assets
- Get familiar with technical indicators like moving averages, MACD crossovers, candlestick patterns etc., but don’t rely solely on these tools
Understand and manage your emotions when trading cryptocurrency
It’s important to understand that emotions can be a huge factor in trading. The market can be volatile and it’s easy to get caught up in the excitement of making money, or the fear of losing it. While you shouldn’t let your emotions control you, being aware of how they may affect your trades is important.
Using a trading journal can help keep track of how different emotions affect your trading decisions so that you know when it’s time to take action, or stay out of the game entirely until those feelings subside.
Keep an eye on this article as we continue to add more tips and tricks—and share them with us!
Never invest more than you can afford to lose.
- Risk management is a core component of the trading process that involves risk assessment, risk control and risk diversification.
- A trader should never invest more than they can afford to lose. This is true in all forms of investing, not just cryptocurrency trading.
- Risk management is one of the most important things to learn as a beginner investor because it helps you avoid unnecessary losses.
- It’s important to keep your emotions under control while trading cryptocurrency and managing your investments, so you don’t make rash decisions based on fear or greed.*
Conclusion
Cryptocurrencies are here to stay, but they may not be for everyone. Before venturing into this new world, make sure you know what you’re getting yourself into. If trading is too risky for you, there’s always other ways to invest in cryptocurrencies like buying some bitcoin through Coinbase and holding onto it for a few years before selling off at an inflated price (hey-o!). Good luck with whatever decision you make!