Have you heard the news? Bitcoin is up over 9,000,000% since it began trading in 2010. As a result, lots of people are looking for advice on how to learn crypto trading.
If you want to become a crypto trader and make money on these digital currencies, you need to know how to navigate the market. Not sure how to get started?
That’s what we’re here for. Here’s everything you should know about how to learn crypto trading.
Difference Between Investing and Trading
Sometimes these two words are used interchangeably, but it is important to know that they are two very different words. Trading is the concept of gaining a profit after a certain time period. Investing is holding assets for a long period of time.
When you are investing in cryptocurrency, the main goal is to get more coins so that when the price goes up in the future you make more money. For example, as of the writing of this post, one Bitcoin is worth around $19,000.
If you had bought 100 coins a few years ago, you would be sitting on $1,900,000. Imagine if you had invested back in 2010 when they were worth around $0.40? That means you would have only spent around $40.
Your $40 investment 12 years later would be worth over a million dollars. This is a perfect example of making a crypto investment.
Trading, on the other hand, is more about the short-time fluctuations. The ultimate goal is to earn money on a daily or monthly basis. Understanding the market trends and the short-term price trends is a major part of crypto trading strategies.
Trade Structure
A structure of trade is a combination of the seller and the buyer. Either the buyer or seller will lose, and the other one will gain. The key is to be familiar with the market trends to prevent high losses from occurring.
You will have to take into consideration that when more people are buying the price tends to go up for all crypto coins and when people are selling their coins this will dive the price down.
Types of Trading Strategies
In order to be successful in trading, you need to have an effective trading strategy. This strategy is what you will follow when you are executing your trades.
There are four active trading strategies that are implemented across the entire crypto market. These include, day trading, scalping, position trading, and swing trading.
Day Trading
When you are day trading, you are buying crypto assets and holding them for the day. This is sometimes called intraday trading. It means that a trader enters and exits the position in the same day.
Day trading means that the person needs to use technical indicators and consider basic technical analysis to identify trends and determine the current market conditions. With day trading, you usually hold coins for a few hours, so it keeps you away from dealing with the volatility that happens in the market while you’re sleeping.
Scalping
This is the shortest term trading strategy. With this type of trading, you hold your coins for a few seconds or maybe a few minutes and then sell them.
The gain is not as high as other strategies, but you tend to accumulate small profits multiple times per day. It is best to execute trades when the market is really busy and there are plenty of people buying and selling at the same time.
This will increase the chances of gaining the maximum profits. Many people, even experts and certified cryptocurrency traders, practice scalp trading in order to profit from the small price movements.
Keep in mind that many of the trades will result in losses and wins, the key is to make sure that the win/loss ratio is in your favor. You will need to have more wins in order to consider your strategy a success.
Position Trading
With position trading, the key is to focus on the long-term price shifts. When trying to gain maximum profits, the major price shifts have to be taken into consideration.
In position trading, the coins are held for extended periods of time. It is important to analyze monthly and weekly price charts. This helps with evaluating the market trends.
There is no need to worry about small fluctuations in the price of the coins. The only concern is the major market trends.
Sometimes this type of trading is called HODLing (standing for “Hold On For Dear Life”). A trader is considered a HODLer when they invest in a coin and hold on to it even while the prices are plummeting for the coin and the markets are “bleeding.”
Swing Trading
The swing trading strategy means that the position is held for a few weeks or for a few days. Traders follow short or intermediate-term trends when using this trading strategy.
Usually, this type of trading is best for someone who can’t sit in front of the computer all day. Also, for someone that is not active on a daily basis in the crypto world. With swing trading, you don’t have to worry about the ups and downs that occur throughout the day because you won’t have your coins for just the day.
Why Do You Need a Trading Plan?
A crypto trading strategy is important because it will help keep your emotions at bay. This is one of the biggest challenges that traders face because when the price of the coin starts to go down, it is easy to become scared of what is happening in the market.
By sticking to your trading plans, it is easier to keep your trades free of emotions.
Another reason you need a trading plan is that it gives you a map. When you have a clear trading strategy in place, you are essentially creating a map for yourself. This will guide everything you trade.
You can use this map when deciding how to trade, when to trade, and why perform a certain trade.
One last benefit of having a clear trading plan in place is that you are managing your risks right off the bat. This plan will force you to do research while creating the plan. Part of your research includes the risk factors that you need to take into consideration for your trades.
Trading Steps
The trading steps might slightly vary depending on the method you choose, but these steps will give you an idea of what to follow. These steps are helpful when you first begin your trading journey:
Choose an Exchange
The first step, is to look for the cryptocurrency exchange you will use to start trading. Some of the more popular exchanges include: Binance, Kraken, Coinbase, Gemini, etc.
Do your research to make sure you can use the exchange where you live and choose one. Once you narrow down to which exchange you will use, then you can create your account. Make sure that you submit all the necessary information to ensure that you don’t have issues with withdrawing your money in the future.
Fund the Account
Once your account is set up and running, it’s time to put money in the account so that you can start buying the coins you want to trade. Depending on the exchange you choose, you can opt to fund with the options they offer.
For the most part, you can fund an account using wire transfers and debit cards. Also, you can opt to deposit money via an ATM once you have your digital wallet set up in your exchange. You can click here for more information, so that you can see if there is an ATM near your location.
Keep in mind that wire transfers tend to be one of the cheapest options (with smaller fees) when you are funding your account. Some exchanges won’t charge you any fees when you opt for a wire transfer.
Choose Your Crypto
Long gone are the days of having only Bitcoin to trade as an option. With so many cryptocurrencies on the market, this step can get overwhelming and even confusing.
Although there are hundreds of coins as of the writing of this post, most expert traders still opt to trade Bitcoin or Ethereum. The reason is that there is more data on these two coins since they are the oldest ones.
With more data, it makes them more predictable than the smaller and newer coins. But, this doesn’t mean that alt coins are not good to trade on a short term basis. Many alt coins have seen around a 1000% rise in a short month, but many have seen a major drop as well.
So if you decide to trade alt coins, just keep in mind that they tend to be riskier than the more established coins because they don’t have an established history.
Strategy Options
You will have to choose the trading strategy that fits your schedule and needs best. The four strategies we went over in detail above all require a certain level of commitment. Take the time to go through the four strategies above and make an informed decision.
Remember that using a technical and fundamental analysis along with using trading indicators is the best way to achieve the highest profits when it comes to crypto trading.
Store Your Coins
Last but not least, you need to store your coins in a safe place. The last thing you want is to be a victim of a crypto hacker. You can choose to store your coins on a physical piece of hardware, a digital wallet, or a software.
The highest level of security tends to be with hardware wallets.
Benefits of Trading
One major benefit of trading crypto coins is that you have 24 hours trading available. Unlike the stock market where the markets open and close at specific times, you never have to worry about cryptocurrency markets closing.
You can trade no matter what part of the world you’re in, at whatever time you please. Some people even use trading bots so that their trades can run all the time.
Another major pro is the privacy and anonymity of crypto trading. If you are huge on your right to privacy, then this benefit is right up your alley. Stepping into the world of crypto means that you have access to decentralized exchanges.
This means that you are not dealing with banking systems that keep records of your deposits and withdrawals and allow the government to see if they were to ask for the transactions.
A third benefit is the volatility of the market. Although this can be a positive and a negative feature, there is quite a bit of positive to talk about. A trader lives off the volatility of the market (unlike an investor).
Thanks to the high volatility, traders get better trading opportunities with the crypto market unlike the stock market.
One last benefit worth mentioning is that it is fairly easy to open an account. You can usually create an account on an exchange and begin trading in just a few minutes.
When You Learn Crypto Trading, You Are Ready to Navigate the Market
Now that we have shared our complete guide on how to learn crypto trading, you can start dipping your toes into the market. Please always keep in mind that the market is constantly fluctuating. So, with that said, you never want to play with money that you can’t afford to lose.
Did this guide help you out today? Please continue browsing the rest of our finance section for our latest guides.
Disclaimer: This article contains sponsored marketing content. It is intended for promotional purposes and should not be considered as an endorsement or recommendation by our website. Readers are encouraged to conduct their own research and exercise their own judgment before making any decisions based on the information provided in this article.
