As we have a extreme amount of newbies that do not know what they actually do, I thought I write something for them. Way too many people lose money because they miss out the basics. Yes, you are in for a huge wall of text. Feel free to ask questions, as long as I am online.
So you are into cryptos. You set up your account on bittrex, bought some BTC on coinbase and you are ready to go, right?
Read it, understand it, try it. This is what will indeed make you money. I don’t want to overly shill technical analysis, but this helps you to analyze and understand the history of the graph better. They often confirm themselves through their broad usage alone. And it all boils down to probabilities and anticipation - not predicting the future, because this is impossible. Again: technical analysis is more like a self-fulfilling prophecy because many people use it, it is not a physical law.
Then, you need to consider news & rumors. Buy the rumors, sell the news. It sounds easy, but sometimes it is a bit harder to distinguish, as many things are bullshit and the devil is in the details. Let’s say a fan of a coin uses the technology of said coin on a counter-strike server, so the players can get coins for every headshot. Someone might overly shill the coin with "CS!!! PARTNERSHIP WITH VALVE!!! PRICE WILL MOON!!!!". This could trigger a newbie to buy at the new all-time high price (believing it rises even higher), which the newbie then has to hold for a long time or sell at a loss.
After that, it is just a matter of practice. It all comes down to probabilities, being able to cut losses, evaluate information and not getting emotional.
Part 2/6 Then you need a set of rules, e.g.: - set stop-limits every! fucking! time! you buy into something - don’t buy at or near a new ATH (rarely goes well) - always have a valid reason for buying (no, "Veeky Forums said it’s going to moon" is not valid) - never rely on single platforms alone - reddit, twitter, bitcoin forums, Veeky Forums, blogs, news-sites etc. are very good if used together (stay away from zerohedge tough – tinfoil alert) - never focus on a single coin alone; diversify in at least 2 time horizons (1-7 days short (ST); 2-4 weeks mid (MT); 1-12 months long term (LT)) & reevaluate them accordingly - never!!! daytrade with more than 5% of your funds per week/month, if you are not consistently in the greens with these 5% - if you are in a ugly situation (like having >50% of your stuff being stuck) and NOT in dire need of money: HOLD THE COIN! The market is exploding and the burst of the bubble is months if not years away, you will at least get your money back, if you did not buy useless coins on small platforms
IMPORTANT! Stop-limit-orders are not a joke, they can literally save your ass! Set one at e.g. 95% of your entrance point/adjusted to the current price, when you are away from the computer or watching a movie etc. Yes, sometimes it is only a short bounce and you lose some money or profit, while the value goes bonkers afterwards - but most the time, it just prevents you from heavy losses or missing opportunities to sell your stuff at a good price, because you were sleeping/shitting/suffocating on a Cheeto while wanking on your possible profits while selling on a ATH.
Ethan Smith
Part 3/6 Now you could start to trade with e.g. an excel-sheet, where you insert the buy of a coin and a sale when you sold it. This is called "paper trading" and for just getting a feeling for it. Do this for some days, while you are learning the basics of analysis. Then start with small amounts - 10 dollar, maybe 50. If you are comfortable with that, pimp it up with stocking it up with the same amount per week or month. If you lose some, it won’t hurt and if you gain some, it is a sense of achievement.
Keep in mind that there are days where you look at the charts and say "Yay, nothing to do here but to adjust my stop limits", as everything is green and fine. And then there are days, where you see all your stop limit orders triggered, because everything is falling into abysmal depths. Both days are cool, because the first one nets you profit and the second one cuts short your losses or triggered taking profits to enter again. Because remember: "if there is blood in the streets, it is good to buy". This say was true when Baron Rothschild made a fortune in the 18th century (I am not implying something anti-Semitic here, he indeed said and did this). Start to think this way and you get a boner when thinking about crashes.
Also, remember that the meme "HODL" or "hold your coin" only applies to people that bought at a low price and are in the green even in the middle of a crash and the ones that bought at a high price and did not place a stop limit order. The first ones know that the price will rise further & holding the coin will enlarge their gains later. The second ones know that the high times will come back and then they can keep their losses small by holding the coin until then. There is little to no reason to see a coin crashing and not cutting your losses/grabbing the profit so far and buying back in, when the foothold is confirmed.
Joseph Carter
Part 4/6 Let’s get to some general security measures: On every exchange, take your mobile and enable 2FA (two factor authentification). That way, when you want to withdraw cryptos, you need to enter a code from your mobile which changes every minute. So even if your PC somehow gets compromised, an attacker is not able to steal your money, except when he also steals your mobile. 2FA is the easiest and most efficient way to secure your stuff on an exchange. There is absolutely no reason to go without it and it should be the first thing to do after registering at an exchange.
Also, keep your computer safe. Better not watch that pron from the dubious website on the same computer you do cryptos with. Or at least use a virtual machine for this and be much much safer. It is easier than you might think of. I am a finance guy and even I learned it with some tutorials from YouTube.
If you start to store coins on your own wallet for holding them long term, make sure you have offline backups. And a backup from the backup. Store them in at least 3 different SAVE locations (e.g. one at your parents’ house, one in the cellar behind a brick and one at bank in a locker etc.). Be aware of the dangers of doing this with HDDs, as they less resistant to damage than a stick.
Be paranoid. You are handling money and the number of scammers is huge. You can discuss and talk with other people on the internet like you always do, but never give out personal information (except your wallet address - besides someone sending you coins, nothing can happen). The "send me your coins, I double them"-scam is nothing but bullshit, but people still fall for it more often than you might think. Be aware of these things, even with dealing with people you write often with. Social engineering is an art for itself, which is mastered by many scammers and conman, just to trick you out of your stuff without you realizing it being bad.
Eli Bennett
Part 5/6 Speaking of crazy things – here are the two most important rules of all:
NEVER EVER trade with money which you cannot afford to lose. 100k of a shitcoin won’t make the landlord happy, even if it might spike up again and get you dem delicious gains, which could lead to homelessness faster than you can imagine. This proves even more relevant when it comes to food - a bag full of coins is not eatable.
NEVER EVER lend money from relatives, friends, colleagues, banks, neighbors or the mafia just for trading cryptos. If you lose money, you not only put them in financial danger but also the (hopefully lovely) relationship between you and them can get strained. No money on the world is it worth to risk or even strain your relationship to a loved one. Especially when we talk about the mob, you are in for a world of hurts, if you want to tell them that "THE COINS WILL BE WORTH MORE NEXT WEEK, I SWEAR!!!" when they come to collect their money. They are pretty old fashioned, I guess.
And finally: don’t be fooled by thinking you can get rich fast and lay off for the rest of your life. "Lamboland" and "moon" are memes to entertain, they are not an accurate description what happens when you only trade for a week or so. You CAN get lucky and get x20 or x100 your investment in a few days. But you also need to consider, that you can very much lose everything, especially when you are new. That’s why "only trade what you can afford to lose" is such a golden rule. Running for fast pump & dumps will make you the bagholder for organized groups and worthless coins sooner or later. This is a gamble you can win or lose in a couple of hours. Researching and investing is more relaxing and also a secure possibility of multiplying your capital over days, weeks or months, depending on the coin. The number of people getting money by researching the coins however is a multitude higher than the number of people getting rich on p&d-actions.
Xavier Williams
Part 6/6 Finally let’s give you a practical homework, if you are still interested: try applying the stuff you learned with litecoin. Do we have a major event in the far east? Check twitter how the general air about the coin regardin this event is. What do specialized bloggers say about it being under- or overvalued or about future aspects? Can a more advanced tool like a fibonacci line explain the current support/resistance?
Draw your own conclusions. Or how it is called: DYOR - do your own research. It might be hard, but in the long run it pays out, as there are too many people out there that see cryptos as a slot machine and not as a craftsmanship.
In 2-3 weeks, if you got some gains - maybe drop me a beer in form of Litecoin, if this posts and/or the answers I give you in this thread helped you somehow to get profit out of your investments:
LT6qfsrxPhVxcYPbNgT267W1aVRd6n5AFq
Or even better: treat yourself for a new game on steam. Or take your dog to a walk in the park and get some icecream. Or how about going to the cinema for the movie you wanted to see for real, not pirated in bad quality on the internet. Take your friends with your or make some there. There are many things out there to see and enjoy - dont look at charts all day and dream about "lambos" or "moons". It’s the small cash outs that make it worthwhile to do, if you are not required to life from it.
Disclaimer: Even if you have read this wall of text carefully and follow the advice of experienced traders, you still can lose money. I am not accountable for any losses you encounter while trading crypto currencies. Trading can lead to addicting gambling behavior, for which you should consult a professional, please – otherwise you might lose everything.
Jordan Phillips
My current portfolio:
ST: BTS / XVG / ANS
MT: UFO / ESP / STRAT
LT: DGB / ECC / PTOY
I can still recommend to buy ANS as long as it is below $10, but I advice to be carefull. I cannot validate rumors that the chinese are thinking about going short on their positions tomorrow or the day after. A x1.8-gain over the next 24 hours is very possible, but prepare for a short and hefty correction afterwards if it hits the $20 - resistance.
In the long run, ANS is valid. But I advise to look onto it closely and set those stop limits carefully, as the growth after the correction might be more healthy and sustainable.
Levi Ramirez
I'd tip but I'm a newfag
Ryder Wright
FUCK YOUR THREAD! BUY FUCKING ANTSHARES AND GET A LAMBO TOMORROW GUYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Chase Cruz
^^ this
Zachary Ortiz
Kinda feel bad now. Was just memeing, thank you for your effort. Actually two days ago I was in this thread and asked you some questions. But invested about 1k in ANS yesterday @150k and thought this was the most newfag thing to do but Im actually hyped right now.
OP you got knowledge about ANT? You think this is really the chinese ETH?
Asher Reyes
OP, you said you are holding XVG short term. Do you think it can also be a good choice long term?
Ethan Smith
If op keeps this thread alive every day until it gets stickied, i wonder how many hundreds of thousands of tendiebux he'll help the neets here save
Angel King
>Kinda feel bad now. Was just memeing, thank you for your effort. Actually two days ago I was in this thread and asked you some questions. No problem, this is Veeky Forums after all.
>But invested about 1k in ANS yesterday @150k and thought this was the most newfag thing to do but Im actually hyped right now. Enjoy it. But be carefull on your stoplimit, I adjust every 2 minutes.
>OP you got knowledge about ANT? You think this is really the chinese ETH? Tbh. I am puzzled. My connections in china unfortunately are all sleeping rigth now, my buyorders went bonkers all the way up to 160k on which I expected it to rise in the morning after a good friend gave me the advise to buy with what I have left on bittrex. I expected it to rise, but not to explode completely 2 days before the actual conference. You could say that I rely only on the informations everyone has right now. And what I saw on reddit is damn fucking good in all aspects. No backing from the government tough, but this does not mean neccessarily something bad, as we see now that it . ANS could be one of the last big bulls before the expected market correction. I just sold at 490k and will buy back in in a few minutes. This whole thing is ridiculus, I never thought it would moon so hard.
Hell, it could even soft out this correction considerably, as it pulls more attention, awareness and new money into the market.
ANS is now something I would like to call "too big to fail". And the chinese are behind it, so everything is possible. For the long run, I will keep some of these babies.
Nicholas Reed
Thanks for the info OP I will send some coins when i make more Your thread is very helpful Can i follow you somewhere like twitter or join some kind of group. I see you have chinese friends how did you make those connections.
Dylan Hill
>Do you think it can also be a good choice long term?
Yes, but that is not what I expect to do with it. I expected it to rise again in the 165/170 area. If this does not happens, I guess I short it as soon as I see it in the 130ies again.
Tyler Anderson
>tfw will never have loving relationship wioth bank Feels goy man
Ian Lopez
>I see you have chinese friends how did you make those connections. I had a semester abroad during my time at the university. Most of them are in fact russians, georgians or guys from africa which studied there for a couple of years and just stayed after they found a job there. But it is around 3 AM there, so they are in for a big surprise, I guess.
>Can i follow you somewhere like twitter or join some kind of group. I indeed opened up a twitter account today to tell interested people when I open the thread on Veeky Forums - follow me, if you like: @Bizcryptanon I am not so much of a big twitterer, so dont expect me to write as much as my niece do.
I am not sure where this whole path will lead, but I need to say that I am very fond of the idea to write more things. Basics as well as advanced stuff.
Adam Howard
thanks for the reply. What are your percentages on your stop sell limits? With that much volatility right now 5 percent is definately too low right now, right? When it was over 500k and dipped drastically I sold at around 450k but it went so fast up quickly that I panicked and bought back at 460k and lost some ANS...FUCK!
Kevin Jenkins
I cant find you on twitter And I wanted to ask you where are you from and what are your end goals are you going to cash out at some point and invest in something else or are you going to make a career out of crypto
Jayden Bell
nice post, OP. Very helpful.
I have a question: how would you set stop-limits on bitcoin when you're trading on poloniex?
Should I also set a buy order for USDT or something like that to hedge against a crash?
Camden Green
>What are your percentages on your stop sell limits?
I adjusted roughly to the top 2/3rd border of the body of the candle two minutes before. Except when I saw the little fucker on 8:40 PM. If a 1 minute graph peaks like this and the order book is filling up liek crazy, you better be fast and sell the stuff. Also, during moons I tend to watch how the graph behaved in the past 1-5 minutes more than sticking to fixed numbers or percentages.
Bought back 410 now (stop at 398) and will grab a cup of tea for now. The next 2 days, we could face another major run on ANS, but I doubt it will be as good as this one.
>When it was over 500k and dipped drastically I sold at around 450k but it went so fast up quickly that I panicked and bought back at 460k and lost some ANS...FUCK! It is best to sell when you see the tendency of the growth slowing down, not when the decline is already taking place. This is what is ment with "not becomming greedy". Some sold stuff as high as 525k, but the same candle also features people which panicsold at 420k. You will get used to it if you see indicators like that one flat candle at 8:40 PM. I made many mistakes like that in the past. As long as you made profit and learn from it, this is fine. There are also situations in which you actually lose money from such mistakes.
Elijah Sanchez
Thanks for this post OP. Really helpful. Just been doing this for a week but regarding your Stop-Sell advice, are you saying that you should go in 95% of your initial entrance price or last purchase? I'm about 25K shares in on Sia and have gained about 50% since last week but made multiple purchases.
Alexander Wilson
>And I wanted to ask you where are you from and what are your end goals are you going to cash out at some point and invest in something else or are you going to make a career out of crypto
I am from germany, made my B.Sc. in finance at a german university and am currently working in a investment company in a big city in western germany (not frankfurt). Goals... good question. I am quite happy with my life right now. Job is good, family is comparatively healthy. I cannot complain, if I am honest. A career with cryptos is something I took into consideration several times. But this would also mean that I would need to work alone. And I guess this is not what I would like to do.
>Just been doing this for a week but regarding your Stop-Sell advice, are you saying that you should go in 95% of your initial entrance price or last purchase?
Last purchase or the actual price right now at the time when you set the stop limit (if they are above your last buy in). Otherwise you risk your profits made so far.
Ian Watson
This is very helpful, many thanks germanon. If you were even kinder, could you expand more on the trading aspect of parts 2 and 3? For example, I googled about stop limit, and I am kind of hazy on the process of trading. other than buy low, sell high and setting alerts.
Dylan Miller
Oh nice, Im german too. Got a specific question then. I suppose you cash out from time to time...do you wait a year before you do it, cash out and pay taxes or maybe you got another "method" to get rid of the taxes?
Anthony Hill
In regard of explaining the foundation of it or in how to set them up at poloniex / bittrex?
Alexander Smith
I wait one year. However I always let the taxes do from my wife, who is a tax consultant and I rarely touch my funds - if you are in doubt about something, it is always better to go to one.
Carter White
The foundation if you please.
Ryan Clark
The stop limit is something you do as a precaution against a collapse, when you are not able to react to the collapse or occupied with something else.
Lets say that after today LTC is at 110 dollars, after you bought them for 100. You are tired, you want to go to bed. And you believe it will rise further during the night, but you also want to protect a share of the the profit you gained today. So you set a stop limit which is triggered at 105. You go to sleep.
Now there are 4 options of what might happen: a) price explodes, stop limit is not touched Yay, even more gains the next day
b) price goes sideways It might or might have not triggered your stop limit, but you can buy back in at around the same price like yesterday anyways.
c) price crashes to 80 It touches your stop limit and you gain 5 dollars in profit - the next day it is below your entry point and without the stop limit you either had to take a loss or wait for it to spike. With stop limit however you made small profit, with what you can buy the dip and make even more money.
d) price touches your stop limit and goes bonkers Only bad situation where you made a small profit and lose the prospect of getting more. Happens rarely, when you do your job with the technical analysis well.
Just to be clear on this side: the stop limit is a tool for precaution. It limits your risk and that is all that is to do when dealing with stocks and cryptos: limiting risks and cutting possible risks short.
David Gonzalez
Interesting. And what about BTC? Is it possible to prevent losses on BTC without cashing out?
Dominic Morales
What do you think of buying BTC and ETH for long term? I don't want to overcomplicate things or daytrade.
Robert Wood
How does everyone here hold their coins? Are you all online wallets? Or do you have cold storage for all your coins or what
Liam Johnson
Usd alts and shorting are used as a hedge against btc
Nicholas Roberts
>Is it possible to prevent losses on BTC without cashing out?
Going in resilent coins, yes. However this also can be risky, as many alts still have a somewhat similar relation to the behavior of BTC and even when they were resilent in the past - they can still take a hit from exceptional movements of BTC.
From safe to risky, my statement from 3 days ago is still: If you want safety in all situations: LTC. If you look for a predictive growth over a couple of months: DGB (below 1200 it is a safe buy) If you want to put your bet on a failing BTC: ETH. If you want a solid coin that will most likely make it to the top 50 this year: ECC.
I would also like to add ANS to the list. I think the coin is still heavily underevaluated right now, it could take a beating from BTC easily without taking a bit loss itself.
Julian Miller
>What do you think of buying BTC and ETH for long term? Still solid strategy, if you are in for the long run. However I would not buy now, you can maximize your profits when BTC is around 2k, I would buy in at 2.1-2.2k, just to be sure. Just an estimation, tough - the times when BTC will fall below 2k are over however, if I would need to make a statement about that.
Daniel Wilson
>How does everyone here hold their coins? Are you all online wallets? Or do you have cold storage for all your coins or what
Some LTC & BTC stored offline, everything else is located in the wallets of exchanges I trust in.
Gavin Cruz
thanks user, hopefully my profits with crypto currency will be so big that I will have to hire a text consultant kek.
Another question: So lets say ANS is at 450k right now. I set my stop limit at around 420k and go to sleep. Is there an option to trigger a buy at lets say 370-410k depending on how much its gonna dip or do you need a bot for that kind of sophisticated auto trading?
Would suck if I have to program myself one, cause it would take a lot of time and its not really worth it with the amount of my current investment...
Thomas Murphy
>Is there an option to trigger a buy at lets say 370-410k depending on how much its gonna dip or do you need a bot for that kind of sophisticated auto trading?
You can set conditional buyorders, yes - however I would not do this on non predictable coins which recently mooned and are not stable. In the end, you are more at risk in beeing an automated bagholder than making a effective entry at a dip.
