I’ve figured out a few tips on trading recently that I’d like to share. The way I was doing things before was working but I was getting some pretty hefty fees. Five dollars here and five dollars there starts to add up after a while, and it pays to get a bit familiar with how things work.
Moving Bitcoin takes some time and the fees are really high. I’ve been using Litecoin because the fees are much less. Plus it is a really good time to be trading Litecoin - I can usually sell it for more than I could the equivalent amount of Bitcoin.
Coinbase and GDAX
What I used to do is convert my coins into Litecoin on the smaller exchanges and move them to Coinbase to sell at the market price. This is fast and easy. You pay for the convenience though and the fees start to add up.
After looking into things and figuring out the difference between a “maker” and a “taker” order I learned how to avoid the biggest fees by trading on GDAX.
GDAX doesn’t charge fees on a “maker” order so you can send your Litecoin directly to GDAX and list them on the market as a limit order above the market price. Once the order fills you can move the cash to your Coinbase account and then on to your bank account without fees. WOOT! It’s that easy!
At least I think it is. Honestly, the reporting system on GDAX and Coinbase is confusing enough so that it is a bit difficult so see exactly what is going on.
Finding the Right Price
By looking on Coinmarketcap you can see what Litecoin is trading at on the different exchanges. The GDAX dollar price for Litecoin has been higher than average.
Once you get the feel for converting the values back and forth you can even trade on the Litecoin markets and save fees that way too. As more liquidity is made on these markets I’ve been very happy to skip trading on the Bitcoin markets to save the step of purchasing Litecoin with Bitcoin.
LTC Spreadsheet
An example to convert BTC price to LTC price:
LTC/BTC = 0.01377230 (The average from Coinmarketcap)
For an alt coin priced at 13 sat.: .00000013 ÷ 0.01377230 = 0.00000944 LTC
To find the BTC price from and LTC price: 0.00000944 * 0.01377230 = 0.00000013 BTC
I use a spreadsheet to calculate these values easily so I can understand the LTC market prices. (I’m much more familiar with the BTC prices.)
GDAX and Coinbase have been working well for me but I have heard of others having issues.
A note on security: people have reported losses from fake websites that look just like exchanges. With any exchange you must be very careful that you are signing on to the right website. Even with 2-factor authorization you are not completely safe if a hacker knows what they are doing and can work very quickly. Never search for an exchange and then sign on to it without making very sure that the web address is correct.
A quick search for “Bittrex hack” on Steemit leads to many results. I like to keep things spread out a lot over many exchanges so if something goes bad all my apples aren’t in one place so to speak. Things do happen, I’ve learned my biggest lesson from Crypsy. Next on my list is to look into decentralized exchanges more such as OpenLedger DEX.
If you want to try Coinbase if you use my referral we both can get $10.00 of Bitcoin if you trade at least $100. Thanks in advance if you do. My Coinbase Referral
Thanks for reading, and happy trading! I greatly value your support!