In the beginning of March, I purchased my first altcoin on the market called PIVX. I didn't have much to spend so I only purchased what I could afford. I managed to accumulate 7000 PIVX over the next 3 weeks and was able to start staking and earning rewards.
After spending time in the PIVX slack channel and starting to become more familiar with it's structure I started digging around and found more altcoins that looked very good.
I was dead set on reaching my 10000 PIVX accumulation so I could start a masternode. However, I had some bills to pay and PIVX just happened to explode in price and I was faced with the decision of selling some PIVX or not paying a bill. I tried as long as I could to hold on but in the end, I had no choice so I sold 2000 and kept 5000 staking.
After I paid my bill I still had .3 Bitcoin left and decided maybe I should look at buying something else or even try trading a little.
The following information is only my take on trading and I have no past experience at all, so please don't take anything I say here with any authority on the subject because I don't have any.
What I have learned about the Altcoin trading world is many new users will buy or sell based on what they see in forums or trollboxes and this can be the biggest mistake they will make.
The fear of missing out can actually be very overwhelming at the beginning of your trading journey and it does take a while to get that out of your system, I am very happy I was able to get unchained from this emotional response sooner than later.
If you have a competitive nature you always want to be on top. I found that the biggest problem I had with trading was I was always 2 steps behind and missing out on the best time to buy or sell.
I decided the only real way to become better at this was to try and find out the information before others did, or at least before the masses did.
So what did I do?
Well, what I decided to do was go through a list in a program called Coinigy that I had started a 30 day trial on. I started at the top and researched 2-3 coins per day.
My research consists of a few things:
- Read as much as possible of the ANN at Bitcointalk.
- Join the slack channel
- Look at the Recent Github commits
- Find any blogs/forums
- Current and past trading volume
If after all the above checked out and looked promising, I would then look at buying in.
I want to share a few recent trades that I did and I will be honest I have been doing this full time nonstop for 8 weeks which doesn't sound long but in the noncrypto world that's like 8 months. Like I said I am not an experienced trader but I do have a tendency to identify patterns in systems and people for some strange reason. The below trades are only for this month and really the last few days.
The green arrow is where Coingy adds a marker automatically when you make a buy and a red arrow when you sell.
[SYS]
I had traded Syscoin before and it looked promosing from many prospectives, but it was the latest news i spotted in the ann on this bottom of this page that let me know it was going to pump https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1466445.1400. Below you can see i bought on the 28th and I sold at the peak .
[Zcoin] I have always been interested in this project and when i heard it was going to be intergrated into Ethereum i new it would get attention, then i also got wind of more updates on the way so i invested. The yesterday the news got more widespread so purchased more. I new i could capatilize on a pump trade so i basically sold the entire wave to the top
[RDD] Reddcoin interested me the first time I researched it, I like the idea of sending tips with crypto through all social media platforms. I also really like projects with potential that have been dormant for a while but have news on releasing an update. RDD had given hints they were going to release in the next few weeks so I took advantage and bought some. I quickly came across something else I needed to invest in sooner and sold my RDD almost as fast as I bought it, which you can see on the image below. However 5 days later I got news again it might be going forward so I quickly invested once more.
[BTS] Bitshares is one project where the tech is so good that iam surprized its undervalued. I looked heavily into the project and purchased quite alot. I still made a good profit from my trade but was very unlucky to miss spotting the new ANN being posted which helped cause a great surge.
[IOC] I knew as soon as I spotted this video the guys were serious about this project and it had great potential so I invested. I decided to sell a little for another opportunity but kept the majority. This is a classic buy and hold scenario where patience is your friend. You can see below it was almost 4 weeks when I sold again.
[POT] Potcoin was a decision I made based on some information I received from another trader, and to be honest, i was hesitant and it was really more of a gamble than anything. I wanted to show you in this scenario where if you set a sell order and have patience there is a good chance your order will hit as it did here.
[STEEM] Well what can I say. You always have an advantage with trading a cryptocurrency that you're directly involved with. You see the overall picture you get up to date news etc. Steem is very volatile and that's due to market trends and trade manipulation but it's good fun trading it. I have to admit I don't trade Steem very often, it feels a bit weird trading something you're involved with.
The above are just a few examples of some recent trades. They are by no means the perfect way to trade but they seem to work for me.
WHAT I HAVE LEARNT
You have to research yourself. Utilize every resource known to man regarding cryptocurrencies. Don't make a trade purely on what someone else tells you or what you read in trollboxes/forums/chats. There are some smart cookies out there that will try to create hype then dump and leave you wondering what the hell you just did.
Don't invest in one coin. Be sure to diversify. As the saying goes "Don't put all your eggs in one basket"
If you make a trade and the price drops DONT SELL!!! it will correct sometime in the future. Remember there are many traders that manipulate the price with volume and they want you to sell on the decline so they can profit. Never panic sell just ride the wave.
When you have a decent amount of capital in your portfolio try to keep a % of each coin you value.
Some friendly advice if you're short on capital like I was
You hear people say the same thing over and over "if you can't afford it then don't spend it". The opposite can hold true also "if you don't take risks how will you ever know what could be".
There are a few different ways to trade. But let's face facts. Money makes money but you have to have money to start with. If you start trading like I did with very little then you have to make profits fast to build up your portfolio and this can be a big challenge.
The main problem is running out of Bitcoin to trade with. You have to wait until a sell order fills before you can trade again, and this can become highly frustrating and cause nonprofitable sells to satisfy your FOMO. People lose patience that's just a fact.
I found being aggressive and taking small profits worked for me. This is not the perfect way to trade and I have changed my methods now, but to begin with, that is how I got started.
Looking for coins that have a potential to become very volatile of a short period of time was/is the key.
Understanding what a pump is and how to get out before it dumps is another key to your forward momentum.
When you have enough in your portfolio look at investing in the projects you really truly believe in and just hold.
Coinigy - My weapon of choice for Trading
I am not a trader by profession and don't use all the tools, and TBH I don't think you need them for trading crypto currencies as much as for trading other assets, but I'm sure many will disagree and that's ok.....What I have learned without using all the tools, is that support levels are important to recognize and use for trades.
My advice is to get Coinigy for 30 days free and try it out if you don't like it then don't use it after the 30 days it is that simple. I have Bittrex and Poloniex connected via API keys, so no need to visit the exchanges and it makes it very convenient for trading.
And lastly
To be in a time where we can be a part of the Blockchain Revolution and create a permanent history for ourselves is something I feel blessed to be a part of.
The crypto world has changed my life in so many positive ways that all I can say is Thankyou with every ounce of my being.
I am happy to say my initial investment is now at 66x.
I hope everyone has as much success as I have had..Good luck and happy hunting!