[How-to] Crypto Day Trading – What I’ve Learned

These past few months, my team and I have embarked down the path of trading cryptos with a higher level of frequency than my previous involvements within the space. I had BTC a few years back, and sold at a hefty profit to buy new computer stuff. I’ve had NXT (and ARDR) for years. I got into ETH at about $40 per, and rode a wave to well over $300 in the recent months, which kicked off this experiment for my team and I.

Before I get into the details, my background is in the technology industry, I’ve been at this a long… long time. I remember the demise of Pets.com, the rise and fall of Netscape Navigator, when Lars outed Napster, when Friendster got curb-stomped by MySpace, and when the MySpace exodus happened after Rupert Murdock bought it. I had a Geocities website, played Decent on Windows 98SE, upgraded from DOS to Windows 3.1 to Windows 95 before I could legally operate a vehicle… I’ve been on Twitter for a decade, and most importantly I’ve been running a Business Intelligence / Design / Development firm specializing in startups on web and mobile interfaces since 2009.

Revenue Strategy is my thing, this includes a plethora of fancy catch phrases like “arbitrage”, “user experience design”, “conversion metrics”, “neuro-web design”, and my personal favorites “global market trend analysis” and “commodity forecasting”.

These facets of taming web markets into predictable, malleable models is what’s been driving our decisions in crypto, and so far, we’ve crushed it. We’re up over 240% since April; and we’re looking to double that again before the end of the year.

I’m also keenly aware that everyone in this space appears to fancy themselves an expert once they find a way to formulate somewhat complete sentences and draw lines on a few charts; so you can take this post and dismiss it all you want, or you can read through it and potentially learn something, whatever. It’s the Internet, there’s tons of other garbage out there for you to waste your time on other than what’s about to follow:

Exchanges

I can’t speak for anyone outside the US, but for those of you in the US the “Highlander” fight between exchanges currently available is all but over... but there isn’t “only one”.

What not to use

• Coinbase is trash – because they’re slow to process transactions, they’re expensive compared to other fiat-capable exchanges, and we have it on good authority that they hold fiat for 24 – 48 hours to process BTC purchases when it benefits them the most (on top of their fees); but whatever I’m not a journalist – investigate that one yourself, I’m sure others have noticed this too.
• CEX.io is trash, mainly because it’s historically more expensive than other fiat-capable exchanges, otherwise, I quite liked CEX back in the day.
• Kraken is okay at best, and their verification process was created by tortoises, but overall their user experience on the site is atrocious and hardly helpful to traders.
• Liqui.io is okay, but it feels like it has a long way to go before it fits the bill.
• Bitfinex is barely okay, but their user experience is trash, and their verification process is a “special cupcake” with odd rules.

What’s worked best for us

• Buy BTC on Bitstamp - easiest fiat to BTC we've found, and the fairest, hands down.
• Pass BTC to Poloniex and Bittrex - Both of these exchanges are awesome, feature a wide range of currencies to look into and have a solid set of options in place to make trades. My opinion though, Bittrex overall has better charting.
• Repeat.

My team and I have signed up and been verified on a boat load of exchanges, if I didn’t mention an exchange above it didn’t even make this cut… so do the math.

Charting and Data

Basing trades off charts alone is akin to walking into a gun range without ammunition. You have a solid tool in your possession, but without augmenting it with additional effective utilities, you’re pretty much asking to be disappointed.

Studies like Fib, and RSI are handy and learning how to read/use those features (on various charting platforms) can help you validate your assumptions about market direction, but in no way, will it be a surefire way to make money in the crypto-market space.

It’s imperative to compile news sources and social media outlets to follow. Rumors will drive a coin’s price up or down, and news will usually not deliver the desired impact for most of the impatient “investors” in the space, so you’ll see massive sell offs when news breaks. Same goes for livestreams. So, if you want to effectively day trade, look at a coin’s trends – check the peaks, plateaus, and floors, look at the volume, and for the love of all that is holy – ZOOM OUT ON THE CHARTS.

If you see buzz from influential contributors on Twitter, Reddit, Facebook, and Steemit – have a look at what they’re talking about, dig into the charts, and see if the volume, direction, and technology of the crypto interests you. Above all, do your own research (DYOR) and make your own decisions.

Pump & Dump Groups

These things are ridiculous. Yes, there are valid groups of whales that engage large numbers of hopeful onlookers and some people make gains from their announcements, but truth be told – they’re all scams and garbage. 100 percent of the time, the people who run these groups on Telegram, Slack, Discord or wherever else position themselves into the coin hours in advance, and get a bunch of you “outsiders” to pump the price up 2 – 3x in a few short minutes in a frenzy allowing them to dump their stakes at peak, or sub-peak values for massive gains.

If you don’t own the Pump Group – (read this slowly) – you are being used.

For those of you ‘normal’ non-whale investors out there, don’t be someone else’s patsy. Make investments, make trades, make buys, holds, dumps, follow trends, and do the work – you’ll reap better rewards for it in the long run. Fly-by-night crap is just that… crap.

Fortune Cookie Conclusions

As everyone always says, never invest more than you can lose.
As I always say, don’t let the fear of missing out (FOMO) drive any of your decisions.
As another trader I know says, never chase the money, let it come to you.