Dumb Money Knowledge – Tools of the Trade

gutzofter (59)in #crypto • 6 years ago (edited)

Any craftsman will have a set of tools that they will create and show off their mastery. A trader must also be a craftsman. Most of the time if you are trading crypto requires you to become very savvy in the ways of trading. You have to be cognizant of bid/ask spread, counter-party risk, and other nefarious and dangerous things.

A Bit of History

Last August, I got really interested in blockchain technologies. After dabbling a bit with Ethereum, I ran smack dab into Steem. I was able to parley an investment of $1300 US @ $0.10 per Steem into a ginormous amount of dollars, when the price shot to the moon earlier this year. So I pretty much started powering-down. Payed some debts off and decided I could try to figure out this trading thing. To be involved in the crypto world you have to have a gateway to sell fiat and buy crypto. My first foray was using Coinbase. This Exchange allowed me to connect my bank account to buy crypto. My first purchase Ethereum. This was when it was dirt cheap. If only I would have known that it was going to have a meteoric rise. I might have stoped there, but alas the siren call of Steem was tootin` its blessed sound of come hither. I then used Blocktrades to convert BTC to Steem.

Trading Platforms

Coinbase

The actual conversion from dollars to crypto and vice-versa has large bid/ask spreads. The main use is to convert from dollars to bank and bank to dollars. To convert dollars to crypto. I will use GDAX.

GDAX

This where I will do my scalping usually BTC-Dollar. Buy Low Sell High is how you scalp. This exchange has takers fees. Does not charge anything for makers. Transfer back and forth between GDAX and Coinbase wallets is free.

Openledger

Has extremely wide bid/ask spreads in the illiquid crypto. But I must say there is something to be said about the pedigree of bitshares. ANother nice thing is you can borrow USD or CNY then buy something else. So you are effectively shorting. Bitshares borrows USD, then USD buys Bitshares. I also use this as my conversion from BTC to Steem.

US Bank

Repository for Fiat

Steemit

Has an internal market for selling SBD/Steem. Can get a little practice with scalping on this exchange.

Blocktrades

This is how I initially got my Steem. The bid/ask are not so great and they are not very transparent in there fees. This will be my last resort to convert Steem to BTC. I also bought a lifetime membership.

SimpleFX

This is an off-shore exchange, maybe some counter-party risk. Have not heard of any major issues though. I use this exchange to trade currency pairs. The fee you pay some spread in purchasing your long or short contracts.

Tastyworks

This is a certified US Broker for mainly trading options in the US stock market.

Poloniex

I cannot say enough horrible things about this exchange. Beware of transferring Steem to this exchange. I have personaly lost money from these guys to the tune of about $400. All I can say is that they can piss off!