@nolim1t

In light of the surge in cryptocurrencies - recently, I’ve been doing a bit of crypto trading with altcoins and also bitcoin.

I first got my first taste of trading on Poloniex where I used to open positions against ethereum (after the hard fork).

Poloniex is not too bad (when it works), but after I gave BitMex a try - it seems that their platform is a bit more mature. Also the charting on the platform is so much more superior.

Lessons Learnt doing leverage trading

• If you’re highly leveraged, don’t forget to set a “stop loss” order (especially trading late at night, you snooze you lose - literally!). That way you don’t loose everything when the market goes the other way.
• Experiment with smaller orders first
• Trend is your friend. Look at the charts and news relating to your asset you are purchasing. Also check out the only trading chats on telegram for tips. You can gather market sentiment from the “trollbox”, but remember - theres more noise than signal

Trading Platforms

Here are the two trading platforms I’ve used.

Poloniex

I first started experimenting on Poloniex. First with ETH/ETC, then with DASH.

I made a fair bit with DASH, but also lost some of it with a BTC long getting liquidated on bitmex (thanks to a flash crash). Lesson - I’ll make sure I set stops as a limit sell rather than limit market.

The advantage of Poloniex is you can cash out in multiple crypto if you don’t like holding bitcoin.

The only think about Poloniex is if you make a lot, you have to cash out in chunks of 2000 USD (or go through their KYC process).

BitMex

I had an account open on bitmex for a while but haven’t really started using it as the UI is quite complex.

But after a few test trades, I’ve started to get the hang of things.

The things I like about bitmex is that they claim withdrawals are manual (so less chance of getting hacked). And also getting a chance to meet the founders in person also means alot.

I also like how because it is crypto-only, there is no KYC.

But for those who don’t like holding bitcoin, it may not be your platform of choice. For me it’s ok. Bitcoin, despite the dramas is still the reserve cryptocurrency (just like the USD is in the traditional finance world).

I personally like the functionality here. I’ve tried the following orders:

• Take Profit Market
• Take Profit Limit
• Stop Limit
• Stop Market
• Limit
• Market

Take Profit Orders

What are these? Everyone knows about the “Stop” orders right to limit your losses.

This works the same way, however in reverse. Basically it gives the trading platform an instruction to automatically close your position (or sell off part of your position) if the price of the instrument gets to a certain value.

In other words, leave the dealers table after I’ve made a certain amount.

On BitMex you can choose either Limit or Market.

Stop Orders

Pretty much the standard stop loss. As in get out if the price drops below a certain point.

You can also choose limit or market. Market being useful in flash crashes as limit may not execute therefore liquiding your whole position.

Limit or Market Orders

Pretty much the usual. Buy/Sell at this price. Or buy/sell whatever the market dictates.

Joining BitMex

I’ve got a promo code that you can use to join bitmex with which lets you save money on the trading fees.