With the current good news creeping up on Bitcoin and Bitcoin trading, a lot of people are entering the Bitcoin community in order to make some money from trading it. I will be showing you how to trade in cryptocurrency. Everything from reading charts (which provides you with the historical data you need to make a buying decision), to how to make well-guided predictions on the crypto currency market. I will only be covering the basics for now; just enough to get you interested in the wealth of possibilities that cryptocurrency presents. There is a lot to learn about trading and markets(I am still learning too). Everything stated here is just advice, I am not recommending you to do anything with trading, just friendly advice. Do your own research and never invest more than you’re willing to lose.

Note: this is just an exposition on crypto currency trading.



Before you start trading Bitcoin, you have to understand what Bitcoin is before delving into it. Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency, a digital currency just like fiat money(Dollar, Pound Yen, Euro etc.) but unlike fiat, money Bitcoin is only held electronically in what we call Bitcoin wallets



Before buying a Bitcoin, you must have a wallet. There are many great options like Coinomi, Blockchain wallet, Coinbase etc. all these wallets are available for download at Google Play store. All you need to do is register with your real details, and a wallet Id will be given to you, which is an equivalent of your local bank account number.

Now you are ready to buy Bitcoin. You can use Luno(available at Play store), or you can buy from reputable sellers on Nairaland. The current price of Bitcoin is 360 – 375 for a dollar.



After you have bought yourself some Bitcoin, you need a place to buy and sell your Bitcoins to make some profit. There are some good and not so good options out there, here are a few that I know about:



https://www.bittrex.com

http://www.poloniex.com

https://www.bitstamp.net

https://www.kraken.com

https://www.bitfinex.com

they are called Exchanges. Word to the wise, do not put more Bitcoins than you’re willing to lose in any exchange! They can be untrusted like the Nigerian government.



Now, you that have registered on any of these exchanges(I use Bittrex) You need to learn when to buy and sell. This is where it gets complicated for even for me, but don’t panic yet, I will expose you to variables that help me to make informed predictions on when you need to buy or sell by giving you an idea of what is happening in the market. Whether the price is rising or falling, if we are in a bearish market (down trend) or a bullish market (up trend), etc. To find out this information you have to look at market data or charts as they called in the investment world. Here are a few:

https://coinmarketcap.com

This website provides you with all the data you need about Bitcoin and other coins called altcoins. It provides you with information such as; market capital of a coin, the circulating supply, the trade volume(24hr), percentage change, the graph, the website of a coin etc.

Note: altcoins are Bitcoin alternatives that you can invest your Bitcoin in when the price of an altcoin increases you make money when it decreases you lose money, but the beauty of cryptocurrency trading that you can’t lose everything, unlike the stock market.

Another variable that informs you when to make a buying decision is the chart

Go to https://www.tradingview.com you can also find the chart of a coin on all exchange websites.

On a chart, you will see, red and green vertical rectangles. They are called candles. Red means that the price of a coin is reducing, and goes downwards while the green means the opposite. The chart acts as a historical data to understand how a coin has been doing in the past and where it is headed. There are other variables that help us to actually understand where a chart is headed, whether there is going to be a fall or rise in the price. They are known as the support and resistance level.

You can read more about resistance and support level with this book https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B074RCVY31

It is a comprehensive guide to trading in crypto currency(with pictures)

Another thing you want to pay attention to is the trade volume. You can find that at https://coinmarketcap.com

Volume plays a huge part in trends that are happening. It can tell you the amount of money being spent to acquire a coin and can be able to dictate whether a trend is here to stay or if it is just a false trend. If the price of an altcoin goes up, but there is a very little volume to support it, odds are the price will go back down. However, if the price goes up and there is a high amount of volume supporting it. You have good reason to believe that the price/trend will stay and can buy into the coin.

The last thing you need to know when watching charts is the order book.



There are two parts to an order book;

Bids (red)
Asks (green).
The Bids are how much people are willing to buy Bitcoins for, and the Asks are how much people are will to sell Bitcoins for.

The order book also gives you a good idea of how much support the current trend has. If you see there are a lot fewer bids than asks. When someone sells a large quantity, the price will change drastically.

All these information are available to you on any exchange site. But it is a lot easier to use an app I downloaded from playstore to do this. Tabtrader. It is easy to use.

source: http://halfworks.com

I hope you learned a little about trading today. Remember this is only part 1 of many parts of cryptocurrency trading

If you have any questions or concerns, you can contact me at halfworks1@gmail.com



Happy investing!