Effective Trading Methods For Beginners
The crypto markets are booming once again in this second part of 2021. While some investors are willing to risk it big and buy Dogecoin, others are looking to learn about a more balanced way of making profits from crypto. Trading can be a very lucrative venture if you know what you are doing. However, it’s important that you learn the basics before you start your trading journey. While profitable, trading can be very risky as well. For this reason, we created this short post with some of the most beginner-friendly methods to become a successful trader. We also list some additional tips that should help you reduce the risks of this potentially profitable enterprise.
Let’s delve in.
Trading vs investing for beginners
Before we go into more depth about the different methods of trading, it is important to note that regular investing is a much more approachable profit-making method. Strong cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum appreciate in value in the long term, making them great choices for beginners. Additionally, you can use dollar-cost averaging to soften the price curve and reduce your exposure to the volatility of the market. Below is a short overview of how this investment strategy works.
Dollar-cost averaging – the best beginner strategy
Dollar-cost averaging or DCA is an investment method that consists of purchasing a certain cryptocurrency at regular intervals, using a previously fixed amount. This is done regardless of the current price of the currency, as it’s a long-term strategy.
The goal is to slowly accumulate coins to sell them for a much higher price down the road. The length of the strategy can vary, but it’s best employed on a multi-year time span and with fundamentally strong coins such as Ethereum or Bitcoin. With that said, DCA is a long burn, and you won’t see the results before considerable time has passed. For more immediate (and riskier) returns, keep on reading to discover some beginner-friendly trading strategies.
Trading methods for beginners
Below are two methods that are most suitable for beginners, as they don’t require too much technical analysis to be successful.
Swing trading
Swing trading is a mid-term trading strategy that mainly relies on following price trends. The goal is to use the positive and negative market dynamics to make a profit from price fluctuations. The modus operandi, while obvious, is worth mentioning: buy low to sell high. You should be watching the price trends and detecting when a certain cryptocurrency has bottomed out. Then, buy a certain amount and sell it when its price reaches an acceptable profit target.
For this, you can use simple technical analysis like support and resistance, as well as following trend lines and detecting breakouts. Moreover, you can use sentiment analysis to detect when the price of cryptocurrencies might sway one way or the other. LunarCrush is a great tool that will help you determine the social media attention and market sentiment about different coins.
Arbitrage trading
Arbitrage is the process of buying a cryptocurrency on one exchange and selling it on another for a better price. As you might notice, this doesn’t require any type of analysis, just a keen eye to detect price discrepancies between different exchanges.
To be successful at arbitrage, you should make a list of reliable exchanges to work with. You need to be 100% certain that your transactions will be fast enough to take advantage of the price discrepancy. Otherwise, you might miss the window of opportunity and not be able to make any profits.
Additional beginner tips
In addition to these two beginner-friendly methods for trading, here are a few essential tips that should help you stay on the safe side when trading cryptocurrencies.
- Choose a reliable exchange – only work with exchanges you can trust with your money and where you won’t have any trouble making withdrawals.
- Use stop losses – put a stop loss on every trade. This will allow you to limit the damages if the trade doesn’t go the way you planned.
- Never invest more than you are prepared to lose – cryptocurrencies are extremely volatile. While they can bring in incredible profits, they can also make you lose your entire capital in minutes. Consequently, never trade with money that you need for daily expenses.
- Never go all-in on a single cryptocurrency – in other words, you should never put your eggs in one basket. Cryptocurrencies come and go and some projects might crash, leaving you with worthless tokens in your portfolio. Diversify to reduce your exposure to a single asset.
Concluding thoughts
Trading can be very profitable if you take the necessary precautions and learn how to do it properly. To be able to make a regular income from trading, you should first and foremost deepen your technical analysis knowledge.
Being able to read charts will help you be more consistent in your winning trades and you will be able to learn from past mistakes. With all that said, you can start your journey as a DCA investor and slowly shift your attention to trading as you become more comfortable with the ecosystem.