So, you’ve been tantalized by the Bitcoin surge, “wow”-ed by the DOGE dip, enticed by all those Coinbase adds offering free crypto, and tempted by all those crypto traders on YouTube, who make thousands a day trading crypto. Who wouldn’t want to start trading after all the commotion crypto is making these days?
I don’t blame you; I was there about a year ago, disillusioned with Covid and looking to get my feet wet with a new obsession (and hopefully one that would be profitable enough to make me a millionaire someday, so I could up and leave my little studio in Los Angeles and work from the beaches of Dubai).
But the thing is – I did it the hard way. I had no prior experience with crypto, stocks, the stock market, and all that jazz! The most experience I had was a short-term Indian boyfriend who checked his phone every twenty minutes to see what was up with the charts, even when we were cuddling – yes, I know! The dude was absolutely shameless! Why did I ever date him?
But that’s it. Nothing else. Nil. Nada. A week before that, I didn’t even know what crypto stood for. I know, I know! How do I even deserve to call myself a trader, jumping into the ball game so late? But alas, I did it the hard way, so you don’t have to! Now, you can learn from my triumphs and tribulations, and hop into your trading career with the drop of a hat. Let’s get you started with how to trade cryptocurrency, showing you how you can start making $5-10k every month, just by trading cryptocurrency part-time!
How to Start Trading Cryptocurrency: Complete Beginner’s Guide
- Step 1: Pick your technical analysis platform.
The first thing you’ll need to do is set-up your set-up. Your instruments are nearly as important as your skills, but never as important as your discipline!
First, you’re going to need to set up the environment where you do your technical analysis. These are third party platforms that provide price action charts for all coins, as well as all of the technical indicators (factors that you will use to predict whether the price will go up or down) that you might need. This is where you’ll be spending the majority of your time, especially in the first few weeks.
You can choose from dozens of sites, but I used TradingView. You’ll need to register for an account and choose a pricing plan. Here are my thoughts on the pricing plan you should choose: basic isn’t enough. That’s for sure. Basic only offers three technical indicators per chart, only one chart per window, and – this is the uber-annoying part – ads! If you’re broke, a hobbyist, or looking to do this purely for fun (read: not to make extra cash), then take the basic option, which is free. But if you’re considering making money off of trading, you’ll need at least the Pro plan. The biggest factor here is the technical indicators. You’re going to want to have up to five on your chart.
My pricing recommendation: Pro.
It’s still cheap enough so that if you decide to dump trading and pick up basket-weaving as a hobby instead, you can! And it won’t break the piggy bank. And, on the other hand, you have all of the features you need to begin trading, professionally.
A bit of a sidenote: I signed up for the Pro+ plan when I started out, because I purchased on Black Friday when they had amazing steals (Pro+ plans with Pro pricing)! But, unless there’s a mega sale coming up, Pro+ isn’t a necessity!
How to Start Trading Cryptocurrency: Step 2
- Pick your crypto exchange.
Next up, your cryptocurrency exchange!
You’re going to need to hop onto one of the cryptocurrency exchange platforms out there. This is where you’ll actually be doing your trading. You’ll transfer money into your wallet, and use it to trade crypto. You’ll be spending a lot of time here, so the platform you choose matters. The difference between winning a trade and losing one, can be the functionality of your platform’s user interface.
Let me give you an example! Binance does this conniving little thing, where they start out your leverage at 20x. For those of you puzzled by the term “leverage,” it’s just a technique used in margin trading to borrow funds so that your position has a much greater amount attached to it. In this case, the amount of money you put into the trade is 20x the amount that you have, which means your profits will be magnified by 20 … and so will your losses! Binance does a gimmicky thing, where 20x is the default – so I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve forgotten to change it out and suddenly wondered why I was down by $50 in the span of 5 seconds. Learn from my mistakes! (And choose a platform that’s right for you)
My exchange recommendation: Still Binance
Despite the cons, Binance is still the best exchange out there, in my humble opinion. Yes, you can look into Coinbase, Kraken, and the others, but I can tell you right now, Binance will be the winner. Binance is great for both the beginner and the advanced trader, and seeing as you’re a beginner now, looking to be advanced in the future, it’s the perfect lifelong platform for you. Let’s take a look at some of the stats:
Coinbase vs. Binance
Cryptocurrencies Available for Trading:
- Binance: over 500.
- Coinbase: 44.
Fees:
- Binance: up to 0.10% of the trade amount.
- Coinbase: 0.50% of the trade amount.
Transaction Types:
- Binance: Buy, sell, deposit, withdraw, trade, stop order, limit order, margin trade, options trade, futures trade
- Coinbase: Buy, sell, send, receive, exchange
As you can see, the comparison is clear! Binance takes the cake. All you’ll need to do is register for an account and follow the steps. You’ll have to set up additional verification, and you should set up multi-factor authentication. You’ll be using this as your crypto wallet as well, so you want it to be as secure as possible! Treat it like you have a few hundred thousand dollars in Binance – because you might, really soon!
How to Start Trading Cryptocurrency: Step 3
- Learn the Basics
Bullish. Bearish. Long. Short. RSI. Elliot Wave. Swing trading. MACD. OBV. EMA’s. All of those words probably looked a bit like gibberish to you, and that’s okay! You’re new to crypto, and now that you’ve gotten your platforms set up, you’ll need to start learning the basics of trading. But, before you learn how to throw your money into Binance and watch it gobble up your hard-earned cash, you need to grab ahold of the knowledge and the skills that you’ll need to put your trading into practice.
But wait! I don’t even know what a bull market is! How will I keep up?
That’s why we start with the basics. Before you dive headfirst into an advanced course, a crypto book, the crash courses sprinkled throughout YouTube, and all of that jazz – believe me, you’ll be so perplexed by all the terminology that you’ll start balding at the age of 20 – you should snatch up some introductory knowledge of the basics, and the lingo.
How do you do that?
The best resource I’ve found: Binance’s A Complete Guide to Cryptocurrency Trading for Beginners
This webpage is amazing! It walks you through every. Single. Thing. You. Need. To. Know. Touted at a 63-minute read, this manual on trading will give you an overview of all of the terms involved, and a great head-start with technical indicators and analysis. Plus, the great thing is that it has links sprinkled throughout the entire article – if you don’t understand something, or you want more info, just follow the link and you’ll be transported to a more in-depth article on that topic.
But note! This is just the basics. It’ll teach you what trading is, but it won’t teach you how to trade. That’s coming up next.
How to Start Trading Cryptocurrency: Step 4
- Learn How to Trade
If you want to trade like the professionals do, then it makes sense that you’ll want to learn from the professionals too, right? Right.
There are tons of resources out there geared toward teaching you how to trade, some leagues better than others. You can pick up a trading book. You can watch YouTube tutorials. You can take one of those $1,000 bootcamps.
What did I do?
None of the above. I took a Udemy course, and it worked for me! I love Udemy – the courses there are inexpensive, high-quality, and there are some pretty great sales, too. You’ll find an overwhelming number of crypto courses on there, but beware! Many of the “experienced traders” publishing these courses are either posing as experts, or are sponsored by different companies, and peddling their agenda all the while. That’s why I highly recommend you do your research, beforehand. Log onto these experts’ social media profiles and websites … are they professional? Are they demonstrating crypto knowledge in a way you can understand? Is there sponsorship, shout-outs, and other advertisements going on? Don’t pick a teacher solely based on their years of experience, and their highly embellished earnings. Pick a teacher whose personality is genuine, and who isn’t scamming you and ringing in the change in the meantime! Need a secret tip? Check out reddit! Your friends over there know what’s up, and will call out a poser before you can say, “Dogecoin to the moon!”
Other advice: Look for courses with A LOT of hours. I don’t care how pretty or how crisp the thumbnail is on that guy’s video – if his video is an hour long, versus six, snatch up the second one! You need knowledgeable content, not pretty pictures and tempting promises.
How to Start Trading Cryptocurrency: Step 5
- Start Trading
Now that you’ve got the knowledge, it’s time for your first trade. I won’t walk you through it here – there are hundreds of YouTube tutorials that can do it way better than I can! Just know – trading isn’t all about analysis and predictions. Trading is about your mindset. If you aren’t disciplined, quick-acting, decisive, and emotionally stable enough to walk out of a $100 loss without the need to revenge trade, then think again. You’ve got to have a firm hand, you’ve got to have the discipline to keep to your stop loss when things get tough, you’ve got to have the stability to take a loss without going nuts, and you’ve got to believe in yourself, no matter what. I’ll believe in you, too.
And that’s the end of How to Start Trading Cryptocurrency – Complete Beginner’s Guide! Go forth and trade, all, and let me know if there’s anything else crypto-related that you’d love a blog post about!
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