Bitcoin Forum

I've been trying to come up with a profitable but low-maintenance trading technique for BTC and altcoins.  The best concept I can come up with is buying on panics and selling on rallies.  Could it work to just enter an order each day that buys if one of the coins falls x% or sells if it rises x%?

"Buy when low and sell when high" is the maxim of every trader and that's how it should be but it's hard to implement profitably. Bear in mind that you may have an illusion that high and lows are well defined from seeing graphs but that's for past data only. Everyone which know was a trend line is should be able to spot trends on past market data, including highs or lows but those opportunities are gone. It's predicting future trends and their eventual end what will you profit from and that's far from a trivial task. Go read on technical analysis and quantitative trading to have an idea of what you're playing with and then you can go practice different styles of trading and maybe then determine which one fits your objectives and resources.

Edit: spelling.

Yeah, generally I try to buy when price is falling and take fiat profits as price rises. Careful not to sell too much into any rally, though, because I'm pretty sure this market will eventually run me over and lift off forever... hopefully by that time, I have enough coins.

The problem is people doing this probably sold at $18. So they've made a profit but then they face a painful choice.

The trick is managing the amount that you buy/sell. My usual approach is to keep a trading purse that's half BTC, half my favorite national currency. Then, as the price rises and falls, I buy/sell so as to keep those balances equal. There's a strong underlying assumption (namely, that neither BTC nor my favorite national currency are in danger of falling to zero), but given that, and given long-term BTC bullishness, you're able to profit from swings without risking losing all your ammo.

That is the way but usually people sell on panic, buy on rallies :)

Any suggestions for x?



That sounds like a really interesting strategy.  I like the simplicity and semi-automated nature.  Is it very profitable?

What you are trying to do is difficult when you are putting in a buy order. Its like trying to catch a falling knife. You can get your order filled but chances are you aren't going to pick the bottom and the price can keep going down further. Selling is the easy part. Just my 2c

Yes, it's difficult, and the knife is about to fall anytime. So stop posting and look at the market. So will I.

Just stop selling.

Buy when BTC is low, and stop buying when it's high. Consider it like you are alway's getting your BTC at a discount. This way you are never left behind when the train leaves the station. Really only works if your bull though.

You must spread your buy prices. But your right no one know the future bottom price.

Those are the ones that lose the most. If you trade BTC and profit from it you get the profits from someone who made a bad decision and lost.
Personally, I like to set up multiple small buy/sell offers, this way every time price moves I buy or sell with a small profit and immediately use the existing funds to set up new offers.
Btw. never could understand people who sell at the low point of a crash. Pure madness  :o

and if you have enough money to invest long-term

I assume it's because the low point can only be seen after the fact, and they believe it will go much lower....

Often weak hands...  

"Oh.. I kinda like this Bitcoin thing, but....   ohhh shit, we're going to zero.  Fuck this shit!!  Fuck this!!  Race to sell!!  (Hits sell button)"

If the price went down a lot and is getting close to a large bid wall it's better to wait and see if it bounces than sell at a loss and hope you can break even someday.
BTC has bounced numerous times, it can do it again  8)


It was sunny whole week, today it rains, I bet the sun's never gonna come out again, its gonna rain and flood us all, fuck this shitty weather, my life sux!  :'(
A day in life of a weak hand.

So what do you do on a panic buying rally? ;)

Hint: Hold

People talk about these walls a lot.  How can I find out where they are and how high?

Just to name a few:

http://bitcointicker.co

http://trading.i286.org/mtgox/?item=BTC&currency=USD#

Buy on rallies and sell on panic is a better strategy :)

but what do you consider low?

now that china is up and running, I don't think there will be a lot of panics, could easily be wrong tho