Bitcoin Forum

I humbly come before you today to ask for your advice on altcoin day trading.

I've been using one exchange, Poloniex, to day trade for a few weeks. I've made a few bucks, lost a few bucks and had a good time.

After reading a fair amount of blog posts on the topic, I'm convinced you fine members will have better applicable advice for getting more serious about it.

I've been doing the "buy low, sell high," cliche. I seem to always miss out on the meteoric rises, but make a few satoshis on the way up.

What advice do you have for someone new to altcoin trading who would love to do this full time?

What news sources do you use to stay on top of new and promising coins?

Thanks in advance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6P2FB9Mg_YI

The dirty secret is that hardly anyone actually gets all of the meteoric rise, and chasing it can lead to losses. Limit yourself to a 10% gain, when you hit it, sell. And sit on your hands during a pump (the time to buy is before the pump), and you'll reduce your losses. It's about controlling losses not hitting the ball out of the park.

That is immensely helpful, thank you!

Excellent.

It's all about research and different "release" dates.

And ofcourse, keeping your head cool when you hit one of the big ones.
That means no trading expect the really fast rises and dips. Other then that, hold until everybody is talking about the coin. That's usually when the whales start to unload ;)

Do it full-time?   I wouldn't.   You'll probably lose everything unless you get really lucky.  Altcoins are so risky that I wouldn't put serious money into trading them unless you can place stop-loss orders to limit potential losses.  Good luck.

it will all come down to how much time you can and are willing to spend for it.

doing it half assed is not gonna get you anywhere, i think you have to dedicate serious time to searching for the perfect chances every day. and that is hard.

best thing that helped me alot in training in general is to take home your winnings dont know how many times i had 6% and got greed thinking i would gain more and it almost always go the other way :/

Red-Apple is spot on. Research takes an enormous amount of time. I think you would be happier joining a good paid trading group like the one run by klee here on the forum, see his thread (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1064374.0) for details.

Hi mate were both the same I'm also new in trading with alt I found something interesting with yobit buy low sell high, but to my desire to learn more it went me to look for other trading platform then I found cryptopia they have arbitage system so if you want you can check price of alt and movement from diff trading site, if you have big investment you can earn atleast 10-15% in a day trading good luck to you just don't forget to keep checking alt section for your ref.

To take for all the forks do not advise.
Select 3-4 coins, read the thread roadmap. Also, it would be desirable to know a little bit about Dev and his team.

Yes, the song tells the business idea of this in pretty simple terms.
The idea is to find "underpriced" coin and convince others to buy the shit load from yourself at higher price.

The one thing I would tell you is that alts are a really, really, really thin market. 

BE VERY CAREFUL.

When you say day trading, I wonder exactly what you are talking about.  With major markets, there are people who make a great living taking big positions in small moves.  If you had sufficient stake and balls of steel, you could quit your job, monitor markets, take a few positions per week, and make a living.  But major markets are not NEARLY as thin as Poloniex.  If that's what you mean by day trading, I would encourage you NOT to do it.

If you just mean taking some swing trade positions over the course of a given week, well, still risky, but if your life doesn't depend on it, I'd say go for it, have some fun, but be prepared to learn hard lessons.

Look at it this way.  On December 24th, 2015, coinmarketcap showed a BTC market cap of $6.8 billion.  On the 21st, total cap was 7.159 billion and on the 28th it was 7.063 billion.  So if you take out BTC, you had a total alt market cap somewhere in the range of $300,000,000. 

Right now, total cap is $8.062 billion.  BTC is actually down from $6.8 billion to $6.4 billion.  Alt market cap has gone from $300,000,000 to $1,600,000,000 in roughly three months.

So if you've made some money in the last three months, it doesn't mean you're picking winners with any proficiency.  It just means you are swimming in the right pond.  But there is no guarantee that will continue to be the case.  Total market cap for alts has grown 5x.  Of that, probably half is just Ethereum.  You can decide for yourself, but think about what that pond looks like over the NEXT 6 months.  And think about the implications if the total alt cap goes back to something like $800,000,000.

Just for the sake of comparison, think about a company like Kellogg.  Good company, lots of history, well-known, but it's nothing like Apple, IBM, GE, Alphabet.  Kellogg has a total market cap of almost $27 billion.  It's more than 3x all cryptos, and more than 15x alts.  It's also about 90x the market cap of EVERYTHING other than BTC in the crypto-universe as of three months ago.  NINETY TIMES!  Then realize that Polo is only a slice of that tiny marketplace. 

So, sure, day trading is all about profit from volatility.  And this is a volatile market, no doubt.  You may even have been right more often than wrong over the last 3 months or 6 months.  But if your bias is long side and you've done well recently, in the big picture, that is meaningless.  Certainly no indicator of future success. 

much better if you know how to play like arbitage or locate the alt that have strong back up it always the back end of the stated alt to depend with, almost all alts got the same with btc price fluctuation are also hard to predict with maybe if you can locate the flow of the whales you can do this day trading alt,. always check dev background mate and see their future plan so you have opportunity to decide if you will hold or not.

Wow, the advice here blew the blogs I read out of the water (as I hoped). Thanks guys! I'm going to keep playing it cautious with small trades as I learn more, and my dreams of day trading for a living are much more...realistic.

I had an early success with the rise of LTC, ETH and Ripple all within my first month. Made ridiculous gains but realised I was just lucky. So timing is everything bc if I had sold just a bit sooner then I would have made about 100% more.

I think the best strategy is to split your investments evenly on blue chip cryptos like BTC, ETH and maybe LTC (?) and then devote the other 25% to speculation.

For example $1000 investment would be $250 BTC, $250 ETH, $250 LTC and then maybe $125 Ripple and $125 ZCash.

Then hold hold hold. The real gains will be after 2020 once blockchain tech is fully adopted and the financial system fully embraces altcoin. This is at least 10 years out globally so use that as a guide.

Just an example of course and I would love any feedback neg or pos on this strategy. :)

I'm sorry, but i think after reading what you described, you are making a profit based solely on luck. It takes a lot to be a "guaranteed profit" day trader. I will just point a few things out  :)
Firstly, you might need some general idea on reading charts, i don't know to make assumption based on them, but you should if you want to day trade.
Secondly, follow events around cryptocurrencies. Be the first to know who will have meeting with who, when will Stratis make a deal with Microsoft, when BTC will be accepted in China, etc.

Of course, holding is also good, but you said you like day trading, so keep up with it.
This would be about it, for decent day trading  :D

Try to invest a big amount in trading you well get a high profit and income small investment in trading is not worth for a full time work also try holder your altcoins in years it will give u a big amount but not easy to do and also risky at a time.

dreadful advice. Bitcoin is already a risky prospect, altcoins are a step further removed.
You are investing your actual money at the end of the day.  Are you happy to give your money to scammers or pump and dumpers?

Don't invest more than you can afford to lose, move in and out of bitcoin depending on price. Don't be afraid to trade out for a loss, instead of holding for a bigger loss!

No. Without any preparations and knowledge, you just like throwing your money to altcoin and make you lose.

Trading isn't for full time work because the price sometimes stable and vice versa, also small capital really helpful for trading and you would get doubled if you lucky enough.

I'd like to ask same question . Can you hold your altcoin till next year ?

In fact no one really gets a high price increase. If you still want to pursue a high price increase, could cause losses. How to overcome the loss of playing alt. Limit yourself to a 5% smpai 10% profit. If it has reached the target point immediately sell.

Though I am not trading altcoins for the moment what I have read online and information I have gathered through tutorial, altcoins has no much different from forex trading and as an experience forex traders, the best way to succeed in trading is through sounds skills on money management. Don't over used your risk capital.

I recommend to become meticulous in picking and trading of other altcoins. Also you need to research and know first the credibility of the altcoins you want to invest because if you cannot do that I'll make sure that your investment has not earn income.

Maybe you can try holding longer,difference with day trade.

First of all, leave day trading to the bots :). Try to go for longer term trades on recently heavily dumped coins. Big green candles are scary evil stuff (except when selling), stay away from those (big reds will follow soon). Use the last month and last year charts as well, not just the 24 hour chart so you can get a better overview about the previous life of the given coin. Don't diversify too much, and don't buy small amounts of a lot of coin, or you will end up only with scraps (and even that can be wiped out by just one bad choice). Concentrate on few well researched coins instead.

Apart from banhammer take nothing seriously in trollbox (they are lying even when asking questions). The mods too ("We are working on it").

Stay away from pump groups. The good ones are closed clubs with rather high buy-in price the open and "fair" groups (with "randomly" picked coins) are only good for making losses... and those random picks are not always that random...

Solid advice. Day trading is a myth, the unicorn of profitable trading. I've yet to meet a profitable day trader that wasn't using HFT or some other program-based trading method. The vast majority of all trading strategies can't beat a simple buy-and-hold strategy in the long run.

Hunt down coins with solid, new technology and buy the dips. Don't mess around with Ico's, buy them after they stablize if/when they are proven not to be vaporware & worth your investment. Hold for the long term.

And, it is 100% true that the exit is way more important than the entry. I can't tell you how many lessons I've learned by either selling after it goes down on me and losing money when I should've made money, or selling too early and missing out on a major amount of profit. It's always bittersweet, your goal as a trader is to take as much profit for as little risk as possible, make that your goal. Trade profitably by trading less and never let your emotions decide whether it's time to buy or sell. Be mechanical.

Also know that the Altcoin boom won't be here forever. The time to buy was in 2015-2016 when most of the coins were stagnant and everyone was saying "Litecoin is officially dead, you bag holders".

As Warren Buffet says: "During times of greed, be fearful. During times of fear, be greedy".

Feel free to PM questions, I enjoy trade talk, even though I'm nothing spectacular nor should anyone follow investment advice from strangers on the internet, feel free to ask away.

I agree with you because movement of price altcoins are not too fast if we use strategy day trading
 trading altcoins will be suitable use long time strategy,
but if we want use strategy day trading will be good on trading stocks,forex than trading altcoins
because stocks market and forex has large marketcap.

I agree with everything BitWhale said.
Buy when others are selling. Sell when others are buying.
Good advice about ICOs too. Remember that right now EVERYONE is trying to create a coin and get people to pay them to do it.
"Hey we have this really great idea just give us two million dollars so we can make it." ROFL

Read up on new coins. How many developers are working on the project? Do the developers have a previous track record?
How many people are mining the coin? How many exchanges is it on? Has it been added to any new exchanges recently?
Is there an old project that has new developers?
Things like this might be an indicator that the coin will see more interest and a rise in price.

Choose the altcoins that has high fluctuation of price daily in the markets, they are good choice for day trading
 we can take profit daily from this fluctuation of price,
we must use candle chart in analysis technical for short time between 5-15 M, but the weakness of this method
we must stay on the computers and always do cut lost.

Experience is what you need.
Start small.. gradually grow your risked money in time with your skill.
Know when to hold them and when to fold them  ;D

There was times i planned on flipping a coin short term and missed my chance.
So i had to decide.. dump now for a loss or maybe break even ?
or ? ..wait ?

That is often going to be the key.. waiting !
But for how long ? (time is money)

Many times i simply kicked back and waited knowing the coin would go back up.
And i knew it would not be all that long before it happened either.
So many times i seen guys on chat bitching about the price going down and i'd just laugh to myself quietly knowing i will have my profit while the noobs panic dumped.

But on some occasions i had to take my loss.  :'(
For example with obscure nearly dead shitcoins you may only have 1 or 2 chances in a year to sell.
Miss it and your fucked.. and the more you wait the more of an eventual loss you will end up taking.

KNOW WHEN TO TAKE A LOSS !

You just can't teach this stuff.
Beware FOMO and emotions..
Be cautious and patient and ease into it all.

I was lucky to have done trading the way i did.
Which was i invested nothing.
So my early learning experiences where i lost money cost me nothing and were easy to rebound from.
I started with 0 cents.
I started using an old Core 2 Duo CPU mining and an old Nvidia card mining..
Then i took that "dust" to exchanges and started flipping for profits.
I still have some notes of my portfolio from years ago saved.. from Cryptsy.
It took me forever just to get one Litecoin.

I am GLAD i did not walk in with a big wad of cash trading.
I walked in with dust.. and learned over time.

Not much to say really.
Patience & Experience is what you need.. and don't be trusting of anyone or anything.

PS:
Exchanges are --> not <-- BANKS
Be careful storing money on them !

Yes, we need to investigate the things related to the coin before deciding to invest in it,
in a hurry to invest in the hope of get much profit later, will only make us regret when it turns out the coin is not sold

Op, stop with day trading. Don't do it unless you have bot established which will do it for you.
It is time consuming and profits (unless you are willing to invest thousands of dollars) will be pitiful - you will earn couple thousand satoshis.

You need to understand that trading is not a win-win game. It is like in gambling, someone needs to lose so other can profit.
The longer you will trade the higher chances you will lose money.

As other said already, concentrate on swing trading or, even better, on position trading.

Can you give an example of altcoin that has a high price fluctuation every day in the market?
cause i don't know much about it...

Probably not worth it full time but you could combine it with other work done from home or from your desktop. Clickworking, trading.
Keep an eye on fees. The lesser trades you do the better.

The altcoin ANN section at https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=159.0

You are welcome

Most day trader on altcoin use exchanger to get the different price for profit but on trade, they usually use Marti angle system. But of course, need knowledge and practice to get a perfect strategy. Principal buy low sell high not always work with day trader, sometimes they get sideways market. Marti angle system can use if you have enough fund and know where is spot to take the option. For now there's nothing to say to you my friend, just try a strategy with the little fund you have to know your skill. Don't forget to discipline about taking profit or cut loss. Never hold too long or you'll be loss. Have a nice day.

Many people in present time are not interested to invest their money in altcoins, and the reason is that the price of bitcoin is increasing from time to time. but I am sure that when the price of bitcoin will come to stable then they will invest their money in altcoin sections and therefore I will invest my money Etherium

Day trading is extremely hard, you need to spent a lot of time on internet, and to watch graphics all day long and wait for your moments. I wasn't successful in day trading, I always miss good time for buying/selling, and I couldn't spent all day watching exchange site ( I tried, but that is not guarantee that you will make money ). I'm buying and holding alts for a while, I think is less bothering and higher profit, daily trade have one more flaw you constantly watch price and you wait price to go up but nothing is happening, anticipation is just killing me.

pretty sure the daytraders all use bots and take advantage of larger holder's impatience in waiting for the price they want.. they put up big block limit orders and both the buy and sell side and try to profit from the spread.  Better off simply investing in the technology of a coin for the mid to long term.   You can see them when trading because they often change their prices based on market demand.. the orders pop in and out of existence frequently at different prices.

You could make few buck,
it is cool for a trial.
The best source for trading is this forum, I always follow this forum and there are issues of the next rally or possible pump.
Follow the thread, it may be useful