Best Practices for Trading?

[bradbrad]

Guys I've been playing with BTC for a bit now. Brought in early this year at $20, and again at $38. Tried my hand at day trading. Had 10 tabs open daily, watched the graphs, read the forums, news alerts etc. Needless to say first few trades I either made 0.01BTC or lost a bit. Dont mind as this is something completely new, and took it as a learning curve.

I was over the effing moon when it shot up close to 260 (I trade on BitStamp), and heart broken when it plummeted (I was out for dinner, and could only watch it fall on my phone  (2factor verification stopped me logging in and panic selling in time)). It went up a bit that night to 180 when I thought of selling but was convinced the "correction" was over. Big mistake.

Anyway, since then I've been using all the info I have available (graphs, news alert, forums), but been more trusting of my gut when making a trade, and also been looking at it purely on a daily basis (ie if I lost money yesterday, I dont cry over it, and treat today as a fresh start). This has honestly worked out great for me (I have double the amount of coins I have).

So Im wanting to know, what is your golden rules about day trading and how well have the worked for you? With the price climbing (which I am happy about), it also makes it harder to profit on day trades (before all I needed it to day was change a dollar or 2 to make a good return, where as now Im looking at a minimum of a $3 difference to make a coin).

[smoothie]

Day trading...take a small percent of your total holdings and put some small orders above and below spot. Once they are filled rinse and repeat.

[bradbrad]

I must say from what I've read here, especially in the one post asking about day trading, that seems to be the consensus. Must say I have never done it like that... sell all, buy all back. Maybe I've just been lucky, but especially with the setup on Bitstamp, I find it a bit confusing placing multiple sell orders in (also because I cant set configurable "If" statements for the buy back). Interested to try it out though. Is there a bot, or another platform you use? How do you stay on top of what your selling constantly without missing a beat (Have a day job so cant watch 24/7)

[smoothie]

I must say from what I've read here, especially in the one post asking about day trading, that seems to be the consensus. Must say I have never done it like that... sell all, buy all back. Maybe I've just been lucky, but especially with the setup on Bitstamp, I find it a bit confusing placing multiple sell orders in (also because I cant set configurable "If" statements for the buy back). Interested to try it out though. Is there a bot, or another platform you use? How do you stay on top of what your selling constantly without missing a beat (Have a day job so cant watch 24/7)

You can write a bot using the mtgox API.

BTC-e.com has one too. Sorry I dont have the links at the moment. Just google it should come up.

[Gordonium]

When it comes to Bitcoin the best strategy is to buy and the buy some more.

[wonkytonky]

When it comes to Bitcoin the best strategy is to buy and the buy some more.

i agree..

if i  just kept all the coins i got.. it would have gotten 50%  more coins now..      i lost so much in panic selling at the bottom  and had to buy back more expensive..
well.. not realy lost  but much less profit