Professional Traders - Do you find speculating easier in cryptocurrencies?

[Lethn]

So I've just made my first 0.1BTC speculating and I was amazed at how easy it was to earn compared to the so called 'real' markets I should let you know that I think I must have lost £1000 or maybe a bit less in total trying to trade with margin on Forex, I was only getting the cash in chunks for doing jobs for my parents but the loss definitely stung when I found out how much I was losing and it put me off speculating for a long while.

What's interesting though is with only £8 worth of Bitcoin I pushed that up to 0.2BTC ( currently £28 or so on the exchange ) and with such a small amount too. I wanted to know if there were any professional or very experienced traders who had the same experience I've just had where all of a sudden your technical trading such as pivot levels are actually working and the market is following the logic that it should. I don't think I could ever do this professionally because I'm too panicky but just being able to earn cash while I work on my main stuff would be very nice.

Considering all the recent news items about market manipulation and banks getting caught red handed fixing everything in their favour I can't be the only one who has noticed this, every time when I traded forex the prices went the exact opposite of where the fundamentals suggested and I kept on losing out because of the ridiculous requirements and of course I was trading on margin with small amounts. I think the lack of manipulation in cryptocurrencies is making life a lot easier for small time traders and I've also noticed it is far easier to spot when someone is actually manipulating the currency to try and make people panic buy/sell.

Oh and one of the best things about speculating cryptocurrencies is you don't have to trade them on margin if you don't want to >_<

[b!z]

I made a few dollars trying to speculate BTC, then I lost a few thousand.

Now, I am focusing on learning how the market works, before I lose any more BTC.

[Lethn]

I'm talking about trading purely in crypto, I find it awesome don't understand why you'd sell for paper unless you really needed it.

[Shallow]

Patience is all you need really. Maybe a bit of luck too

[Endgame]

It's easier to make money in crypto, but also easier to lose it.

[Trade101]

I think the lack of manipulation in cryptocurrencies

lol this must be a joke? especially in the alternative cryptocurrencies there is a
tremendous amount of market manipulation. nothing is easier to manipulate / rig than
a cryptocurrency with a low market cap.

market manipulation in the forex market with billions of turnover each day is much
much harder

[zuckerant]

as an example btc-e.com.

now there is market manipulation ongoing for hours. good that I made a profit on it and didn't have a loss.

[waveaddict]

There is no difference. Once you learn how to trade, you can trade anything. In regards to forex trading, I'm no expert on your trading style, but you probably leveraged far more money then you should have. The majority of retail traders fail because of this reason. Money management is just as important as your analysis.

Also, you're kidding yourself in believing that currencies strongly trade on fundamentals in the short-term. Technical analysis is King in this environment. Now, if you have a longer term trading approach and use very little or zero leverage (like banks), then you have a chance at being successful, barring luck, with fundamental analysis if you are also an economic genius.

In short, if you ever return to forex trading, I would encourage you to learn a bit about TA and money management while staying away from heavy leverage; you will have a much better chance at being successful by doing so. If you need to leverage heavily in order to make any money, then I would wait until you have enough money before returning. Good Luck!

[stash]

I've lost on gox in the past and now made a profit from bitstamp. Experience can not be traded  

[liquiddrool]

Well, the difference between BTC trading and forex is that BTC has been going consistently up.  Forex goes up and down, so yeah it's easy to make money while BTC is going up -- just wait until it falls and see how much you lose.

[EvilPanda]

When I first bought BTC I divided it in two and used part of it for speculation and held the rest. In the last 4 months I earned around 30% on speculation and 50% holding. When there's a steady increase in value you don't have to constantly trade to profit.

[TERA]

I have found Cryptos to have very consistent and predictable fractals and patterns during uptrends, downtrends, breakouts, etc. Its almost as if you get this tingly feeling in your bones and you know that a trend is about to break and can buy with 100% confidence. Certain EMA and macd crosses are extremely reliable. Also the order books have recognizable behavioral patterns as if they had a life of their own and are an old friend that I know. All this might be due to the way popular bots are programmed and shared. Also the fixed supply.

On the other hand, when I look at the charts of stocks and forex, I find them to be very erratic and make no sense at all.

[alexout]

How does the look of the order book influence your thoughts?

If the bid side is low on volume, what are peoples thoughts on whats gonna happen to the price the next coming week.

[notme]

How does the look of the order book influence your thoughts?

If the bid side is low on volume, what are peoples thoughts on whats gonna happen to the price the next coming week.

In an upwards vertical market, bids always chase.

[chrsjrcj]

I've had better luck with crypto...mainly because of the volatility.