Advice Getting Started in BTC

[eristottle]

I'm one of the clamoring horde that is interested in getting involved in all of this BTC potential (as speculation).

I thought it was a cool idea when I first heard about it 15 or 16 months ago. Bought a few hundred dollars worth when it was around $10. Sold it all off when it hit $45 or so (right before it went on its first major skyrocket). Hit myself over the mistake, figured it would crash so didn't buy it again, was vindicated when it went below $100 again, and then in the past few weeks have been watching in shock.

I have a few thousand dollars that I'm not otherwise investing right now, and I'm comfortable putting it into something volatile. I'm no expert on investment, by any means, but I can do basic technical analysis, and do invest in less volatile areas regularly.

I just bought my first new coin at $700 or so (which hurt since the last time I purchased it was 1/70 that price). I'd like to invest a bit more, I just wanted to get one so I felt committed again.

I'd love to know some basics, though.

First of all, what is the best way to trade? I bought this one through CoinBase, because I just wanted a simple, instant-gratification way to have a coin to my name. But I can only imagine a system like that is far from the ideal way to trade. Is there a strong 'favorite' way to buy/sell BTC, or is there a good document somewhere that can give me an assessment of the pros and cons of different ways of buying and selling?

Secondly, is there a good 'newbie' resource for BTC trading? I don't want to do daytrading, or anything like that, but I imagine since it's so volatile right now it's still most advantageous to buy in troughs and sell during peaks, and then rinse repeat regularly to keep acquiring more. Or is it so uncertain that buy-and-hold is a rational strategy? Anyway, I'd love a point in a good direction to just basics on speculating in this space.

I see the potential for big gains here, having missed a huge profit early on by underestimating the growth potential of it, and I'm comfortable with the risk of a 100% loss when the flip side is so open-ended. I also just don't want to be hitting myself in five years for missing out twice on a gold rush – I'd much rather have lost 100% of $5k because I gave it a shot.

I've been reading through these forums, and will keep doing so. Great community you have here.

Thanks in advance!

[1715152824]

1715152824

[1715152824]

1715152824

[coqui33]

You might want to check out "Getting Started With Bitcoins" at http://backintyme.com/btc01.php , especially topic 3.2 "Buy".

[Aahzman]

i fyou want instant gratification, use LocalBitcoins to meet up with fellow bitcoiners in your area and buy BTC from them over coffee. you get fast transaction, total anonymity (except for whatever method you use to arrange th emeetup), a short social interaction while you wait for the transaction to confirm in the blockchain, and coffee!