theories and/or experiences of trading altcoins

[cryptonomicoin]

feel free to share your theories of certain tendencies you've noticed when looking at (or trading) cryptocurrencies.  Like, do you find that the value of certain altcoins skyrocket upon hearing good news about bitcoin, only to fall to zero a week later?

do coins with nothing truly unique about them follow a certain pattern, perhaps taking a similar amount of time to play out? (or does it accelerate over time?)

do you have any strategies for trading altcoins that you would like to share?  myself, i've never really done it before... but I would like to buy different altcoins based on the unique qualities that make them truly stand out, such as peercoin's proof of stake or litecoin's usage of scrypt (arguably making mining more democratic at the moment), holding over the course of about two years or so.  I figure that a return of 500% over such a period of time should be... conservative...

investing in newly emerging cryptocurrencies does sound quite appealing, though.  if you have any theories about how the exchange rate goes over the lifespan of a given currency (specific examples would be appreciated!), please share.  like quarkcoin, which i've been hearing so much about...

thanks!

[joeroxor]

My advice, hit all the giveaways when coins are new, sit on them. Profit.

Other than that, get a twitter feed going that follows the devs and coin accounts, this will give you access to direct information as soon as it's available as well as news reports.

Once you're about a month in you will have enough experience watching the markets and reading the news as well as noting the price of bitcoin. You will also have a lot of bookmarks for reference for instance, www.coinmarketcap.com and www.bitcoinwisdom.com

I like to retweet the most notable posts if you would like to follow me on twitter @joeroxor you can even go through my follows and you'll have a nice list.

[Authentic]

My advice, hit all the giveaways when coins are new, sit on them. Profit.

Also, buy when the coins are new - it's the best way to buy cheap

[JuciG0]

feel free to share your theories of certain tendencies you've noticed when looking at (or trading) cryptocurrencies.  Like, do you find that the value of certain altcoins skyrocket upon hearing good news about bitcoin, only to fall to zero a week later?

do coins with nothing truly unique about them follow a certain pattern, perhaps taking a similar amount of time to play out? (or does it accelerate over time?)

do you have any strategies for trading altcoins that you would like to share?  myself, i've never really done it before... but I would like to buy different altcoins based on the unique qualities that make them truly stand out, such as peercoin's proof of stake or litecoin's usage of scrypt (arguably making mining more democratic at the moment), holding over the course of about two years or so.  I figure that a return of 500% over such a period of time should be... conservative...

investing in newly emerging cryptocurrencies does sound quite appealing, though.  if you have any theories about how the exchange rate goes over the lifespan of a given currency (specific examples would be appreciated!), please share.  like quarkcoin, which i've been hearing so much about...

thanks!

[hilariousandco]

My advice, hit all the giveaways when coins are new, sit on them. Profit.

While this can be a good idea, be careful of downloading new coin wallets; some of them have had trojans and keyloggers in. Won't be so much profit if all your Bitcoins go missing  .

[Authentic]

While this can be a good idea, be careful of downloading new coin wallets; some of them have had trojans and keyloggers in. Won't be so much profit if all your Bitcoins go missing  .

Yes, this is important. Make really sure there are no viruses in the new wallets/miners. Else, instead of earning, you'll lose.

[Skeptikos]

Most altcoins are pretty much leveraged Bitcoin. When Bitcoin goes up, they often go up faster, when Bitcoin drops, they often go down faster. Litecoin and a few other big alts are becoming more independent the more people trade them, but big swings in Bitcoin impacts the entire alt coin market.

Just take a look at coin market cap to see how the alts move. Click on the charts for a longer time frame, and you'll see most of them look quite similar.

A few smaller alts can move independently for a while simply because they are small. I made a basket of alt-coins more than a month ago and cashed out a while back. WorldCoin, Megacoin, and Quarkcoin had a nice run back then, but unless an alt-coin gets its own movement going - in terms of innovation, marketing - any price movement in them is purely speculative and highly dependant on Bitcoin.

[guybrushthreepwood]

I've noticed when Bitcoin shoots up or down in price the rest follow.

[Authentic]

I've noticed when Bitcoin shoots up or down in price the rest follow.

Most of them do. Others may or may not.

[uartasic]

hey there,

i bought LTC for around $5 each and in true hindsight i wish i had bought more, but i think i was being greedy thinking like that.

bought other Alts based on some alt collectors blogs and studying why that coin was better than x coin etc.

some people buy on gut feeling but i would study as much about the coin as possible before dropping your fiat.

coinmarketcap.com is always a good place to check. i have noted some independent coins that go the other way from BTC, LTC, NMC etc. i noticed last week NXT and LKY went opposite to the rest. that tweaked my interest, but that was about it.

also look at mine times vs block rewards. there are also the "scam coins" kicking around, but what a "scam coin" is, really is subjective.

[guybrushthreepwood]

hey there,

i bought LTC for around $5 each and in true hindsight i wish i had bought more, but i think i was being greedy thinking like that.

That happens with most people. The opposite is also true. If a coin tanked you'd probably think I wish I hadn't've bought those.

[cryptonomicoin]

anyone interested in altcoin arbitrage?  last night i learned that it may make more sense to mine bitcoin & trade for PPC rather than to mine for PPC directly.  but in the next year or so, perhaps it would make more sense to stockpile LTC?

interesting stuff.  thank you for your feedback, please keep it coming!

[hilariousandco]

Most altcoins are pretty much leveraged Bitcoin. When Bitcoin goes up, they often go up faster, when Bitcoin drops, they often go down faster.

This kind of ties into this:

I've noticed when Bitcoin shoots up or down in price the rest follow.

So that's why they all move along. It also happens because when the coins start rising people start panic-buying and try to buy the cheapest or next best coin, and obviously this inflates the price, but can lead to crashes when the excitement has calmed down.

anyone interested in altcoin arbitrage?  last night i learned that it may make more sense to mine bitcoin & trade for PPC rather than to mine for PPC directly.  but in the next year or so, perhaps it would make more sense to stockpile LTC?

It is quite possible to mine some of the cheaper lesser known coins then trade them for another currency. It's also possible to mine a newer coin then sell them on ebay for a ridiculous premium, if you're willing to take the risk of using it. Just look at the prices of Dogecoin and Sexcoin and Infinitecoin on ebay. The coins are currently practically worthless, yet they can go for hundreds on ebay. It's nuts.