Newbie Day Trader Ques

[BittBurger]

I'm not a huge fan of day trading because I have a fear that it contributes to the volatility of BTC, which in turn makes BTC look bad to those who can make BTC go worldwide (investors, businesses, startups, etc).

Its just my own thing.

But I have a friend who asked me some super newbie questions, so I offered to ask you guys:


1) What exchange do you use now?  Coinbase makes you withdraw to bank account when you sell right? Does Bitstamp allow you to retain a USD balance, so you can buy back in?

2)  Is there some very basic math you always use, because of fees?  Like the increase in BTC price must at least be above X % ... so the fee taken out by Bitstamp is covered?

3)  Do they charge a fee to buy and a fee to sell?   Whats that fee?

4)  I assume you dont use cryptsy or vircurex for stuff like this because you can't sell to USD?  

Thanks!

-B-

[dropt]

Effective (experienced) day traders actually dampen volatility.  It's the panic sellers and buyers (amateur traders) that create volatility.

1) What exchange do you use now?  Coinbase makes you withdraw to bank account when you sell right? Does Bitstamp allow you to retain a USD balance, so you can buy back in?

 
Yes, Bitstamp allows you maintain a USD balance.

2)  Is there some very basic math you always use, because of fees?  Like the increase in BTC price must at least be above X % ... so the fee taken out by Bitstamp is covered?

Yes, it shouldn't be that hard to derive the proper formula if you think about it.

3)  Do they charge a fee to buy and a fee to sell?   Whats that fee?

Yes, they do.  You should go to their webpage and check it out for yourself.

[arepo]

Effective (experienced) day traders actually dampen volatility.  It's the panic sellers and buyers (amateur traders) that create volatility.

+1

[segeln]

Effective (experienced) day traders actually dampen volatility.  It's the panic sellers and buyers (amateur traders) that create volatility.

this !

[RyNinDaCleM]

1) What exchange do you use now?  Coinbase makes you withdraw to bank account when you sell right? Does Bitstamp allow you to retain a USD balance, so you can buy back in?

Yes
Coinbase is ok for quick USD to BTC to USD movements, but bad for trading due to the fees and small initial volume allowed

2)  Is there some very basic math you always use, because of fees?  Like the increase in BTC price must at least be above X % ... so the fee taken out by Bitstamp is covered?

My current fee bracket is .2% so I need a minimum of a .4% change to break even.

3)  Do they charge a fee to buy and a fee to sell?   Whats that fee?

It varies https://www.bitstamp.net/fee_schedule/

4)  I assume you dont use cryptsy or vircurex for stuff like this because you can't sell to USD?

 

Only for Alt to Alt trading

[Wilhelm]

4) It depends on what you consider a safe currency. Usually people trade between fiat and BTC of fiat and LTC because they want fiat at the end of the day because they see that as real money.
If you have BTC and trust BTC then you can trade BTC/Alts because at the end of the day you want BTC.
You can always move your BTC to an exchange to sell for USD/EUR/RUR but if you trust BTC then there is no need to be in a hurry.

I personally HODL and every now and then I use small bits of BTC to trade altcoins. Trading is always risky if you don't control the risk. Controlling your greed and emotions is a hard job.

1) I trade at Cryptsy which is OK but can be laggy. It has the biggest set of altcoins to trade which is a plus point.

3) They have a low fee 0.2% buy and 0.3% sell.

2) If I trade I usually want to make >=2% profit or loss on my money and put a stop-loss at 2% below the buying point.
2% should cover the 0.5% total transaction fee + slippage and make the trade worthwhile. Math is easy divide your buy order by hundred and times 2. Add this number for your goal and subtract for your exit. The site calculates the buy order for you so you can use this to save you the math.