How to NOT lose all your hard cash on Bitcoin

Step 3: Understanding the Interface

So at this point you have selected your Coin, you have registered on a trading website and deposited some funds in to your account. Whats next? Before buying any Cryptos it’s essential that you understand the graphs and figures on your exchange. Every exchange might differ in layout and terms but the information provided should be the same. Below is a screenshot of Gdax which is part of Coinbase and an explanation of the different fields.

Buy/Sell function. This allows you to place sell and buy orders. There are various options such as Market which buys at current mid market price or limit which buys or sells at the desired rate when it is reached. Note that Gdax charges a fee for market buys but offers free limit orders
Order Book: B shows the current Coins that are for sale. The market size is the actual amount of coins and the price. My Size would be any orders you have placed. D shows the current buy orders.
Euro Spread is the difference in price between orders in Euro (or the selected currency) a 0.01 cent spread will show every transaction to the value of cents.
See point B
Price Chart Menu allows you to modify the Price Graph according to your preference. If I have time to spend on the trade, I will set a shorter time frame and will react to faster changes.
This area shows Supply and Demand. You can see the current mid market price and how many buy and sell orders are currently open.
The Price Chart Graph will show you the history and current value of the Coin. You can set bigger candles to look further in to the past to see long term trends.
Here you can see your open orders and fills. Fills are executed past orders.
Trade history shows every past transaction and its value within the past 10 minutes.

Step 4: My Rules to buying and selling Cryptocurrency

When I first started trading, I quickly found that greed is a mistake paid dearly. I had started with a small investment to learn with when the market suddenly hit a massive spike. I saw a 30% increase in my investment within a day or two and thought my Crypto was going to grow until I am super rich. Well it didn’t quite work out that way, Cryptos are very volatile and the market dropped below my original purchase price. So I have come up with the following rules to try to minimize any potential losses.

Set your targets before you start trading, decide your buy in and sell price and stick to it. It’s easy to be tempted when you see the price rise but its better to win some than to lose some.
Set your loss limit, decide your pull out price. Sometimes the market will come down hard. When South Korea decided to control Cryptocurrencies, the market plummeted by almost 10,000 Euro per coin. Dropps like these can result in massive losses. You should therefore set a point at which you will cut your losses and move on.
Spread your Assets. Avoid investing all your money in one Coin. Coins react differently to market trends. During the South Korean crash Ethereum took a lighter hit than other Coins. If you don’t put all your eggs in one basket your chances of profit and avoid losses improve.
Be “in the know” when it comes to your crypto. Take some time to read news
DONT PANIC, Panic is every traders worst enemy. Sometimes you have to ride out dips and wait till the market bounces back up. Read the news, set news alerts on google and don’t rush in to selling. The first 4 rules should help you with this. If you have an expected sellout limit, you will not panic as you are already anticipating the sale at the decided price.

It is important to realize that there is no 100% foolproof formula to trading Cryptocurrency. There is always a risk involved and you can lose money. Setting rules and following them can help you cut potential losses during a sudden drop or crysis.