The Complete Beginner’s Guide to Poloniex Review 2019 - Is ...

The Complete Beginner’s Guide to Poloniex Review 2019 - Is ...
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Poloniex - Crypto Asset Exchange - Margin Trading

Question regarding Bitmex Funding Rate

In the XBTUSD Perpetual Contract page it is stated that the Funding Rate is comprised of two main parts: the Interest Rate and the Premium.
Premium seems self explanatory. It is calculated using a difference between the weighted average of the price in multiple exchanges and Bitmex's orderbook to discourage longs when price is trading at a premium and vice versa.
I am confused about the Interest Rate component. The XBTBON page shows that the interest rate has been an constant of 0.0300%.
The stated formula for calculation is:

Interest Rate (I) = (Interest Quote Index - Interest Base Index) / Funding Interval
where
Interest Base Index = The Interest Rate for borrowing the Base currency
Interest Quote Index = The Interest Rate for borrowing the Quote currency
Funding Interval = 3 (Since funding occurs every 8 hours)

I find this confusing because unlike Bitfinex or Poloniex, Bitmex does not seem to have a borrowing market. From whom is XBT/USD borrowed? Is it from bitmex and do they get the Interest? If I go long XBTUSD at 5X margin am I borrowing the contracts at a fee from Bitmex?

submitted by warproxxx to BitMEX [link] [comments]

Beginner’s Guide to BitMEX

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Founded by HDR Global Trading Limited (which in turn was founded by former bankers Arthur Hayes, Samuel Reed and Ben Delo) in 2014, BitMEX is a trading platform operating around the world and registered in the Seychelles.
Meaning Bitcoin Mercantile Exchange, BitMEX is one of the largest Bitcoin trading platforms currently operating, with a daily trading volume of over 35,000 BTC and over 540,000 accesses monthly and a trading history of over $34 billion worth of Bitcoin since its inception.

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Unlike many other trading exchanges, BitMEX only accepts deposits through Bitcoin, which can then be used to purchase a variety of other cryptocurrencies. BitMEX specialises in sophisticated financial operations such as margin trading, which is trading with leverage. Like many of the exchanges that operate through cryptocurrencies, BitMEX is currently unregulated in any jurisdiction.
Visit BitMEX

How to Sign Up to BitMEX

In order to create an account on BitMEX, users first have to register with the website. Registration only requires an email address, the email address must be a genuine address as users will receive an email to confirm registration in order to verify the account. Once users are registered, there are no trading limits. Traders must be at least 18 years of age to sign up.
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However, it should be noted that BitMEX does not accept any US-based traders and will use IP checks to verify that users are not in the US. While some US users have bypassed this with the use of a VPN, it is not recommended that US individuals sign up to the BitMEX service, especially given the fact that alternative exchanges are available to service US customers that function within the US legal framework.
How to Use BitMEX
BitMEX allows users to trade cryptocurrencies against a number of fiat currencies, namely the US Dollar, the Japanese Yen and the Chinese Yuan. BitMEX allows users to trade a number of different cryptocurrencies, namely Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Dash, Ethereum, Ethereum Classic, Litecoin, Monero, Ripple, Tezos and Zcash.
The trading platform on BitMEX is very intuitive and easy to use for those familiar with similar markets. However, it is not for the beginner. The interface does look a little dated when compared to newer exchanges like Binance and Kucoin’s.
Once users have signed up to the platform, they should click on Trade, and all the trading instruments will be displayed beneath.
Clicking on the particular instrument opens the orderbook, recent trades, and the order slip on the left. The order book shows three columns – the bid value for the underlying asset, the quantity of the order, and the total USD value of all orders, both short and long.
The widgets on the trading platform can be changed according to the user’s viewing preferences, allowing users to have full control on what is displayed. It also has a built in feature that provides for TradingView charting. This offers a wide range of charting tool and is considered to be an improvement on many of the offering available from many of its competitors.
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Once trades are made, all orders can be easily viewed in the trading platform interface. There are tabs where users can select their Active Orders, see the Stops that are in place, check the Orders Filled (total or partially) and the trade history. On the Active Orders and Stops tabs, traders can cancel any order, by clicking the “Cancel” button. Users also see all currently open positions, with an analysis if it is in the black or red.
BitMEX uses a method called auto-deleveraging which BitMEX uses to ensure that liquidated positions are able to be closed even in a volatile market. Auto-deleveraging means that if a position bankrupts without available liquidity, the positive side of the position deleverages, in order of profitability and leverage, the highest leveraged position first in queue. Traders are always shown where they sit in the auto-deleveraging queue, if such is needed.
Although the BitMEX platform is optimized for mobile, it only has an Android app (which is not official). There is no iOS app available at present. However, it is recommended that users use it on the desktop if possible.
BitMEX offers a variety of order types for users:

Limit Order (the order is fulfilled if the given price is achieved);
Market Order (the order is executed at current market price);
Stop Limit Order (like a stop order, but allows users to set the price of the Order once the Stop Price is triggered);
Stop Market Order (this is a stop order that does not enter the order book, remain unseen until the market reaches the trigger);
Trailing Stop Order (it is similar to a Stop Market order, but here users set a trailing value that is used to place the market order);
Take Profit Limit Order (this can be used, similarly to a Stop Order, to set a target price on a position. In this case, it is in respect of making gains, rather than cutting losses);
Take Profit Market Order (same as the previous type, but in this case, the order triggered will be a market order, and not a limit one)

The exchange offers margin trading in all of the cryptocurrencies displayed on the website. It also offers to trade with futures and derivatives – swaps.

Futures and Swaps

A futures contract is an agreement to buy or sell a given asset in the future at a predetermined price. On BitMEX, users can leverage up to 100x on certain contracts.
Perpetual swaps are similar to futures, except that there is no expiry date for them and no settlement. Additionally, they trade close to the underlying reference Index Price, unlike futures, which may diverge substantially from the Index Price.
BitMEX also offers Binary series contracts, which are prediction-based contracts which can only settle at either 0 or 100. In essence, the Binary series contracts are a more complicated way of making a bet on a given event.
The only Binary series betting instrument currently available is related to the next 1mb block on the Bitcoin blockchain. Binary series contracts are traded with no leverage, a 0% maker fee, a 0.25% taker fee and 0.25% settlement fee.

Bitmex Leverage

BitMEX allows its traders to leverage their position on the platform. Leverage is the ability to place orders that are bigger than the users’ existing balance. This could lead to a higher profit in comparison when placing an order with only the wallet balance. Trading in such conditions is called “Margin Trading.”
There are two types of Margin Trading: Isolated and Cross-Margin. The former allows the user to select the amount of money in their wallet that should be used to hold their position after an order is placed. However, the latter provides that all of the money in the users’ wallet can be used to hold their position, and therefore should be treated with extreme caution.
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The BitMEX platform allows users to set their leverage level by using the leverage slider. A maximum leverage of 1:100 is available (on Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash). This is quite a high level of leverage for cryptocurrencies, with the average offered by other exchanges rarely exceeding 1:20.

BitMEX Fees

For traditional futures trading, BitMEX has a straightforward fee schedule. As noted, in terms of leverage offered, BitMEX offers up to 100% leverage, with the amount off leverage varying from product to product.
However, it should be noted that trading at the highest leverages is sophisticated and is intended for professional investors that are familiar with speculative trading. The fees and leverage are as follows:
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However, there are additional fees for hidden / iceberg orders. A hidden order pays the taker fee until the entire hidden quantity is completely executed. Then, the order will become normal, and the user will receive the maker rebate for the non-hidden amount.

Deposits and Withdrawals

BitMEX does not charge fees on deposits or withdrawals. However, when withdrawing Bitcoin, the minimum Network fee is based on blockchain load. The only costs therefore are those of the banks or the cryptocurrency networks.
As noted previously, BitMEX only accepts deposits in Bitcoin and therefore Bitcoin serves as collateral on trading contracts, regardless of whether or not the trade involves Bitcoin.
The minimum deposit is 0.001 BTC. There are no limits on withdrawals, but withdrawals can also be in Bitcoin only. To make a withdrawal, all that users need to do is insert the amount to withdraw and the wallet address to complete the transfer.
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Deposits can be made 24/7 but withdrawals are processed by hand at a recurring time once per day. The hand processed withdrawals are intended to increase the security levels of users’ funds by providing extra time (and email notice) to cancel any fraudulent withdrawal requests, as well as bypassing the use of automated systems & hot wallets which may be more prone to compromise.

Supported Currencies

BitMEX operates as a crypto to crypto exchange and makes use of a Bitcoin-in/Bitcoin-out structure. Therefore, platform users are currently unable to use fiat currencies for any payments or transfers, however, a plus side of this is that there are no limits for trading and the exchange incorporates trading pairs linked to the US Dollar (XBT), Japanese Yen (XBJ), and Chinese Yuan (XBC).
BitMEX supports the following cryptocurrencies:

Bitcoin (XBT)
Bitcoin Cash (BCH)
Ethereum (ETH)
Ethereum Classic (ETC)
Litecoin (LTC)
Ripple Token (XRP)
Monero (XMR)
Dash (DASH)
Zcash (ZEC)
Cardano (ADA)
Tron (TRX)
EOS Token (EOS)

BitMEX also offers leverage options on the following coins:

5x: Zcash (ZEC)
20x : Ripple (XRP),Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Cardano (ADA), EOS Token (EOS), Tron (TRX)
25x: Monero (XMR)
33x: Litecoin (LTC)
50x: Ethereum (ETH)
100x: Bitcoin (XBT), Bitcoin / Yen (XBJ), Bitcoin / Yuan (XBC)

Trading Technologies International Partnership

HDR Global Trading, the company which owns BitMEX, has recently announced a partnership with Trading Technologies International, Inc. (TT), a leading international high-performance trading software provider.
The TT platform is designed specifically for professional traders, brokers, and market-access providers, and incorporates a wide variety of trading tools and analytical indicators that allow even the most advanced traders to customize the software to suit their unique trading styles. The TT platform also provides traders with global market access and trade execution through its privately managed infrastructure and the partnership will see BitMEX users gaining access to the trading tools on all BitMEX products, including the popular XBT/USD Perpetual Swap pairing.
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The BitMEX Insurance Fund

The ability to trade on leverage is one of the exchange’s main selling points and offering leverage and providing the opportunity for traders to trade against each other may result in a situation where the winners do not receive all of their expected profits. As a result of the amounts of leverage involved, it’s possible that the losers may not have enough margin in their positions to pay the winners.
Traditional exchanges like the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) offset this problem by utilizing multiple layers of protection and cryptocurrency trading platforms offering leverage cannot currently match the levels of protection provided to winning traders.
In addition, cryptocurrency exchanges offering leveraged trades propose a capped downside and unlimited upside on a highly volatile asset with the caveat being that on occasion, there may not be enough funds in the system to pay out the winners.
To help solve this problem, BitMEX has developed an insurance fund system, and when a trader has an open leveraged position, their position is forcefully closed or liquidated when their maintenance margin is too low.
Here, a trader’s profit and loss does not reflect the actual price their position was closed on the market, and with BitMEX when a trader is liquidated, their equity associated with the position drops down to zero.
In the following example, the trader has taken a 100x long position. In the event that the mark price of Bitcoin falls to $3,980 (by 0.5%), then the position gets liquidated with the 100 Bitcoin position needing to be sold on the market.
This means that it does not matter what price this trade executes at, namely if it’s $3,995 or $3,000, as from the view of the liquidated trader, regardless of the price, they lose all the equity they had in their position, and lose the entire one Bitcoin.
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Assuming there is a fully liquid market, the bid/ask spread should be tighter than the maintenance margin. Here, liquidations manifest as contributions to the insurance fund (e.g. if the maintenance margin is 50bps, but the market is 1bp wide), and the insurance fund should rise by close to the same amount as the maintenance margin when a position is liquidated. In this scenario, as long as healthy liquid markets persist, the insurance fund should continue its steady growth.
The following graphs further illustrate the example, and in the first chart, market conditions are healthy with a narrow bid/ask spread (just $2) at the time of liquidation. Here, the closing trade occurs at a higher price than the bankruptcy price (the price where the margin balance is zero) and the insurance fund benefits.
Illustrative example of an insurance contribution – Long 100x with 1 BTC collateral
https://preview.redd.it/is89ep924cc41.png?width=699&format=png&auto=webp&s=f0419c68fe88703e594c121b5b742c963c7e2229
(Note: The above illustration is based on opening a 100x long position at $4,000 per BTC and 1 Bitcoin of collateral. The illustration is an oversimplification and ignores factors such as fees and other adjustments.
The bid and offer prices represent the state of the order book at the time of liquidation. The closing trade price is $3,978, representing $1 of slippage compared to the $3,979 bid price at the time of liquidation.)
The second chart shows a wide bid/ask spread at the time of liquidation, here, the closing trade takes place at a lower price than the bankruptcy price, and the insurance fund is used to make sure that winning traders receive their expected profits.
This works to stabilize the potential for returns as there is no guarantee that healthy market conditions can continue, especially during periods of heightened price volatility. During these periods, it’s actually possible that the insurance fund can be used up than it is built up.
Illustrative example of an insurance depletion – Long 100x with 1 BTC collateral
https://preview.redd.it/vb4mj3n54cc41.png?width=707&format=png&auto=webp&s=0c63b7c99ae1c114d8e3b947fb490e9144dfe61b
(Notes: The above illustration is based on opening a 100x long position at $4,000 per BTC and 1 Bitcoin of collateral. The illustration is an oversimplification and ignores factors such as fees and other adjustments.
The bid and offer prices represent the state of the order book at the time of liquidation. The closing trade price is $3,800, representing $20 of slippage compared to the $3,820 bid price at the time of liquidation.)
The exchange declared in February 2019, that the BitMEX insurance fund retained close to 21,000 Bitcoin (around $70 million based on Bitcoin spot prices at the time).
This figure represents just 0.007% of BitMEX’s notional annual trading volume, which has been quoted as being approximately $1 trillion. This is higher than the insurance funds as a proportion of trading volume of the CME, and therefore, winning traders on BitMEX are exposed to much larger risks than CME traders as:

BitMEX does not have clearing members with large balance sheets and traders are directly exposed to each other.
BitMEX does not demand payments from traders with negative account balances.
The underlying instruments on BitMEX are more volatile than the more traditional instruments available on CME.

Therefore, with the insurance fund remaining capitalized, the system effectively with participants who get liquidated paying for liquidations, or a losers pay for losers mechanism.
This system may appear controversial as first, though some may argue that there is a degree of uniformity to it. It’s also worth noting that the exchange also makes use of Auto Deleveraging which means that on occasion, leveraged positions in profit can still be reduced during certain time periods if a liquidated order cannot be executed in the market.
More adventurous traders should note that while the insurance fund holds 21,000 Bitcoin, worth approximately 0.1% of the total Bitcoin supply, BitMEX still doesn’t offer the same level of guarantees to winning traders that are provided by more traditional leveraged trading platforms.
Given the inherent volatility of the cryptocurrency market, there remains some possibility that the fund gets drained down to zero despite its current size. This may result in more successful traders lacking confidence in the platform and choosing to limit their exposure in the event of BitMEX being unable to compensate winning traders.

How suitable is BitMEX for Beginners?

BitMEX generates high Bitcoin trading levels, and also attracts good levels of volume across other crypto-to-crypto transfers. This helps to maintain a buzz around the exchange, and BitMEX also employs relatively low trading fees, and is available round the world (except to US inhabitants).
This helps to attract the attention of people new to the process of trading on leverage and when getting started on the platform there are 5 main navigation Tabs to get used to:

**Trade:**The trading dashboard of BitMEX. This tab allows you to select your preferred trading instrument, and choose leverage, as well as place and cancel orders. You can also see your position information and view key information in the contract details.
**Account:**Here, all your account information is displayed including available Bitcoin margin balances, deposits and withdrawals, and trade history.
**Contracts:**This tab covers further instrument information including funding history, contract sizes; leverage offered expiry, underlying reference Price Index data, and other key features.
**References:**This resource centre allows you to learn about futures, perpetual contracts, position marking, and liquidation.
**API:**From here you can set up an API connection with BitMEX, and utilize the REST API and WebSocket API.

BitMEX also employs 24/7 customer support and the team can also be contacted on their Twitter and Reddit accounts.
In addition, BitMEX provides a variety of educational resources including an FAQ section, Futures guides, Perpetual Contracts guides, and further resources in the “References” account tab.
For users looking for more in depth analysis, the BitMEX blog produces high level descriptions of a number of subjects and has garnered a good reputation among the cryptocurrency community.
Most importantly, the exchange also maintains a testnet platform, built on top of testnet Bitcoin, which allows anyone to try out programs and strategies before moving on to the live exchange.
This is crucial as despite the wealth of resources available, BitMEX is not really suitable for beginners, and margin trading, futures contracts and swaps are best left to experienced, professional or institutional traders.
Margin trading and choosing to engage in leveraged activity are risky processes and even more advanced traders can describe the process as a high risk and high reward “game”. New entrants to the sector should spend a considerable amount of time learning about margin trading and testing out strategies before considering whether to open a live account.

Is BitMEX Safe?

BitMEX is widely considered to have strong levels of security. The platform uses multi-signature deposits and withdrawal schemes which can only be used by BitMEX partners. BitMEX also utilises Amazon Web Services to protect the servers with text messages and two-factor authentication, as well as hardware tokens.
BitMEX also has a system for risk checks, which requires that the sum of all account holdings on the website must be zero. If it’s not, all trading is immediately halted. As noted previously, withdrawals are all individually hand-checked by employees, and private keys are never stored in the cloud. Deposit addresses are externally verified to make sure that they contain matching keys. If they do not, there is an immediate system shutdown.
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In addition, the BitMEX trading platform is written in kdb+, a database and toolset popular amongst major banks in high frequency trading applications. The BitMEX engine appears to be faster and more reliable than some of its competitors, such as Poloniex and Bittrex.
They have email notifications, and PGP encryption is used for all communication.
The exchange hasn’t been hacked in the past.

How Secure is the platform?

As previously mentioned, BitMEX is considered to be a safe exchange and incorporates a number of security protocols that are becoming standard among the sector’s leading exchanges. In addition to making use of Amazon Web Services’ cloud security, all the exchange’s systems can only be accessed after passing through multiple forms of authentication, and individual systems are only able to communicate with each other across approved and monitored channels.
Communication is also further secured as the exchange provides optional PGP encryption for all automated emails, and users can insert their PGP public key into the form inside their accounts.
Once set up, BitMEX will encrypt and sign all the automated emails sent by you or to your account by the [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) email address. Users can also initiate secure conversations with the support team by using the email address and public key on the Technical Contact, and the team have made their automated system’s PGP key available for verification in their Security Section.
The platform’s trading engine is written in kdb+, a database and toolset used by leading financial institutions in high-frequency trading applications, and the speed and reliability of the engine is also used to perform a full risk check after every order placement, trade, settlement, deposit, and withdrawal.
All accounts in the system must consistently sum to zero, and if this does not happen then trading on the platform is immediately halted for all users.
With regards to wallet security, BitMEX makes use of a multisignature deposit and withdrawal scheme, and all exchange addresses are multisignature by default with all storage being kept offline. Private keys are not stored on any cloud servers and deep cold storage is used for the majority of funds.
Furthermore, all deposit addresses sent by the BitMEX system are verified by an external service that works to ensure that they contain the keys controlled by the founders, and in the event that the public keys differ, the system is immediately shut down and trading halted. The exchange’s security practices also see that every withdrawal is audited by hand by a minimum of two employees before being sent out.

BitMEX Customer Support

The trading platform has a 24/7 support on multiple channels, including email, ticket systems and social media. The typical response time from the customer support team is about one hour, and feedback on the customer support generally suggest that the customer service responses are helpful and are not restricted to automated responses.
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The BitMEX also offers a knowledge base and FAQs which, although they are not necessarily always helpful, may assist and direct users towards the necessary channels to obtain assistance.
BitMEX also offers trading guides which can be accessed here

Conclusion

There would appear to be few complaints online about BitMEX, with most issues relating to technical matters or about the complexities of using the website. Older complaints also appeared to include issues relating to low liquidity, but this no longer appears to be an issue.
BitMEX is clearly not a platform that is not intended for the amateur investor. The interface is complex and therefore it can be very difficult for users to get used to the platform and to even navigate the website.
However, the platform does provide a wide range of tools and once users have experience of the platform they will appreciate the wide range of information that the platform provides.
Visit BitMEX

submitted by bitmex_register to u/bitmex_register [link] [comments]

Beginner’s Guide to Exchanges – Part 1

Hola Compadres! It is me u/poop_dragon here with another guide. Today I would like to run through a list of ETH exchanges. This is just Part 1 of this list, and it covers established exchanges. Soon I will post Part 2 and 3 which will go into some other types of exchanges (derivative markets, coin converters, decentralized, and foreign exchanges) Side note, I have given rating to these exchanges based on some comparisons, news, and information which I have found online. Recently, EVERY exchange has been slow/unresponsive in their customer service due to the huge influx of new users. My intention is to help educate new users about the exchanges available. I am not trying to discredit, advertise, pump up, or damage reputations. If you feel something is inaccurate, please respectfully bring it up in the comments. I will be editing as we go. Last thing of note, I have only included the lowest level trading tier to calculate trading fees, which assumes the highest rates. Most exchanges offer lower fees for bigger orders, but I have gone with the assumption that everyone here is not dropping whale amounts of cash.

00 – Concepts and Definitions

What is an Exchange? An exchange is a digital market place where you can buy or sell one kind of currency for another, whether that be digital or real (fiat) assets.
What is Fiat? Fiat currencies are national currencies which can be represented in hard cash amounts. For example, US Dollars, Euros, British Pounds, Japanese Yen, etc.
What are a Deposit/Withdrawal Fees? This is the price for putting currency in or taking your currency out of an exchange and your associated wallet. In the case of fiat this could be depositing or withdrawing money via bank transfer or credit card. For digital currency, the exchange may charge a fee to send your ETH, in my opinion this should be free, but they have to cover gas fees.
What is a Maker Fee? When you place an order which is not immediately matched by an existing order, that order is placed on the order book. If another customer places an order that matches yours, you are considered the maker. Maker fees are generally lower than taker fees on most exchanges.
What is a Taker Fee? When you place an order at the market price that gets filled immediately, you are considered a taker. In cases of very large orders it is possible to only pay a taker fee for a portion of your order that gets partially filled. The remainder of the order is placed on the order book and, when matched, is considered a maker order. Fees for takers are usually between .1 to .35% on most exchanges.
What are Verification Tiers? Most exchanges will not allow trading without verifying your identity in some way. This can be accomplished through your email, phone number, copies of your passport/driver’s license, bank statements, recent utility bills, etc. Exchanges then allow for higher trading limits depending on how much verifying information you provide.
What is 2FA? This is short for Two-Factor Authentication. In most cases this uses your site password (what you know) and your cellphone (what you have). When logging in you will need to confirm your log in attempt with a code sent to your cell phone. It adds an additional step to prevent someone hacking your account. In my opinion any trustworthy exchange should offer this and you should research the pros and cons of Google AuthenticatoAuthy App/SMS before using it.
What is a DDoS Attack? It stands for Distributed Denial of Service. Usually it is when a series of bots or a botnet which tries to flood the bandwidth or resources of a targeted system. It can cause websites to become slow or unresponsive.

01 –Digital Exchanges

Poloniex

Overview: The highest volume of ETH currently goes through Poloniex, undisputed leader in crypto currency trading. Its popularity comes from the fact that the exchange offers the widest selection of small and alt coin trading. Add to that minimal registration requirements and it is a recipe for lots and lots of users.
Website: https://poloniex.com/
Mobile App: No
Withdrawal/Deposit Fees: No Fiat Deposit/Withdrawals. Minimum Deposit of 1 ETH in Exchange Wallet. Withdrawal fee of .005 ETH when sending to other wallets
Trading Fees:

Exchange Type	Maker	Taker
All Currencies	.15%	.25%

Security: Perhaps a red flag here would be the DDoS Attacks this May. This affected Kraken as well, and a lawsuit is being filed on behalf of users who had their positions liquidated. I don’t believe there was foul play, but I won’t speculate either. Less recently, they were hacked and 97 Bitcoin were stolen in 2014. However, they returned all funds to the users, which I believes says something about their integrity.

Feature	Details
2FA	Google Authenticator Available
Wallet Security	‘Majority’ of Funds in cold storage
Personal Information	Encrypted and Stored Off-Site

Verification:

Tier Level	Name	Email	DOB	Phone	Address	Official ID	Bank Info	KYC	Limits
Level 1	X	X							$2,000 USD Daily Withdrawal Limit
Level 2	X	X	X	X	X	X			$7,000 USD Daily Withdrawal Limit
Level 3	X	X	X	X	X	X			$25,000 USD Daily Withdrawal Limit
Level 4	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	>$25,000 USD Daily Withdrawal Limit

What is a KYC? It stands for Know Your Customer Documentation. This varies between exchanges. However, like most things, if you have to ask, you probably can’t afford it.

Customer Service: The biggest difference between Poloniex and other exchanges is was their use of their Trollbox chat feature. However, due to the chat being used more for ignorant comments rather than help it ~is a waste of time~~ has been discontinued. A quick search for customer service reviews from Poloniex shows poor results – extremely long wait times (counted in months not days), withdrawal issues, frozen accounts without notice, and a range of other complaints. Most other exchanges have similar complaints about slow response times, so I think this is a temporary issue. In a press release it was stated their user count rose 600% since January. However, the chronic lack of communication and transparency seems to have some in the community up in arms and should be addressed.
Bottom Line: Being the biggest fish in the ocean means you constantly have a target on your back. With issues from the DDoS attacks to laggy trading service to poor customer support, it may seem that Poloniex is not worth your trust. But if you are looking to trade obscure altcoins, and do it without many verification hurdles, there really is no other marketplace. Personally I think they are trying their best and I believe they are improving when u/Mike-Poloniex says stuff like this

Bittrex

Overview: Based in Las Vegas, Bittrex also offers lots of altcoin pairs with no fiat support, similar to poloniex. This allows for faster verification of activating accounts and moving funds. In the past, there were criticisms of the verification process for more some altcoins: some pairs had very low liquidity while other coins were just straight up scams. Especially Deaf Coin, a LiteCoin clone that was exclusively offered through Bittrex was delisted along with 35 other scam coins in February 2015 (compared to Poloniex at 17 removed in 2014). Since then a more thorough vetting process has been applied and it now labels ‘Verified Markets’
Website: https://bittrex.com/
Mobile App: No (Perhaps Unofficial Ones)
Withdrawal/Deposit Fees: No Fiat Deposit/Withdrawals. Deposits are free and Withdrawals vary by coin to cover the gas fee
Trading Fees:

Exchange Type	Maker	Taker
All Currencies	.25%	.25%

Security: Positively the team has a solid background in system security – the CEO and top developers cut their teeth at places like Blackberry, Microsoft, and Amazon working in security services. I found no reports of hacks.

Feature	Details
2FA	Google Authenticator Available
Wallet Security	Multi-stage wallet Majority’ of Funds in cold storage
Personal Information	IP Whitelisting restricts trading from new addresses

Verification:

Tier Level	Name	Email	DOB	Phone	Address	Official ID	Bank Info	KYC	Limits
Basic	X	X	X						3 BTC or less daily
Enhanced	X	X	X	X	X	X			100 BTC or less daily

Customer Service: The Support Center pledges to answer tickets within 24 hours of submission, but between the hours of 9 to 6. Searching for reviews seems to confirm this, and very few complaints can be found. I find their FAQ, Announcements, and Online resources a little hard to navigate, but it answers almost everything.
Bottom Line: The complaints about scam coins might seem to damage Bittrex’s reputation, but my take is that no one was forcing people to trade risky assets in the first place. Perhaps it’s a bit negligent to allow trading them, but it’s the responsibility of the trader not the exchange to manage their money. Customer support and security also seems a step above the competition.

02– Fiat Exchanges - USA

Coinbase (GDAX)

Overview: Coinbase is the largest and debatably the most established name in crypto and GDAX is an exchange based on its services. While Coinbase allows users to buy ETH direct at market price through a wallet, GDAX allows limit and stop orders for the more advanced trader. Recently there have been complaints about the site going down and placed orders not going through. I think with the size and reputation to uphold, they will work quickly to fix this problem as they would like to keep their customers from going elsewhere.
Website: https://www.gdax.com/
Mobile App: Yes – Coinbase Wallet - Android / iOS
Withdrawal/Deposit Fees: Free Wallet Deposits possible from Coinbase to GDAX. Fees schedule directly from Coinbase

Country	Credit/Debit	Linked Bank Account	Wire Transfer
Australia	3.99%	-	-
Canada	3.99%	-	-
Europe	3.99%	1.49%	SEPA- Free (€0.15)
Singapore	3.99%	1.49%	-
UK	3.99%	-	SEPA Free (€0.15)
US	3.99%	1.49%	$10 Deposit / $25 With / ACH Free

Trading Fees:

Exchange Type	Maker	Taker
ETH/FIAT	0%	.30%
ETH/BTC	0%	.30%

Verification:

Tier Level	Name	Email	DOB	Phone	Address	Official ID	Bank Info	KYC	Limits
Level 1	X	X		X
Level 2	X	X	X	X	X				Crypto Only
Level 3	X	X	X	X	X	X	X		Fiat Enabled
Level 4	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	Higher Fiat Limits

Security: Interesting Read

Feature	Details
2FA	Google Authenticator, Authy, SMS
Wallet Security	98% Assets in Cold Storage
Personal Information	3rd Party Verified, Secured, Stored Offline
Digital Currency Insurance	Fully Insured by Lloyd’s of London
Fiat Insurance	Up to $250,000 by FDIC
Bug Bounty	Multiple bounties up to $10,000

Customer Service: Negative reports are abound with Coinbase, going well into last year. Like look what BTC has to say Anyways I feel that they have their work cut out for them if they want to remain a premier service and continue to expand.
Bottom Line:– Coinbase is an established and reliable exchange. It’s worth making the distinction though between Coindesk to GDAX. Transferring between the two seems like an unnecessary step that charges high fees for users not clever enough to see the difference. Fees are very high when buying at market from Coinbase, yet low on GDAX in comparison to other exchanges. Additionally, they seem to have outgrown themselves and some customers seem dissatisfied and quick to recommend their competitors. However, their service extends to a variety of countries/currencies and their mobile app puts them in front the competition. In this way, it is a superior service and is on the forefront of making crypto mainstream.

Kraken

Overview: Supposedly CEO Jesse Powell was inspired by the 2011 bankruptcy of the Japanese exchange Mt. Gox. As he worked as a bankruptcy trustee of what was then the largest crypto exchange, he developed his vision for a secure, well-run exchange site. Kraken then aggressively expanded by acquiring existing companies like Coinsetter (NYC), CaVirtex (Canada), Clevercoin (Netherlands), Cryptowatch (Swiss), and Glidera (Chicago). This has helped the San Francisco based firm to lead the market in ETH to Euro and CAD trading.
Website: https://www.kraken.com/
Mobile App: Android - No/ iOS
Withdrawal/Deposit Fees: .005 ETH Withdrawal Fee. And they really want US customer to sign up for Synapse Pay, which can reduce your fees.

Country	Linked Bank Account	Wire Transfer
EUR	Free	SEPA €5-10 (€0.09 Withdrawal)
US	Free	SWIFT $10 ($60 Withdrawal)
UK	Free	SWIFT £10 (£60 Withdrawal)
CAN	Free	SWIFT Free ($10 Withdrawal)

Trading Fees:

Exchange Type	Maker	Taker
ETH/FIAT	.16%	.26%
ETH/BTC	.16%	.26%

Verification:

Tier Level	Name	Email	DOB	Phone	Address	Official ID	Bank Info	KYC	Limits
Level 0		X							No Trading Allowed
Level 1	X	X	X	X					No Fiat, Unlimited Crypto
Level 2	X	X	X	X					Fiat $2,000Day/$10,000Mo
Level 3	X	X	X	X	X	X			Fiat $25,000Day/$200,000Mo
Level 4	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	Fiat $100,000Day/$500,000Mo

Security: Kraken was also affected by a DDoS attack in May 2017. Afterwards those who had positions liquidated were not compensated and were merely pointed towards the legal page of the website.

Feature	Details
2FA	Google Authenticator, Master Key Available
Wallet Security	Majority Assets in Cold Storage
Personal Information	PGP Encrypted Emails, Global Settings Lock
Digital Currency Insurance	Maintain Full Reserves
Bug Bounty	Multiple bounties

Customer Service: The Kraken subreddit is a bit of a ghost town, but a couple of the staff including the CEO pop in from time to time in other subreddits. Even a year ago though, there are reports that the average response time is 2 to 3 weeks. For how quickly they have grown, it seems their customer support has not kept pace.
Bottom Line: Kraken’s website is well-organized and their policies for verification, security, and support are very clear. Their fees are reasonable for depositing, withdrawing, and trading. The recent hack and complaints about service have made some doubters recently, but the exchange has maintained its status. Its added quite a few altcoins too which increases its usefulness.

Gemini

Overview: This is a newer exchange started in 2015 by the Winklevoss Twins (Yes, those twins, the ones from that Facebook movie). It is registered in New York State and is FDIC Insured.
Website: https://gemini.com/
Mobile App: No
Withdrawal/Deposit Fees:

Country	Linked Bank Account	Wire Transfer
USD	Free	Free

Trading Fees: There is a lot of complicated stuff written about rebates and other stuff, but basically it is this.

Exchange Type	Maker	Taker
ETH/ALL	.10-.25%	.25%

Verification:

Tier Level	Name	Email	DOB	Phone	Address	Official ID	Bank Info	KYC	Limits
Individual	X	X	X	X	X	X	X		None - Except for ACH

Security: According to their website, security seems to be taken seriously.

Feature	Details
2FA	Google Authenticator, Authy Available
Hot Wallet Security	Hot Wallet Hosted by Amazon Web Services
Cold Wallet	Stored in 2 tiers of cold and 'cryo' multi-sig storage
Personal Information	Encrypted in Transit and Stored Offline
Digital Currency Insurance	Fidelity bond by 'top-tier insurance company'
Fiat Insurance	Up to $250,000 by FDIC

Customer Service: The one thing that stands out about Gemini is their customer service. Seriously reddit search this and you will see 5 recommendations for every complaint. Even with the huge influx recently, users have been praising their response time and professionalism.
Bottom Line: Before the rush of new users, I saw people criticize the liquidity of Gemini, saying that it was too small of a market compared to the larger exchanges. Now their smaller size seems to be paying off because it has helped them offer better customer service. I personally dislike their user interface (their charts are very limited), that the website is geared towards BTC, and that fiat deposit clearance times are longer (3-5 compared to 1-3 days). However, they deserve credit for running an above average exchange with a clean track record thus far.

03– Fiat Exchanges - Hong Kong

Bitfinex

Overview: Based in Hong Kong, Bitfinex is a OG in the crypto game. In 2014, it was the largest exchange in terms of USD/BTC, but in August of 2016, Bitfinex was the victim of the second largest hack in crypto history. Reeling from losing almost 120,000 BTC (worth about $70 million), they came up with a solution to issue BFX tokens, worth dollar-for-dollar the amount lost. These tokens would then be bought back by Bitfinex from those who lost their assets. They successfully bought back 100% in April 2017, essentially paying back all outstanding IOU’s. Expensive Lesson. Bitfinex also recently had to suspend USD withdrawals due to a conflict with remitting money with Wells Fargo Bank. This has caused currencies to inflate on their exchange and force users to take out Tether USD (which Bitfinex has a considerable stake in) to transfer to another exchange and then sell. However, Tether also is in a quagmire of legal/financial trouble and cannot be counted on as reliable. This has caused lots of users to abandon the exchange in search of safer waters.
Website: https://www.bitfinex.com/
Mobile App: Yes – Android / iOS
Withdrawal/Deposit Fees:

Country	Credit/Debit	Bank Transfer	Express Bank Transfer
ALL	-	.1% ($20 Minimum)	1% ($20 Minimum)

Trading Fees:

Exchange Type	Maker	Taker
ETH/ALL	.10%	.20%

Verification:

Tier Level	Name	Email	DOB	Phone	Address	Official ID	Bank Info	KYC	Limits
Individual	X	X	X	X	X	X (2)	X	X	No Stated Limits

Security:

Feature	Details
2FA	Google Authenticator, Twilio Available
Account Security	New IP Addresses locked for 24 hours, require verification and detection
System Security	Hosted and Backed-up on Linux, protection from DDoS
Personal Information	Email encryption with OpenPGP
Wallet Security	Only .5% of funds are stored in hot wallets

Customer Service: I actually think that Bitfinex has one of the cleaner websites out there. The security features have toggles that allow you to customize your account security. Also their Support Center, Knowledge Base, and Blog Posts seem a little more complete than some of the other exchanges. Searches show some complaints of unprofessional behavior when completing support tickets, but the mod over at bitfinex seems pleasant. Anyone with personal experience please feel free to contribute here.
Bottom Line: It would be almost impossible to recommend this exchange due to recent developments. Until this withdrawal issue is fixed at least, probably don't count on this exchange. That said the reliability of Bitfinex is tougher to judge because it has been around longer. In crypto terms, it is a dinosaur. Whether that tarnishes or glorifies their record is up to you to decide. I believe the handling of BFX started as a clusterfuck and ended up showing some resilience. Their deposit fees are a little high in my opinion, but they do offer a mobile app to justify the price.

EDIT : Thank you to u/Ginger_Bearded_Man for the suggestion. Bittrex has been added.

submitted by poop_dragon to ethtrader [link] [comments]

Profit Trailer : A Newbie Guide to Setting up your first Crypto Trading Bot!

Hello Everyone! Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve likely heard all about BitCoin, LiteCoin, Ethereum and a whole host cryptocurrencies. As cryptomining profitability fades underneath increasing difficulties and the rising cost of mining machines, the world is dazzled by the utterly insane profit margins to be made in TRADING cryptocurrencies. This typically leads the average Joe to look into and, likely, invest some money into the cryptocurrency market. And, as time progresses (especially if profits are being made), one inevitably must make a choice to use a trading bot or not.
Now, I’m not trying to sell you one way or the other. My goal here is to take one of the newest and seemingly most profitable of the numerous trading bots out there, Profit Trailer, and break down getting the bot installed and running. There are numerous guides to Profit Trailer Installation and all of them are good. Crypto Gnome has some excellent information at https://github.com/CryptoGnome/Profit-Trailer-Settings/wiki/Setup-Guide. I’m not trying to knock him or anyone else with a guide out there. BUT………….
There are a few things that, in the course of installing this bot for a family member who has gotten on the crypto wagon in a big way, I noticed were lacking in the main set of guides. This being that not one of them had been designed with the true noob in mind. Each assumed a level of knowledge and discourse that can ( and would) leave a newbie cursing the fact they just spent .03 of a Bitcoin on something that refuses to even start.
Anyway, the point is, if you don’t have a tech savvy person handy, you could be left with, at best, the program downloaded but unable to start it or at worst, out a nice chunk of your crypto because of failing to understand EXACTLY what is needed to make the bot operate. Any suggestions on how to make this guide more complete, such as adding specific exchange instructions would be most appreciated.
Have an account at either Bittrex, Poloniex or Binance ACTIVE! I have read horror stories regarding buying this bot and installing it without having your account open and logged into. Just in case there is truth to them, better to be safe than sorry. Open your account of choice ( we used Binance so that is the exchange that this guide refers to. ) Use the account interface to create TWO(2) sets of API keys. One will be public, one will be secret in each set. You will notice that, at least on Binance, that each set of keys will have 2 permissions checked and one, withdrawals, unchecked. This is as it should be. If for some reason the withdrawals permission is checked, delete the key and start over. I would suggest that, for ease of use sake, you label each of the sets of keys. The first should be labeled (yourexchange)Default and the second should be labeled(yourexchange)Trading. This will help you recognize which keys are which later in the setup process. Copy these into a Notepad file, Word file, write them on your bedroom walls in blood, just keep BOTH SETS OF THESE API KEYS SAFE! Anyone with these keys has access to your exchange account. The first key will be initially used when you buy the Profit Trailer bot. The others will be used when you set up Profit Trailer. Ensure that you have JAVA 8 installed and running on your computer. It is extremely important that it be JAVA 8 and not 9. Profit Trailer WILL NOT WORK WITH THE JAVA 9 JRE. This problem was likely the biggest hurdle with Profit Trailer until I realized what was happening. Download and install Notepad++. Very Important. Some guides make it sound like you can do the settings changes on a regular NotePad file. This may be true, but Notepad++ is an actual IDE (software writing program for the uninitiated) that will give you the same view that all the guys in their YouTube Videos have up when they discuss their settings. Just saying guys, you’ve got people who, while they might know how to trade, might not know squat about IDE’s and their function. Buy the bot. This can be accomplished at https://profittrailer.com/pt/CryptoGnome/ At check out, you will be asked for the FIRST of the API keys you created. This will be the, first PUBLIC key you created. Pay for the bot. Wait for BitCoin to go from wallet to Profit Trailer creators. Have a beer….Smoke a cigarette….watch a movie. Seriously, you’re gonna be waiting awhile. One good idea while you spend hours waiting for the license key to be sent to you is to ensure that, if you have a newly created exchange account, you should place some cryptocurrency/money in the account…otherwise you’ve got another wait. Most guides say to next get a VPS(Virtual Private Server or Cloud Server). I was unable to get a VPS enabled at the time of this installation, so I will be posting another article regarding that process as soon as I can get it up and running on this installation. UPDATE We now have a Windows VPS running. You can visit Profit Trailer And You: A Newbie Guide To Setting Up Profit Trailer Part 2: Windows VPS here. Get Profit trailer Up and Running!!!! Here’s what you’ve been waiting for and trust me, all the other “prep stuff” will make this part a whole lot smoother. First, go to https://github.com/taniman/profit-trailereleases download the latest version of Profit Trailer. Next, unzip the files and navigate to the new folder. Open the file named application.properties with Notepad++ and then stare at it. I mean… really stare at it. Scary huh? Looks like you’re about to start coding the next Destiny game doesn’t it? Relax. this is a simple IDE that is giving you a series of settings that have to be adjusted manually instead of using a graphics user interface like the ones we’ve all grown to know and love. What you really need to know is what you are looking at. You’re going to see things like “trading.exchange” and “default_apiKey”. Each of these lines will have an equals sign on the end of them. Concentrate on what’s on the right side of the equals sign, cause that’s where your info is going to go. Remember those API keys you made? Well, here’s where they go.
Update these settings:
trading.exchange = THE EXCHANGE YOU ARE USING e.g. BITTREX (This MUST BE IN ALL CAPS. using lower case letter will give you an error code on startup)
default_apiKey = THE FIRST API KEY YOU CREATED (The key you labeled (yourexchange)Default )
default_apiSecret = THE FIRST SECRET KEY YOU CREATED
trading_apiKey = THE SECOND API KEY YOU CREATED (The key you labeled (yourexchange)Trading )
trading_apiSecret = THE SECOND SECRET KEY YOU CREATED
server.password = PASSWORD HERE (This is a password you create here. it is not tied to any other account)
Click save
You with me so far? Keep in mind that, so far the bot IS NOT RUNNING. we haven’t turned on anything yet, so don’t worry.
Most of the other guides say to start the bot up at this point and I would tend to agree, except you may want to look at the default settings in the pairs and DCA files to ensure that they are set the way you want them. DCA settings are a huge factor in Profit Trailer and I would suggest watching several videos regarding them. I do not claim to be a crypto expert and do not pretend to understand all the terms. The Profit Trailer Wiki at https://wiki.profittrailer.io/doku.php/dca.properties has in depth articles dealing with each of the settings and I suggest getting very familiar with them and understanding exactly what each does before turning the bot on.
Ok, with that being said, if you feel like your settings are just the way you want them, open up the pairs.properties file in Notepad++ and change “ALL_trading_enabled=false” to “ALL_trading_enabled=true” and save the file. Next you will want to click ‘run’ on the ProfitTrailer.cmd file. This will actually start the bot and will open an old style black Windows command line window. Ignore this as it is just the bot starting up, not where you will see what the bot is doing and open your web browser and enter http://localhost:8081/monitoring in the URL field. This will bring up a login page. Use the Password you created in the application.properties file here. This opens the web monitoring dashboard for your bot.
Again, I cannot stress enough the importance of following each step and understanding what each of the settings in Profit Trailer are and what they do. There are several important safety valves in Profit Trailer to keep the bot from chewing through your crypto like cookie monster on a 3 day bender.
One is “ALL_max_cost = x.xxxxx” in pairs.properties. This sets the amount of coin, in BitCoin, that the bot will use for trading. Just because you have have 1.5 BTC in your exchange account doesn’t mean you’ve gotta let the bot play with it all. “ALL_min_buy_balance = x.xx” in the pairs.propertiesfile will accomplish the same thing, just specifying an amount in the account that the bot will not take the account below. There are several important safety triggers in the DCA files as well, one being “min_buy_balance = x.xx” which will keep a specified minimum of BTC in your account, below which NO DCA buys will occur. This is an important distinction from the “ALL_min_buy_balance = x.xx” found in the pairs.properties files; DCA buys will STILL OCCUR even if the account is at or below the minimum specified in the pairs.properties file. Confused yet? It makes sense really, but if you’re like me, DCA really doesn’t mean anything to you. ( It’s Dollar Cost Averaging and it’s a profit mechanism used by Profit Trailer) What it really means is that, if you don’t know or understand what you are doing, it can cause big problems trading. Use your safety triggers and brush up on your trading terms cause soon you’ll be hip deep in EMAGains and Dust Bags…..whatever that means.
Any info on other exchange procedures with reagrds to setting up Profit Trailer would be greatly appreciated. I am not affiliated with or paid by any exchange, developer or site.
Credit & Thanks for this guide by: https://steemit.com/@demonsthenes

submitted by treasuregnome to CryptoCurrency [link] [comments]

The intelligent investors guide to cryptocurrency: Part 3b - Pricing and liquidity

*Introductions: I'm joskye. A cryptocurrency investor and SDC holder. *
...
Hi again. This is the third part in our ongoing series on how to trade better and determine intelligent investments in cryptocurrency for the future.

In part 1 I talked about the importance of selling enough to make back your principle investment i.e. if you buy something at $300 and it rises to $600 in value, sell $300 to eliminate all future risk of personal loss e.g. if that asset falls to $150 in value after (which can happen easily since suchvolatility is very common in cryptocurrency). In cryptocurrency trading/investments a 100% return of investment should always prompt you to consider selling 1/2 your stack.
In part 2 I talked about the psychology behind fear of missing out; i.e. the dangers of buying during a sudden rise in an asset's price and how to make the most of such rallies whilst minimising the risks involved in joining them.
In part 3a I discussed The importance of a value proposition and the absolute need for any cryptocurrency you invest in to already generate or have the potential to generate revenue in a manner completely independent of it's speculative value as dictated by daily market prices.

Part 3b continues where I left off with a discussion about price metrics specifically, what determines the price and the importance of liquidity:
...
The day traders:
As I mentioned in my previous article, as of writing almost every cryptocurrency is determined purely by speculative value.
Thus the absolute price of a given cryptocurrency is determined solely by the day traders and specifically the last price it was agreed that currency would be sold at with confirmation of that price by a buyer who bought it.
People say lots of things determine the price; marketcap, liquidity, value proposition, revenues generated by the coin, the number of said coin in circulation but ultimately it comes down to the number of buyers and number of sellers competing for that coin.
Perhaps the other thing is the size of said market relative to the money held by the players in it.
For instance in cryptocurrency Bitcoin is still the biggest player in the game. It carries a per unit price of $900 per coin. There are currently 16,090,137 (16 million) coins in circulation giving it a total marketcap value of [$900 x 16090137 =] $14481123300 or 14.48 billion USD.

This is 85% of the current cryptocurrency marketcap. (The total marketcap of all cryptocurrencies as of writing is 17.17 billion USD.)
Compare and contrast Shadowcash (SDC) which has a unit price of $1.27 with 6,616814 coins in circulation giving it a total marketcap value of [$1.27 x 6616814=] $8392766 or 8.39 million USD.
Thus Shadowcash in comparison to Bitcoin is a tiny cap of the cryptocurrency sphere. Shadowcash has a total value that is only 0.06% of Bitcoin when comparing marketcap's.

Shadowcash looks even more meagre compared to the total cryptocurrency marketcap with only 0.048% of the total cryptocurrency sphere.
To any Shadowcash holders despairing at this point, relax. There are over 707 cryptocurrencies trading as of writing and SDC holds the 27th ranking in terms of market cap. In such a competitive field, filled with scams that's pretty good. Moreso when you consider that SDC is a legitimate technology and is currently probably very undervalued.
...
Lets look at the rich list for bitcoin:

The top holder has 124,956 Bitcoin valued at $1,12460400 or 1.24 billion USD.
The top SDC holder has 1027261 SDC valued at $1,304621 or 1.4 million USD.
Thus the wealth of the top SDC holder is 1.16% that of the wealth of the top Bitcoin holder.

Why did I just talk about this?

Well they say that a big fish can easily occupy, make a splash in and empty a small pond just by diving in.

In cryptocurrency I see this happening on the markets all the time. Indeed market manipulation effects every single cryptocurrency eventually.
...
Market manipulation!
Large holders of valuable, high marketcap coins will often make multiple small volume purchases of less valuable, low marketcap coins. Often this will follow announcements regarding developments in that low marketcap coin.

An example of low volume ordering is buying 1 SDC at $1.20, 0.5 SDC at $1.2001, 5 SDC at $1.2010, 3 SDC at $1.21, 10 SDC at $1.22 and 0.11 SDC at $1.24, but then leaving someone else to fill the order for 100 SDC priced at $1.242.
Thus by spending $23.77, in low volume purchases the buyer can raise the market cap of SDC from ($1.20 * 6,616814 coins) $7.94 million to (1.24 * 6,616814) $8.20 million! (4.2% increase).

Low volume buying in a market with low daily trading volume can gradually drive up the price attracting an influx of buyers into that coin; often they will make larger volume purchases of it which helps drive up the price much further. This will trigger a further chain of buyers experiencing FOMO (fear of missing out, detailed in Part 2) who will drive up the price even further. The price will pump. Often will smaller cap cryptocurrencies this may result in a sudden 20, 40, 60 or even +100% increase in value often over a very short time space (1-2 days, 1-2 weeks maximum).

Often the original purchaser who triggered these events will have accumulated a lot of said cryptocurrency cheaply prior to or during the early stages of the pump and will wind up selling the majority of his/her's purchases when the price reaches a peak; usually when the daily/hourly trading volume on that coin starts to decline but sufficient buyers are still available.
This results in a sudden or often more gradual dump in the coins value, usually by falling by 75% or more of the rise.

The only way to discern if the sudden rise in coin value is due to pre-rigged market manipulation is to look at:

the value proposition of that coin (discussed extensively in part 3a of this guide)
the order book
the depth chart
the pattern of change on daily trading volume (and liquidity)
the price charts (15 minute, hourly, 1 day, 3 day, 7 day, 1 month, 6 months)
the news cycle relevant to that coin

You are looking for organic, gradual growth based on a solid value proposition. Sudden large spikes in value should make you pause and wonder if it's worth waiting for a gradual correction (organic drop) in price before entering your buy order.
Do not fall for a pump and dump. Stick to the lessons covered in previous parts of this guide (especially part 3a and 2) and you will be much less likely to lose money in the long run trading and investing in cryptocurrencies.
...
The pattern of change on daily trading volume, the order book and liquidity:
Lets look at SDC and Bitcoin again. This time we are going to compare the daily trading volume (last 24 hours) in USD.

In the last 24 hours (dated 8th Jan 2016), SDC traded a total volume of $26,033. This is 0.01% of all USD daily trading volume on exchanges and only 0.39% of the total marketcap of SDC.
In contrast Bitcoin traded $163,306,776 ($0.16 Billion) over the same 24 hour period. This is 76.15% of USD daily trading volume on exchanges and only 1.12% of it's total marketcap.

I'd just like to use this opportunity to point out and reinforce the idea that day traders not holders dictate the daily price of an asset. I'd also like to point out daily global trading volume on Forex is $4800 billion which makes Bitcoin a very small fish in the broader arena of global finance and trade i.e. Bitcoin is still very vulnerable to all the price manipulation tactics and liquidity issues I am going to be describing in this article by bigger players with richer pockets.

The numbers means that just because the marketcap of Bitcoin is $14 billion, that does not mean that there is truly $14 billion worth of fiat currencies (USD, Yuan, Euro etc) in Bitcoin; the total fiat volume is merely an estimate based on current price and number of Bitcoin in circulation.

The daily trading volume also gives you an idea of how much fiat currency you can invest into a given cryptocurrency before you suddenly shift the price.

For example based on the 24 hour daily trading volume for SDC I know that if I blindly spent $15,000 (57% of the daily trading volume) buying SDC without any regard to the price, I can be confident that I will likely cause the price of SDC to go up significantly.
In contrast spending $15,000 to buy Bitcoin (0.0092% of the daily trading volume) without regards to it's price, I can be confident that it will not likely cause a significant rise in the daily spot price of Bitcoin.

A sudden rise in coin price heavily out of proportion to the rise in daily trading volume should be the first sign to alert you to a pump & dump scam.

It implies a low volume trading at low prices to trick the unseasoned trader to perpetuate higher volume, high price buys.
If daily trading volume cannot organically increase to sustain the price, it will eventually fall when the original pumper (or group of pumpers) sell to take their profits.

Daily trading volume should show a steady increase over time with sustained buy support at new price levels; this is a good marker of organic, sustainable growth.

This does not always have to be the case! Sufficiently large price movements (several 1000%) can significantly raise the next absolute low in price for the mid-term (months) even if that is several 100% lower than the peak!
Conversely declining trading volumes indicate loss of interest in the coin and a price that is potentially more prone to and at risk of price manipulation with smaller amounts of fiat/bitcoin (than if higher daily trading volumes existed).
Finally the fact that daily fiat trading volume for Bitcoin and Shadowcash is such a small percentage of it's total marketcap reinforces the idea that price is set by day traders not by holders!

...
For more detail you can now look at the depth chart:
The depth chart is very useful to know how much fiat currency is required to cause the spot price of a given cryptocurrency to rise or fall by a given amount.

The depth chart groups different bids (buy orders) and asks (sell orders) by price and volume e.g. 17.739 bitcoin worth of SDC are currently on sale at poloniex for 0.00117500 bitcoin each ($1.07 per coin) and 0.149 Bitcoin are on sale at the current spot price of 0.00135750 Bitcoin ($1.24)
So as of writing, I can see (from the charts) to raise the price of SDC from 0.00135750 Bitcoin ($1.24) to 0.00181381 Bitcoin ($1.66) I would need to spend 26 Bitcoin ($23783).

NB the price of most cryptocurrencies is expressed in Bitcoin because it has the largest market cap and daily trading volume of all cryptocurrencies by a very large margin and because with a few exceptions (Ethereum, Monero) most cryptocurrencies do not have routes to directly purchase via fiat currency without first purchasing Bitcoin.

The depth chart shows me how many coins I can buy without significantly increasing the price and how many coins I can sell within a given price range. It gives me an idea of the liquidity and volatility of the market i.e. if I buy SDC right now and need to sell it later today or tomorrow for fiat, what is the realistic probability I can get my entire amount in fiat returned to me in the amount originally spent.

Liquidity is super important. People often complain about a market lacking liquidity but that is often because they are trading in fiat volumes which far exceed the daily trading fiat volumes of the cryptocurrency they are referring to. If you are investing or trading in a cryptocurrency, always factor in the your personal liquidity and need for liquidity relative to that of the cryptocurrency you are investing in. In other words don't expect to make a profit next day selling 'cryptocurrency x' if the size your single buy order composes >90% of the buy orders on the market for 'cryptocurrency x' that day (indeed in such a scenario be very prepared to sell at a loss next day if you absolutely have to)!

The depth chart also gives me an idea of where significant supports exists (price zones with large buy orders relative to the depth chart) to determine the true base price (in conjunction with daily trading volume) and where significant resistances exist (price zones with large sell orders relative to the rest of the depth chart) to determine what the majority of sellers think the coin is truly worth. Be wary though as buy walls (large supports) and sell walls (large resistances) can be moved at any time.

There are certain patterns on a depth chart that make me believe a significant, sustained price rise is imminent: One example occurs when there is a very large volume of buy orders (>25% of total buy volume within 5% of current price) very close to the current (spot) price, and a very large number of sell orders close to but significantly above the spot price (approx 25% total sell volume within 10% of current price) and especially if the total buy order volume is a significantly higher percentage than it has previously been. This simply indicates high demand at current price which may soon outstrip supply. Again I stress that these patterns can be manipulated easily by wealthy traders.

It is up to you to study the depth charts and discern the patterns. You will learn more about day trading this way.

...
The order book is another way of looking at the depth chart and allows you to see the specific transactions occurring that compose daily trading volume by the second!
I find it useful because it allows me to identify:

If there is a string of low volume orders that can be filled to pump the price (or conversely a string of low volume sell orders to dump it). This can play on the psychology of the entire market as many people aren't simply aware of how the manipulations occur; most people simply look at the price!
Where resistances to price change occur and how much money it will take to break them (i.e. if I am day trading to make a profit via pumping, is it worth me spending X to clear a sell wall to encourage others to buy and push up the price further or do I need to spend so much of my capital that should I fail to stimulate buy orders, I become vulnerable to a dump in coin price with effective subsequent loss of fiat money).
The presence of automated trading bots rapidly cycling a buy or sell order of fixed volume between a series of prices that dynamically adjust with the overall trend in price movements. Bots can be your best friend (to pumping or dumping price) if you know how to manipulate them!

...
The price charts:
Discussions about price charts could be endless. I'm not going to go into too much detail, mostly because I'm an investor who believes the value proposition, good consistent development, decent marketing and communications will ultimately trump spot prices and adverse (or positive) short term price trends in the future.

I'm also going to skim this because I'm not as versed in this subject as I'd like to be.
I personally use the candle bar charts on Poloniex to look at 15 minute and daily candles on the hourly, daily, weekly and monthly charts.
I combine this with charts on Bittrex which can calculate the RSI (to estimate if a coin is overbought or oversold) and Bollinger Bands (again to help estimate if a coin is overbought or oversold).
I usually look at the overall direction of trading over a period of several days, compare it to the direction and trends over the last month. I then try to interpret it in the context of the daily trading volume and depth charts.
I often get my predictions on short term price movement wrong if I only look at candle charts without factoring in depth charts, order book and daily trading volume patterns! I have a lot more learning to do on technical analysis.
The charts do often reveal mid/long term supports and resistances in price!
Investopedia is a good place to start learning about different mathematical techniques to analyse charts (including any terms used in these articles).
I'm a big fan of u/kustonoy who inhabits the Ethtrader sub. I personally feel his analysis of the short term markets are generally pretty good. You should never be too lazy to not do your own regular market analysis especially if trading short term, but if you want a good reference point, I suggest following him.

...
The news cycle:

I've mentioned this lower down the list because for intra-day and day traders and even to some extent investors, the news cycle matters very little unless it directly affects the value proposition in some way.
If a news event does result in real maturation of the proposed value proposition (such that the technology has confirmed a new sustained user base or revenue stream) then it might justify a sustained rise in price regardless of the volatility achieved reaching and following the peak.
Some assets may have nothing but an endless stream of good news which meets the above criteria yet it's valuation fails to increase. This is likely a sign that a larger player is deliberately manipulating the market to accumulate more of that asset to sell very high later (I believe Ethereum has fallen victim to this recently).

...
Other interesting points: The 'coin x' scenario and the ridiculousness of marketcap:
'Coin X' is an imaginary hypothetical coin. There are only 10 in circulation. It has no value proposition beyond it's speculative value i.e. it will never generate a revenue independent of it's speculative value.

If 'coin x' had only 10 in circulation, was indivisible and each coin had a value of $3 billion, the market cap of 'coin x' would surpass Bitcoin!
If all 10 coins were not on sale then 'coin x' would have a value of zero.
If 9 people had bought 'coin x' at $1 and the 10th person bought it at $3 billion, it's marketcap would still be $30 billion. This does not mean there is $30 billion of fiat stored in coin X.
If an 11th buyer came along and bought 'coin x' at $1.20 the price of coin X would fall to $1.20 and the marketcap of 'coin x' would be $12.0.
This still does not mean there is $12 of fiat stored in coin x.
This does not mean everyone can sell 'coin x' at $1.20.
A new buyer blind to the purely speculative nature of 'coin x' looking at the trend charts could try to argue it is now extremely undervalued and a great buy or possibly was a grand scam and untouchable.
Either way the next price at which 'coin x' is bought/sold is purely arbitrary and determined by the patience of the seller and the impatience of the buyer.
[Edit]: I could also issue 10 more of 'coin x' and if it's unit price remained $1.20 the market cap would instantly double from $12 to $24!

I'd like to point out the similarities between ZCash and 'coin x' (especially during it's launch).
...
Lessons:

Marketcap is derived from the price, not the other way around. Until a cryptocurrency generates significant revenue independent of it's speculative valuation this will remain the case.
Price is determined by the day traders, not by the holders.
The spot price of any given cryptocurrency is determined by the patience of the seller and the impatience of the buyer.
Price of most cryptocurrencies is derived from bitcoin unless they have a direct fiat gateway. Unless a significant amount of trading volume occurs via the fiat gateway, the price of that cryptocurrency is still heavily dependent on the price of bitcoin.
Bitcoin is (for now) is the gold standard of cryptocurrencies. Because it has the largest marketcap (by a very massive margin).
Market manipulation means that large holders in more valuable currencies (large marketcaps) can tamper with and set the value of much smaller currencies (i.e. smaller marketcaps).
Bitcoin's price itself can be manipulated by investment banks, governments or firms who trade in multi billions of USD daily. This is because the daily trading volume is almost 5 trillion trillion USD (which is several thousand times larger
There is nothing wrong with investing or trading in cryptocurrencies with low daily trading volumes and marketcaps, just be concious not to put more money into them than their long term buy support can handle and only invest what you can afford to lose.
The concept of liquidity in a market is important relative to the amount of fiat you are planning to invest or trade in it.
Whether day trading or investing, pick cryptocurrencies with good fundamentals i.e. excellent development teams, good marketing and strong value propositions that will provide the cryptocurrency in question use and value independent of speculative valuations. You are less likely to get manipulated or scammed in the long run that way especially if you are a holder.
Be very weary of trading or investing small amounts of money in larger markets that allow leveraged trading. Those markets will behave irrationally and not follow the fundamentals in the short term.
It is up to you to study the depth charts, order books, candle bar charts, daily trading volumes and news cycle to discern the patterns. The price is a composite of this and the psychology of people who don't understand this. You will learn more about day trading this way and more importantly learn to trade/invest independent of the price.

...
Finally why am I writing this?
I mean I just spoke openly about how SDC and indeed any cryptocurrencies (or purely speculative assets) price can be manipulated in the short term.
Well SDC has an incredible value proposition that could generate and attract large amounts of non-speculative fiat currency into it's ecosystem. I already covered that in part 3a (https://www.reddit.com/Shadowcash/comments/5lhh6m/the_intelligent_investors_guide_to_cryptocurrency/).
For this reason I think the short term speculative pump and dumps in SDC will eventually be replaced by a more sustained, larger buy support. I suspect this will occur when the marketplace is released and certain other announcements are released.
For this reason I declare my opinion that Shadowcash is the best cryptocurrency investment of 2016 and I believe it will be again by March 2017.
...
References:

Coin market capitalisations and data including rich lists derived from:

1. Coinmarketcap rankings: https://coinmarketcap.com/all/views/all/ 2. Coinmarketcap daily trading volumes https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/volume/24-hou 3. Bitinfocharts - Top 100 Richest Bitcoin addresses: https://bitinfocharts.com/top-100-richest-bitcoin-addresses.html 4. Crypto ID - Shadowcash Rich list: https://chainz.cryptoid.info/sdc/#!rich

Investopedia: http://www.investopedia.com/
Daily FX volumes rise to $4.84 trillion in Jan - CLS, Feb 10th 2016, Reuters, http://www.reuters.com/article/global-forex-volumes-idUSL8N15P2VA

...
Disclaimer: All prices and values given are as of time of writing (Midday 08-Jan-2016). I am not responsible for your financial decisions, nor am I advising you take a particular financial position. Rather I am sharing my experiences and hoping you form your own opinions and insights from them. Full disclosure: I have long positions in Ethereum (ETH), Shadowcash (SDC), ICONOMI (ICN), Augur (REP) and Digix (DGD).

submitted by joskye to Shadowcash [link] [comments]

Arbitraging Perpetual Contracts on BitMEX, Deribit, and CryptoFacilities

So now there are three perpetual contracts out there where you can use Bitcoin and trade XBTUSD with no expiration:
BitMEX: 8 hour discreet payout (measured over 8 hours) -- Contract specs https://www.bitmex.com/app/perpetualContractsGuide
Deribit: 8 hour continuous (measured realtime) -- Contract specs https://www.deribit.com/main#/pages/docs/perpetual
CryptoFacilities: 8 hour continuous (measured every 4 hours) -- Contract specs https://www.cryptofacilities.com/resources/hc/en-us/articles/360008643453-Perpetual-Futures-Contract-Specifications
BitMEX has XBTUSD and ETHUSD, Deribit has XBTUSD (with ETHUSD coming), and CryptoFacilities has XBTUSD, ETHUSD, BCHUSD, XRPUSD, and LTCUSD.
Given that they have the same premium realisation period of 8 hours, the rates are easily comparable. However, there are a few complications as i see them:

The uncertainty in the variable rates, i.e., Deribit rate is measured realtime so it is highly uncertain compared to the others.
The mark price considerations especially on BitMEX that arise around the payout time
None of them charge fees on funding, but I still dont quite see how the differences in the rates themselves would be easily arbitraged especially in short-run (intraday)

There may end up being medium-term opportunities as the rates smoothen, between Bitfinex/Poloniex margin syntheses.

Or maybe it is easiest just to assume the rate mechanism is efficient in all three and focus on arbing any significant price differences of the contracts themselves?

Anyone have any thoughts around this?
Edit: Also, they all three have maker rebate for fees: -0.025% for BitMEX/Deribit and -0.030% for CryptoFacilities, which is an added dimension. (Taker fees are 0.075% on all three)

submitted by theswapman to BitcoinMarkets [link] [comments]

Beginner's Guide to Exchanges - Part 2

Beginner’s Guide to Exchanges – Part 2

A little late, but as promised here is Part 2 of the Beginner’s Guide to Exchanges. I would like to sincerely thank everyone for their support and feedback in making these.
Link to Part 1
This time I also made a Google Docs survey in the hopes of sharing the results with the community. I thought we could share what we use as a whole and why redditors choose the exchanges they do. For skeptics (as you all should be), I assure you that I am not collecting personal information. This is for recreation and if you are still wary, then by all means abstain!
Link to Survey
In Part 3 I will be wrapping up this series by covering decentralized, semi-decentralized, and derivative exchanges. Here it goes!

00 – Concepts and Definitions (Continued)

What is FinCEN? This is an agency within the US Dept. of Treasury that collects and analyzes information about financial transactions. It is meant to prevent financial crimes and money laundering both by businesses and individuals. In 2011, FinCEN defined digital currencies as fiat and started cracking down on those in the crypto world. Since then, every exchange serving US citizens has been trying comply with regulations otherwise they face severe penalties. Thank them when exchanges as for your Address and an ID.
What is the ICO (UK Regulatory Body)? This stands for the Information Commissioner’s Office and it is the UK counterpart to FinCEN - a regulatory office that reports directly to Parliament. ICO oversees compliance of the Data Protection and Freedom of Information Acts. It is meant to help companies and individuals keep their private information private, and can enforce this with penalties up to £500,000 when personal information is recklessly stored or leaked.
What is APR? Stands for Annual Percentage Rate.
What is Arbitrage? Arbitrage trading means to take advantage of price differences between markets. For example, say Poloniex lists ETH at $400, while Kraken lists it at $500. Buy low at Poloniex and then sell high on Kraken and you just made yourself a hundred bucks. Simple!
What is a Coinswap/Crypto-converter? Basically, a coinswap is a broker. If liken an exchange to a marketplace where buyers and sellers meet to agree on a price, then a Coinswap is a person who goes to the market on your behalf. Give them what you want to sell, and they will come back with what you want to buy. They take a small commission, give you a fair market rate (or close to it), and sometimes don’t even ask for your identity. Coinswaps are popular because they are convenient and offer coin pairs that exchanges sometimes cannot.
BONUS QUESTION: What is a Canuck? Honestly, I have no idea. Canadians, please do help.

04 – Fiat Exchanges – Canada

QuadrigaCX

Overview: Founded in late 2013 by Gerald Cotton in Vancouver, Quadriga should be a source of national pride. While 4 major Canadian exchanges suddenly closed between 2015 and 2016, Quadriga survived. Then In 2015, Quadriga became the first exchange to attempt being listed publicly by enrolling for enlistment on the Canadian Stock Exchange (CSE). However, it ultimately failed to do so after being confronted with restrictions and regulations.
Website: https://www.quadrigacx.com/
Mobile App: No
Withdrawal/Deposit Fees: Low deposit and withdrawal fees in comparison to other exchanges. A little unorganized on their official site

Country	Linked Bank Transfer	Wire Transfer	Paypal	Credit/Debit	Crypto Transfer
CAD	Deposit 1%/ Withdraw Free	Free	Free (Withdraw Only)	1% (Withdraw Only)	Free
USD	-	Free	Free (Withdraw Only)	-	Free

Trading Fees:

Exchange Type	Maker	Taker
Fiat	.5%	.5%
BTC/ETH	.2%	.2%

Security: Quadriga was quite notably lost of 67,000 ETH earlier this month, after an expensive mistake involving the Geth 1.5.9 upgrade. Apparently, outgoing addresses were incorrectly entered without 0x at the beginning of addresses and the sent ETH became trapped. Yet Quadriga has taken full responsibility and reassured customers that it will not affect their accounts.

Feature	Details
2FA	Google Authenticator or Email 2FA Available
Wallet Security	Undisclosed amount of funds in cold storage
Web Security	3rd Party Security provided by CloudFlare
Bug Bounty	Expired $50 bounties

Verification: Quadriga CX enables alternative instant verification with an Equifax Credit Score Report.

Tier Level	Name	Email	DOB	Phone	Address	Official ID	Bank Info	Credit Score	Limits
Basic Account	X	X							Digital only, Limits Vary
Verified Account	X	X	X	X	X	X			Limits Vary

Customer Service: Negative reviews are hard to come by, but perhaps that is due to the smaller size of this exchange. The FAQ is a little disorganized with a lack of tabs or categories on the site. However, support offers a direct phone line and email support. Also u/QuadrigaCX seems very active and responsive in the Bitcoin CA subreddit.
Bottom Line: The handling of the ETH loss was handled professionally and quickly. And as a Canadian, lower deposit and withdraw fees are probably impossible to find somewhere else. Trading fees are a little high, but that is the trade off. It seems they have weathered some ugly storms other Canadian exchanges could not and are a trustworthy exchange going into the future.

05 – Fiat Exchanges – Europe

CEX.IO

Overview: CEX.io is started in London in 2013 both as an exchange and a cloud mining provider with its acquisition of Ghash.io. In 2014, Ghash was the largest Bitcoin mining pool contributing to over 42% of the mining power and mining over $200 million in BTC. In October of 2014 Ghash closed yet CEX.io lived on as an exchange.
Website: https://cex.io/
Mobile App: Yes - Android / iOS
Withdrawal/Deposit Fees:

Country	Credit/Debit	Bank Transfer	Crypto Transfer
Europe	3.5%+ €0.24	Deposit €0 / Withdraw €25 (SEPA €10)	Free
Russia	5% + ₽ 15.57	-	-
UK	3.5%+ £0.20	Deposit £0 / Withdraw £20 (SEPA	Free
US	3.5%+ $0.25	Deposit $0 / Withdraw $50	Deposit $0 / Withdraw 1%

Trading Fees:

Exchange Type	Maker	Taker
All Currencies	0%	.20%

Security:

Feature	Details
2FA	Google Authenticator Available
Wallet Security	Undisclosed amount of funds in cold storage
Credit Card Data	Overseen by 3rd Party Kyte Consultants
Web Security	SSL Certificates and Encrypted Personal Data

Verification: With a lot of backlash from the Bitcoin community, CEX has registered with FinCEN and ICO in the UK, while also implementing Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Know-your-Customer (KYC) policies. Once these policies came into effect and ID verification was requested, many original Ghash users abandoned the exchange. Exchange allows for linking of Facebook and Google+ accounts. Not a good option IMO.

Tier Level	Name	Email	DOB	Phone	Address	ID + Photo	Bank Info	KYC	Limits
Basic Account	X	X	X						Digital only
Verified Account	X	X	X		X	X	X		$10,000 Daily/$100,000 Monthly

Customer Service: Customer complain are abound here, and for justified reasons with hidden deposit and withdrawal fees. However it seems the company is quick about inquiries and verification, stating that most inquiries are filled in 24 hours. The FAQ is comprehensive which you should come to expect from established exchanges. Despite some unhappy customers, tt is good to see that they care about their reputation and their product.
Bottom Line: If you are already invested in crypto, CEX.io has some of the lowest trading fees in the game. However, they are clearly taking advantage of inexperienced users and those looking to exchange fiat for the first time. When purchasing with their FOK buying service (using instant credit card transactions), not only is the buy rate not at market price, but a 7% fee is added. This is price-gouging, this is FOK-ing unreasonable. I understand that this service offers something not found elsewhere, but additionally 1% crypto and $50 USD withdrawal fees makes these actions questionable if not just plain greedy.

BTC-E / XBTC-E

Overview: BTC-e is has been operating out of Russia since 2011 and provides language support in English, Chinese, and Russian. Perhaps due to this flexibility, it has high volumes of BTC, LTC, and ETH. It has an unclear connection to xBTCe, but both link to each other in the FAQ of the respective sites. A feature that is provided by BTC-e not seen elsewhere is software for trading called MetaTrader 4. This software seems a little clunky, but includes some TA features.
Website: https://btc-e.com / https://www.xbtce.com/
Mobile App: No
Withdrawal/Deposit Fees: So many options, so many confusing percentages The important ones are below.

Country	Credit/Debit	Bank Transfer	Paypal
Europe	-	SEPA - Deposit .5% / Withdraw 1% (€100 min)	-
Russia	6%	6%	-
US	7%	Deposit .5% ($20 min) / Withdraw 1% ($100 min)	7%

Trading Fees:

Exchange Type	Maker	Taker
All Currencies	.20%	.20%

Security: BTC-e was hacked way back in 2013/2014 and reportedly $35,000 of BTC was stolen. Since then it has had a relatively clean record. This Digiconomist review is a thorough and detailed read, but unsure.

Feature	Details
2FA	Google Authenticator Available
Password Expiration	Must be changed every 6 months
DDoS Protection	3rd Party Security Services provided by CloudFlare
Bug Bounty	Yes at xBTCe

Verification: Since late May, there have been a shit storm of reports claiming BTC-e is locking funds for previously unverified users. In the FAQ users are asked to register at XBTC-e and within 10 days the account will be unblocked. It is unclear how the websites are connected or related to each other and 10 days is eons in crypto time.

Tier Level	Name	Email	DOB	Phone	Address	Official ID	Bank Info	KYC	Limits
Verified User	X	X	X		X			X	No Stated Limits

Customer Service: Live Chat is supported during operating hours and the FAQ is listed in Russian and English. Resources are a little unorganized, but complete none-the-less. Bad reviews and complaints are plentiful with the long history of the exchange and the recent troubles with account verification for some long time users.
Bottom Line: I’ve got to be honest that I personally despise the interface at these 2 sites. Both give Yahoo! GeoCities and the original SpaceJam website a run for their money in terms of web design. Perhaps it makes up for it with some free TA software and a large daily volume. But it comes to say that the longevity of this exchange is its biggest strength.

Liqui.io

Overview: Liqui is based out of Kiev, Ukraine. As a digital exchange, it does not support fiat currencies and is competing with the likes of Bittrex and Poloniex as it lists dozens of altcoins. The feature that differentiates Liqui is its ‘Interest’ feature which was introduced to increase traffic and volume to the newer exchange. It works similarly to depositing money into a savings account - deposit ETH into an account and earn 24% APR (or .066% daily interest) which is deposited every 24 hours. There is some fine print about deposit limits and interest calculations, but how it is presented is clear and straightforward. Unfortunately the limit of 1000 ETH needed by Liqui is currently full, so you will need to wait until others withdraw ETH or the limit is increased to participate.
Website: https://liqui.io/
Mobile App: No
Trading Fees:

Exchange Type	Maker	Taker
All Digital Currencies	0.1%	.25%

Security:

Feature	Details
2FA	Google Authenticator Available
Bug Bounty	Reported bounty posted on HackerOne (unconfirmed)

Verification: There are no deposit/withdrawal limits and no verification levels. In order to start trading, all that is needed is an email address.
Customer Service: Searching for user reviews shows mixed results about Liqui’s customer service. The fact that it supported on several platforms, is reassuring. Contact Support @liqui.freshdesk.com By Twitter @Liqui_Exchange By Telegram @Liqui
Bottom Line: The design and simplicity of Liqui stands out in my opinion. It is like what Poloniex could be if they just cleaned the UI/UX a bit. I like that it immediately gets into the trading charts without having to click around and if you miss the trollbox then this is your site. Like other smaller exchanges there are doubts over the reputation and reliability due to the opaque nature of the operations and development team. If you are looking for an alternative to Bittrex or Poloniex, this exchange may be worth investigating.

06 – Fiat Exchanges – South Korea

안녕하세요 여러분! 혹시 우리 한국인 친구 이 보고서를 한국어로 읽고 싶어한다면 알려주세요. 관심이 많이 있다면 간단한 한국어 보고서도 만들 수 있습니다. This year, ETH has taken off like a rocket in the Land of the Morning Calm. With a population of just 50 million, South Koreans account for almost 30% of daily ETH trade volume. Even more surprising is that currently the daily volume of ETH is about 5 times higher than that of Bitcoin on Korean exchanges. Since demand is high, ETH is trading at a premium on Korean exchanges. Some users have been talking about capitalizing off this imbalance by trading on arbitrage between exchanges. For those who have no connection to Korea and hope to do so, I have bad news – all Korean exchanges require a National ID number and access to a Korean bank account. This makes Korean exchanges virtually closed to Korean nationals and those with long-term visas. Sorry everyone.

Bithumb

Overview: Bithumb has all the features of horrid Korean web design - pop-up ads, flashing side-banners, disorganized pull downs, links to cafes/blogs, and generic stock images with embedded text. You can’t even see the exchange before making an account with your email or mobile number. It does support 4 languages, but reveals only poor translation done by Google Translate. In the face of this, this exchange has been trading a daily volume only second to Poloniex. On the bright side, they have the unique options to buy gift certificates/vouchers and remit money overseas.
Website: https://www.bithumb.com/

Coinone

Overview: Coinone is the second largest Korean exchange, and its design is a breath of fresh air compared to its rival. It offers service in English and Korean and allows for the trading of Bitcoin, ETH, ETC, and Ripple. It has a very comprehensive chart that is highly customizable, but sadly is only gear towards BTC currently. This makes it perfect for margin trading, and in the future I hope they add ETH. They also offer overseas remittance through their service Cross. Coinone support seems above average in their customer service with a PDF guide and an unprecedented landline number for direct support.
Website: https://coinone.co.k

Korbit

Overview: As the smallest of the 3 Korean exchanges, Korbit benefits from its simplicity. It by far has the best design and English support with clear links to services - including remittance, global payment, and their company bio. Like CoinOne they offer a direct phone line for customer inquiries and an extensive FAQ in 2 languages. Similar to the other exchanges, it has insanely low fees for deposits and withdrawals. This is largely thanks to the Korean banking system where wire transfers and mobile banking are commonly used. I recommend anyone interested in Korean exchanges to start here as they also have a reddit presence on u/korbitBTC
Website: https://www.korbit.co.k

07 – Fiat Exchanges – China

With a great deal of anticipation, major Chinese exchanges started trading ETH this summer. Since these exchanges deal huge volumes of Bitcoin already, naturally it was expected that they invest heavily into ETH as well. So far this hasn’t quite lived up to the hype with many exchanges still favoring Bitcoin, Litecoin, Altcoins, and even Ethereum Classic (Gulp). Three of these exchanges underwent inspections by the Peoples Bank of China earlier this year and will be working closely with the government to ease fears of money laundering and market manipulation. There are a lot of Chinese sites, and since my Chinese is non-existent this list is basically just for name recognition. In many ways these sites are very similar in regards to security, verification, and fees compared to their western counterparts; just marketed at a different audience and currency. If users are seriously interested in these exchanges and making reviews, please contribute or ask!

OK Coin

Overview: Number one in Chinese ETH trading, currently overtaking the volume of exchanges like GDAX and Kraken. CoinOne is very accessible with a mobile app, PC trading software, live chat customer support, and wallet services. OK Coin has English for the basic interface, but no detailed information in the FAQ.
Website: https://www.okcoin.cn/

Huobi

Overview: Second in Chinese ETH volume, Huobi mirrors its rival OKCoin in many ways. It has a solid interface, a mobile access, and even the same rumors of faking trading data! Huobi also started with the ambitious motive of having zero trading fees, only to introduce them in January of this year.
Website: https://www.huobi.com/

CH-BTC

Overview: Like Huobi, CH-BTC also introduced trading fees this year after previous operating without them. According to Reuters, exchanges did this as a measure to slow investments into cryptocurrency as advised by the PBoC. If you are interested more here’s an interview with CEO from August of last year that I found interesting
Website: https://www.chbtc.com/

Yunbi

Overview: Yunbi was started in July 2013 from developers of the Open-Source Exchange, Peatio. Therefore, it is listed on git-hub here
Website: https://yunbi.com/

08 – Coinswaps & Cryto-converters

ShapeShift

Overview: ShapeShift is the leading Coin-converter site and has been since 2014 when it was founded. With great effort put into to eliminating verification requirements and allowing for the exchange of dozens of altcoins, ShapeShift provides a relatively seamless and simple service. The big buttons and bright color scheme immediately differentiates it from other exchanges.
Website: https://shapeshift.io/
Mobile App: Yes – Android / iOS
Trading Fees: From the website ShapeShift does not charge a specific fee. Instead, we offer an exchange rate for each coin which changes every 30 seconds with market conditions. We try to earn revenue by offering a profitable exchange rate, and typically we earn in the range of 0.5% (50 basis points). You receive exactly what the exchange rate shows, there is no additional fee (except the tiny miner fee). There are complaints about the fees not being calculated fairly, but no one is forcing any of these users to exchange at the unbalanced rate. Or you could just read what CEO u/evoorhees has to say about it over at the Ethereum subreddit.
Security: After losing $230,000 from a possible internal hack in 2016, ShapeShift contracted the Canadian Security firm LedgerLabs. Afterwards they permanently hired Michael Perklin as Chief Security Information Officer. ShapeShift claims the only information stored during exchanges is the logs of wallets and the transfers between them. This is protected by storing the data across servers in multiple countries with none based in the US.
Verification: None
Customer Service: Customer service is necessary for the inevitable ‘entered the wrong wallet address’ problem from new users. Along with complaints about slow transfers, a simpler platform does not exempt ShapeShift from dealing with tons of angry customers and their problems. I take many of the complaints about unfair exchange rates with a grain of salt, because the problem could have been avoided by the customer. It does seem however that ShapeShift is very responsive, with a presence on almost every social platform imaginable. Even right here on reddit at shapeshiftio
Bottom Line: Especially after the release PRISM, it is obvious that no one is better at simplifying than the ShapeShift team. In order for crypto trading to become mainstream, it need to be easy enough that your grandma could do it. Erik Voorhees understands better than anyone. Instead of being confronted by esoteric graphs, unfamiliar ticker symbols, and a list of registration requirements, ShapeShift differentiates itself from other exchanges in both its interface and ease of use.

Changelly

Overview: Changelly is a prototype project that was created by developers associated with MinerGate 2013. It has a slightly less sleek interface than ShapeShift, but is still quite intuitive in terms of its pull down exchange bars and other information. Changelly offers Credit Card services like CEX.io, but the fees are currently so expensive that it is hardly worth it. Another downside is the recently introduced email requirement.
Website: https://changelly.com
Mobile App: No
Trading Fees: 0.5% Commission Fee with .00042 ETH Network Fee.
Security: It offers 2FA with Google Authenticator and HTTPS protocol.
Verification: A confirmed email address is all that is needed to start trading. You could easily use a throwaway email if there are concerns over privacy. There are also links to your Google+ or Facebook Profile, which seems a little uneccessary.
Customer Service: Like ShapeShift, Changelly suffers in its reviews due to inexperienced users. Those using Credit Cards especially will feel ripped off despite a clear disclaimer stating that rates are high. They have an extensive FAQ, but do not appear to have a ticket system for complaints and their social media pages are more geared for press releases than support. Their subreddit is a similar story in changelly, but their support staff u/changelly_com runs circles trying to solve issues. Because of the honest effort, I believe they can do better and can improve.
Bottom Line: When it comes to criticisms of Changelly, the apple does not fall far from the tree with MinerGate. Users rightfully have some distrust about the lack of opacity in the management and operations of this exchange. I feel that they are more honest and fair in the Credit Card services than CEX.io, but still should cut the service as it generates a ton of bad experiences. If you are looking to convert coins, it seems to be an acceptable service, but some of the benefits are lost with having to verify an email address. In this way it is hard to compete with ShapeShift.

submitted by poop_dragon to ethtrader [link] [comments]

TRADING CRYPTOCURRENCIES, BitSeven.com

TRADING CRYPTOCURRENCIES, BitSeven.com
It is not a swimming pool, but a shark tank. Learn here how to choose the right exchanges, how to analyze the charts and trading them. Day Trading is not for the faint-hearted so be sure to learn first,
otherwise, you will surely lose money by doing it. We will show you how to read Buy/Sell walls, guide you to the best crypto signal groups, and explain how to trade cryptos with leverage on Bitseven. We will provide a Bitcoin price analysis from time to time and check centralized and decentralized Bitcoin exchanges for you.In the market, you have to develop your own strategies to find out if you are bullish or bearish on a coin or token.
Trading cryptos is not the same as trading the common financial markets, as cryptocurrencies are still a young market. If you want to learn how to trade the crypto currency market, you need a good knowledge setup, which should contain fundamental analysis, as well as technical analysis like charting, price action, and trend analysis.
Due to the high volatility, every transaction contains risk for your trading account - especially if you use financial instruments like leveraged or margin trading. While there are trading courses which can teach you to develop a trading plan and execute a strategy,
you will have to work on your psychology as well.We are often trading a virtual currency against another one, so the outcome depends very much on the development of the Btc price and the total crypto market cap. If you want to learn to trade you will have to estimate your risk appetite first and consider then the trading
platforms you want to use. As a day trader you can basically gain capital in two ways:
BITCOIN LEVERAGED TRADING YOU CAN TRUST
BitSEVEN | Bitcoin leveraged trade at 200x leverage maximum, 200% profit at 1% price raise
Make a profit whether the bitcoin price rises or falls
https://www.bitseven.com
Binance,bitmex,FCoin,OKEx,Huobi,CoinBene,Upbit,Upbit,Bitfinex,BitForex,BigONE,Bibox,HitBTC,bithumb,GDAX,LBank,Quoine,
BCEX,Bit-Z,Kraken,Coinsuper,Zaif,Bitstamp,Bittrex,SIMEX,IDCM,ABCC,RightBTC,Bitinka,Poloniex,CoinsBank,YoBit,Gemini,
Exrates,EXMO,USD-X,coincheck,DragonEx,Livecoin,KuCoin,Coinone,LIQNET,Sistemkoin,BitOnBay,LATOKEN,xBTCe,BtcBox,CPDAX,

submitted by leo289982 to u/leo289982 [link] [comments]

The intelligent investors guide to cryptocurrency: Part 3b - Pricing and liquidity

*Introductions: I'm joskye. A cryptocurrency investor and holder. *
...

Hi again. This is the third part in our ongoing series on how to trade better and determine intelligent investments in cryptocurrency for the future.

In part 1 I talked about the importance of selling enough to make back your principle investment i.e. if you buy something at $300 and it rises to $600 in value, sell $300 to eliminate all future risk of personal loss e.g. if that asset falls to $150 in value after (which can happen easily since suchvolatility is very common in cryptocurrency). In cryptocurrency trading/investments a 100% return of investment should always prompt you to consider selling 1/2 your stack.
In part 2 I talked about the psychology behind fear of missing out; i.e. the dangers of buying during a sudden rise in an asset's price and how to make the most of such rallies whilst minimising the risks involved in joining them.
In part 3a I discussed The importance of a value proposition and the absolute need for any cryptocurrency you invest in to already generate or have the potential to generate revenue in a manner completely independent of it's speculative value as dictated by daily market prices.

Thus the absolute price of a given cryptocurrency is determined solely by the day traders and specifically the last price it was agreed that currency would be sold at with confirmation of that price by a buyer who bought it.
People say lots of things determine the price; marketcap, liquidity, value proposition, revenues generated by the coin, the number of said coin in circulation but ultimately it comes down to the number of buyers and number of sellers competing for that coin.
Perhaps the other thing is the size of said market relative to the money held by the players in it.

For instance in cryptocurrency Bitcoin is still the biggest player in the game. It carries a per unit price of $900 per coin. There are currently 16,090,137 (16 million) coins in circulation giving it a total marketcap value of [$900 x 16090137 =] $14481123300 or 14.48 billion USD.

This is 85% of the current cryptocurrency marketcap. (The total marketcap of all cryptocurrencies as of writing is 17.17 billion USD.)
Compare and contrast Shadowcash (SDC) which has a unit price of $1.27 with 6,616814 coins in circulation giving it a total marketcap value of [$1.27 x 6616814=] $8392766 or 8.39 million USD.
Thus Shadowcash in comparison to Bitcoin is a tiny cap of the cryptocurrency sphere. Shadowcash has a total value that is only 0.06% of Bitcoin when comparing marketcap's.

The top holder has 124,956 Bitcoin valued at $1,12460400 or 1.24 billion USD.
The top SDC holder has 1027261 SDC valued at $1,304621 or 1.4 million USD.
Thus the wealth of the top SDC holder is 1.16% that of the wealth of the top Bitcoin holder.

Why did I just talk about this?

Well they say that a big fish can easily occupy, make a splash in and empty a small pond just by diving in.

In cryptocurrency I see this happening on the markets all the time. Indeed market manipulation effects every single cryptocurrency eventually.
...

Market manipulation!

Large holders of valuable, high marketcap coins will often make multiple small volume purchases of less valuable, low marketcap coins. Often this will follow announcements regarding developments in that low marketcap coin.

An example of low volume ordering is buying 1 SDC at $1.20, 0.5 SDC at $1.2001, 5 SDC at $1.2010, 3 SDC at $1.21, 10 SDC at $1.22 and 0.11 SDC at $1.24, but then leaving someone else to fill the order for 100 SDC priced at $1.242.
Thus by spending $23.77, in low volume purchases the buyer can raise the market cap of SDC from ($1.20 * 6,616814 coins) $7.94 million to (1.24 * 6,616814) $8.20 million! (4.2% increase).

Often the original purchaser who triggered these events will have accumulated a lot of said cryptocurrency cheaply prior to or during the early stages of the pump and will wind up selling the majority of his/her's purchases when the price reaches a peak; usually when the daily/hourly trading volume on that coin starts to decline but sufficient buyers are still available.
This results in a sudden or often more gradual dump in the coins value, usually by falling by 75% or more of the rise.

The only way to discern if the sudden rise in coin value is due to pre-rigged market manipulation is to look at:

the value proposition of that coin (discussed extensively in part 3a of this guide)
the order book
the depth chart
the pattern of change on daily trading volume (and liquidity)
the price charts (15 minute, hourly, 1 day, 3 day, 7 day, 1 month, 6 months)
the news cycle relevant to that coin

You are looking for organic, gradual growth based on a solid value proposition. Sudden large spikes in value should make you pause and wonder if it's worth waiting for a gradual correction (organic drop) in price before entering your buy order.

Do not fall for a pump and dump. Stick to the lessons covered in previous parts of this guide (especially part 3a and 2) and you will be much less likely to lose money in the long run trading and investing in cryptocurrencies.
...

The pattern of change on daily trading volume, the order book and liquidity:

Lets look at SDC and Bitcoin again. This time we are going to compare the daily trading volume (last 24 hours) in USD.

In the last 24 hours (dated 8th Jan 2016), SDC traded a total volume of $26,033. This is 0.01% of all USD daily trading volume on exchanges and only 0.39% of the total marketcap of SDC.
In contrast Bitcoin traded $163,306,776 ($0.16 Billion) over the same 24 hour period. This is 76.15% of USD daily trading volume on exchanges and only 1.12% of it's total marketcap.

The numbers means that just because the marketcap of Bitcoin is $14 billion, that does not mean that there is truly $14 billion worth of fiat currencies (USD, Yuan, Euro etc) in Bitcoin; the total fiat volume is merely an estimate based on current price and number of Bitcoin in circulation.

The daily trading volume also gives you an idea of how much fiat currency you can invest into a given cryptocurrency before you suddenly shift the price.

For example based on the 24 hour daily trading volume for SDC I know that if I blindly spent $15,000 (57% of the daily trading volume) buying SDC without any regard to the price, I can be confident that I will likely cause the price of SDC to go up significantly.
In contrast spending $15,000 to buy Bitcoin (0.0092% of the daily trading volume) without regards to it's price, I can be confident that it will not likely cause a significant rise in the daily spot price of Bitcoin.

A sudden rise in coin price heavily out of proportion to the rise in daily trading volume should be the first sign to alert you to a pump & dump scam.

It implies a low volume trading at low prices to trick the unseasoned trader to perpetuate higher volume, high price buys.
If daily trading volume cannot organically increase to sustain the price, it will eventually fall when the original pumper (or group of pumpers) sell to take their profits.

Daily trading volume should show a steady increase over time with sustained buy support at new price levels; this is a good marker of organic, sustainable growth.

This does not always have to be the case! Sufficiently large price movements (several 1000%) can significantly raise the next absolute low in price for the mid-term (months) even if that is several 100% lower than the peak!
Conversely declining trading volumes indicate loss of interest in the coin and a price that is potentially more prone to and at risk of price manipulation with smaller amounts of fiat/bitcoin (than if higher daily trading volumes existed).
Finally the fact that daily fiat trading volume for Bitcoin and Shadowcash is such a small percentage of it's total marketcap reinforces the idea that price is set by day traders not by holders!

...

For more detail you can now look at the depth chart:

The depth chart is very useful to know how much fiat currency is required to cause the spot price of a given cryptocurrency to rise or fall by a given amount.

The depth chart groups different bids (buy orders) and asks (sell orders) by price and volume e.g. 17.739 bitcoin worth of SDC are currently on sale at poloniex for 0.00117500 bitcoin each ($1.07 per coin) and 0.149 Bitcoin are on sale at the current spot price of 0.00135750 Bitcoin ($1.24)
So as of writing, I can see (from the charts) to raise the price of SDC from 0.00135750 Bitcoin ($1.24) to 0.00181381 Bitcoin ($1.66) I would need to spend 26 Bitcoin ($23783).

The depth chart shows me how many coins I can buy without significantly increasing the price and how many coins I can sell within a given price range. It gives me an idea of the liquidity and volatility of the market i.e. if I buy SDC right now and need to sell it later today or tomorrow for fiat, what is the realistic probability I can get my entire amount in fiat returned to me in the amount originally spent.

The depth chart also gives me an idea of where significant supports exists (price zones with large buy orders relative to the depth chart) to determine the true base price (in conjunction with daily trading volume) and where significant resistances exist (price zones with large sell orders relative to the rest of the depth chart) to determine what the majority of sellers think the coin is truly worth. Be wary though as buy walls (large supports) and sell walls (large resistances) can be moved at any time.

It is up to you to study the depth charts and discern the patterns. You will learn more about day trading this way.

...

The order book is another way of looking at the depth chart and allows you to see the specific transactions occurring that compose daily trading volume by the second!

I find it useful because it allows me to identify:

If there is a string of low volume orders that can be filled to pump the price (or conversely a string of low volume sell orders to dump it). This can play on the psychology of the entire market as many people aren't simply aware of how the manipulations occur; most people simply look at the price!
Where resistances to price change occur and how much money it will take to break them (i.e. if I am day trading to make a profit via pumping, is it worth me spending X to clear a sell wall to encourage others to buy and push up the price further or do I need to spend so much of my capital that should I fail to stimulate buy orders, I become vulnerable to a dump in coin price with effective subsequent loss of fiat money).
The presence of automated trading bots rapidly cycling a buy or sell order of fixed volume between a series of prices that dynamically adjust with the overall trend in price movements. Bots can be your best friend (to pumping or dumping price) if you know how to manipulate them!

...

The price charts:

Discussions about price charts could be endless. I'm not going to go into too much detail, mostly because I'm an investor who believes the value proposition, good consistent development, decent marketing and communications will ultimately trump spot prices and adverse (or positive) short term price trends in the future.

I'm also going to skim this because I'm not as versed in this subject as I'd like to be.
I personally use the candle bar charts on Poloniex to look at 15 minute and daily candles on the hourly, daily, weekly and monthly charts.
I combine this with charts on Bittrex which can calculate the RSI (to estimate if a coin is overbought or oversold) and Bollinger Bands (again to help estimate if a coin is overbought or oversold).
I usually look at the overall direction of trading over a period of several days, compare it to the direction and trends over the last month. I then try to interpret it in the context of the daily trading volume and depth charts.
I often get my predictions on short term price movement wrong if I only look at candle charts without factoring in depth charts, order book and daily trading volume patterns! I have a lot more learning to do on technical analysis.
The charts do often reveal mid/long term supports and resistances in price!
Investopedia is a good place to start learning about different mathematical techniques to analyse charts (including any terms used in these articles).
I'm a big fan of u/kustonoy who inhabits the Ethtrader sub. I personally feel his analysis of the short term markets are generally pretty good. You should never be too lazy to not do your own regular market analysis especially if trading short term, but if you want a good reference point, I suggest following him.

...

The news cycle:

I've mentioned this lower down the list because for intra-day and day traders and even to some extent investors, the news cycle matters very little unless it directly affects the value proposition in some way.
If a news event does result in real maturation of the proposed value proposition (such that the technology has confirmed a new sustained user base or revenue stream) then it might justify a sustained rise in price regardless of the volatility achieved reaching and following the peak.
Some assets may have nothing but an endless stream of good news which meets the above criteria yet it's valuation fails to increase. This is likely a sign that a larger player is deliberately manipulating the market to accumulate more of that asset to sell very high later (I believe Ethereum has fallen victim to this recently) or that it is occuring during long period of consolidation is where diversification of asset ownership is happening which means a new price floor is being set for much larger increases later on. The lowest most frequently occurring point which the price repeatedly bounces off of (stops falling below) is the new floor.

...

Other interesting points: The 'coin x' scenario and the ridiculousness of marketcap:

'Coin X' is an imaginary hypothetical coin. There are only 10 in circulation. It has no value proposition beyond it's speculative value i.e. it will never generate a revenue independent of it's speculative value.

If 'coin x' had only 10 in circulation, was indivisible and each coin had a value of $3 billion, the market cap of 'coin x' would surpass Bitcoin!
If all 10 coins were not on sale then 'coin x' would have a value of zero.
If 9 people had bought 'coin x' at $1 and the 10th person bought it at $3 billion, it's marketcap would still be $30 billion. This does not mean there is $30 billion of fiat stored in coin X.
If an 11th buyer came along and bought 'coin x' at $1.20 the price of coin X would fall to $1.20 and the marketcap of 'coin x' would be $12.0.
This still does not mean there is $12 of fiat stored in coin x.
This does not mean everyone can sell 'coin x' at $1.20.
A new buyer blind to the purely speculative nature of 'coin x' looking at the trend charts could try to argue it is now extremely undervalued and a great buy or possibly was a grand scam and untouchable.
Either way the next price at which 'coin x' is bought/sold is purely arbitrary and determined by the patience of the seller and the impatience of the buyer.
[Edit]: I could also issue 10 more of 'coin x' and if it's unit price remained $1.20 the market cap would instantly double from $12 to $24!

I'd like to point out the similarities between ZCash and 'coin x' (especially during it's launch).
...

Lessons:

Marketcap is derived from the price, not the other way around. Until a cryptocurrency generates significant revenue independent of it's speculative valuation this will remain the case.
Price is determined by the day traders, not by the holders.
The spot price of any given cryptocurrency is determined by the patience of the seller and the impatience of the buyer.
Price of most cryptocurrencies is derived from bitcoin unless they have a direct fiat gateway. Unless a significant amount of trading volume occurs via the fiat gateway, the price of that cryptocurrency is still heavily dependent on the price of bitcoin.
Bitcoin is (for now) is the gold standard of cryptocurrencies. Because it has the largest marketcap (by a very massive margin).
Market manipulation means that large holders in more valuable currencies (large marketcaps) can tamper with and set the value of much smaller currencies (i.e. smaller marketcaps).
Bitcoin's price itself can be manipulated by investment banks, governments or firms who trade in multi billions of USD daily. This is because the daily trading volume is almost 5 trillion trillion USD (which is several thousand times larger
There is nothing wrong with investing or trading in cryptocurrencies with low daily trading volumes and marketcaps, just be concious not to put more money into them than their long term buy support can handle and only invest what you can afford to lose.
The concept of liquidity in a market is important relative to the amount of fiat you are planning to invest or trade in it.
Whether day trading or investing, pick cryptocurrencies with good fundamentals i.e. excellent development teams, good marketing and strong value propositions that will provide the cryptocurrency in question use and value independent of speculative valuations. You are less likely to get manipulated or scammed in the long run that way especially if you are a holder.
Be very weary of trading or investing small amounts of money in larger markets that allow leveraged trading. Those markets will behave irrationally and not follow the fundamentals in the short term.
It is up to you to study the depth charts, order books, candle bar charts, daily trading volumes and news cycle to discern the patterns. The price is a composite of this and the psychology of people who don't understand this. You will learn more about day trading this way and more importantly learn to trade/invest independent of the price.

...

References:

Coin market capitalisations and data including rich lists derived from:

1. Coinmarketcap rankings: https://coinmarketcap.com/all/views/all/ 2. Coinmarketcap daily trading volumes https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/volume/24-hou 3. Bitinfocharts - Top 100 Richest Bitcoin addresses: https://bitinfocharts.com/top-100-richest-bitcoin-addresses.html 4. Crypto ID - Shadowcash Rich list: https://chainz.cryptoid.info/sdc/#!rich

Investopedia: http://www.investopedia.com/
Daily FX volumes rise to $4.84 trillion in Jan - CLS, Feb 10th 2016, Reuters, http://www.reuters.com/article/global-forex-volumes-idUSL8N15P2VA

...

Further articles in this series:

"The intelligent investors guide to cryptocurrency"

Part 0 -

The intelligent Investors Guide to Cryptocurrency Part 0 - Explaining cryptocurrency to a moderately intelligent noob who knows nothing about it. https://np.reddit.com/Particl/comments/7f28ja/the_intelligent_investors_guide_to_cryptocurrency/

Part 1 -

The intelligent investors guide to cryptocurrency: Part 1 - Sell your profits and make back the principle ASAP. https://np.reddit.com/Particl/comments/699keg/the_intelligent_investors_guide_to_cryptocurrency/

Part 2 -

The intelligent investors guide to cryptocurrency: Part 2 - FOMO My friend, My enemy. Make fear of missing out, work for you. https://np.reddit.com/Particl/comments/699kx8/the_intelligent_investors_guide_to_cryptocurrency/

Part 3a -

The intelligent investors guide to cryptocurrency: Part 3a - The value proposition https://np.reddit.com/Particl/comments/699l95/the_intelligent_investors_guide_to_cryptocurrency/

Part 3b -

The intelligent investors guide to cryptocurrency: Part 3b - Pricing and liquidity https://np.reddit.com/particl/comments/699lme/the_intelligent_investors_guide_to_cryptocurrency/

Part 4 -

The intelligent investors guide to cryptocurrency: Part 4 - Sell the rumour, buy the news https://np.reddit.com/Particl/comments/699lxj/the_intelligent_investors_guide_to_cryptocurrency/

Part 5 -

The intelligent investors guide to cryptocurrency: Part 5 - *Growth, Tribalism, Utility and Cryptocurrency: https://np.reddit.com/Particl/comments/6pmqpw/the_intelligent_investors_guide_to_cryptocurrency/

Part 6 -

The Intelligent Investors Guide to Cryptocurrency: Part 6 - The easiest trading strategy you'll ever know versus the hardest one. https://np.reddit.com/Particl/comments/7qfe10/the_intelligent_investors_guide_to_cryptocurrency/

Part 7a -

The Intelligent Investors Guide to Cryptocurrency: Part 7a - Do fundamentals exist in cryptocurrency? Yes they do. https://np.reddit.com/Particl/comments/7ra0vg/the_intelligent_investors_guide_to_cryptocurrency/

"The intelligent investors guide to Particl -"

The intelligent investors guide to Particl: An introduction to the next significant cryptocurrency and a comprehensive investment case.

Full disclosure/Disclaimer: At time of original writing I had long positions in Ethereum (ETH), Shadowcash (SDC), Iconomi (ICN), Augur (REP) and Digix (DGD). All the opinions expressed are my own. I cannot guarantee gains; losses are sustainable; do your own financial research and make your decisions responsibly. All prices and values given are as of time of first writing (Midday 8th-Jan-2017).

Second disclaimer: Please do not buy Shadowcash (SDC), the project has been abandoned by it's developers who have moved on to the Particl Project (PART). The PARTICL crowd fund and SDC 1:1 token swap completed April 15th. You can still exchange SDC for PART but only if it was acquired prior to 15th April 2017 see: https://particl.news/a-community-driven-initiative-e26724100c3a for more information.

Addendum: Article updated 23-11-2017 to edit references to SDC (changed to Particl where relevant to reflect updated status) and clean up formatting.

submitted by joskye to Particl [link] [comments]

Growing our BTC on Poloniex, Starting with $39.93 5-15-17 Margin Trading Margin trade in hindi poloniex How To Trade On Poloniex [Quick and Easy Step By Step Guide] Poloniex Trade Bot Concept&Guide Explicacion margin trading en Poloniex

Poloniex is a leader with its margin trading. This feature on the platform is quick and efficient to use with peer-to-peer functionality for borrowing funds and beginning to margin trade. You can use the platform to secure trading funds and work with other traders via the lending features. Total Margin Value: The total BTC value of all the currencies in your margin account. It is determined by the amount of BTC in your margin account plus whichever is less for each of the other balances in your margin account: the amount of BTC they can be sold for on the current order book, or the amount they could be sold for at the 12-hour average trading price in their respective markets. Most of Poloniex’s users are based in the United States but the platform serves other customers from close to 200 countries. The exchange has three products which are the exchange platform, the margin trading platform, and the lending platform. -Poloniex has recently removed two of these products for US residents.- Some Exchanges like Poloniex allows anyone to lend their coins for the margin traders. Long Vs Short in Margin Trading One of the best thing about margin trading that it allows you to make a good profit even if the market goes bearish (that is market goes down). Loans are available in both full amounts and partial pieces on Poloniex. If a margin trader opens a position that only requires a portion of your loan, Poloniex will match the lender and the partial borrower while keeping the rest of the loan available for others. ... there are always risks involved when exchange trading, margin trading or ...

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Growing our BTC on Poloniex, Starting with $39.93 5-15-17 Margin Trading

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