If you’ve been thinking about getting into the world of crypto currency trading, but aren’t quite sure of where to start, you’ll want to check out all the inside information we share in this quick beginners guide.
Crypto became incredibly popular to trade a handful of years ago, especially on the bitcoin side of things. But, believe it or not, cryptocurrency has been around a lot longer than that – and has the potential to completely change the way you think of currency (actual, hard money) in the not so distant future.
Getting in on crypto today can be one of the savviest moves you make. But you have to be careful, you have to be strategic, and you have to be smart about how you get started.
Shall we get right into it?
It All Starts with an Exchange Account
Just like you need a brokerage account to trade stocks and other investment assets in more “traditional” world, you need what is known as a crypto exchange account if you’re going to be buying and selling cryptocurrency.
There are a bunch of different crypto exchanges out there (dozens and dozens of them) to pick and choose from. But the brokerage that you choose is going to heavily influence your ability to purchase different kinds of crypto, purchase those securely, and sell them fast at the prices that you want to.
The most important thing to do when searching for a crypto exchange to get started is to find one that is 100% reliable, 100% reputable, and one that takes your security and privacy very seriously.
Find a Crypto Wallet Next
The next piece of the puzzle is finding a crypto wallet that you can hold your cryptocurrency in safely and securely, keeping it from the “trading floor” until you are ready to move it.
Different exchanges offer different wallets, but there are also private wallets and nonexchange affiliated wallets that you might choose to move forward with, too.
Think of your crypto wallet as your “bank vault” for cryptocurrency. This is where your crypto will live until you want to move it or spend it.
Security is paramount when you choose a crypto wallet, though. Anyone with your crypto wallet address and access code can follow that crypto out completely – with you having an almost impossible time figuring out who stole the crypto, where it went, or having any chance of recovery.
Finding the Right Crypto to Trade
Now that you have covered the technical side of things it’s time to start looking at finding the right cryptocurrency assets to move and trade going forward.
Some big are going to want to stick with the “backbone” cryptocurrency options like bitcoin, even if that means getting into fractional ownership of crypto when its value is so high.
Others are going to look for up and coming crypto actions (like Ripple, for example), hoping that some of them – any of them – will have the same kind of trajectory that bitcoin had and continues to have moving forward.
At the end of the day, it’s all about risk aversion, the amount of money you have to invest in cryptocurrency, and which crypto you feel have the best short and long-term prospects.
Think of this a lot like trading any other investment vehicle (particularly stocks) and you’ll get the hang of things quite quickly.