Cryptocurrency

[FrontEnder]

No longer I'm afraid - the high transaction fees of the last month have put paid to that.


"Steam is no longer accepting bitcoin as a payment method
Valve explained that bitcoin transaction fees have gone up to nearly $20 per transaction last week, “compared to roughly $0.20 when we initially enabled Bitcoin.”
Dec 6, 2017

They'll probably be accepting litecoin soon though.

But generally right now blockchain isn't quite ready to replace card payments. I think that will change at some point and I think it will change rapidly.

There's 2 problems as I see it - too many different coins and scalability. Lightning network could potentially solve both of those problems.

Scalability goes from 10s to 1000s of transactions per second (which will see fees at practically nothing). Cross chain atomic swaps will mean if a merchant only accepts BTC, you could still send him litecoin or something else.

[scooterscot]

Double edged sword though surely? You will lose out on the booms. You are basically hedged and limiting your profits and losses to some low number.

Or are you undiversifying at certain periods to suck up rallies?

Can you reveal details of how you have successfully diversified yet retained the upside profit potential?

My attitude to risk changed once a I crossed a significant number. When the portfolio starts swinging +/- $100k's on a normal day, you'd do the same! Even still the stakes on individual coins are still humongous given from where I started. Now I just take the profits and distribute or indeed as with SALT tonight, I short it and accumulate more coins.

I believe keeping half of my portfolio attached to coins that are paired with something other than BTC. i.e. USD. I do this ETC, Dash etc.. This is important to maintain upside, you don't see the swings in value but the gains still come and will do so throughout this year.

I'm not doing anything more complicated than that.

But it's not all success, or rather, without regret. I've made some poor decisions over the last 12 months and I hope I've now learned from them. They include:

1) Holding. Or lack there of. Reacting to the market is the worst thing you can do. Had I just kept my position as was last January I'd be half way to a 8 figured sum by now.

2) Day trading. Really is not worth it. Hours and hours of watching the screen for a few bucks gain or sweating bricks shorting significant sums.

3) Shorting. Practice shorting. I took too long to learn how to short successfully. There's established patterns through all markets. The Crypto market is immature making the patterns all the clearer to see. Especially as it is open 24/7.

4) Did I mention HOLD??!

[scooterscot]

SALT is a buy up to $20 now.

[merseygrit]

I believe keeping half of my portfolio attached to coins that are paired with something other than BTC. i.e. USD. I do this ETC, Dash etc.. This is important to maintain upside, you don't see the swings in value but the gains still come and will do so throughout this year.

What coins are tied to USD( or not tied to BTC)? It's not clear to me why ETC is not tied to BTC.

[Spoiler]

But it's not all success, or rather, without regret. I've made some poor decisions over the last 12 months and I hope I've now learned from them. They include:

Thanks for the info - can I clarify something just so I'm straight on your definition:

3) Shorting. Practice shorting. I took too long to learn how to short successfully. There's established patterns through all markets. The Crypto market is immature making the patterns all the clearer to see. Especially as it is open 24/7.

Shorting: Are you 'selling-high, buying-low' (i.e. swing trading), rather than short selling (borrowing an asset, selling it, and buying it back later - hopefully at a lower price) ?! I think it's the former ...

Thanks !

[scooterscot]

What coins are tied to USD( or not tied to BTC)? It's not clear to me why ETC is not tied to BTC.

Coins paired with USD are also paired with BTC. However those paired with USD tend to be less volatile.

You can see a full list here under USDT markets.

https://bittrex.com/Home/Markets

[scooterscot]

Thanks for the info - can I clarify something just so I'm straight on your definition:




Shorting: Are you 'selling-high, buying-low' (i.e. swing trading), rather than short selling (borrowing an asset, selling it, and buying it back later - hopefully at a lower price) ?! I think it's the former ...

Thanks !

Exactly, selling high buying low.

[Tonymustwearbriefs]

My attitude to risk changed once a I crossed a significant number. When the portfolio starts swinging +/- $100k's on a normal day, you'd do the same! Even still the stakes on individual coins are still humongous given from where I started. Now I just take the profits and distribute or indeed as with SALT tonight, I short it and accumulate more coins.

I believe keeping half of my portfolio attached to coins that are paired with something other than BTC. i.e. USD. I do this ETC, Dash etc.. This is important to maintain upside, you don't see the swings in value but the gains still come and will do so throughout this year.

I'm not doing anything more complicated than that.

But it's not all success, or rather, without regret. I've made some poor decisions over the last 12 months and I hope I've now learned from them. They include:

1) Holding. Or lack there of. Reacting to the market is the worst thing you can do. Had I just kept my position as was last January I'd be half way to a 8 figured sum by now.

2) Day trading. Really is not worth it. Hours and hours of watching the screen for a few bucks gain or sweating bricks shorting significant sums.

3) Shorting. Practice shorting. I took too long to learn how to short successfully. There's established patterns through all markets. The Crypto market is immature making the patterns all the clearer to see. Especially as it is open 24/7.

4) Did I mention HOLD??!

So when you say you are diversified you mean you have a number of coins? (With and without BTC exposure).

You have not analysed the projects and determined their correlations? And used that to diversify your position?

As far as I understand it, a diversified stock portfolio captures the overall growth of the equity market , but negates subsector losses by correlating stock selections such that one market specific loss cancels another market specific growth in a predictable way.

For example, you might hold Pirelli and Vespa. Both are transport devices and since population is increasing both will have overall growth due to growing demand. But if cars sell less Pirelli will lose and Vespa gain (let's say in this simple model scooter or car are the only options).

[merseygrit]

Is there a good app /website to track one's coin portfolio against BTC /Fiat?
I think someone posted a link but I can't find it.

[VirtualMonkey]

Exactly, selling high buying low.

Shorting is something I've really come up short on...I leave it too late and then miss most of the drop.
What timescales do you tend to short over?...hours or overnight/days?