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Topic: day trading - what's the catch? - page 8. (Read 7088 times)

full member
Activity: 129
Merit: 100
July 07, 2014, 05:15:05 PM
#38
Isnt it like gambling?
legendary
Activity: 1722
Merit: 1000
Satoshi is rolling in his grave. #bitcoin
July 07, 2014, 04:15:43 PM
#37
Hello,
I'm just interested if is it possible or there is some catch. I see that price of BTC on stocks is different (of course) but the difference is big enough to make money with just buying on one stock and selling on the other one. So my Q is what's the catch? I already checked fees and still it's should be ok.

I've never trade BTC (yet) so correct me if I'm wrong or there is only classic risks like falling price..

I check price @  http://bitcoincharts.com/markets/currency/USD.html

Thanks in advance for your time.

There are many ways to predict the market, but none of them are correct 100%.
You have to be able to admit that some trades are bad ones, short and go on trading like nothing happened,
also, in some cases , the market is manipulated so that many of those who analyse charts make the bad move.

If youre going to start trading anything, start in low bets, and as you progress and learn more, increase your bets accordingly
full member
Activity: 154
Merit: 100
July 07, 2014, 12:00:52 PM
#36
The catch is losing your money lol.  Tongue
full member
Activity: 152
Merit: 100
July 07, 2014, 10:31:49 AM
#35
I never seen a successful arbitrage since the deposits or wire transfers are always seemed to be delayed.

And the exchange like btc-e states they never receive it etc.
hero member
Activity: 519
Merit: 500
July 07, 2014, 05:14:24 AM
#34
Also note that if you're trading via arbitrage then record keeping can get pretty messy and if you're required to pay tax on the income it can become cumbersome without a script or database.
legendary
Activity: 1148
Merit: 1000
July 07, 2014, 02:55:58 AM
#33
Hello,
I'm just interested if is it possible or there is some catch. I see that price of BTC on stocks is different (of course) but the difference is big enough to make money with just buying on one stock and selling on the other one. So my Q is what's the catch? I already checked fees and still it's should be ok.

I've never trade BTC (yet) so correct me if I'm wrong or there is only classic risks like falling price..

I check price @  http://bitcoincharts.com/markets/currency/USD.html

Thanks in advance for your time.

What you're referring to is called arbitrage. You buy low on one exchange and sell a bit higher on another. This is a well-known exploit in trading.
I've done it successfully a number of times with other coins. With BTC, you'll have to invest a lot of USD for it to be really profitable.
The only thing you have to be wary of is price volatility combined with transaction time (the time it takes to receive the BTC can vary quite a bit).
If you've noticed the price difference, other people have too  Wink
hero member
Activity: 686
Merit: 500
July 06, 2014, 10:57:40 PM
#32
the catch is that the commissioner get richer
hero member
Activity: 603
Merit: 500
July 06, 2014, 10:54:25 PM
#31
Difference is, in forex, traders use 500:1, 1000:1 leverage -- in bitcoin, the most I see is 10:1 (which is crazy), and on the more prominent exchanges, 3:1 and 2.5:1. Makes a big difference on little moves. Smiley

Other than btc.sx and bitfinex, are there any other exchanges have leveraged trading?

FX Open has leveraged trading, I believe, but I haven't used it, so I can't say much. BTCE has leveraged trading through the Meta Trader platform (you can find it under the "finance" tab.

Thanks for the information, I didn't know btce offer leveraged trading as well. Smiley
hero member
Activity: 624
Merit: 500
July 06, 2014, 10:45:37 PM
#30
Difference is, in forex, traders use 500:1, 1000:1 leverage -- in bitcoin, the most I see is 10:1 (which is crazy), and on the more prominent exchanges, 3:1 and 2.5:1. Makes a big difference on little moves. Smiley

Other than btc.sx and bitfinex, are there any other exchanges have leveraged trading?

FX Open has leveraged trading, I believe, but I haven't used it, so I can't say much. BTCE has leveraged trading through the Meta Trader platform (you can find it under the "finance" tab.
hero member
Activity: 603
Merit: 500
July 06, 2014, 10:10:06 PM
#29
Difference is, in forex, traders use 500:1, 1000:1 leverage -- in bitcoin, the most I see is 10:1 (which is crazy), and on the more prominent exchanges, 3:1 and 2.5:1. Makes a big difference on little moves. Smiley

Other than btc.sx and bitfinex, are there any other exchanges have leveraged trading?
hero member
Activity: 624
Merit: 500
July 06, 2014, 09:41:15 PM
#28
the catch: you give all your money away to the better traders. Wink
This is not necessarily true. If you truly know and understand the market then you can potentially make money from "day trading"

At this point the market has become too large and efficient for day traders to really profit. In other words the market reacts to new almost instantly and is accurately priced.

Sure, the better traders make money -- the worst ones lose it. And most lose. Smiley

I disagree on "too large and efficient for day traders to really profit". Forex is bigger by huge magnitudes, and professional day traders trade that market as well. Admittedly, I've heard forex is more challenging than bitcoin.

With a more volatile market, the day traders have more opportunity to make profit.
In that sense, bitcoin is a much better place for daily traders than forex or stock or gold. Smiley

Difference is, in forex, traders use 500:1, 1000:1 leverage -- in bitcoin, the most I see is 10:1 (which is crazy), and on the more prominent exchanges, 3:1 and 2.5:1. Makes a big difference on little moves. Smiley
hero member
Activity: 603
Merit: 500
July 06, 2014, 08:54:39 PM
#27
the catch: you give all your money away to the better traders. Wink
This is not necessarily true. If you truly know and understand the market then you can potentially make money from "day trading"

At this point the market has become too large and efficient for day traders to really profit. In other words the market reacts to new almost instantly and is accurately priced.

Sure, the better traders make money -- the worst ones lose it. And most lose. Smiley

I disagree on "too large and efficient for day traders to really profit". Forex is bigger by huge magnitudes, and professional day traders trade that market as well. Admittedly, I've heard forex is more challenging than bitcoin.

With a more volatile market, the day traders have more opportunity to make profit.
In that sense, bitcoin is a much better place for daily traders than forex or stock or gold. Smiley
hero member
Activity: 624
Merit: 500
July 06, 2014, 07:40:34 PM
#26
the catch: you give all your money away to the better traders. Wink
This is not necessarily true. If you truly know and understand the market then you can potentially make money from "day trading"

At this point the market has become too large and efficient for day traders to really profit. In other words the market reacts to new almost instantly and is accurately priced.

Sure, the better traders make money -- the worst ones lose it. And most lose. Smiley

I disagree on "too large and efficient for day traders to really profit". Forex is bigger by huge magnitudes, and professional day traders trade that market as well. Admittedly, I've heard forex is more challenging than bitcoin.
sr. member
Activity: 644
Merit: 260
July 06, 2014, 07:28:50 PM
#25
the catch: you give all your money away to the better traders. Wink
This is not necessarily true. If you truly know and understand the market then you can potentially make money from "day trading"

At this point the market has become too large and efficient for day traders to really profit. In other words the market reacts to new almost instantly and is accurately priced.
sr. member
Activity: 266
Merit: 250
July 06, 2014, 06:59:12 PM
#24
the catch: you give all your money away to the better traders. Wink
hero member
Activity: 658
Merit: 500
July 06, 2014, 06:34:17 PM
#23
Sometimes I am confused, I see "day trade" a lot, and not sure what it means. Does it mean short term trade?

yes, short term. could be within the day or several times a day (intra-day), or over a period of several days. basically, it's playing small moves and "scalping" rather than "swing trading" larger moves.
sr. member
Activity: 294
Merit: 250
July 06, 2014, 06:25:39 PM
#22
Sometimes I am confused, I see "day trade" a lot, and not sure what it means. Does it mean short term trade?
sr. member
Activity: 378
Merit: 250
July 05, 2014, 10:03:04 AM
#21
No catch, it's basically gambling lol with the exchanges being the real winner.
hero member
Activity: 674
Merit: 500
July 05, 2014, 08:44:06 AM
#20
I believe OP is indeed thinking about arbitraging instead of day-trading.
For arbitrage, you could make profits if the price difference between two exchanges is large enough to cover all the trading, deposit and withdrawal fees.
For day-trade, you could make profits if you can buy low and sell high in the same exchange to cover the trading fee.
legendary
Activity: 1022
Merit: 1000
July 05, 2014, 08:41:08 AM
#19
Arbitrage - making money off of differences in the exchange rates between the exchanges is possible but increasingly difficult.

Day trading - buying and selling BTC and alts is essentially a zero sum game, so your gains are someone else's losses.  So while it is possible to make a lot of profits here, it is hard to do so sustainably.

CEG makes a good point in that since the trend of BTC price has largely been up, if you buy and the market moves against you, if you hang on, you will probably be able to exit with a profit.  After all, a year ago, the price of BTC was only about 70 USD!

Note that this does NOT hold with alt coins.  They almost invariably get pumped and then dumped and then die a long slow death, check the price history of dogecoin for an example of this pattern and it was one of the more successful alts.
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