Topic: Trading and security (Read 2161 times)

That's too much security really. We don't really store bitcoin or anything important on the forum. It's knowledge hub and there is no wallet or exchanger kind of thing here where your account can get hacked and you might loose money. For the purpose of exchanger and wallets it's necessary to have it because there is load of money. I would rather choose to save everything on the wallet with private keys. That's the best option and added security to my account.

I usually used 2 or more wallets for me to secure my holding in my tradings. And it could be better if you will choose the right wallet for you depending on the function of your holding,  it could be on investments or long term, or even in direct transactions. I also agree that it could be best if you will consider using hardware wallet so you could secure all your investments in every transactions.

Yes , like the situation of btc-e.com , those traders keep all their btc-e in that exchangers is nearly lost everything. Luckily , Btc-e is back but they only give back 55% percent of the balance , so choose the right exchanger is the key , cause you're not , you probaly can lose everything, LR and btc-e are examples.

Keeping all your funds in an exchange account is very risky. Anything can happen with security and anything can happen with the exchange itself. The best is to keep only the amount you trade with in the exchange and withdraw the rest at least when it is substantial enough for withdrawal.

This is not just even about 2 factor authentication. The thing is about leaving all your funds in a trading wallet. You have no control at all over your funds and if what happened to Mt. Gox and co, happens, you are at risk of loosing your funds with no apologies.

The best way is to get a hardware storage or at least a desktop wallet like exodus that gives you the chance to be in control of your funds. Only leave what you are trading with in your exchange wallet and never use it as a main storage for your assets.

Trade site is unsafe for holding coins.If you enacted 2FA into your account is it shield you from individuals who are endeavoring to hack your account.My feeling when you're exchanging complete pull back coins promptly, or on the off chance that you need to be spent in Exchange 30% hold in Exchange it's a straightforward system to being protected

Since you said your trading account has a sizable balance, you really will not want to leave them in an exchange wallet. You are at risk of you loosing all your funds if one day, something happens with the exchange itself. Even 2 Factor Authentication that you have enabled will not get your funds back. Try to google news about Mt. Gox and even recently btc-e and you will know what this is all about. Although, BTC-e users are lucky enough to at least recover some of their funds back so far.

activing 2fa is the best option we can do to securing our account although its not guarantee to give full protection but at least it could prevent from the attacker. and i believe that in website trading, they always giving advice for their member to activate into the highest level so the member can increase their level security.

+1 to that - 2FA here would be great!

For online 2FA is the best possible option, especially for the exchanges, and on top of that you keep second part of password of pass phase on you phone, and this would be good if this option could be implement on this forum, believe that in this way we would see less hijacking and hacking account on this forum.

I think if you invest your money in Bitcoins and then you start trading, you have to be very much careful as there will be a lot of scammers who will be keeping an eye on your money and will be trying their best to take away your money. There will be no one else but only you who needs to protect his money at the time of trading.

Keeping your BTC or any other coin on exchanges is very risky cos n there is very little you can do to protect it from any kind of exchange scams like shutting down without any notice,
all you can do is activate 2fa for more security from hackers,

Why so?

putting full money in exchange site is a big risk, only you keep how much money you want to trade that amount in exchange site and what security you are using to save your account every one must follow this and save your account. last word what you said it is must and should traders follow, use an internet security anti virus to your system. I am using it in my system, but one day my system had a problem, so I used my friend system and opened my local exchange site to transfer some BTC to another account. I am copying my address but while pasting it is showing other address I tried this couple times all time it changed automatically. i suddenly log out and clear my browser history. If i do not notice this, my BTC will go wrong address. This is 100% virus problem in that system. So using anti virus is very safe.

Trading is all about risk and you should not even go into it without proper knowledge of were and how you coin is going to be kept. we have many exchanger, that has reputable name and they have been in business for long that you can comfortably keep your coins. You should feel free in using any of the following exchanger: poloniex, c-cex, bittrex and livecoin.

Trading and security are important for every person who invests in crypto currencies. So far as I am familiar with these crypto currencies bit coin is known the most secured i.e. encrypted and easily tradable and exchange able virtual currency. So I will suggest people to invest in bit coins.

Yes, if someone will keep on posting rather boosting about his wealth on all social forums and websites, he better get ready for attacks. You cannot keep bees away from sweets for long once you have shown it to them. So, the lesser you open your mouth the better it is.

If you experience issue and difficulty in regards to managing a specific wallet in trading you must consider using a singles wallet. Hence, we should also consider that in terms of transaction there are differences and allowed wallets that could help them to experience a better way of transaction, investments and trading in the platform of a multi purpose wallet or even having multiple wallets.

That is correct. It is very risky to keep your bitcoin in a exchange wallet. Look at btc-e. There are likely a thousand of people losing their money there. HOlding your in an exchange is not good at all. It can go down in any situation. Therefore, even when you have set all of the security, there is nothing can ensure that your balance will be safe there

as long as using 2 Factor Authentication I'm sure your wallet will be fine. I have been using 2fa for 2 years and have no problem with my wallet.

You need to decide how much of your total bitcoin stash you are comfortable losing, and only send that amount to the exchanges, and keep the rest in your own hardwallet.

Also take profits regularly and withdraw profits. That way, the % at risk is lower.

Sadly exchange risk is real - as those who had money in MtGox, Mintpal, Cryptsy, Bitfinex and BTC-E can attest.

The only group that is insured against hacking is Coinbase/GDAX. (Though Gemini might also be insured, I know they are fully licenced by New York State and I think the licence requires reserves to be held).

                              Yes. Honestly when it comes to money being involved, you must be having any back up plans or decisions to made, or take some immediate measures for your safety. We cannot really say it for sure if what might gonna happen if you will just let your coins sleep or just let your bitcoin sleep to some exchanges, that is why you have such a nice idea and strategy, hopefully people would also notice this one and apply, because currently this is also my method so that I am at a lesser risk than letting it be.

If you do not use 2FA for security your account, in someday hackers will rob all your funds on exchange is possible. Because the trend of the cryptocurrency market has attractives many hackers interested to this field, they know have many newbies here and can give them a lot of money.

Yeah, that's what I do most of the time.

If you are day trading then you actually have no choice but to select a trusted exchange or trading platform. If the coins will not be moved for more than a week, then I suggest you take it out of the exchange.

It is a good thing to have a code as a good expale of security that could level and heighten up the security of your wallets. But it is also a good option for people ti have multiple account of wallet depending on its usage, for expale if for holdings daily transactions, and concreting so you could limit and save at the same time.

In this world everything is full of risk whether to do work in offline or in online .
But here to work with thr bitcoin is much safe way to deal with your money .
But here if you are thinking that trading is a risky think from the point view of the trading then you are right because at the exchange attackers can attack and can steal coins because we have security with the official Wallet but not that type of security at the exchange like things where all types of wallets are listed .
Here i am not saying about the assumptions but already i seen about 1.6 years ago where from most of the big exchange Etherium coin was steal by the hackers from those accounts who have in bulk .
So we can expect that type of the securities .
But here also we can see that the makers of the exchange platforms are not less experienced , they are also giving us the better facility of securities , so we can expect a better security if we have our money in multiple coins and at multiple exchange so that we can lower the risk much as we can .
Honestly i am doing trading since 4 years but still nothing i faced here any problem with any exchange .
So don't take much tension about the securities because you are not only the single one in this field , another people are using it for the bulk trading at every exchange and also making big earnings also .
So be positive and give best to your work to get better success in this field without thinking anything negative about it .

You are no doubt a very smart person as far as I come across. I must advice each and every one to adopt the strategy which you have adopted. You should never keep the Bitcoins which you are holding and the ones with ones you want to do trading. You should keep them totally separate and safe too.

I do see many people hoard their all bitcoins into one wallet type and on the undesirable events, they all get big disappointments. This will also apply the trading exchanges we do trade.

I also used 2FA security in the exchanger that I make a trading because it can helps us to secure our account in the site and prevent open it by others without our own permission. There are many hackers now who are trying to still our funds in trading site that's why the trading site also offers a 2FA security.

I heard it too but my BTC in some exchange is too small only so its ok for me i think the hacker dont want to take advantage on that i hope LOL but if you realy have a huge amount of bitcoins then you have to make it safe coz exchange wallet is realy belong to exchange and they can take it anytime they want

I used 2FA security in trading exchange. I think its safe,but anything can happen in online.so my point of view I tell that for security 2FA is the best.

Most of the time the attack is from inside, if people do great hacks then most probably they have assistance of the employees who are working for the company being attacked. The best way to stay safe is to not trust anyone with anything.

Indeed, wealthy people never really brag about their money, whereas the average person always thinks they are rich compared to others.

There is no comparision behind the hardfork and the private key usage. Private key can be safe using desktop wallet also but hork fork cannot be controlled by us. Check with your master clearly about that. If you are regular trader in any reputed btc exchange you just need to set up the trade value and limit in your merchant account continuously whenever the price changes.

Maybe he is a day trader and he need uses Bitcoin for trades everyday.
Example my master teaches me knowledge in trade crypto, he never use could or desktop wallet can keep private key for store his Bitcoin, even exchange has annouce about the risk lost Bitcoin in HardFork.

>Money loves silence

This is great advice applicable everywhere

I know a few people who do that too, but I think it's more luck than anything else. I personly keep thr majority of my coins in cold storage, paper wallets etc and the trading amount on hot wallet. When I finish trading I always withdraw everything from exchange. This way I don't worry and I can choose any exchange I want.

Security is one of the major concerns of all the holders, especially when it comes to digital world. I keep my bitcoins in two wallets but I have met a guy who has no wallet and keeps his coins on one exchange site. Still, he hasn't lost a single digit from his amount.
He must be clever with his passwords and keys.

I know trading in exchange is risky because we are user does not have the private key of the trading account but to minimize the risk i activated 2FA in every exchange, use uniq and privacy email address also activated 2 step verification of the email, keep and bookmarks link of the exchange,dont click any link from third party if you joined in telegram group, and use anti virus on PC/Laptop.

That's the most important i think. 2fa helps secure your coins for any transaction so it's essential that you activate that gor safety. Though i don't have that much btcs in my wallet and i don't think anyone would consider hacking my wallet but it's never a bad idea to be sure

Most of the so called hacks of exchanges that went bust are suspected of being inside jobs. Look up the ones I mentioned above. If the owner or employees are going to abscond with your coin then using 2FA isn't going to help you.

Totally agree. make sure that you do not to reveal the information, always install the mail sign in trading floor in 2FA mode, carefully kept mail accounts, the ID in the trading floor always in 2FA.

Can you explain in more detail how the operators of the exchanges are "robbing" you? If you're talking about the fees, then guess what: exchanges are also businesses, which are put up to make profit. You expect a company to spend thousands and thousands of dollars for their website and the huge database, employees, etc and put up their site without fees? Come on now.

I think if you are a trader, and you operate on large trading floors, you do not need to worry about security. Because they always make sure you are safe about security issues, however, you also need to do everything right according to their needs.

quoting for reference

if u want to hold bitcoin for a few yrs it's better to keep a bitcoin on the hard wallet or paper wallet because you hold your private key. but if you are bitcoin trader you want more bitcoin you better exchanger put your bitcoin. anytime you buy altcoin remember when the altcoin price increases 90% is twice your bitcoin number.

That's what I do, not in the same percentages, but yeah - it gives my some security and a substantial trading collateral.

unless you trade your entire 5 figure sum, no, it's not possible

your best bet would be to keep 80% in a hard wallet and trade the rest 20% with margin/leverage

For those advising to keep funds out of exchange sites, knows what they are saying and the issue of BTC-e comes to mind where the amount you can get for now is 55% of your fund for someone having the amount you have there, its definitely loss of sizeable amount of investment which the balance might not be available again and even if it does, not at the right time. For me, the past is a fundamental lesson that should shape our decision not to fall in the same situation those that have gone before us have witnessed. Just keep it where you can control it.

Well, risk is something we will never get rid of all the things done, because risk is indeed the absolute challenge that exists in every thing related to the economy. So we can only minimize a risk and will never be able to eliminate it, the more we growled to get rid of it the closer we are to defeat. Wallet offline or online does have a difference, but one thing you should know that it all depends on how you choose and create a double security. Because most will not be separated from us.

A way bigger threat are actually the exchanges itself. You can use a strong password, 2FA etc etc. but all this doesn't matter when the operators of the exchanges itself are robbing you ... and you can't do anything about that, when you are a regular trader.

Tell that to all the people that lost coin at the exchanges and wallet sites that got hacked. I lost quite a lot (to me) at Cryptsy, a little dust at Inputs.io and got lucky that there was nothing in my Mt. Gox or BTC-e accounts.

I have never experienced a problem with my wallet security (not wallet paper).
as long as you use 2fa in my opinion, your account / your wallet will be fine.

I would advise the same thing. Since OP is doing the trade, then there is no choice but to put funds where they are traded but it is really good if you don't just use one trading site so as to minimize the risks but please choose your trading sites wisely. I have been using Bittrex ever since I started doing some small trades and I find it very good especially for newbies. Aside from Bittrex, there are those who choose Poloniex and these two are actually based in USA which I don't know if their location can be adding to risks or lessening them.

The risks does not just come from the sites we are using (well you can say it must be inside job just in case) but mostly coming from people whose main business is victimizing others' vulnerabilities or weaknesses. I have been a victim of phishing myself (am still a little bit shocked even up to now) and I know that feeling upon realizing what really happened.

I think there is no good way to go far in any risky in exchange site every thing can be happen even the site is really secured there are still possibility that online exchange site can be hack.. like the other said spreading your coins can lessen the risk.. but honestly for me its not it can be more possible to lose them all if all trading site are hack if you really want to keep your coins safe just save them only in desktop wallets or paper wallet..
Its normal that we are seeing hack exchange site just this year we are not still no heard any exchange site are down and hope it will not be happen again just like last year happen when there is a exchange site was hack and burst decreasing value of bitcoin because of exchange site hack..
So if you heard a new some issue better to get ready to withdraw them and transfer your coins for safety places. . before the site can be taking down or hack.

this is the issue that all the traders face and all are aware of it and it is the issue that other non-traders think is easy to fix and they tell you to "not hold anything on exchanges" of course as you already know it is impossible to do!

the only thing we can do is to stay aware.
first choose an exchange that has less risk of running away, getting hacked, or generally scamming you. you can do some research about them to find out which one is better among the worst.

second you take the security steps that you can take. like having a strong password and 2FA and a dedicated Email with strong password and 2FA, ...

third you start trading but only keep as much as you have to and as much as you can afford to lose. for example if you don't want to go all in then cash out the rest. also when you make profit you cash out the profit and keep the funds at a lower level that you won't lose all in case something went tits up

finally you keep an eye out for signs of shady behavior. sometimes these exchanges that run away show some signs of becoming a scam a while back.

Yes, an exchange and trading platforms are the most targeted by hackers just like you said, MT. Gox and Bitfinex are the good examples.
If you are an active traders, put your money or bitcoin in trading platform is inevitable, if it being hacked, then you are unlucky.
5 digits of money or bitcoin is big amount and must be secured, in that case just treat trading platforms or exchanges as temporarily place to do your business, in and out as fast as possible. Buy and sell and then withdraw your money, just put small amount in their wallet just in case.

That's right.  Cryptocurrency on exchanges has risk also. They are prone to attacks and your account is at risk, in this way you can lose your crypto's. Activating 2fa or another layer of security is the right thing to do making it more secured.

I think you may be confusing security - the state of being free from danger or threat - with securities as in financial instruments. Or in other words, this has nothing to do with the topic of this thread.

If you look at the balance sheet in a company’s annual report, you may notice some interesting entries listed among its assets. “Trading securities” or “trading account assets” are a special class of investments -- including stocks and bonds -- and are treated quite differently than most other assets a company holds. In fact, U.S. accounting rules require companies to classify the intent at acquisition of any stocks or bonds to accurately value them for accounting and tax purposes.

You just need to look at the history of crypto exchanges (Mt. Gox, Cryptsy, Bitfinex, BTC-e) to realise that there is a significant risk holding your coins on an exchange. In general, the rule is if you don't own the private key you don't own the coin. If you trade then the exchange getting hacked, shut down or going bankrupt is an additional risk you have to take on top of the risk in trading.

Depending on what coins you own there are several multi-coin wallets available.

So i watched one of those videos on youtube where someone mentioned to not keep your coins on bittrex and keep it in your own wallet.  Do most bittrex users do it this way or not?  He says when you are ready to buy or sell a coin, then send the coin to bittrex.


However if thats the case, wouldnt you need to download 10s of wallets if you plan on trading at least 10+ coins?  The other thing is if you do this, wouldnt you need to pay those sending fees like bitcoin to do this?  So in other words, keeping a lot of btc or altcoins in your bittrex wallet is not secure?  I had thought with a bittrex account, you dont even need wallets anymore etc...

Keeping bitcoins in hard wallet is always choice of success. Whatever you want to secure, either you must remove it from internet or limit the access to it by keeping it offline. And better said here, activation of 2FA and using strong passwords are few preventions you must keep for better safety.

You can keep it like that unless and until you are doing the exchange over trusted exchanger site. Storing your coins in the multi wallet like storj and waves is also another good option and is preferred one off course. With Multi wallet you will have options to hold private keys and with that kinda money I believe I will prefer the wallet only. Trades can be done easily as it takes half an hour sometimes more if you have paid low fees for transferring funds from wallet to exchanger. We can tolerate that one without compromising our money.

If you are a high roller , better to split it to several exchanges.
An exchange who run scam usually lured by that huge amount deposited , and we will always feel insecure.
It is indeed any online service won't give you a safe haven like when you store it by yourself.

I think it's good to spend some time reviewing your security steps because you have lots of money. Five figures is not a joke and it's big money obviously and very stupid thing to keep on the exchanger. I also do a trade but there is nothing which moves as fast as light in this universe so you don't have to worry about accessing your bitcoin so quickly. You must be getting what I'm saying here, you can give sometimes to follow up the security steps and then send your money from a secure location mostly hardware wallet and or wallets for which you are holding the private keys. Trading is critical job and I know how I look likes when we keep lots of money in different altcoins. But security is priority now.

You should understand that everything in life is a risk and you should calculate your risk before venturing into something in liquid. Traditionally offline wallets is the most save wallets and I will advise you to take the security of you investment very serious as most of these exchangers trading platform are scammer. You should keep at least 90℅ of your risk capital on offline wallet.

Trading demands that you have certain amount at your disposal whenever it needed so that you can react fast and on time not to miss the opportunity for profit. But that is often not in compliance with security so to my opinion it's good option that you use multiple trading platformes with different amounts, so diversify your funds and don't keep all eggs in one basket. This can improve the security and diminish the possibilities to lose funds because of hackers attack or fraud.

Well, that was one of my safe trading strategy. I always cash out my investment on crypto currency, until its reach my target, But not all of it, I just cash out my first capital to buy it, and use the profit for doing trade. and Never keep your big mount of crypto currency in the exchange, because all  of your asset, are handled by exchange, and no guarantee it will always safety from hacker.

For this I limited my exchange trades dramatically. Because I don't want to take risk of losing my bitcoin. Even you're trading on the most trusted platform, you will have worries for your funds. Then you should take them outside the platform after you're done with your trade.

I know that trading site or exchange site are risky for holding coin/btc there.but if i activated 2FA into my account is it fully safe?I am already using 2FA into my all of account.But i don't aware about it that I am fully secure or not!! some one clear it please.

if you can secretly deal with your investment better not to broadcast your earnings since hackers will really loves to try breaking your wallets
and they will try harder  just to get in, 2fa is additional security only but its still us who needs to be more extra careful.

I personally wouldn't use HitBTC and Poloniex.
I've read several comments from users that they had massiv problems to withdraw the cryptocurrency they earned through trading. Especially when they had big sums in their accounts.
Regarding Poloniex - They changed their Terms of Use recently (1-2 months back), that they basically can change whatever they want anytime, without the need to inform the users before. So theoretically they could add some nasty things and it would be automatically active ... and the users can't do anything about it.

It all depends on which exchange are your coins.
Of course, it is important, as already written here, to activate two-factor aundification.

Use a trusted exchange, located either in the US or in Europe.

Avoid exchanges of Asia and Russia (btc-e)

that is exactly the issue with exchanges and trading that we all face.
those who say "don't keep your coins on exchanges" are either giving general advice like a parrot or they have never traded in their lives.
if you want to trade fast you need to keep something on exchanges at some point. you place an order and wait for it to be filled (buy or sell order). and that is keeping coins on exchanges.

what you can do for extra security (on top of having strong password, 2FA and general security stuff) is to withdraw your bitcoin when you are not trading. for example there are times when market is not so good for trading like when it is unpredictable. you can withdraw those times.
or at least withdraw the profit and keep the principle there.

Be sure to never expose the email you used for your exchange account. hardware wallet will increase the security for your BTC but keeping it in the exchange will make your hardware wallet meaningless. it's like youre throwing your trust to the exchange and they can do whatever they want to you.
the only thing that will increase your security as mentioned by people above are setting up 2fa for your account or even 2nd password for withdrawal.
and if you can, use decentralized exchange.

Trading in one exchange and put all your hard earned money is not a wiseable decision. Why not try to trade in different exchange and atleast save btc in an offline wallet. And ofcourse with 2fa to secure your btc and as they say don't put your hard earn money in one basket for a better security. Morevoer, be cautiuos in everything you do you know there are many hackers today.

Activate your 2FA and use a strong password. Try different kind of exchange and put the rest of your bitcoin in a hard wallet if you will not use it to trade. Though its kinda hard doing things back and forth but if this is the safest way then do it because as what they say "prevention is better than cure".

If it's not possible/convenient for you to maintain offline wallet then at least you can use multiple exchanges to avoid the risk of staking everything on one exchange. Even though difficult password and other precautions help you to keep your exchange account safe, sadly it won't restrict anyone from accessing your funds if the database of exchange is hacked. I would advise you to plan a budget for your weekly trades and keep 10% to 15% more of the amount which you think you need for trading in the whole week. I don't think it would be a matter of inconvenience to maintain offline wallet (like Trezor) on a weekly basis, especially when you have a large amount.

I have all the "big monies" spread in different cold storages and the amount I'm trading with I always withdraw at least to an online wallet where I have my keys. It's better to risk some transfer fees than to lose it all.

Yes they are right if they say to put everything offline. But what makes you more secure is the idea here represented. Don’t make all the savings in one box or wallet. Online is never secured I am sure but dividing among different wallets you would get some high security in case.

To be perfectly honest with you - if you are keeping money on exchanges, then there is very little you can do to protect it from any kind of inside job.
Of course, you can enable 2FA which will help you avoid hacking attempts targeted directly to get access to your account.
But considered bitcoin history the real thread is the stability of an exchange and high-security standard, but again, who is gonna protect us from inside job?
When I trade on the exchange I always withdraw my money/coins immediately, I know it is a hassle to deposit every time, but I would rather waste my time a money than risk keeping coins online.

Activating 2fa would really add up security on your account but keeping it on exchanges would really be risky specially op mentioned that its 5 figures then i cant really afford to put it along on exchanges. Hardware wallets is somehow hassle when it comes on having an active transactions if you do really love to have secured wallet then try electrum.Its online but atleast you do have the keys and i would say the security is also good as long you do know how to keep private informations on the wallet.

yes, now this is the most secure way to protect data. But if a hacker decides to crack your wallet, then you do not save your coins. So do not talk about your income. Money loves silence

Enabling 2FA will only protect you from people who are trying to hack you and don't have access to your phone. The real security measures should be taken against the exchange itself, we have seen multiple inside jobs and exchanges being hacked in the past. I believe you are following some kind of strategy while trading? like you trade, get profit and then trade with that profit only? If you are doing something similar then try to keep the least possible of funds inside the exchanges, everything else should go to hardware wallet (since the amount is big).

People say to keep your money in hardware or paper wallet because it is more secure than exchange or online wallet.if you keep your money in exchange for long time it might be hacked by hacker or very exchange will be scamed. online is also secure i think if you active 2fa security. Again mind that dont keep your money in one box that means one exchange or wallet.

I suggest you make 2FA security on each account that has a lot of BTC, minimize the crimes that occur in the online world, if it installed 2FA I think it is safe.

Read all about Mt. Gox and Bitfinex hack and look how many people lost a lot of funds in those trading platform. I'll just advise you to just enough funds in a exchange for your trading purposes and pull out most of your funds to a secure wallet. Its better to be safe that sorry. If you are willing to let all your funds then take the risk, enable 2FA and make a strong password if they planned to hack your account only. But if its a widely planned exchange hack, then nothing you can do. Its up to you dude. I hope you make the right decision.

You are correct that it's not possible to securely hold your coin and trade with it as keeping it on an exchange means you do not have the private key.

My advice would be not to put all your eggs in one basket. Open accounts at multiple exchanges and spread the risk. Only keep what you need for trading at the exchange and withdraw any profit whenever you can. Also always use a strong password and enable 2FA. If there are any signs of the exchange not being trustworthy, like holding withdrawals and not answering support queries then get out of there as soon as possible.

I have read dozens of threads saying you need to keep your BTC on a hardware wallet or paper. Anything online isn't safe they say. When trading that is not really feasible is it? I like to move in and out of positions several times a day and often at a moments notice. My trading account has a sizable balance (to me - 5 figures)  in it.

How risky is this and any additional things I could do?