Hello everyone.
The first time I heard about cryptocurrencies was about 2 years ago when bitcoin was worth about 200€/300€ and if it weren't all the news about how it was being used on the darknet I would never got into the market. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a criminal neither I have intentions of becoming one what I meant is that if it weren't the news I wouldn't have find out about bitcoin and consequently all the other alt coins.
DISCLAIMER: I'm still a bit newbie and haven't made any profit.. YET! Two years ago I was 17 I couldn't really invest on the currency and finding information was way more difficult than it is now. I got to know different coins and how the mining process works ( in 2015 ).
1: Picking the wrong exchange
I'm gonna need some help on this one, sadly I haven't figured out a good one yet. If you only plan on buying a few coins and holding them coinbase will do just fine. Yes, their fees are high but their interface couldn't be any easier, if you don't want to bother learning how a exchange is organized this one is for you. At the monent I'm using Kraken and besides taking ages confirming your identity it also lacks a lot of coins.. Fees are fine tho. What exchange you guys suggest and why?
2: Buying when it's high
Not gonna waste to much the time on this one.. Mainly because it's really hard to predict when the prices are going high or down, if you are just starting out I recommend following the market for one or two weeks before making any investment.
3: Trading too much
From Coinbase to MetaMask to Kraken trading currencies and cashing them outreally ruined the slightest profit chance I had on the short run. What happened is that I tried to profit from the hype that everyone was having on the EOS Tokens, sadly the servers were overload and I just couldn't make the trade even after waiting more than 5hours for the transaction to be made.. (I was only investing 0.15ETH). Be aware fees can really build up right under your eyes!
Good post @jhenrip! Some thoughts on each of your points:
1: BitTrex is probably the best centralised exchange. But you might want to look into a decentralised one such as bitshares or ether delta.
2: Only buy in the dips, but even this can be bad advice if the dip continues. Generally buy when it is red, sell when it is green.
Check the charts on your exchange, and also here: http://coinmarketcap.com
3: Yes the fees can kill you! That's why it's best not to be too hasty with moving your coins around.
Also look for which coin is the lowest transaction fee currently before cashing it out.
For example: When bitcoin fees were higher not too long ago, it was best to convert to ETH before cashing out because the fees were lower.
Hopefully that's been of use to you. :-)
Best of luck on your crypto journey!
Thans a lot @futuristgear!
I'll definitely have a look at those exchanges and start looking up for the coins with the lowest transactions fees (didn't know about this "trick").
About the dips I totally agree, if the coin is good and serious it's going up! I'm actually testing a way of making the most profit out of them by trading without risking getting out of the market.
Best of luck for you too mate!