TRADING CRYPTOCURRENCY

How to Get Started Trading Cryptocurrency With Coinbase.com

The process for getting started trading cryptocurrencies is simple, but there are a few notes that are vital to understand (just like above, but this time applied to using coinbase).

First, to sign up for Coinbase.com; Sign up for Coinbase.com to create a digital currency wallet where you can securely store digital currency.
Connect your bank account, debit card, or credit card so that you can exchange digital currency into and out of your local currency.
Buy Bitcoin, Ethereum, and/or Litecoin (trading USD, aka US dollars, for cryptocurrency).
Sell Bitcoin, Ethereum, and/or Litecoin (trading USD, aka US dollars, for cryptocurrency).
Consider signing up for another exchange and trading cryptocurrency for cryptocurrency (and then transferring that back into Bitcoin, Ethereum, and/or Litecoin, and then back into coinbase, and then back into USD). Don’t forget to record your transactions for the tax man and to brush up on the tax implications (I can’t stress that enough).
Important notes for trading with Coinbase:

Coinbase/GDAX will want more personal information than you’ll feel comfortable giving them… there is essentially no way around this. The more information you give them, ID, Bank account, credit card, etc, the higher your limit and the less restricted your account will be. Don’t let this scare you off from becoming a cryptocurrency investor. Every other exchange user went through this process, you have to too. Since you have to trust someone, Coinbase/GDAX is a good bet.
I strongly suggest you use a bank account, and likewise strongly suggest you don’t use a debit or credit card. The fees are way lower with a bank account. The fees are rather high without one.
When you sign in with your bank account you’ll need to input your bank account login. Again, that may feel shady, but is part of the process (read about it at coinbase).
If you use your bank account, you have to wait 3-5 days for your bank to approve the pairing (so you can’t trade for about a week after you sign up).
There are limits to how much you can buy/sell in a week. Adding a photo ID and other payment methods will increase your limits. Otherwise your limits increase (quickly) over time as you trade.
There are fees involved with trading (they get lower as you trade more). Other exchanges have better rates (like GDAX for example). In other words, you’ll pay a little bit more than market price (or sell for a bit less than market price) and pay a small fee when trading on Coinbase (this is the trade-off for ease of use).
Set up 2-factor authentication. That helps to secure your account by sending a code to your phone when you log in.
To actually trade coins you need to go into settings and make sure your wallets are set up (BTC, LTC, ETH, and USD wallets can be found under “accounts”).
The benefit of a USD wallet on Coinbase is that you can put money in that and then buy coins instantly from the wallet. If you try to buy directly with your bank account the transaction can take about a week. A credit card doesn’t have this problem, but generally limits are lower on a credit card. TIP: I almost always deposit USD in my wallet as opposed to buying coins directly from Coinbase via my bank account when using Coinbase to buy (I do this on-the-go sometimes). You can also wire money if you need the funds to be in the wallet quicker. On that note, I almost always then use GDAX to buy/sell coins when I’m by a desktop (then use Coinbase as my wallet and mobile app).
You don’t have to buy a whole coin. You can buy fractions of coins. Bitcoins are expensive here in 2018, so consider buying fractions of a coin to start if you don’t have a big bankroll. Its has historically been a mistake to buy only ETH and LTC because BTC costs more. You want to think of which one will increase in and retain value, buying all three in equal $ amounts (and ignoring how many of each coin that amounts too) is one way to avoid making the wrong choice based on price tag per coin.
When you buy a coin, take a breath and review the information. An extra decimal place can mean big money considering a single Bitcoin can trade for over $4,000 $10,000 $14,000 – $20,000.
Download the app. This lets you trade cryptocurrency from your phone. The market is volatile, transactions are slow, when it is time to buy or sell you need to do it ASAP.
Set alerts. Alerts can help you decide when to buy or sell.
There is a feature that lets you buy incrementally over time. Averaging in a position on a weekly basis is a nice conservative move that Coinbase will automate for you.
Cryptocurrency is volatile! There is always the chance that the market will crash, or that you will face some other catastrophe. Cryptocurrency isn’t a centrally controlled and regulated fiat currency. If you lose a coin or someone cheats you, there is essentially nothing you can do about it (which is why you want to have 2-factor authentication set-up).
In other words, trading cryptocurrency is simple to start, but there are some very important aspects to understand before you start trading with a wallet-exchange like Coinbase.

The last thing to note is that there are countless other options for setting up wallets and trading currency. Most will however pair with a Coinbase account (making it a good place to start).

NOTE: Once you have Coinbase down, try moving onto GDAX. Its, in overly simple terms, like a better version of Coinbase with lower fees. Both platforms are operated by Coinbase and use the same logins. GDAX is the preferred exchange of many Bitcoin traders in the U.S., it caters to pros and novices. After you master that, then consider exchanges like Bitter and Binance.

culled from: https://steemit.com/cryptocurrency/@thepioneer/what-you-need-to-know-to-start-trading-cryptocurrency