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Steps to trading bitcoin

While bitcoin’s volatility makes the cryptocurrency an attractive opportunity, it also makes it a particularly risky market to speculate on. Its price can shift significantly and suddenly – and since the bitcoin market operates around the clock, this is liable to happen any time of day.

As a decentralised currency, bitcoin is free from many of the economic and political concerns which affect traditional currencies. But as a market still in its adolescence, there is a lot of uncertainty entirely unique to the cryptocurrency.

Build a trading plan

You’ve chosen a trading strategy, but if you’re new to the markets you might want to consider a trading plan as well. A trading plan can help you make objective decisions even when the stake are high, so that you don’t leave trades open too long – or close them too early.

Here are a few tips for creating a plan:

• Set out what you want to achieve from your trading, broken down into short and long-term goals
• Decide your acceptable risk from each trade, as well as how much you are willing to risk overall
• Pick a risk-reward ratio, so you know how much potential profit you need to justify your potential loss
• Choose which markets you want to trade. Do you want to start with just bitcoin, or try a few more?

Do your research

Before you start trading, you need to make sure you’re up to speed with the latest bitcoin news, in order to best understand what’s next for the cryptocurrency’s price.

When it comes to interpreting bitcoin’s behaviour, charts can also be an invaluable tool. Past data can help you make sense of how the market is moving, while comparing timeframes may provide a closer insight into emerging trends and patterns.

Place a trade

Once you’ve settled on your position, you’ll need to place a trade using our web trading platform.

You’ll enter the amount you want to stake on your trade in the deal ticket. You can also define your close conditions: set a stop to close your position when the market moves against you by a certain amount, or a limit for when it moves in your favour. Stops and limits are central to good risk management.

If you expect bitcoin to rise in value, you'll then ‘buy’ the market. If you think it will fall, you'll ‘sell.’

To close your position, you simply place the reverse of your original trade. So if you bought in the first instance, you’ll sell the same amount; if you sold, you’ll now buy. We’ll automatically fill your deal ticket with the position size, meaning you simply need to click ‘buy’ or ‘sell’ to close your trade.

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