You can use Bitcoin’s volatility to trade Bitcoin CFDs without owning actual Bitcoins through companies like Plus500, Avatrade and Fortrade.
This type of trading is risky and you should start out in demo mode until you feel comfortable enough you can generate consistent profits.
In order to make profitable trades you need to learn how to gauge the market. This requires time and experience. Even though this article provides an extensive overview, you will need to start experimenting with your own trades and continue to learn before becoming successful.
Part 1 – Introduction to Bitcoin trading
Let’s be honest, Bitcoin has a steep learning curve. It takes a newcomer about 3 months of reading just to get up to speed on Bitcoin’s basics. And like anything new and revolutionary, Bitcoin doesn’t fit with established ways of doing things. Understandably, not everyone has the time, inclination or risk appetite to get deeply involved with Bitcoin.
On the flipside, anyone who’s heard about Bitcoin knows that involvement with it can be immensely profitable. A glance at financial media over the past few years was enough to make anyone regret missing Bitcoin’s early days. From virtually free tokens in 2009 to a new $1000+ asset class in 2013, there’s no question that Bitcoin made multi-millionaires of particularly lucky, daring or brilliant people. The possibility of such outsized returns makes Bitcoin attractive despite its learning curve – particularly in an economy in which many other asset classes are struggling.
So, from this point of view, there are two types of people: 1) those who already have Bitcoin and know how to trade it and 2) those who want Bitcoin but bounce off its technical complexity.
The purpose of this article is to show this second group of people a straightforward, familiar method to take profit from Bitcoin’s price moves… without having to understand Satoshi’s blockchain, Bitcoin mining, segregated witness or any other such arcana.
Thanks to the inclusion of Bitcoin as a tradable instrument by certain major international online exchanges, anyone who can read a price chart can now trade Bitcoin. To profit from Bitcoin’s often wild price moves, it’s no longer necessary to install any applications or read a single Wiki page. With the technical barriers to entry finally lifted, Bitcoin trading becomes a lot more accessible.
Why Trade Bitcoin Over Other Instruments?
Bitcoin is Global and Always Available
First, Bitcoin trading is global, distributed across electronic exchanges around the world. The Bitcoin market never closes, so if money never sleeps then Bitcoin is the purest form of money. Unlike Forex, Bitcoin doesn’t take weekends off. This means that online traders just about anywhere in the world can now dip into the Bitcoin market whenever it’s convenient to them, whether that’s outside of business hours or over weekends and holidays.
Bitcoin Volatility is a Trader’s Dream
Second, Bitcoin is known for its high volatility. A 3% daily move is unexceptional for Bitcoin and, during particularly volatile periods, price sometimes exhibits double digit percentage moves. When traded correctly, such swings can be extremely profitable over short timeframes. The more price moves, the more profit can be made trading both the upswings and downswings.
bitcoin movement
In mid-January 2016, Bitcoin price moved over 17% in just over 24 hours – only a medium-sized move for Bitcoin!
Bitcoin can be Leveraged by Individual Traders
Third, Bitcoin can be traded with leverage (keep in mind that CFDs are leveraged products and can result in the loss of your capital). This allows traders to generate monetary returns well beyond their proportional investment of trading capital. Put more simply, on platforms like Plus500, every $200 let you trade about $2500 worth of Bitcoin… Granted, most other trading instruments have similar leverage functionality.
However, when combined with Bitcoin’s constant availability and high volatility, this leverage really opens the door for individual traders. Distinct from highly-capitalised institutional or professional traders, for whom trading is a day-to-day business, individual traders tend to have limited free time and limited capital to keep tied up in a trading account. Compared to other instruments, leveraged Bitcoin trading can give the best bang for the buck over the shortest timeframe.
Bitcoin Seldom Trades in Lockstep with Other Instruments
Fourth, Bitcoin is undeniably unique. There’s no commodity or currency quite like it – it’s the world’s first widely-traded digital commodity and a programmable currency with predictable inflation. As a result, Bitcoin price generally moves independently of Forex, stock, bond and commodity markets. Bitcoin, as a global network, is also somewhat insulated from localised risks. This independent quality substantially reduces the importance of external news flow (and other market noise) to Bitcoin traders.
Although developments within the Bitcoin space can and often do impact price, such market-moving events tend to be rare. Examples include the Cyprus bank bail-in and regulatory changes to Bitcoin’s legal status or increased capital controls in China. As major external factors which roil other markets are usually less significant to Bitcoin, it’s easier to trade based on pure price action and technical analysis.
For those who are just starting out with trading, technical analysis a methodology for forecasting the direction of prices through the study of past market data, primarily price and volume. So there’s no need to catch every data release, analyse major corporate events or to try to interpret any more vaguely-worded central bank pronouncements in order to try and predict Bitcoin’s price.
To sum up, access to Bitcoin as a trading instrument means you’ll always have a lively market to trade. And there’s one more good reason to trade Bitcoin without using Bitcoin…
A Good Tax Reason to Trade Bitcoin with Regular Money
When it comes to trading Bitcoin’s price using Dollars, Yuan, Euros or any other national currency, there are no unwelcome surprises in store from the taxman. Although you’ll gain exposure to Bitcoin’s energetic price movements, all profits or losses will be denominated in traditional currencies. Likewise, deposits to the exchange and withdrawals from the exchange will be in fiat currency.
Unlike Bitcoin transmissions and earnings, all the legislation which pertains to fiat trading is well-established and widely-understood. As a result, traders who avoid direct interaction with Bitcoin will require no specialist tax advice in order to remain compliant. Thanks for reading for more article follow and vote up this article
