For a long time all of the trading I was doing was on Bittrex. So it was a no brainer for me to send my SBD to my Bittrex wallet, sell it for BTC, then buy what I wanted to put the money in to.
I avoided using the "Sell" function that sends you to Blocktrades because in my estimation, what I could get on the open market in BTC and then flip in to different coins was larger than what Blocktrades quoted on the Sell page.
So I got into a habit
Over time I learned about different coins that were available on different exchanges. But from force of habit, I was still sending the SBD to Bittrex, converting to BTC then sending the BTC to the other exchange. Or, probably worse yet, I was taking the BTC and buying ETH which I then sent to the other exchange. I was paying fees on like 4 different transactions.
My Four chief fees were:
SBD -> BTC
BTC -> ETH
Withdraw Fee
ETH -> Alt Coin
It was only after I realized how much I was paying to get money on and off Bittrex that I decided to take another look at Blocktrades.
When you put in your SBD on the sell and see what it says for your estimated payment out what tripped me up was that it was lower than what I could get on Bittrex at market. So if the money is still being used to buy something on Bittrex, then sending the SBD directly there may still be the better option.
But once you start figuring in the fees to get your BTC off Bittrex, not to mention the time it takes to get the currency from Steem to Bitrexx and then from Bittrex to another exchange it ends up being way easier to get your funds direct from Steem to the exchange through Blocktrades.
Blocktrades is easy, reliable, and trustworthy, which are not qualities that can be found everywhere in the industry. Don't be like me. Explore Blocktrades, compare what you will get for your SBD or STEEM against what you can expect to actually get once you move your money through several transactions. It's likely to be very comparable.
Always do your own due diligence. Sometimes the market will beat Blocktrades sometimes it won't. It is in your best interest to always open that Sell tab and put in how much SBD/STEEM you are looking to trade and do the little bit of math it takes to know what is going t give you the best return.
Finally, HODL your assets during these turbulent times! The markets are red today, don't Sell to the FUD! Hold on, don't make unnecessary trades, and give the market time to correct itself. I hve a feeling we are in for a pretty prosperous spring!!