Crypto Trading – Avoiding Fees
I’ve figured out a few tips on trading recently that I’d like to share. The way I was doing things before was working but I was getting some pretty hefty fees. Five dollars here and five dollars there starts to add up after a while, and it pays to get a bit familiar with how things work.
Moving Bitcoin takes some time and the fees are really high. I’ve been using Litecoin because the fees are much less. Plus it is a really good time to be trading Litecoin - I can usually sell it for more than I could the equivalent amount of Bitcoin.
Coinbase and GDAX
What I used to do is convert my coins into Litecoin on the smaller exchanges and move them to Coinbase to sell at the market price. This is fast and easy. You pay for the convenience though and the fees start to add up.
After looking into things and figuring out the difference between a “maker” and a “taker” order I learned how to avoid the biggest fees by trading on GDAX.
GDAX doesn’t charge fees on a “maker” order so you can send your Litecoin directly to GDAX and list them on the market as a limit order above the market price. Once the order fills you can move the cash to your Coinbase account and then on to your bank account without fees. WOOT! It’s that easy!
At least I think it is. Honestly, the reporting system on GDAX and Coinbase is confusing enough so that it is a bit difficult so see exactly what is going on.
Finding the Right Price
By looking on Coinmarketcap you can see what Litecoin is trading at on the different exchanges. The GDAX dollar price for Litecoin has been higher than average.
Once you get the feel for converting the values back and forth you can even trade on the Litecoin markets and save fees that way too. As more liquidity is made on these markets I’ve been very happy to skip trading on the Bitcoin markets to save the step of purchasing Litecoin with Bitcoin.
LTC Spreadsheet
An example to convert BTC price to LTC price:
LTC/BTC = 0.01377230 (The average from Coinmarketcap)
For an alt coin priced at 13 sat.: .00000013 ÷ 0.01377230 = 0.00000944 LTC
To find the BTC price from and LTC price: 0.00000944 * 0.01377230 = 0.00000013 BTC
I use a spreadsheet to calculate these values easily so I can understand the LTC market prices. (I’m much more familiar with the BTC prices.)
GDAX and Coinbase have been working well for me but I have heard of others having issues.
A note on security: people have reported losses from fake websites that look just like exchanges. With any exchange you must be very careful that you are signing on to the right website. Even with 2-factor authorization you are not completely safe if a hacker knows what they are doing and can work very quickly. Never search for an exchange and then sign on to it without making very sure that the web address is correct.
A quick search for “Bittrex hack” on Steemit leads to many results. I like to keep things spread out a lot over many exchanges so if something goes bad all my apples aren’t in one place so to speak. Things do happen, I’ve learned my biggest lesson from Crypsy. Next on my list is to look into decentralized exchanges more such as OpenLedger DEX.
If you want to try Coinbase if you use my referral we both can get $10.00 of Bitcoin if you trade at least $100. Thanks in advance if you do. My Coinbase Referral
Thanks for reading, and happy trading! I greatly value your support!
Eye opener and very valuable information for a newbie like me. I don't trade or have any account other than here on steemit but my son Pav @nba05 moves coins around in exchanges, I have passed on this article to him. Thanks for sharing dear brother.
Thanks very much! I find trading fun; I hope you do get into it sometime. I think it is a nice way for people to get involved in the crypto world, there is not much else to do with most cryptocoins yet. We have it lucky to be able to post comments and blogs posts and get some value. I also like mining coins as long as it does not take lots of electricity; you might like that better than trading.
Absolutely right dear brother, we are very lucky to catch this new trend very early. Me and Pav do bitcoin and dash mining at genesis mining but the Hashrate is not large enough (0.2 bitcoins and about 2 dash in two years). How do you mine?
Right now I am mining eight different proof of stake coins on the same machine. I'm thinking about adding another one but I'm not sure yet. Most of them have turned out to be good investments. I used to mine proof of work using GPU and ASICS processors too but I kind of lost interest when my hardware and electricity investments didn't really seem to pay off.
If your Buys are Disabled at Coinbase then you cannot Log into GDAX or make any purchases.
CEX.io actually cares about their customers and responds if they have an issue.
You can tell GDAX customer service has the same email system that Coinbase uses even though they are little better in responding to issues GDAX Is Coinbase in terms of the functionality and service a person receives.
CEX.io service
https://cex.io/r/0/up107988344/0/
Nice information, its always good to have a few different options. I've had good luck so far with GDAX but have heard of issues reported by others. I have no experience with CEX.io and am not sure if that would work in the US but I might take a look at it.
I'm in the US (California). I found a great solution in CEX.io it took me probably 20 hours of researching and testing other services to avoid high fees and be able to cash out, buy in, and use a debit card.
If you ever get disabled in any way on Coinbase you won't be able to log into GDAX anymore.
There's valid reasons I no longer promote or prefer Coinbase to buy cryptocurrency - I can't BUY or CASH OUT. Pitiful Coinbase. Worst customer service too!
Stop using Coinbase before this happens to you for no reason.
Be prepared with a CEX.io account at https://cex.io/r/0/up107988344/0/
post is very useful
thank you friends have shared.
Thank you! I'm glad you found it useful.
I really appreciate the information you have put out. I am completely new to cryptocurrency's and steemit new as in just my second day and I have been overwhelmed with all the information I have come across and sincerely grateful for people such as yourself for sharing what you know. Thank YOU ! I don't have much power but your post gets an up vote form me 👍
Thank you! I'm glad you liked the information. This is a great time to be involved with all of this.
Yeah Im SUPER excited about this whole thing I have really fell in love with the platform and everyone that I have interacted with has been fantastic. and to be involved while its at this stage just adds excitement I definitely have quite the learning curve ahead but I love the challenge. And with quality content like yours out there it really drives me to find my place and contribute as well.
Wonderful! Excitement is contagious, now you've got me going, lol. There's always a lot to learn and do with all of these things. I'm glad there is a forum like this to be active on.
this is exciting all this information to read and some amazing people as well friendly and helpful this platform is going places for sure especially with creators like yourself, if we all keep each other motivated it will be amazing.👍🎉
Fees are the source of income for companies, but some of them abuse a lot. Good information, thanks. Resteemed.
Thank you! Yes fees are good for companies and I'm sure that GDAX does get enough income or they would not offer this way of trading. I think having maker orders on the books is helpful for them.
You're welcome @pf-coin
I dont trade, but I thought about trying Blocktrades coz they are involved here on the site and sponsor contests and whatnot. Good to see you posting :)
Posting, mining and development is only part of what makes a coin popular. Without trading there is no way to find a market price and merchants won't accept the coin - after all it is not backed by any centralized authority. With crypto I've finally learned that is is a big important part of building community and long term success. But each to his own, these things have a nice way of working out with large populations.
Oh I am totally for it. With my background in finance, I am intimately familiar with the markets, and trading being necessary for price discovery. Not to mention without liquid markets that are a result of trading, it would be very hard to sell out any real size.
However, personally I cannot understand a way to value the coins. In equities, I can see Apple sold x number of phones or McDonalds sold y number of burgers, so I can sort of derive a value. Yet I hold Steem because of Steemit. I can see Steem having a value because of the inherent value of this platform.
It is really tough to evaluate crypto, there is really no scarcity in a way because it is so easy to create a new blockchain from open source software. It comes down to more about what kind of potential and new technologies a coin brings and how popular and supportive the communities are.
I forgot about your background in finance, I hope I didn't sound too much like I'm preaching to the choir, lol.
No not at all. I always appreciate your thoughts and comments! I find it always hard to communicate accurately with text. So when I question about valuing crytos, its not coming as a challenge, I just always have had a hard time understanding how to value gold as well..So thank you for explaining it to me.
I trade to BTC at a higher price and then withdraw it to my BTC online wallet and unto my debit card.
No more worries ha ha.
I thought about doing it that way too but the debit cards I looked into had some fees I thought were a bit high. Plus, I've got plenty of credit cards. Having cash in savings or a trading account seemed like a better option. I tend to like to move things around a lot and do many small trades. (For example, I'm thinking of buying back some LTC with cash on this latest dip and I could do it without any fee - I'm not sure how easy that would be if I was just moving BTC to a debit card).
Thanks for posting this, it is very informative. Fees are really crucial, good thing that i chose xrp coz at this time xrp has a trading fee discount promo on people's exchange. did you know about this already?
The information is a bit outdated at this time. GDAX has turned into Coinbase Pro and it is much easier to move BTC again so conversion into LTC doesn't save as much on the fees. I've looked in XRP a bit but wasn't too interested in investing but I'm glad that you like it. Thanks.
How are you, my dear, are you okay there
speaking of trading fees usdc is now offering 99% off trading fees. as they listed is this echange. feel free to check https://news.kucoin.com/en/usd-coin-usdc-gets-listed-on-kucoin-world-premiere/