[SanMiguel]

Good thread - thanks to SBR, JJG, Isaac J and the like for the quality info on these crypto threads. I'm probably overthinking this but is there a better day each week to buy coins as part of a DCA strategy? Any days in particular where there is less volatility.

Also if there's any other UK guys doing this, what exchanges are you using. I'm looking at a combination of coinbase (for ease of use/easy recurring buys of BTC/ETH, but with 4% card fees ) and Bittrex for other alts, will have to transfer from coinbase and buy manually each week. Would be good to hear if there's a more efficient method.

The idea so far is to put £100/week in total, split something like 50% BTC, 30% ETH, 20% riskier alts like NEO, OMG, PART etc. I still need to do more research but want to get started soon, any critiques to this plan are very welcome.

[SamuelBRoberts]

My experience is that Sunday night is typically sleepy time for Bitcoin, where it has its lows. (I'm too tired to go verify that myself but you can look if you want.)

So if you really wanted to get the most out of your DCAing you would set to buy on Sunday night, maybe around 10:00 PM or so.

That's actually a good idea that I hadn't thought of, and I'll probably adjust my buys to do this as well.

"The idea so far is to put £100/week in total, split something like 50% BTC, 30% ETH, 20% riskier alts like NEO, OMG, PART etc. I still need to do more research but want to get started soon, any critiques to this plan are very welcome."

's reasonable enough. The risk I see with the plan is the time sink aspect, if you're doing research into the status of NEO, OMG, PART, etc. each week to try and determine the best place for your money to go, but you're only investing 20 euros, it's really not worth it time wise. (It takes the same amount of time to do a good analysis of a 20$ investment as it does a 200,000$ investment.)

If it were me, I'd probably just put that 20$ into OMG. You'll see better returns off of that than you will off ETH or BTC, if I had to guess. Of the existing alts it's probably the one with the brightest, most stable future. I currently don't own any because I am a lunatic who invests in things like ARC and ODN, but it's a very solid buy and I highly recommend it. PART has stability issues that make it a less than ideal investment right now (Long term it's a great hold if you got in at the 5$ level, or even the 1-2$ level like Isaac did, but I don't think it's a good buy RIGHT NOW) , NEO I'm starting to mistrust, but that may very well just be sour grapes on my part because I sold at a bad time, but OMG has a solid team backing it, a lot of connections, and its market cap is high but not TOO high.

[sterling_archer]

Newb question. So, each week I automatically put sum of my choice into DACing and after some time I got my money converted into crypto currency.
What is the next thing, i.e., when and where do I sell it to get "real money"? Where and when do you watch for rates and decide to sell? Or I completely miss the point of all this?

Thanks for answers.

[booshala]

(08-25-2017 11:25 AM)sterling_archer Wrote:  

Newb question. So, each week I automatically put sum of my choice into DACing and after some time I got my money converted into crypto currency.
What is the next thing, i.e., when and where do I sell it to get "real money"? Where and when do you watch for rates and decide to sell? Or I completely miss the point of all this?

Thanks for answers.

You sell the cryptocurrency for cash on Coinbase or any other exchange or outlet that you can liquidate for fiat currency. Think of it like gold - you take your cash and buy the gold (crypto) at the store (coinbase). Let's say gold (crypto) prices go up and you want to sell the gold (crypto), you take it back to the store (coinbase) and you get money for it. In this case, the cash you sell your crypto for gets wired back to your bank electronically.

Coinmarketcap.com is probably the best way to see prices on all the cryptocurrencies out there, but if you want charts/prices, you can find them directly on Coinbase and other exchanges as well.

[SanMiguel]

Good info Sam, I'm going to take a small risk with ODN hoping it does well or at worst be an early lesson learnt. I made a few financial adjustments and am aiming for a more sizeable amount to invest/week - quite hard starting out now though, buying BTC and ETH at these high prices.. Since my last post I've at least bought something and am enjoying learning/researching/watching the prices (probably too much).

For anyone in the UK the best place I've found to buy bitcoin is localbitcoins, you can use a UK bank account and it's almost instant. You pay 2.5-3% above the market price but it's still lower than using a card on all the popular exchanges. If someone has a better option please let me know asap!

Also a random tip if anyone is with Barclaycard - I had an old credit card with a zero balance, logged onto the account to check credit limit etc and they had an offer of a cash advance direct to your bank account, 0% for a year - only 1.9% transfer/product fee so I took £5k 'loan' for a mere £95. Not saying it's a great idea to use this for crypto, even though I probably will, but it seemed like a crazy deal.

[SamuelBRoberts]

(08-25-2017 03:54 PM)SanMiguel Wrote:  

Good info Sam, I'm going to take a small risk with ODN hoping it does well or at worst be an early lesson learnt. I made a few financial adjustments and am aiming for a more sizeable amount to invest/week - quite hard starting out now though, buying BTC and ETH at these high prices.. Since my last post I've at least bought something and am enjoying learning/researching/watching the prices (probably too much).

For anyone in the UK the best place I've found to buy bitcoin is localbitcoins, you can use a UK bank account and it's almost instant. You pay 2.5-3% above the market price but it's still lower than using a card on all the popular exchanges. If someone has a better option please let me know asap!

Also a random tip if anyone is with Barclaycard - I had an old credit card with a zero balance, logged onto the account to check credit limit etc and they had an offer of a cash advance direct to your bank account, 0% for a year - only 1.9% transfer/product fee so I took £5k 'loan' for a mere £95. Not saying it's a great idea to use this for crypto, even though I probably will, but it seemed like a crazy deal.

ETH is cheap, dude. It's still like 25% down from its all time high.
And BTC is gonna keep going up and up. Don't worry about the prices.

ODN is... well, that's a pretty fuckin' bold move. Good on you. That would not be my first pick for a first-time investor, because it's risky as hell. You could never even see the tokens, the company could just up and vanish and you'd have zero recourse.

[sterling_archer]

So for the first time investors, BTC and ETH is the route? I would invest about 30-40$ max per week, as Croatian salaries are low compared to American ones.

[pants]

It's a point of entrance for sure. But I am not so bullish for either currency tbh. Would trade for iota dash nem

I'm in Croatia at the moment, nice country =]

[Biz]

I have yet to use this approach but one thing about DACing I am curious and maybe concerned about.. Using Coinbase, if you buy say $100 every week on Sunday night, depositing from your bank account sometimes takes 3-4 days to hit CB so how does that work? You buy on Sunday night every week and it doesn't deposit until days later but you do lock in the price of whatever time you purchased?

[JayJuanGee]

(08-28-2017 12:25 AM)Biz Wrote:  

I have yet to use this approach but one thing about DACing I am curious and maybe concerned about.. Using Coinbase, if you buy say $100 every week on Sunday night, depositing from your bank account sometimes takes 3-4 days to hit CB so how does that work? You buy on Sunday night every week and it doesn't deposit until days later but you do lock in the price of whatever time you purchased?

I think what you say is correct.

When you buy on Coinbase, you lock in the price no matter whether they bitcoins (or ether) are immediately credited to your account or not.

Frequently, Coinbase has a limit in the amount of bitcoin that you can buy immediately and then as you become more verified and more senior with them, the limits will increase and you can also petition coinbase for higher limits.

[jamaicabound]

(07-23-2017 05:15 PM)RatInTheWoods Wrote:  

I want to buy bitcoin, but don't see the point if I have to link it to my bank account and give over tons of personal info. Coinbase want all personal details.

If there any way to buy and hold bitcoins easily without identifying yourself?

Coinbase is a regulated company meaning they have to follow AML and KYC policies. Any legit regulated exchange is going to want your info. You can buy off Craigslist or LocalBitcoins however your going to pay a nice markup.

If your new to Bitcoin I wouldn't suggest buying from people locally on Craigslist until you get some experience under your belt, a buddy of mine recently tried selling and had someone do a double spend and he didn't know til the guy left with his $500.

I don't believe GDAX allows automated investing so you need Coinbase for that however for larger buys or if you don't mind having to proactively go buy GDAX will save you 1% over coinbase and its the same exact company same login etc

[el_cunado]

Can we talk more about the fees? If I remember correctly, any trade below $200 will have a higher percentage.

So if that's true, it would make sense to space out your investments until you put in $200+ rather than making smaller investments every week.

[JayJuanGee]

(08-31-2017 05:34 PM)el_cunado Wrote:  

Can we talk more about the fees? If I remember correctly, any trade below $200 will have a higher percentage.

So if that's true, it would make sense to space out your investments until you put in $200+ rather than making smaller investments every week.

I went to coinbase, and I played around with the buys (going through the motions, as if I were going to buy, just to verify the fees).

Like you mentioned, it does appear that the fee is higher, until you get to about $200, and any amount above $200, then the fee is 1.5%; however, below $200 the fees are gradually higher (in terms of percentages) the lower the amount, so for example if you buy $10, then there is a $1 fee, which is 10%, and who the fuck wants to pay 10% fees?..

So it seems that you are correct, and there will be a considerable advantage to either: 1) set your buy amounts for $200 or higher (if you don't want to pay higher fees), or 2) don't engage in automatic buys through coinbase by finding a place that charges lower fees and buy manually.

By the way, I do recommend buying on a weekly basis, but I understand from your point that many folks would not necessarily be able to sustain a $200 per week buy rate, so I would recommend setting up a manual system to send money to GDAX or Gemini and just buy manually on a weekly basis, and therefore, the fee would be reduced to either free or .25% at the most...

I personally like to lower my fees whereever possible; however, some guys may prefer the automatic nature of the situation and won't mind paying an extra fee in order to engage in a kind of "set it and forget it."

[SamuelBRoberts]

Despite the fact that he's word-swamping here again, JJG's advice is solid.

My guide was prioritized for set and forget over everything else. Bitcoin's price is so ridiculous lately that even with the fees you might make more doing weekly deposits, but that's up to you.

[Pinocchio]

Cionbase wont let me buy more than £500 per week. Is there a way to increase the limits or is that just their policy per customer?

[JayJuanGee]

(09-01-2017 12:49 AM)Pinocchio Wrote:  

Cionbase wont let me buy more than £500 per week. Is there a way to increase the limits or is that just their policy per customer?

I believe that some increases come with the passage of time and your use of the account, possibly even based on your account balance and the number and kinds of linked accounts.

You should also be able to request increases in your weekly limit. There should be a link next to your weekly limit - if not create a support ticket and request an increase.

[Transsimian]

Good advice

[SnowHugger]

How and Where do you buy the other coins?
I get the 3 that are available on coinbase.

Edit: just googled it.

[churros]

What are the basic differences between buying bitcoin on coinbase and gdax?

[JayJuanGee]

(09-01-2017 12:31 PM)SnowHugger Wrote:  

How and Where do you buy the other coins?
I get the 3 that are available on coinbase.

Edit: just googled it.

Even if you have the answer, I will chime in to say that guys generally buy (or trade) cryptos on a variety of exchanges, and probably they are too numerous to list all of them. Poloniex and Bitfinex are common, but there are several others. Also, sometimes a coin or an ICO will not be listed on a specific exchange, and in order to get it, you have to go through their instructions regarding how to buy it.

I personally do not involve myself with too many variety of coins; however, once you have one or more of the coins listed on Coinbase (which are Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin), then fairly easily you can move those coins to other exchanges or locations in order to buy whatever coin you want to acquire. So if you have a specific target coin, then you might figure out which locations you can get the coin, and in which pairings that coin trades and then attempt to minimize the number of trades that you have to do in order to get the coin.

[JayJuanGee]

(09-01-2017 02:21 PM)churros Wrote:  

What are the basic differences between buying bitcoin on coinbase and gdax?

I think that this question has been asked approximately a million times through the various crypto threads, but o.k., let's give it another shot at a description of these two related entities.

So far, Coinbase and GDAX are the same company, so as soon as you set up an account on one of them, you can easily cross register onto the other - actually, you may have to register on Coinbase before you can set up a GDAX account.. I am not sure.

Anyhow, Coinbase has a kind of banking interface, and has some banking like services that they offer and when you buy or sell on Coinbase, you are buying and/or selling to Coinbase as the middle-man, including fees that go along with the various services that they provide, and allow you to directly purchase and sell through those services via credit card or through your bank and even transferring coins from one member to another... or to put your coins into longer term storage (their vault service). The prices of Coinbase are somehow pegged (through various algorithms) to GDAX trading prices.

By the way, a couple of years ago when GDAX first opened, it was still the exchange aspect and was still called coinbase exchange, and it had pegged its prices to Bitstamp (although they sometimes claimed to have a "complicated pegging system")

GDAX is trading platform for currently Bitcoin, Ethereum and litecoin that allows you to engage directly with the market and to trade with other folks who are trading on that platform - with features and services that resemble trading rather than banking, including margin trading for qualified members (I think institutions, and I do not use that service at all on any platform, even though individuals can engage in margin trading on some other platforms, if you believe that you know how to comfortably employ such tools - or attempt to learn) - accordingly, you can attempt to predict the direction of the market and put your buy or sell orders on GDAX in a way that may or may not get filled - depending on if the market moves in your direction or against you - or you can bet in both directions, which seems to be the smarter thing to do (I do that... hahahahahaha).

One decent aspect of GDAX is that so far they incentivize their members to place buy and sell orders by not charging taker fees. Maker fees are .2%, which are also reasonable, but not as good as free... hahahaha.. but on the other hand sometimes dealing directly with the market could be worth the extra maker fee of .2% if you either want to liquidate your position quickly, attempt to time the price and/or attempt to move the price through direct interaction(s). You can read more about maker and taker fees by googling it or read about it through information sources provided on GDAX.

[churros]

Thanks Juan. But specifically – what are the basic mechanics of buying bitcoin on GDAX, as opposed to Bitcoin? I'm trying to save on the coinbase fees.

[JayJuanGee]

(09-01-2017 03:32 PM)churros Wrote:  

Thanks Juan. But specifically – what are the basic mechanics of buying bitcoin on GDAX, as opposed to Bitcoin? I'm trying to save on the coinbase fees.

You are likely going to have to figure out some of this stuff yourself.

If you are in the USA, and you want to get bitcoin's with the lowest possible fees and you do not mind linking bank accounts, then I would recommend creating an account on Gemini too. Yeah, sure, it can take a while to set up accounts, so getting started early can be helpful to establish the account and have it in place when you need it.

Once your Gemini account is set up, you can buy $500 per day immediately by free bank transfers (5 days per week).

On Coinbase, you cannot transfer dollars there and then wait to buy, you have to buy bitcoin right away. You can transfer back and forth from dollars to bitcoin, but they charge a fuckload of fees for those transfers - and some people do not mind paying those fees because they like the bank interface.

On GDAX, you can either wire the money or you can ACH transfer. Wires cost a bit of money, and will be available fairly quickly. ACH transfers are free, but you might not be able to use those funds until they clear. You gotta look through some of the information and maybe practice with smaller amounts until you get used to it in order to figure out ways to transfer money in the ways that best work for you in terms of balancing timeline of being able to use the funds and saving on fees.

I can definitely relate to your goal to want to save on fees and I am in a bit of a different position from you, currently, because I did the vast amount of my initial bitcoin acquiring between 2013 and 2015.. so once you establish a stake in various coins and you have established your holdings in various locations, you are in a better position to shop around regarding fees, too.

Anyhow, sometimes, it may be worth it too, to pay a little extra fee, especially if it seems that the odds are fairly decent that the price is going to go up much beyond your initial fees, so a lot of these are balancing acts between saving on fees, and not being penny wise and pound foolish, if you have other goals too, such as profiting from your investment - especially, if you have already allocated a certain amount for investment (and learning a lot of these various mechanisms and cost saving possibilities can take a while to suss out and even to establish a variety of accounts that vary in their offerings).

[Neo]

Great post Sam +1.

I've been dollar cost averaging for a while and my portfolio value has shot up with the massive price surge. I've been really busy and not even paying much attention, today I looked it up and saw that bitcoin was almost $5000, and logged into my coinbase account for the first time in a while.

Not sure what the future will bring, but if wasn't for this forum I wouldn't have bitcoin to begin with.

I'd say cryptos and other investment vehicles discussed on RVF are excellent strategies to build financial resilience.

I'm going to keep DCAing and ride it out for the long haul. It may be a bubble and I may lose a chunk, but I don't consider it really losing at all, the bitcoin gains have been a bonus I didn't even know I had until I checked today.

[wolfer]

what is happening to neo and gas? they go down cause of the Chinese Regulation?