Learning to trade cryptocurrency is fun, and anyone can learn to do it. You can get started without a ton of money, but once you get a couple of wins under your belt it’s easy to justify dumping money into investments recklessly.

While you can, of course, make money with trading it’s also important to be very careful. This is particularly true if you’re new to cryptocurrency, and that’s why in this article we’re going to give you some tips to follow before you start trading!

1. Secure your email address

Cryptocurrency trading requires you to be your own custodian. That means making sure that your accounts are secure. The first of which should be your email address. This is one of the most vulnerable places for your financial accounts!

If this account is compromised then it’s game over. The scammer can access every exchange account you have! Use a strong password, don’t use that password anywhere else, and enable 2FA authentication for your email address. (Avoid SMS based 2FA as it’s easily stolen!)

2. Find a reputable exchange

Not all exchanges are created equal. Don’t trust just anyone with your funds. Ask any crypto veteran, and they’ll tell you about the horrors of poorly run exchanges. Many of which famously made off with investors funds which they never got back. Look for a well-established platform to do your trading on that’s trustworthy and doesn’t hide their team.

It helps to look up reviews or find active communities on forums where people are talking about exchanges. These users will be certain to inform you of anything shady going on with a particular platform that you should know about.

3. Learn proper wallet safety procedures

Most people who lose their coins often find that keeping them on an exchange is the reason. When trading you should make sure to only keep what you need to trade with, and transfer anything else to a safer cold wallet or at least a private wallet!

You should know how to protect this wallet, and make sure that nobody ever has access to your private key or recovery phrases. A hardware wallet is a good bet if you have a lot of crypto, but even a mobile or desktop wallet is better than keeping everything at an exchange. Crypto exchanges are not banks, if your coins are stolen they do not have to return them to you.

4. Learn at least a little about TA and FA

While you don’t need to be an expert you should at least learn the basics of technical analysis and fundamentals analysis. Take some time to actually learn how the market works and what the asset you want to trade has to offer. While people do, of course, make money on assets they have no intention of holding, they definitely know when to get out, and you should too.

5. Set reasonable goals for yourself

If your goal is to become a millionaire trading cryptocurrency within the week then you’re going to be sorely disappointed. Set reasonable goals for yourself and use losses as a learning experience. While having a goal to make x% of profit from an investment is fine, remember that many traders make their money on many small price bumps rather than one big one.

6. Be careful with what you don’t understand

While you should learn about TA and FA, it’s also important to use them within your own abilities. Start with the basics and don’t try to use complicated methods which you don’t yet understand. If you’re feeling lost then there’s plenty of tutorials on Youtube or blogs that can help you to better understand how different aspects of trading work.

7. Don’t invest more than you can afford

While you may be very proud of yourself for getting a few wins, don’t let it go to your head. You might have just been very lucky, and you should be careful with how much you invest. Many people invested their rent money or took out loans during the crypto boom, and that lead them to disaster! If you can’t afford to lose it then don’t invest it.

Getting into crypto investing can be very cheap. There’s no reason to put yourself into a poor financial position to get started here. If you’re low on funds then just set aside a small amount each week for trading and grow your portfolio slowly.

8. Take advice from others with a grain of salt

There are tons of people who want to give you their advice about cryptocurrency, but you should take their advice with a grain of salt. Many people are blinded by their love of a particular project or they are acting in their own self-interest. Do your own research and judge for yourself whether an investment is worthwhile. That doesn’t mean you should ignore all outside opinions, just that you should verify them before acting.

9. Don’t get caught up in schemes or scams

Cryptocurrency is mostly unregulated, and that leaves a lot of room for scammers to find their marks. Avoid telegram groups or Twitter accounts that promise you instant riches or you’ll regret it later. Learn trading skills for yourself instead. While there are some signals which might be real, as a novice trader it would be extremely difficult for you to identify or even make use of real ones anyway. Learn to do your own analysis instead.

10. Don’t get greedy

The downfall of most traders isn’t that they don’t pick profitable trades, it’s that they don’t know when to get out. Set profit goals and stick to them or you could end up waiting so long that you watch your precious gains vanish before your eyes. You have to sell some time or you don’t make any profit at all, and there’s nothing worse than realizing this too late.

In closing, while there’s a lot to learn as a new cryptocurrency trader, it’s certainly a worthwhile mission. Follow these tips and remember to treat failure as a learning experience and you should do okay.