Walmart Awarded Patent for System That Stores Medical Records on Blockchain

The retail giant Walmart has been awarded a patent for a blockchain system which stores patient medical records in a highly secured database. This information can quickly be retrieved in an emergency situation if the patient is unresponsive with first responders. In order to secure the privacy of patients, medical information stored on the blockchain will only be accessed on emergency specific cases.

The Walmart patent describes a wearable device (ideally a wearable bracelet) which would serve as a storage unit for the blockchain database. A biometric scanner would then be used to obtain patients information through a RFID scan from the wearable device.

In case of emergency, the patient with the wearable device would be scanned by the first responder, which would then be able to acquire an encrypted private and public key from the patient.

In order to decrypt the private key, a feature of the patient must be scanned. This could be the retina, Iris, fingerprints, or face. Once the private key has been decrypted, the patient’s medical record can be obtained from the blockchain database.

Saving Lives

The blockchain system outlined within the patent will allow medical personnel to be fully briefed on patient’s vital medical records before they arrive at a particular facility. This is not only a time-saving system but potentially life-saving as well. The patent was initially filed by Walmart on December 14 of 2016 and has since then been awarded on June 14, 2018.

Many other Walmart blockchain patents have been awarded here recently. A blockchain electrical grid patent was awarded as of last week. Another blockchain patent was awarded last month regarding a digital marketplace which would allow customers to resell items as well as maintain a history record of that particular item.

Walmart Wins Patent for Electrical Grid Powered by Bitcoin

The US retail giant Walmart, recently won a patent to develop an electrical grid that will be powered by Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies according to the patent application published on June 14 by the US Patent and Trademark Office.

Walmart initially filed a patent back in December 2017. The main focus of the system, outlined within the patent, is to help companies better manage energy consumption as well as regulate demand.

The patent states that both large companies and households can use blockchain based networks to assign each device a specific amount of BTC (or other except the cryptocurrency) which is used to purchase energy from a utility vendor.

The patent further explains…

Each unit of cryptocurrency is represented by a unit of energy. For example, one cryptocurrency coin can be set to be equivalent to 1 kWh. Electricity capped totals can then be implemented for a month of spending at that current rate.

The patent also outlines which devices on the network will be able to share funds between each other if one particular device exceeds its allotment of cryptocurrency. This will ensure its continued operation during the billing cycle. The blockchain based system also indicates which device consumes the most power compared others. The remaining volume of electricity can be distributed to other networks which will support each other if one consumes less energy.

This will allow the utilization of cryptocurrency to be operated independent of a central database system like a central bank or central authority operated by the energy provider.

Walmart has also applied for various other patents in order to integrate blockchain technology into its supply chain cycles. This includes a service that will record customer purchases on the blockchain ledger allowing their customers to resell items on a sales platform using the record of purchase.

Another patent employs a “Smart Package” blockchain based tool which would allow the tracking of packages, environmental conditions, locations, and other details.

The company is also working on allowing suppliers to put food on the blockchain which will reduce its waste and improve contamination management.

 

Walmart Files Patent for Blockchain Based Marketplace for Reselling Purchased Products

The US retail giant, Walmart, filed a patent on May 17 regarding a blockchain based marketplace for reselling purchased products. The patent was filed with the US Patent and Trademark Office, which describes the service as a record of customer purchases on a blockchain ledger. This would allow customers to resell the items on a sales platform utilizing the blockchain record of purchase.

The patent states that customers don’t always plan to utilize items they purchase at their stores for their entire lifespan. These items are generally left to be arranged for resell after a subsequent time.

The architecture within this blockchain patent will provide additional support to ease and facilitate the reselling of items purchased at Walmart. The interface of this blockchain app is still undecided; however it will be both browser and mobile based.

Walmart intends to stay competitive within the “nontraditional shopping space” as there is an incentive for brick-and-mortar stores to stay ahead of cutting edge technology which could improve their customer’s experience.

In March, Walmart also filed a patent for their new delivery mechanism which uses the blockchain based tool for tracking packages,  locations, and environmental conditions. The name of the patent is labeled as the “Smart Package” delivery system.

Walmart Submits 2 Blockchain Customer Behavior Patents

Walmart submitted 2 US patent applications utilizing blockchain technology for integration of their courier services into their online shopping platform as reported on April 20.

Walmart is diving deeper into blockchain technology and has already hired a team of five programmers from the US and one from the UK to had their patent applications or a Courier Shopping System and Vendor Payment Sharing System.

The Walmart development team is hoping to corner the market with this blockchain technology that weaves together vendors, couriers, and customers into a shopping network where payments are collected and paid out among vendors and couriers using a permission-based blockchain.

The blockchain would also include peer to peer shopping and delivery services among its participants and include a written reputation and rating based system.

The patent covers philosophical theories of human psychology and eliminates several paragraphs of more complex wording to substantiate obvious points. The wording is used to establish a basis for what is considered a common sense approach to the matter, while leaving out more of the technicalities.

Overall, the submitted patent hopes to monitor individual’s behavior and choices over a period of time. It maps out its customers value system in order to target products and services they might prefer along with how they want them delivered.

The patent claims..

“Depending upon what sensors a person encounters, information can be available regarding a person’s travels, lifestyle, calorie expenditure over time, diet, habits, interests and affinities, choices and assumed risks, and so forth. This process will accommodate either or both real-time or non-real time access to such information as well as either or both push and pull-based paradigms.”

The blockchain patent essentially allows the monitoring of an individual’s every move so their behavior can be predicted (pretty creepy). It also referenced the use of artificial intelligence and integration into “Internet Of Things”.

The blockchain patent still remains fairly vague as its missing actual programming details and technical specifications on how this behavior monitoring will be achieved.

It seems that Walmart is trying to cover the broad concept of monitoring customer’s behavior so that it may be able to be the sole collector of any valuable profile data. This would essentially create a snapshot on every customer who uses their system and would enable the blockchain technology to store this information forever.

With the recent questioning of Mark Zuckerberg, and the US government questioning of the accused Facebook on violating public privacy, it’s very disturbing to find out that there may be more sinister violations of privacy brewing within the US patent offices within Walmart HQ.

Ripple Donates $2 Million to University of Texas to Fund Blockchain Initiative Program

One of 17 institutions chosen for Ripple’s $50 million academic pledge, the University of Texas at Austin will receive $2 million from San Francisco-based industry giant Ripple.

The McCombs School of Business at UT will receive $2 million from Ripple over the next five years to fund research at the institution’s Blockchain Initiative program, a report by university student newspaper The Daily Texan has revealed.

McCombs hosted its first blockchain conference in April 2018 to much interest among faculty and students from different universities including its own, the report suggested, pointing to an increasing demand and appetite to explore the decentralized technology commonly associated with cryptocurrencies like bitcoin.

The conference was attended by 300 people, including Ripple executives, students and staff. Notable attendees included Goldman Sachs’ senior FinTech equity researcher Jim Schneider and Walmart vice president of food safety Frank Yiannas who delivered keynotes alongside other panelists from USAA, the SEC, ICE and IBM.

“That [conference] was the catalyst for really seeing that there was a lot of demand from students and industries and companies for having a central focus inside the business school to basically harness the demand for blockchain technology,” program director Cesare Fracassi said.

The initiative lays out three main objectives behind its foundation, namely supporting faculty and graduate students on blockchain research “across colleges” at UT, teach students “the main concepts related to blockchain, cryptocurrency and digital payments”, and be “the hub of knowledge for external relations” with the industry, policymakers and media.

While relatively new, McCombs’ Blockchain Initiative will use the funding from Ripple to finance projects, research and outreach programs that connect students to companies in the city, Fracassi added.

He stated:

Austin is a pretty large hub (for) blockchain technology companies, so I see the initiative as a way to link faculty and students to those companies.

The subject of blockchain technology is also being taught “in several classes” at McCombs with students learning about the “technological, legal and business opportunities and challenges” faced in the rollout of blockchain-powered solutions.

The funding is part of Ripple’s broader $50 million pledge to fund academic blockchain research in seventeen universities around the world. As reported by CCJ, the University Blockchain Research Initiative (UBRI) includes universities in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Cyprus, India, Luxembourg, the United Kingdom, Netherlands, Korea and the United States.

 

First Blockchain Commodity Trade Between China and Singapore

One of China’s four major state owned oil companies, Sinochem Corporation, has completed a shipment of gasoline from China Singapore utilizing blockchain technology entirely as reported on April 2.

This was the first time the blockchain technology has been applied to all key participants in commodity training process. The shipment was sent by Sinochem Energy Technology from Quanzhou, China to Singapore.

In December 2017, Sinochem Group completed its first crude oil blockchain import transaction. The blockchain technology has been used in both logistics and shipping. The Chinese retail giant JD.com will also be using blockchain technology to monitor your orders and ensure customer product quality.

United States Postal Service recently filed a patent to use blockchain technology for its customer identity verification.

Walmart has also reported that will be using blockchain technology for their “smart package” system. This system will use blockchain to track the contents, location, and environmental conditions of their packages.

Chinese Ecommerce Giant JD.Com Announces Utilizing Blockchain To Help Track  Meat Sales

 

 

 

 

 

 

JD.com states that customers will be able to monitor their meat from a farm in Australia. This means that customers will be able to follow the order from when it was raised, butchered, and transported, to their doorstep.

This blockchain technology provides a solution to boosting consumer confidence as it allows them to verify the origins of their meat in seconds, as there was an incident in 2016 where 319 pigs were contaminated by prohibited drugs and were discovered in Southeast China. The new system will reassure consumers they have purchased safe and reliable products for their families.

Blockchain has also proven, with their distributed ledger system, to have the capabilities to track the origin of foodborne illnesses like salmonella. This method would also allow for more accurate tracking from the supplier to consumer chain in order to locate the source of contaminated products that could lead to less food waste and much higher food safety recalls.

Also worth noting, the US retail giant Walmart partnered up with IBM to build a blockchain platform to which they could identify and recall foods from their product list. JD,

Walmart, and IBM are all members of the Chinese Blockchain Food Safety Alliance.

The Ultimate 2018 Cryptocurrency Beginners Trading Guide for Bitcoin & Altcoin Investing

Within this extensive beginner cryptocurrency trading guide I’m going to introduce you to the basics of cryptocurrency trading as well as how to trade altcoins like Litecoin, Ethereum, Ripple and all those other crazy shitcoins you see littered throughout CoinMarketCap.

I’ll also highlight some of the things I learned through hands-on experience as a lot of this stuff will sink in a lot easier once you do it a few times, so don’t get ahead of yourself and take action on each step accordingly before you move on to the next one.

If you’re just starting out, I highly recommend you bookmark this guide and start from Step 1. If you consider yourself a moderate to experienced trader, by all means, use the table of contents below to zip down to exactly what you need to know!

Ready? Good! Let’s get started…

Table of Contents

1. Step 1 – Open A Cryptocurrency Exchange Account
   – An Option for Quicker Deposits
   – Your Funds Are Deposited
2. Step 2 – Trading your Bitcoin On A Cryptocurrency Exchange
3. Step 3 – Getting Familiar With The Trading Exchange Interface
   – Trading Platform Order Types
4. Step 4 – Exploring More Altcoins via CoinMarketCap
5. Step 5 – Transfers, Deposits & Withdrawals
   – Deposits and Withdrawals
6. Step 6 – Mitigating Your Risk & Securing Your Profits
   – Securing Your Profits via Digital Wallet
7. Proven Cryptocurrency Trading Techniques
   – Trading Tools For Technical Analysis
8. Common Crypto Trading Mistakes & How to Avoid Them
   – Keep Your Cool
   

   – Let Opportunity Come To You
   – Only Invest What You Can Afford To Lose 

Step 1 – Open A Cryptocurrency Exchange Account

1. Start preparing by scanning your ID in the form of a driver’s license or passport ID and have that bad boy on your computer to use in our next step. Make sure you scan the front as well as the back your card.
2. Start out by joining a “cryptocurrency to fiat exchange” that allows you to purchase crypto with your bank account or debit card. These exchanges include…

   – Coinbase
   
   – LocalBitcoin
   
   – CoinMama (lower fees)

   – Gemini

   Don’t just join one, join them all while you’re at it. You’ll find that one exchange will be slower to transfer your fiat currency over then another at certain times of the year, so it’s always good to have backups on your back up.

3. Set an account with a cryptocurrency “trading” exchange. The ones mentioned above are great for turning your fiat currency over into cryptocurrency however there are much better trading exchanges that will allow you to trade your crypto for other altcoins and vice versa. The exchanges mentioned below also have much better charts and trading features you’ll end up using for every trade.

   Much like the “fiat to cryptocurrency exchanges” mentioned above you’ll need to submit a driver’s license, passport, or some sort of photo ID. You might as well kill two birds with one stone here and apply to all these exchanges, at once.

PRO TIP:  there’s no need to buy a whole number of a crypto coin as you can own small fractions of any cryptocurrency so don’t really worry about completely fulfilling an entire Bitcoin for example. There are millions of investors and traders who only own fractional amounts of many coins.

An Option for Quicker Deposits

If you’re impatient like me and don’t feel like waiting several days for your deposit to complete, check out  LocalBitcoins  This place accepts everything from cash, credit card, and even Walmart card payments

Everything on this site is sold through third-party sellers so be careful and make sure you purchase through a reputable seller who actually has reviews under their local bitcoin user ID (think eBay for crypto)

With this option you’re not paying ridiculously high fees as well, but you will have to get up off your ass and make the transaction yourself either through bank account transfer or cash in hand.

4. Set up a direct deposit or wire transfer from your bank account for the quickest possible deposit into any one of these exchanges. Depending on the time of day, alignment of the stars, season of the year, etc… it can take anywhere from 1 to 7 days for the funds to reach your account.

To be quite honest, it really depends on how busy your current exchange is at any given moment. Coinbase tends to be the busiest and most widely used so if you’re in a hurry, you may not want to use this one.

Your Funds Are Deposited

Now that your deposit has hit your account, and you have that beautiful cryptocurrency on-hand (because I know it’s burning a hole in your digital pocket) let’s move on to the next step, trading on crypto exchanges.

PRO TIP: – when you sign up to Coinbase or any other “US-based” exchange, your transactions will be reported to the IRS. Do yourself a favor and make sure your tracking all transactions. A great service that does this for you, without you having to do it manually (which is an extreme headache) is CoinTracking. I highly recommend this service to everyone who intends on trading more than a few coins per year.

Step 2 – Trading your Bitcoin On A Cryptocurrency Exchange

This is where the rubber meets the road. If you want to invest or trade in a cryptocurrency other than Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum, or Bitcoin Cash then you’re going to need to get real cozy and familiar with a real cryptocurrency exchange trading platform.

These exchanges can be a bit intimidating to the weary newcomer, however believe me when I say, once you learn one, you’ll know how to use all of them.

I’ll go over the intricacies of how to use each trading platform from the order book to trading charts, however let’s stay on course and get you signed up to a few of these beginner friendly exchanges.

1. Sign up to Binance – this is where all the beginner to more intermediate crypto traders go. This is a great place to start your crypto trading journey.
2. Sign up to HitBTC – this is another beginner friendly exchange that caters to the trading noob. They have some pretty cool trading features as well when you get into the intricacies of trading (order book) but I’ll cover this in another article.
3. Sign up to Bittrex – this exchange is more of an intermediate to advanced level exchange, however is definitely worth signing up to while you’re in the process of applying for these exchanges.

Also worth mentioning is GDAX, however you essentially get access to that exchange when you get accepted to Coinbase. It’s the official trading platform for Coinbase users. I don’t currently use that platform but realize that there are a lot of other beginners that do, so it’s worth checking out.

PRO TIP:  learn what “dollar cost averaging” is before you start trading. This basically means that if you deposited $1000 total to spend on trading, you want to split that up into segments of 4 ($250).

Let’s say you begin trading Litecoin at a low and invest $250. You notice 24 hours later that the coin drops by 10%. This is where you’ll want to place another $250 into the trade as it will average its self out to a lower buy-in price.

You can also spread out that $1000 by purchasing $250 increments in four separate coins at all-time lows. I’ll cover more details of these type of strategies within another guide.

PRO TIP: – Stay tuned to our Youtube channel where I’ll cover more details behind trading and technical analysis on different platforms as well as several different beginner trading strategies.

Step 3 – Getting Familiar With The Trading Exchange Interface

Watch this video to get acquainted with the Binance trading interface

Be sure to check out our Technical Analysis, Candlesticks, and Chart Patterns section of our site where I cover all the standard details of crypto trading.

Trading Platform Order Types

There are 3 different order types when buying or selling at any of the crypto exchanges. You should be comfortable with each one of them in order to be a successful trader.

Note that all orders, both buy and sell, have fees attached to them however they are relatively small.

Market Orders – these type of orders allow us to get into a trade right away at current market price. Orders are immediately filled on a order books best available price. The advantage of this type of order is that it’s always completed immediately, however on the other hand it’s not always the best price.

 

Limit orders – this allows us to set a specific price and have the market fill that price at whatever time interval it may be filled at (could be 5 mins or an hour+). You may notice that the order book is always full of sell orders that are a little higher than the current market coin value as well as buy orders that are lower than current market coin value. Once you place a limit order you’ll be able to view where your order is within the order book, usually indicated by an arrow pointing to your exact order.

The advantage of limit orders is that we get our order filled at the exact price we want, which is usually at discount. The disadvantage is that our transaction will not be filled immediately or may not be filled at all if the market never reaches our price.

Stop Orders – (AKA – “stop losses”) these are mostly used when selling coins and allow you to set conditions as to specify a certain price when it becomes less than or equal to the current market price. So to put that in layman’s terms, look at it like an automated parachute. When the market price drops to your designated price, the parachute activates and gets you get kicked out of the trade, which allows you to take as minimal of damage as possible.

The advantage of setting a stop order is that it allows us to step away from the computer and not watch the price, while allowing us to have some protection in case the order drops by a certain set amount.

The disadvantage to having a stop order is that there are cases where a price will drop significantly for a very small period of time before it rallies (increases) to meet your original goal order price. This is a way for market-makers to eliminate stop losses before they start ramping up for a bullish run.

PRO TIP:  Trading cryptocurrency or really any sort of stock is all about minimizing losses and maximizing gain. No one and I mean no one is going to win them all. You just have to make sure that your losses are small while keeping most of your gains relatively large.

Candlesticks and Trading Patterns – you want to get yourself familiar with these indicators as they are the basic foundation of trading cryptocurrency. We cover a wide variety of these patterns on our candlestick and trading patterns section. I highly advise that you check these out now and study them while you’re waiting for your exchange approvals to facilitate.

Step 4 – Exploring More Altcoins via CoinMarketCap

If you’ve been in the crypto world for more than a week, then I’m sure you’ve heard of the website CoinMarketCap.com. This bad boy should be your ever-loving sidekick when it comes to checking on the latest trends, prices, exchange marketplaces, and news for anything crypto coin related.

The only real issue that I’ve had with a CoinMarketCap is that it’s not updated in real time and can showcase older prices. However if you want to view real time cryptocurrency price updates, I highly recommend you check out our live crypto chart page for up to the second price updates. Moving forward…

So let’s just pretend I’ve been living under a rock and heard about a new coin called Litecoin. First thing I would do is go to CoinMarketCap and search for Litecoin. 

Once I find it, I would click on the coin link and look under the tab labeled markets to view what exchanges sell the coin. See that there are quite a few to choose from. 

You can also view a that particular crypto coins website, latest news, forum gossip, market value over time (charts), and so much more. There’s a ton of information to dissect on CoinMarketCap however I’ll save that for another article.

Overall, this should be one of the very first places you explore before trading a new altcoin as it gives you a nice overview on the coin before you dive right into the details before trading!

Step 5 – Transfers, Deposits & Withdrawals

Let’s talk about cryptocurrency coin transfers. These transfers seem to be common place for cryptocurrency trading even more than any other trading commodity in the world (forex, stocks, options, etc), so let’s make sure you do it right and do it well!

One thing that you really need to wrap your head around pertaining to the transfer of bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency for that matter is that the fees for transferring these coins can vary greatly.

At the time of writing this article, bitcoin is currently taking longer to transfer than most coins as well as suffering from a high transfer fee. For this reason alone, most experienced traders are purchasing coins like Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, and Ethereum in order to transfer from one exchange to another with minimal wait time and fees charged. Go check out bitinfocharts to see what the current coin transfer rates and fees are before setting up an exchange transfer.

Once the transfer is complete, you can easily purchase the exact cryptocurrency that you intend to trade with your pair (typically BTC, ETH, or USDT).

Deposits and Withdrawals

These both work in the same manner and are fairly easy to complete. Once you complete this process once, you’ll mostly be able to do it again without any sort of instruction. In this example, we’ll be depositing BTC into Binance from Coinbase. You want to start out by retrieving your deposit address (the exchange you will be sending coins to). From here you want to click on the deposit button and copy your deposit address.

Take that deposit address and place it into the Coinbase Send/Request tab under Recipient. Once you click the “Send Funds” button, the Bitcoin is on its way. Now that wasn’t that hard was it?

Important Note – If you want to check on the status of your transfer, keep your deposit address handy and then place it into the search bar at blockchain.info

 

PRO TIP : Always, and I mean always enable the two factor authorization for all the exchanges you currently use. Most exchanges use the authenticator app or Authy app which both reside on your smartphone. This will ensure that no unwanted guests will access your account without also having access to your smartphone. This is a little added security that you want to have when you have thousands of dollars on the line.

Step 6 – Mitigating Your Risk & Securing Your Profits

Congratulations young grasshoppa! You’re one step closer to becoming the next crypto millionaire, however there is one aspect to crypto that you want to master at an early stage in your trading career…..SECURING YOUR PROFITS! Weekly news regarding hacks and crypto scams are prevalent within this industry. Cryptocurrency is currently in the Wild West stages and everyone’s out to get a little piece of your golden nugget.

Most of the hacks reported by the majority of new sites are through spoof sites which are essentially websites that look like a real crypto exchange. Next, they request you to login to your exchange account and once you login with your credentials, the game is over. Utilizing 2 factor authentication is a surefire way to combat this, so again make sure you have that feature turned on before you start trading.

You can also utilize sites like HaveIBeenPawned and enter your information so that this site can scan for security breaches to see if your username, password, or other information has been leaked in the past. Sign up to the notification system so they can let you know of future breaches as well.

Securing Your Profits via Digital Wallet

Now that you have enough cryptocurrency to take over the world, you need a safe and secure place to store it. Below are four options to choose from.

Crypto Exchanges – this is the easiest option you can use, however the most risky as well. It allows for fast liquidation of assets and you don’t have to wait for your crypto to transfer over to your exchange of preference. You can easily exchange your cryptocurrency and diversify your portfolio with all the available coins within the exchange.

The biggest disadvantage though is that you don’t actually have control over your wallet and if the exchange is hacked (many of the newer and less established exchanges are) and they declare bankruptcy you’ll most likely not be able to retrieve your funds. Mt Gox is a great example of this and is always being referred to when it comes to these types of scenarios.

Soft wallets – this solution includes storing your crypto on a software program like Exodus, in which all of your crypto millions will be stored on your desktop or laptop computer. You also want to make sure that you keep your private key in case something happens to your computer, such as a virus or hardware malfunction. This should enable you to retrieve your funds if this were to ever occur. You also want to make sure that this private key is secured in a safe place. Like most other systems that use private keys, you’re still the susceptible to having them stolen if you’re not careful where you place it. 

Online Wallets – this offers users a way to keep their crypto online, in a secured environment without the worry of being hacked or shutdown. Services like My Ether Wallet offer an option to access your wallet from anywhere in the world, while maintaining full control of your funds because you have access to your own private key. The main advantage of this type of service is the portability of your funds. The disadvantage is that your private key will still be susceptible to being stolen if you keep it on your computer or somewhere that is easily found in your home. It’s a very small chance, but still a chance.

Hardware Wallets – the induction of wallets like Ledger Nano S can take care of your private keys for you so that you’re off the hook with regard to keeping that key in a safe place. This ultimately means that hackers will never be able to steal your private key (key loggers, file scanners, etc). If that wasn’t good enough, you’ll also have a backup of your secret key, which you can access if you ever lose your Ledger Nano. The only disadvantage, if you want to call it that, is that you’ll have to pay a transfer fee for when you transfer your coins from the wallet to an exchange, however I wouldn’t really categorize that as a disadvantage as it simply comes with the territory regardless of what wallet you decide to use

Proven Cryptocurrency Trading Techniques

In order to get you moving in the right direction I want to cover a few proven ways to make money trading cryptocurrencies. Many of these techniques have been carried over from traditional stock market trading, however, unlike traditional stocks you won’t find the volatile swings we see every day with cryptocurrencies, which means more opportunities for us.

A Little Technical Analysis Goes A Long Way

First and foremost, you’re going to want a get a good grasp on technical analysis and trading patterns. Please check out the technical analysis section of our site where I cover all the fundamental chart patterns, candlesticks, as well as indicators that you’ll need to study in order to achieve a high chance of success with trading. I also go over more detailed technical analysis over on our YouTube channel along with several different trading strategies.

If you’re more of the investor type, in which you plan on investing in numerous altcoins for the long haul, it’s still good to have an overall understanding of technical analysis.

So what exactly is technical analysis?

Technical analysis is the study of past price patterns in order to receive a high probability of a potential outcome. This tends to equip us with a unique ability to identify future opportunities of profit. You see, the cryptocurrency market, along with other markets, have a herd like mentality. The tendency for inexperienced traders is to buy when the price is high (rallying) and sell when the price is very low. We can take clear advantage of this with proper technical analysis.

It’s much easier to nail down fundamental analysis due to the fact that in today’s world everyone is able to read and stay up-to-date on the latest cryptocurrency news due to all the information we have at our fingertips. In order to become a truly successful trader, we need to be utilizing fundamental and technical analysis at all times.

Note: technical analysis is not an all-in-one strategy. It is only one of the tools we use to help execute our overall strategy.

Also be careful to not dump 100% of your funds into one single coin. Spread your funds out over several different coins or use dollar cost averaging, which I covered above.

Trading Tools For Technical Analysis

Tradingview, in my honest opinion, is the very best charting platform on the net. They not only offer you a free chart to hone your technical analysis skills with, but it’s also a great social networking site for both beginner and advanced traders. You can learn a lot by simply following and reading how other traders are plotting their trades.

Now simply plotting chart patterns, as if you had real money in the coin, helps a ton with learning TA, however it can never prepare you for the emotional side of trading when using your own real money. When you feel comfortable that your technical analysis skills are up to snuff, I highly recommend using very small amounts to trade with, in the your beginning stages. This will ensure you are actively trading, evolving your technical analysis abilities, as well as honing your emotional skills which will greatly come into play when trading in real time.

Other trading platforms like Coinigy are great, but they don’t even come close to the value and features that Tradingview offers. There are a number of other technical issues I found when I used it, but I’ll leave that for another article.

Build Your Strategy and Be Consistent With It

One of the surefire ways to lose money with trading is to bounce around from one strategy to the next without really utilizing one for any steadfast amount of time. Crypto traders need strategies and need to be consistent with them.

A solid strategy will always answer these questions…

• How to protect your capital when the market turns against you (bearish trends).
• When to take profits when you’re ahead.
• How much to buy and sell.
• When a strategy works or when it completely fails you (know when to hold em and fold em people).

Just remember, a solid strategy will allow us to win only half of our trading battles, and still keep us in profit.

PRO TIP: This is definitely worth repeating, finding a proven strategy that has worked for you and sticking to it is the most important thing you can do along your crypto trading journey.

With that being said, it also might be one of the toughest.  You’re not going to win them all, but if you can at least win close to half of them, you’re going to come out ahead (as well as good money management skills). Remember; don’t fix it if it ain’t broke!

Common Crypto Trading Mistakes & How to Avoid Them

We’re almost done, so I congratulate you for sticking with me so far (unless you cheated and skipped to the end). By now, you should have a fundamental understanding of how to trade cryptocurrency. Hell, you might even think this was a lot simpler than you had originally thought, so better start preparing for that “lambo life” by the end of the year right?

Yeah, yeah….don’t get too far ahead of yourself young grasshoppa. Even though some of these more simplified concepts may sound easy to grasp, the truth of the matter is, the emotional part of trading is a lot more difficult.

You might think you’re a Zen master now, but we just wait to you start trading with your own hard earned income. It’s going to take some solid work (and pain) before you really master the concepts here within this guide and the only way to do it is through experience.

When you’re playing with real money, you’ve rightfully earned, you’re going to make mistakes. Just realize that now and be ok with it. There’s not a trader out there that hasn’t lost a ton of trades. So let’s close this guide out with a few of the most common mistakes beginner traders (yes you) will make.

 

Keep Your Cool 

Perhaps one of the most frequent and careless mistakes a trader can make is letting their emotions get the best of them. If you have the wrong mindset, you will always lose in the long run. Set a clear goal for the day or week that you wish to obtain and “walk away” once that goal is met. Set up the same goals for losses.

If your losses for a particular day become too great, walk away and come back another day when opportunities are more present.

2-3% profit per day is a great goal for an initial investment of $1000. Reinvest that money and compound interest in order to make your profit work for you.

Protect Your Investment

Let me sum this up in one word, stop loss! That’s all there really is to say. If you don’t know what a stop loss is, read this article.  To me traders fail because they don’t set proper stop limits. This is an easy fix so don’t let it happen to you.

Let Opportunity Come To You

Use technical analysis in order to determine a particular trading strategy is open in order for you to take up a position. If you find a chart pattern that’s about to break out and have two or three indicators confirming the pattern, you should feel confident about taking the position.

Also make sure to set trading alerts for when your favorite coins reach an all-time low or break out of a major support line. Which you’re doing here is, waiting for the trade to come to you as opposed to forcing one. This will save you many painful days of regret.

Watch For Paralysis By Overanalysis

Technical analysis is not a prediction into the future. If that was the case we’d all be billionaires by now. Studying charts for hours is not going to produce consistent income. If certain charting patterns and signals for a trade don’t feel right or certain indicators are not confirming one another, then it’s best that you trust your gut and save your money to trade another day.

There will be plenty of times where chart patterns and indicators point to a potential breakout and it doesn’t happen. Don’t let it get to you as the market is made up of too many irrational factors for it to be too predictable. Continue to hone in a strategy that works for you and utilize it on a consistent basis.

 

Only Invest What You Can Afford To Lose

I know you’ve heard this statement 100 times over but it does bear repeating. There are too many stories of novice traders investing in a trade, and which they’re taking out money from their bank account or savings that they can’t afford to lose.  This is not only a bad idea for trading crypto but for any investment opportunity. You’ll also soon realize that your emotions get the best of you when you’re trading money that you can’t afford to lose. Trading with the mindset of not giving a damn is one of the most powerful mindsets that you can bring to the table.

This is not only a bad idea for trading crypto but for any investment opportunity. You’ll also soon realize that your emotions get the best of you when you’re trading money that you can’t afford to lose. Trading with the mindset of not giving a damn is one of the most powerful mindsets that you can bring to the table.

In conclusion…

I hope this guide helps you on your journey towards monetary independence. Be sure to check out our other guides related to technical analysis, fundamentals, and our wealth of crypto trading tools which will help you out along your path to crypto millions. Good luck and happy trading!

 

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