Hey folks, long time no chat... So I've recently (since december of course!) branched out into crypto from regular futures and forex. A question I have for the day traders who are entering and exiting positions in alts and even the majors like BTC and ETH throughout the course of the day. What medium are you best using to hold your overnight cash in? For the regular markets I'd just cash out and sit in USD (my base currency) when I'm not on. I'm having a bit of trouble wrapping my head around the best way to do this in crypto space. I could close everything and sit in BTC or ETH till next session or even close everything into tether (USDT). But neither method seems appropriate as you are exposed to either unintended directional runs or bank run type of moves, depending on the asset in question. I am unaware of a broad exchange (something which trades a deep menu of coins)like poloniex or binance where you have the option to park USD unless I'm missing one. So in its absence whats folks method of storing 'cash'. Or are y'all just trading back into something like coinbase every session which seems tiresome to say the least and expensive. Cheers
You mentioned USDT (tether) which is the equivalent of cash but as you mentioned it has its risks (many suspect it's not fully backed by $). I trade alts/cryptos to gain more (equivalent) btc's. I'm not a daytrader, more of a swing trader (and long term holder of one alt), so as soon as I make a trade, withdraw to a local wallet and only leave a few dollars worth at any exchange. Good luck.
Tether is the easiest way, although perhaps the riskiest in a panicked market with massive sell off if not truly backed; stable otherwise. Ether seems to move less than most. May want to look into some asset backed coins such as gold.
The way it works in most crypto exchanges is you deposit USD and your accounts is credited with USD aka your balance. You can just close out your btc day trades and sit in USD overnight. It's no different than closing out a stock position to sit in usd overnight. The real risk is whether the exchange gets hacked or robbed and there goes your usd. I've heard tether might be a ponzi so do your due diligence on that.
There are two types of crypto exchange. Fiat/crypto bitstamp, kraken, coinbase, gdax, Gemini and bitfinex. The other type is crypto/crypto poloniex, binance, kucoin, bittrex. The latter may let you trade us dollar tether if you want out of crypto but not the exchange. The crypto/crypto exchange will have a lot more coins to trade.
Thanks for answers mates! As some pointed, the proplem's not in the fiat/crypto exchanges but the crypto/crypto exchanges - the places where the real excitement is. So looks like answer is indeed cross your fingers and hope tether don't crack while you're asleep or stick it in the two majors and hope you don't run into a short run while at the toilet. Will have to look into the gold or similar based coins in see if they provide some kind of low vol stability. Thanks H4M for the idea. Will be interesting to see if projects like FairX can help provide solutions in future... Cheers.