Best times to trade crypto: A guide to maximizing profits
The best time to trade crypto depends on several factors that can significantly impact your trading strategy. Volatility is the hallmark of the cryptocurrency market, making it an ideal playground for traders who can time the market well. However, inexperienced traders may need help navigating the market’s unpredictability, which can quickly lead to losses. Understanding the factors determining the best time to trade crypto can increase your chances of generating a return on investment (ROI) on your crypto trading activities. Keep reading to learn more.
Best time of day to trade cryptocurrency
The market never sleeps.
Nowhere is this truer than in the cryptocurrency market. You can buy and sell crypto assets every day of the week and hour of the day. Unlike traditional markets, the market stays open even during public holidays.
However, though the market doesn’t sleep and take a break, the activities in cryptocurrency markets ebb and flow. With over 10,000 digital currencies and tokens present in the market and hundreds of crypto exchanges, the trading activities differ.
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A number of things affect the rise and fall of trading activities in the cryptocurrency market.
Liquidity plays a huge role in the volume of trading in cryptocurrency markets. Since banks and traditional financial institutions close on weekends and public holidays, there’s a possibility that trading activities dip on weekends, which can affect market prices.
The current market sentiment can also influence trading volumes and the number of participants in the market. The influence of popular celebrities like Elon Musk also needs to be taken into consideration, as their statements can move the crypto markets. Government regulators making announcements is another factor that affects prices, as they have a large impact on the current and future state of the crypto markets.
When is the best time to trade crypto assets?
The crypto market’s global and unresting nature is both a challenge and an opportunity for traders. A trader that knows the best time to trade has a better chance of doing better than someone trading at random.
The best time to trade will depend on several factors, including the cycle of the market, the exchange you’re using (either decentralized or centralized exchange), the type of trade you’re doing, which could be spot, futures, or options, as they all trade differently.
For example, if you are using a decentralized exchange, one of the major things to watch out for is the gas fees on the blockchain you’re trading on. This can eat into your trading profits. Gas fees often rise on Ethereum, for instance, due to higher transaction volume, happening mostly during bull cycles.
Another key factor to consider when trading is the liquidity of the market. Liquidity means the ease with which a crypto asset can be traded for another asset or cash without losing its value.
When trading volumes are low, volatility tends to be higher. That means the prices of crypto assets move quicker and larger, which will hurt a cryptocurrency trader and slow down execution for big trades.
Assistant professor of finance at Ohio State University in Columbus, Amin Shams, told CNBC that historically trades are lower on weekends, resulting in more volatility.
What is the best time of the day to buy crypto?
When you take a look at the historical prices of cryptocurrencies, there’s often a pattern of price fluctuations on specific days. You can identify the hours when crypto has dipped or risen in the past and use that to make a decision. However, it’s important to also consider external conditions on that day that could affect the price.
An analysis by Fool.com showed that between around June and September of 2022, the best time of the day to purchase cryptocurrencies in the United States was in the afternoon.
What is the best time of the week to buy crypto?
Just like in the case of the best time of the day to buy cryptocurrency, you can know the best period to buy in a week. Weekends have been described as deceptive in price movements as trading volumes reduce, and traders leave the action for mid-week when there’s more volatility and opportunities to benefit from it.
According to a report from Bloomberg, professional traders prefer to buy crypto during the week rather than during the weekend. The market is reportedly less attractive on weekends, and a significant volume of the activities on weekends are from algorithmic trading bots and market makers.
However, for an investor looking to buy crypto, you might want to consider the days when prices are most likely going to be lower.
Data from fool.com reveals that the best time of the week to buy crypto begins on Thursday. It shows that six in eight weeks saw a dip on Thursdays, and so suggests that the best time to make an investment was Thursday morning. However, the results were based on the data in 2022 when crypto winter has been causing significant and unpredictable price plunges so there were many deviations from this pattern.
What is the best time of the month to buy crypto?
The same fool.com report shows that the best time of the month to buy crypto is at the month’s end.
Historical data has shown that the starting days of the month tend to see an increase in the prices of coins, followed by a dip in prices often towards the end of the month due to selling pressure and traders taking profit from earlier investments in the month.
FAQs
Are crypto markets closed on weekends?
Crypto markets are functional every day of the week, on weekends, and on public holidays. 24 hours, seven days a week.
What time of day is crypto cheapest?
According to a study by LongHash, the price of bitcoin (BTC) was typically the lowest at 6 AM UTC on Fridays from 2018 to 2020. However, price history should not be used solely to make predictions for the future.
Is it better to buy crypto at night?
That depends on your time zone and if your nighttime matches with the times when crypto assets are most liquid.
