Learning how to use Coinbase Pro

jacobacro

Contributor
First question: I am experimenting with the BTC-USD market on coinbase pro. I appears that I can buy BTC with USD and I can sell BTC to get USD, but I don't see a way to do the reverse: buy USD with BTC or sell USD to get BTC. Do I have this right?
 

jacobacro

Contributor
Thanks for reply. Yes that makes sense now.

I have another questions if you will oblige me. I started with 75 dollars and I have been experimenting with different trading strategies. I feel that it is not easy to know exactly how much money I have made or lost. My portfolio was at 80 dollars yesterday and I thought I had made 5 dollars with my trades. Today I am down to 68 dollars. Then I realized that my portfolio value goes up and down based on the market. Then I wondered how I can know how much money I have made or lost with my trades. I can see how much I have spent in fees, only $1.03. I can see my trade history. I can see that on March 24th I sold 0.00110000 BTC at $6,599.29, but I don't know how much money I bought it for, so I don't know the profit on my transaction.
 

The CC Forums

Admin
Staff member
Thanks for reply. Yes that makes sense now.

I have another questions if you will oblige me. I started with 75 dollars and I have been experimenting with different trading strategies. I feel that it is not easy to know exactly how much money I have made or lost. My portfolio was at 80 dollars yesterday and I thought I had made 5 dollars with my trades. Today I am down to 68 dollars. Then I realized that my portfolio value goes up and down based on the market. Then I wondered how I can know how much money I have made or lost with my trades. I can see how much I have spent in fees, only $1.03. I can see my trade history. I can see that on March 24th I sold 0.00110000 BTC at $6,599.29, but I don't know how much money I bought it for, so I don't know the profit on my transaction.

Your trade history can be accessed in the bottom right of the main trading screen under the orders list. You will have “open” and “fills.” Selecting “fills” will give you the amount in bitcoin that you bought and the price at time of the buy plus fee. It sounds like you bought $75 of bitcoin, so that’s your cost. But you’ll have to check the “fills” to see if that’s correct. Multiply the amount of the transaction by the purchase price listed plus fee.

If you sold for more than that, you made money. Less and you lost.

Bitcoin is just like stocks or any other asset. Learn about investing principles before you do much more to prevent making a mistake. Investopedia and Nerd Wallet are good sites for start. Buying and selling bitcoin is no different than buying stocks, except the price changes quicker.

The trade info can also be accessed top right drop down menu. It’s important to keep a record of your transactions. Anything from a paper ledger to a spreadsheet to an online tracker can be used. Don’t get behind, or you’ll never understand how you’re doing or be able to produce tax records.

If you haven’t sold, your current value is the amount of bitcoin held times the trading price. The current value of your holdings is displayed top left of the trading screen.

You don’t make or lose money until you sell. Before then, it’s termed an unrealized gain or loss.
 
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