Quote from: atrocityx on February 21, 2018, 03:06:56 AM

Quote from: jeffinjapan on February 21, 2018, 02:47:11 AM

I know this is really a dumb question but for me...not so much. I can't, for some reason, completely wrap my head around how currency pairs work in the crypto world, or any other world!

Here goes:

I want to trade the BTC/JPN pair. I want to buy BTC and later sell it for JPN. I live in Japan so I want to accumulate as much fiat currency as possible. In order to initial my trade do I also need to have JPN in my account. Currently I only have BTC.

Or will I need to sell my BTC for JPN and then begin trading the BTC/JPN pair?

For some reason...I just can't visualize how this all works.

Can someone explain this to me or point me in the direction that can?

I can't really say much about the specifics for JPN currency, but here in the US.. you can sign up for an exchange like GDAX/coinbase and transfer BTC there to sell it to withdraw to USD.. you don't necessarily have to buy the USD on that exchange to transfer it to bank account (provided you pass KYC procedures and pay for the fees... if for some reason you need to have JPN currency on exchange to sell, then just buy a stack at whatever price and sell that BTC stack along with the BTC stack you already have later...

On GDAX BTC/USD pair you can for example have 10 bitcoin and 100,000 dollars on the same pair, and having USD for example wouldn't automatically transfer it to your account so you can park it as a placeholder until you wanted to buy with USD at a later date.

the BTC/JPN pair should work both ways however, switching one for the other over and over if youre doing it on an actual exchange instead of some instant "sell now" or "buy now" built into the site as automated...

To answer your question directly you "SHOULD" be able to hodl btc on the exchange until the price reaches a certain price and then sell it to JPN.. you should then have JPN parked on the exchange to either move to withdrawal into a bank account or rebuy BTC at a better price as a day trade.. its hard to imagine the limitations youre describing on an exchange unless its some sort of automated "cash out to bank" by hitting a button and its not really a 2way exchange.

Thanks for your response. I understand and know already what you explained but I was just curious if I needed to have yen in my exchange account to begin day trading BTC/JPN. I think what I need to do is to sell my BTC that I currently have for JPN and then begin my day trading journey with the BTC/JPN.

I do appreciate your help.