Author: Editor

Position Trading

What are the benefits and disadvantages of this trading style? All explained.

By Guy Avtalyon

The position trading is an approach to trading in which the trader either buys or sells contracts and holds them for an extended period of time. It also refers to the longest term trading. You can have trades that last for several months to several years. This kind of Forex trading requires a good understanding of the fundamentals. Let’s say it isn’t for traders without patience. So, why is that?

What does Position trading require?

Patience. Fundamentals force the long-term trends of currency pairs. Hence, it is very important that every new trader understand how economic details can affect the domestic financial outlook. In this kind of trading, the trader has to hold the trade for a long time. Stop losses will be very large.

That indicates that the trader must have stable capital. Otherwise, the trader will get a margin.

What does taking a position trading mean?

Taking position trading means a position you take when you buy or sell securities. If you buy a stock, future or option, it refers to a Long Position

But if you sell-short a stock, future, or option, it is Short Position. In short, the word position describes your action and view on security/shares/futures, etc.

By taking the position in the stock is something you do to earn money from the stock market.

Very simple.

How to earn money in the stock market?

By purchasing a stock (called taking the position) and then selling that stock (closing the position).

Or by selling the stock (called taking the position) and then buying that stock (closing the position).

However, the duration of your position can fluctuate depending upon your strategy.

It could be for a few seconds, or a few minutes, or a few years, or 20 years. It depends on your personal psychology and goals you want to achieve.

What is the basic analysis of this trading method?

Read the charts or use some fundamental analysis before trading.

When you buy a particular stock always lookout for high volumes.

Of course, don’t buy all the shares at once. Buy it in installments. You have to buy at a lower price. So averaging can helps a lot and don’t forget to put stop loss.

Sometimes market swings beyond our expectations and things may not go well. In that case, you need to exit on time and always make a substantial profit and move on.

You are not married to the stock, so you can always buy it when it corrects.

What is position trading?

Let’s say it again, the position trading, also known as ‘trend trading’, can best be described as a ‘buy and hold’ method.

If you want to become a forex position trader you must be the independent brain. Sometime you must ignore popular views and make your own presumes like, to where the market is going.

You must understand fundamentals and have good vision into how they affect your currency pair in the long run. First of all, actually, you must have enough capital to withstand several hundred pips if the market goes against you.

Long-term Forex trading can net you several hundred to several thousands of pips. If you are too excited being up 50 pips and already want to exit your trade, examine moving to a shorter-term trading style.

You have to be very patient for this trading style.

For position trading, historical points of support and resistance are maybe more important than indicators. The most important is to draw straight horizontal lines and use different time frames. The longer the time frame, the more important level. For this trading style, once again, you must have enough starting capital, you must be patient.

So, what might entice you to try this style?

Firstly, position trading is very convenient for new traders. The speed isn’t as wild as day trading or swing trading. Hence, you have a bit more time to plan your activities and create a trading plan. On a wider level, position trading can also be more attractive in different types of markets.

For example: If you are in a bull market where there are strong emerging trends, it can be a good time to engage in position trading.

You will not see the result fast, it will take time. We are speaking about months and years, not hours or days.

16th December 2018
Trade Crypto And Stocks / Forex – How To Do That
4 min read
- If you understand how the financial markets are structured you can use the same skill and experience to profit in all three.
At first, we have to define the difference between crypto and Forex/Stock trading because you have to have theoretical knowledge.

– Crypto trading, or cryptocurrency trading, is simply the exchange of cryptocurrencies. Like in Forex, you can also buy and sell a cryptocurrency for another, like Bitcoin or altcoin for USD and Euro.

– The foreign exchange market (Forex, FX, or currency market) is a global decentralized or over-the-counter (OTC) market for the trading of currencies. This includes all aspects of buying, selling and exchanging currencies at current or determined prices.

– Stocks trading is the buying and selling of company stock – or derivative products based on company stock – in the hope of making a profit.

Let’s go further!

HOW TO TRADE CRYPTO

Crypto shows bigger growth than stocks or forex. Honestly, all of these types of investment are risky.

While Bitcoin is not the only digital currency on the market, it is indeed the first and most popular one and stands as the digital gold within the industry. The technology behind cryptocurrency holds a large part of its value. The secure way to identify a transaction and the way to transfer funds.

If you want to trade cryptocurrency you need:
1) A cryptocurrency wallet (or two).
2) A cryptocurrency exchange (or two) to trade on.

There are only a few things to know about trading cryptocurrency.

Trading cryptocurrency is simple to start. Yeah, it’s easy.

But there are some essential aspects to understand before you start trading. And this is basic friendly advice to mull over. This not professional investment advice.

I’ll explain on the example of Bitcoin.

There are three ways you can trade Bitcoin:

1 Buy the underlying from an exchange or online cryptocurrency broker

For those who are willing to actively safeguard their Bitcoin, owning the underlying is clearly the way to go.

But prudent steps must be taken to mitigate the risk of Bitcoin theft or loss of private keys.

Diversifying holdings across wallet types, using two-factor authentication and strong passphrases, can be helpful.

2 Trade (buy/sell) a CFD (Contract for Difference) derivative and hold cash margin with an online forex broker or multi-asset broker.

Active traders looking to speculate on Bitcoin over the short or medium term can count that using an online forex broker will provide them with 24-hour trading. And potentially lower margin, and the ability to go either long or short.

So, it is good!

Because of counterparty risk, choosing a broker is just as important as finding one with the best trading tools or commission rates.

3 Buy a publicly listed security related to Bitcoin and hold shares with an online stockbroker.

For stock market investors, investing in Bitcoin indirectly through a listed security such as an ETF, ETP, or trust may be suitable for those looking at taking a passive position.

Active traders might find the limited trading hours and potential lack of volume a limiting factor that could hinder their trading.

Overall, using listed securities that invest, track, or hold Bitcoin can be a viable alternative to diversify away from the risks of margin trading. Or safeguarding private keys when buying the underlying.

HOW TO TRADE FOREX

Forex, also known as foreign exchange, FX or currency trading, is a decentralized global market where all the world’s currencies trade.

You can trade currency based on what you think its value is. Like, for instance, you think a currency will increase in value, you can buy it. But, if you think it will decrease, you can sell it

All forex trades involve two currencies because you’re betting on the value of a currency against another. Think of EUR/USD, the most-traded currency pair in the world.

EUR, the first currency in the pair, is the base, and USD, the second, is the counter.

When you see a price quoted on your platform, that price is how much one euro is worth in US dollars. You always see two prices because one is the buy price and one is the sell.

The difference between the two is the spread. When you click to buy or sell, you are buying or selling the first currency in the pair.

Since the euro is first, and you think it will go up, you buy EUR/USD. If you think the euro will drop in value against the US dollar, you sell EUR/USD.

If prices are quoted to the hundredths of cents, how can you see any return on your investment when you trade forex? Leverage!

When you trade forex you’re borrowing the first currency in the pair to buy or sell the second currency.

To trade with leverage, you simply set aside the required margin for your trade size. If you’re trading 200:1 leverage, for example, you can trade $2,000 in the market while only setting aside $10 in the margin in your trading account.

However, leverage doesn’t just increase your profit potential. It can also increase your losses. If you are new to forex, you should always start trading with lower leverage ratios, until you feel comfortable in the market.

HOW TO TRADE STOCKS

Stock markets are places where buyers and sellers of shares meet and decide on a price to trade.

It is important to know that the corporations listed on stock markets do not buy and sell their own shares on a regular basis. When you buy a share of stock on the stock market, you are not buying it from the company, you are buying it from some other existing shareholder.

There are many stock exchanges, many of which are linked together electronically which means markets are more efficient.

The prices of shares on a stock market can be set in a number of ways, but most the most common way is through an auction process where buyers and sellers place bids and offer to buy or sell.

A bid is a price at which somebody wishes to buy, and an offer (or ask) is the price at which somebody wishes to sell. When the bid and ask coincide, a trade is made.

If there are many buyers and sellers at sequentially higher and lower prices, the market is said to have good depth.

Stocks are quoted by their ticker symbol, represented by between one and four capital letters. They are often loosely representative of the company name.

Let’s break down what is the market order!

A market order is simply an order that instructs the broker to buy or sell shares at the best available price. The market order does not guarantee the price you will get. But it does guarantee that you will get the number of shares that you want.

When an order is completed, it is said to be filled.

Stop orders are contingent on a certain price level being attained to activate the trade and your trade will be executed only when what you want to buy or sell reaches a particular price.

If you understand how the financial markets are structured you can use the same skill and experience to profit in all three.

In all three you have to buy low and sell high against the crowd.

There is no difference.

Risk Disclosure (read carefully!)
14th December 2018
Forex trading – Thank you internet!

Hello, world! So, each of us would yell when the Internet appeared! And the internet brought us forex. The rest is in this post.

By Guy Avtalyon

Let’s see what is Forex trading. Well, some can say that it is basic stuff and belongs to ancient times. Lucky you, if you are one of them. Opposed to the majority of forex participants, ordinary people don’t know what the ForEx exactly is.

So, let try to explain it. This article is for you who don’t know what Forex is.

A word – the internet. It is crucial. But, it isn’t quite true. In this endeavor, in trying to explain what is a forex, we should start from the beginning. If you have traveled, you probably already have a forex trading experience.

What? When? When you buy the currency of your destination country while paying with your own currency.

That is forex trading. The world of trading.

It is basically about Forex trading: Forex traders buy and sell currencies for profit or to protect investments. The forex market is the world’s largest financial market. And since trading is between market participants, there is no “open” or “close” of the market except on weekends.

Some opportunities present themselves to people who keep up with news and events, while others require patient analysis. You might like trading the major currency pair or even you might have knowledge about the exotic currencies.
Traders create their own power and decisions to their trading and, over time, build their own trading style.

That is one of the advantages of Forex. Even more, you can sit in front of your computer but, at the same time, you are present all over the world. The forex market, or simply the FX market is the most traded on the financial market in the world. Some like to think of the forex market as the “Big Kahuna” of financial markets. The forex market is, from a certain point of view, a crossroad for international capital. The intersection through which global commercial and investment flows must move.

This is the place where all international trade flows. Let’s break down the Forex trading!

What is Forex trading?

It is similar to your vacation pocket money. Forex trading always involves two currencies. The base currency is the one you are buying or selling, and its price is given in the quote currency:

Base currency/Quote currency

EUR/USD

1/1.136512

One Euro costs $1.136512 (the date is December 12, 2018, in my example).

This is the point where trading begins.

Let’s say that you believe the EUR will rise in value relative to the USD. You buy EUR 100,000, paying $136,512 from your trading account. And the EUR indeed rises a great deal, to 1.500000 at the end of the day. Therefore, when you close your position by selling the EUR 100,000, you receive $150,000 earning $13,488. What do you think?

This is impossible? Well, yes and no.

Is possible to earn a lot in Forex trading?

Of course, this kind of price jumping is pretty impossible. But smaller rises are very possible. Maybe not in the case above, but on some other currency. You might ask, where can you get $136,512 n the first place? The answer might be that you have $3,000 in your trading account and your broker enables you to borrow $100 for each US dollars in your account.

That is margin, 100:1. With this margin, you can enter forex positions with values of up to $300,000. But, what happens if the Euros didn’t rise? And instead, it fell to 1.050000 at the end of the day?

Therefore, when you close your position by selling the EUR 100,000, you receive $105,000. Well, you lost $31,512.

How to access to Forex market?

You access this market using a trading platform provided by a broker. Most of the investors can trade Forex with the proprietary platform Advanced Trader or with the popular MetaTrader 4 or 5. Or some other platform, as the broker can develop their own software.

When you have selected your trading platform, familiarize yourself with the available spreads and tools.

You’ll have to find some trustworthy broker that has a free demo account. That enables you to try everything using virtual money. Try the charts and indicators, and explore orders, which are automatic trades based on your expectations, used to open or close positions at predefined price points.

What to pay attention to in the Forex trading?

There is one thing you have to be aware of. We, in Traders Paradise, have some suggestions for you.

Trading Forex can be extremely risky. However, you can take precautions to try to minimize those risks and their impact. In forex, there are three important skills you must develop to help you manage your trading risk. That is: analyzing, anticipating, planning In the first place, you have to protect your account with stops, limits, and other order types.

There are a number of order types, such as the trailing stop, if/then, and order cancels.

Set the proper levels

Some could say that setting a stop is an art and they are probably right. But you need to be sure that your stop is set. So that your trade can handle smaller jumps and drops in price while protecting you from loss if the market doesn’t go your way. A stop that’s too tight could lead you to reenter the market. That could cause you to get stopped out again.

That may cause more damage to your account balance than if you entered a stop that was too wide or if you had no stop at all. You must know how to handle your emotions. Sometimes, your mindset at the time can cause more damage than research you didn’t do.

You are a trader, so try to stay objective and calm. Even if you have a losing trade, resist the urge to enter another trade outside of your trading plan. Never attempt to win your earnings back.

13th December 2018
Bitcoin Profit – Profit Even When MARKETS CRASH
3 min read
- Bitcoin Profit provides learning materials not only presented in the written form.
ABOUT

Bitcoin Profit was designed by skillful software developers. Its programming algorithm is founded on the basis of complex analytical methods. Let’say, these people have nothing to hide from the public. This is obvious from their policy of complete clarity in every possible procedure. Not only this. They teach users how to maximize their daily earnings while staying safe from the risks.

Who founded Bitcoin Profit

Bitcoin Profit is the creation of John Myers. It was developed after years of hard work and research. Myers hired the team for the development of the software. And it is highly skilled and professional. Further, they gave priority to security and safety. This is the reason they have implemented encryption strategy on their website. And yes, they are using the latest SSL protocol.

The brokers associated with this trading system are reliable, legit and have proper licenses to provide legal investment advice.

They all have reputable in the industry. And, which is very important, they want to help their clients prosper.

Their CEOs are educated traders who have many years of experience behind their backs. All of them have graduated from some of the most prestigious business schools in the world.

They have studied cryptos since back in the day when Bitcoin was first launched. The team has a lot of experience in currency trading, stocks and bonds, trading, and high-frequency trading as well. These guys certainly know what they are doing and they do it very well too.

Trading Platform

This trading system is smart and logical. It will alert you as soon as trading opportunities are available in the market. With its assistance, you will be able to make smart decisions about when to trade and when to stop. There are many qualities and features that make it extremely useful for traders. The software has been designed to be easy to use and it utilizes pre-set parameters to guide you as you trade.

Bitcoin Profit also provides to analyze the digital currency markets, study price charts, monitor market activities and identify trends. So, that can help you spot profitable trading opportunities especially if you are new in this world. The great preference of this software is that it will send out alerts as to when you should open or close a position.

This software will help you improve your gains and at the same time reduce the level of risks you encounter as a trader.

Importance for beginners

For novices, it can be quite exhausting to learn the basics of trading. As it is known, the time limit is one of the biggest barriers that prevent them from achieving the success they desire. But, when you use BTC Profit, it takes care of most of the hard work for its users. It provides assistance and support which makes the whole process simple and fast. Thus, it gives traders more time for their own research and analysis.

If you want to trade with Bitcoin Profit, you don’t have to undertake education or training in this area. Even if you are a complete beginner, for instance. You will found massive success with this tool because of its autopilot nature. And the software also enables manual trading, but it is more suitable for experienced traders.

Demo account

Yes, they have a demo account and it is completely free. It is very important for beginners. To test skills and learn.

How to start with BitCoin Profit?

1: Click the link to get to the official website of BTC Profit.

2: Fill in the form to get a FREE license for trading.

3: Follow the instructions on the platform to start profiting

To take advantage of this impressive algorithm that this crypto website has, you can do so by entering a couple of basic details into a registration form. After a couple of minutes, they will send an email confirmation and it will feature an applied link.

This will lead the client to a legit, regulated, and trustworthy partnering crypto trading platform where an individual trading account can be opened.

How to use this software

To use the software, you have to join the program and customize the settings. Note that you will need investment funds in your account to be able to trade bitcoins.

The program has a very simple user interface. Beginners will be able to benefit from the easy to use settings and features of the software to attain the best possible trading results.

Customer support

Personal Account Manager will assist customers. You can get in touch with them via telephone or email. This cryptocurrency exchange app has a number of certificates issued in its name for the high service quality. As a result, it operates only with licensed partners.

The process of joining the system is hassle-free. In case you might have questions or problems, you can always turn to the customer support service. That is available 24/7. You can be sure they will answer all of your questions in a swift manner and with professionalism.

The customer team

The customer care team at BTC Profit are professional, knowledgeable of the tool and most importantly they are friendly. Moreover, they give online service to customers. And you can trust them. Always they want to provide accurate information and on-time resolution of trading related issues.

With their problem-solving attitude and an approach that is fantastic, they keep their clients satisfied and happy.

Cost and expected returns

The minimum for the first deposit is $250. The cost of using the software is free. As long as you have investment capital in your account, you will be able to use the Bitcoin Profit without any cost. Well, returns may vary significantly depending on the settings you have chosen and the amount you invest on your trades.

Security

Another great bonus is the fact that it applies the most recent 256-bit encryption protocols. BitCoin Profit’s storage of personal and financial data is done on separate servers. Users must make a minimum initial deposit of $250 in order to fund their account but this is not a payment. It is simply a method of getting started. But the sum can be sent back to the trader at any time.

This team has made an effort with establishing this software is safety. The point is, the platform has been encrypted to provide the highest possible security level for your funds and personal information. In a volatile and fast-paced industry like cryptocurrency trading online, security is important. So, you can trade with a calm mind.

One advantage more

Bitcoin Profit provides learning materials. The most interesting segment here is that some of the learning materials are not presented in the written form. They are made available as interactive vlog content. And some are animated. So, we can confirm that they have very interesting materials. You can find frequent guest lectures from expert financiers. They utilize language which is simple. Even though the topics it covers can be very complex. But, the main point is, it can be understood by anyone.

Conclusion

The Bitcoin Profit is not scam software. It has been proven to work and to generate substantial results for its clients. John Mayers and his team have developed an accurate and user-friendly investment platform.

Bitcoin Profit is a genuine and fully reliable cryptocurrency exchange app.

It started off as a small online investment project, launched by young professional. And now is full-time trading software. So, users can proceed to safely get started with it. As it complies with all SSL requirements.

It earns the approval of users and good ratings in cryptocurrency exchange reviews. At most, thanks to its outstanding performance. The majority of traders who are their customers have achieved excellent results, as we know.

Just grab one of the free spots that have been made available and begin your path in the cryptocurrency trading industry.

With a viable trading solution like Bitcoin Profit, it doesn’t matter in which direction the markets are moving. The software will always aim to help its users generate returns regardless of the conditions.

You can sign up now for free before you decide to spend money.

Also, you can also find more companies we recommend in our wall of fame, and be aware of the ones inside our wall of shame.

Risk Disclosure (read carefully!)

Screenshots from website thebtcprofit.com/
1st December 2018
Automatic Trading – What Is It
3 min read

Automatic trading, also known as Algo/Algorithm trading is a somehow new field in the financial markets.

It’s there since the 90′, but it started to get much more popular in the past few years, for 2 main reasons:
1. The technologies are way better to handle that kind of challenges – Dealing with a lot of data:
2. Save it (it’s millions of giga-bytes so you need special server farms around the world, and that’s something that only available in the past few years)
3. Analyze it – Create an algorithm to go over that amount of data and also issue insights out of the data. This can take millions of years.
4. Find a way to keep adjusting the algorithm. In the financial markets – what happened yesterday IS NOT a guarantee that it will act the same today. So, we need to know what happened yesterday, but also find a way to give it the appropriate weight in our calculations
5. Many non-legit bodies got into the industry to try and take money from innocent customers, claiming they succeeded to figure it out.
Our aim, here in Traders Paradise, is to help you, our visitor, in understanding the risks in automatic trading.

Important to know (and I’m full of hope you’ve learned it by far in life): There’s no profit without the risk.

We will talk about how automatic trading systems work, under what circumstances you change / diverse strategies, what’s available in the market and why you probably won’t have access to the automatic trading platforms that truly works.

Let’s start from the beginning – Why is it so difficult to create an automatic trading software.

The short version of the answer is – the financial markets keep changing on a minute basis.

What I mean-

1 In an asset (like stocks) level:

Say we’re talking on Apple, and they issued an announcement that iPhone sales are going higher than predictions – The price will rise. Now, studies show that in a matter of a few seconds the price will already include the latest news.

From this point there are 2 options – Either the price keeps going up or it will drop lower. If it’s rising anymore – we definitely know that some people will sell their holdings, as it reached their strategy profit point of exit. So if they’re more than the ones who want to but – price will drop. So it’s kind of a gamble.

Ways to avoid this – invest in two companies that are competitors, so that when one is dropping the other is rising. This called hedging the investment.

2 In an industry (such as technology) level:

In this level, it’s more tricky, because if an entire industry is dropping (regardless of a specific company) then it can affect our whole portfolio. Several things can trigger it, such as a big player comes with an announcement that affects the whole industry. Like, if IBM (that creates chips for most of the big companies in the world) will announce that we reached a “no way to overcome” scenario. Then all the industry can lose some points. Until someone else will come with some better news.
Ways to avoid – Diverse your portfolio with serval industries like motor, pharma, and technology.

3 In a market level:

This can happen when an announcement or new policy comes out of the main bank or the government, or when a global incident is occurring – The whole financial markets can drop, and then ALL portfolios will lose (except the ones who bought ‘short’ position).

Ways to avoid – VERY DIFFICULT. It happens in surprise and there’s no way to predict it. But you can still avoid some if you add short positions to your portfolio.

So, those are, in general, the major points we need to look on when creating a portfolio.

This created an environment that is impossible for short-term predictions.

Next question is – How do we choose our assets? Or how we create a good portfolio?

Let’s think about it for a second:

If I read on the finance news about an asset that is going high. I must think – yes, this is the asset I was waiting to buy. Right?
Wrong.

Because there are many other people who read the same news like me.

And if we all buy now, at the top, we’ll all be the “stupid top”, just like the people who bought bitcoin at a price of $15,000 and saw it drops to $5,000. Someone made money in these actions, but some lost a lot! (Never forget the simple rule of – when someone is buying it means there’s someone who’s selling)

So,

Do we need to go short on that asset?

Nope. Short is a VERY dangerous position. Why? Because only in short you can lose MORE than you initially invested

How’s that possible: When going long – it means you believe that price will rise,

For the easy example, we say there’s an asset cost $1 per share, and we decide to buy only 1, so it costs us $1.

Now, this company had been acquired by another company and overnight the asset is now worth $20. Pretty nice huh?

And if overnight the company bankrupted – then we’d lose that $1.

Now let’s say we went short on that asset –

If it bankrupted we doubled our money, but in case the price jumped to $20 – we, then, lost $19 on a $1 investment.

That’s brutal!

So, shorts are something we try as hard as we can to avoid, but sometimes it’s the best strategy. We’ll talk about it later in another article.

Back to the asset we just read is exploding and rising up. What are we doing?

NOTHING!

If it’s already on the news – we missed the train.

So what’s the asset we should buy? It doesn’t matter. Why you probably wondering… And that brings me to the next question:

So what is automatic trading software trying to do?

Most people think the purpose is to find either an asset is before or during an explosion and recommend that asset to the user, right?

But wait…

I got into a position. When do I get out?!?

That is the real question.

See, a good asset position is built on 3 things:
1. When to get in
2. When to get out
3. Which direction we choose (long/short)
That’s it.

But, when we start to break it, we see that there’s one of them that is the most important.

Yes, I know you already know which one it is!

It’s “When to get out”.

This is the most important thing in every single trade you will ever do, and what sucks about it is that you’d know if you got it right only on in retrospective look. Never at the same time of action.

THIS is what good automatic trading algorithm supposed to do, and this is what our algo trade software does. It doesn’t matter which asset you choose nor when you get into a position or which direction you go – It’s ALL a question of when you got out!

If you were wrong about the direction – you need to get out ASAP, but with a minor loss as you can.

If you got the direction right – you want to optimize the profit you can, before price bounces back.

That’s the whole idea, and that’s what we created.

How is Automatic trading even work?

Well, it’s kind of a secret… But we’ll tell you what we can and we’ll let you use it to see for yourself (for free of course).

But basically how it works is we have many supercomputers that work together on sets of data, to create the most optimized exit strategies for every asset we choose.

It’s working according to historical data, but it gives the right weight to every piece of data.

In other words, we, as people, could never understand why the software does what it does.

We know how the math was created, but this algorithm is an unsupervised algorithm (read more in the previous article)

It had only one rule to follow: “The more profit you gain, the better this strategy”.

That’s it. Like when you plant seeds in your backyard, water it, and then you wait for the fruits? Same thing, but way better fruits…

Want to get access to our software once it’s ready for outside users? Subscribe to our newsletter and we’ll let you know when it’s ready. Also, you’ll get more interesting articles on how we solved this almost-impossible technology and math problem. You can ALWAYS unsubscribe.

Risk Disclosure (read carefully!)
29th November 2018
ASIC Miner the Best Crypto Mining

3 min read

To introduce ASIC miner, we have to know what crypto mining is. The mining is not just a way to make money but an essential and fundamental piece of any cryptocurrency. Mining is the mechanism that secures the cryptocurrency blockchain and continuously enlarge it. Cryptocurrency Mining is important like it is an important central bank in any economy. The main difference is that mining is costly and is regulated by the network rules.

In economies, printing new money is cheap and happens by the will of politicians and bank officials.

Cryptocurrency mining was originally designed to be something everyone could do with their home computer, but those days are long away behind us. Today, whether you’re mining Bitcoin, Litecoin, DASH, or some other cryptocurrencies, the most effective way to do so is with a piece of hardware known as an ASIC miner.

It’s not a desktop PC or a dedicated graphics card mining rig. It’s something else. Full name is Application specific integrated circuits. That are chips that are designed with a singular purpose, ranging from audio processing to managing a cellphone call.

In the case of cryptocurrency mining, these chips are built into specifically-designed motherboards and power supplies. All constructed into a single unit. It is an intentionally designed and developed hardware right down to the chip level.

What ASIC miner does

In short, mining is the process of running complicated calculations in the search for a specific number. Mining hardware has to run through many calculations before finding that number. In proof of work systems like Bitcoin, the first one to find that number gets a reward in Bitcoins.

Miners also try and find that number and tend to earn more if they have faster hardware. That’s why people who can afford it opt for ASIC miners because it gives them the greatest chance of earning cryptocurrency in exchange for their investment.

Each cryptocurrency has its own cryptographic hash algorithm. ASIC miners are designed to mine using that specific algorithm.

Bitcoin ASIC miners are actually designed to calculate the SHA-256 hash algorithm. In the case of Litecoin, it is Scrypt.

Technically they could mine any other coin based on the same algorithm. But people who buy ASIC hardware designed with one particular coin in mind, mine that coin.

Why is ASIC miner better?

ASIC miners differ from CPU mining system in more general pieces of hardware which are designed to do more than one thing.

While mining cryptocurrencies, the most important thing is that the cryptocurrency you mine is worth more than what you spend on hardware and electricity. Those margins are closer than you can imagine. Mining cryptocurrency can be very expensive.

Hardware can be expensive, and you can spend thousands of dollars a year in electricity to run.

That’s why the mining hardware you choose, have to have more efficient systems. This is incredibly important. That’s where ASIC miners come in. They are designed from the ground up to perform the calculations required by a specific cryptographic hash algorithm used by an individual.

They are unbelievably efficient at doing so. They’re powerful, they are offering a high “hashrate”, and energy efficient, using far less power than a more general piece of hardware might do for the same task.

This combination of performance and low-power usage are the reasons why they are much more economical than other hardware.

In the case of Bitcoin and Litecoin, ASIC mining is just about the only way anyone mines those cryptocurrencies any more.

How to choose the best ASIC Miner

The main factors that will help you to determine the best Bitcoin ASIC miner for your personal needs are:

1 Hash rate. Hash rate is measured in hashes per second. The more powerful your miner is, the bigger the block reward you get.

2. Efficiency. Hash rate is not the only nor final factor when it comes to picking the best Bitcoin miner. It also has to make the best use of the amount of electricity you spend. Your mining profitability highly depends on your electricity expenses, because you want to get the maximum amount of Bitcoin.

3. Price. At early stages of Bitcoin mining, it is all about counterbalance with your initial investment. You have to calculate the mining profitability and decide whether it’s worth purchasing a leading miner. Also, you can simply stick around with less expensive one that will give you more efficiency. Not always the most expensive is the most efficient.

5 the biggest ASIC chip producers

Bitmain. The Beijing-based company still controls 85% despite the reports that are losing its monopoly status due to the cutthroat competition in this niche of the cryptocurrency industry. Bitmain managed to grow so quickly because of the enormous success of their Antminer line. That includes the legendary miner Antminer S9. Bitmain operates numerous mining pools that are responsible for more than 51 percent of the Bitcoin hashrate.

Canaan Creative. Canaan Creative is the second biggest Bitcoin mining hardware manufacturer the world after Bitmain. Apart from plenty of its miners, the company has introduced the first mining TV.

Halong Mining. There is competition. Back in November 2017, another Chinese manufacturer introduced the world’s most efficient miner Halong DragonMint 16T, continuing an intense ASIC mining hardware race.

The best ASIC miner on the market

There is some dilemma Antminer S9, or Antminer S9 Hydro.

Antminer S9 has already become a legend among ASIC miners, but is this still good enough? You can buy 14 TH/s for less than $700. One of the drawbacks of this miner is that it is very sensitive to high temperature.

If you want to use it, your primal task is to ensure that it gets good cooling. Let’s say, the best choice is to have one specific room for mining. Bitmain’s previous hit product Antminer S7 has drastically dropped in price after they release Antminer S9.

Maybe purchasing a couple of used S7 miners is a good idea.

At the end of August this year, a brand-new ASIC miner appeared on Bitmain’s official website named S9 Hydro. Basically, it is the good old Antminer S9, but they added a new hashing board that increases the total hashrate up to 18 THS. Also S9 Hydro produces is not as noisy as other ASIC miners but the other fundamental technological characteristics are almost the same.

Halong Mining made Halong Mining DragonMint T1 in November 2017. This ASIC miner managed to pull off up to 16 TH/s, which is a visible improvement from 14 TH/s offered by Antminer S9s. DragonMint T1 has a bit higher efficiency compared to older Antminer S9s, but it didn’t even come close to the previously declared numbers. But, it’s up to you to consider whether you want to pay $300 more for this miner.

The advantage

One of the evident advantages of DragonMint T1 as a type of ASIC miner is its cooling solution. It is presented in the form of dual nine blade variable fans which keep the temperature at 25 degrees. This miner was developed with Samsung. After landing a deal with the South Korean tech giant, Halong Mining poses as a viable competitor to Bitmain.

AvalonMiner 821 was officially revealed by Canaan Creative last December after the success of its previous-generation AvalonMiner 741. This miner has a hashrate of 11TH/s. Unlike DragonMint T1, AvalonMiner 821 only has one cooler, but it still provides the owner with a substantial level of cooling. Furthermore, the miner is resistant to different temperatures.

This ASIC miner is absolutely compatible with huge mining pools like Nicehash.com, Slushpool.com.

AvalonMiner 821 trails Antminer S9s by 10 percent in terms of mining efficiency. It is still a viable option for those who want to save some cash. It currently costs around $700. While you still have to buy a $200 PSU for this miner, a total of roughly $900 is still less than Antminer S9.

The bottom line

Where is this ASIC race going?

In this article, we are focusing on the developments in Bitcoin (SHA256) mining ASICs but the mining race is much bigger. All the companies that have entered the Bitcoin mining race will expand to other hashing algorithms to maximize their profit and market share.

A lot of cash is investing in this race. All because of the expectation that the number of mining hardware companies will only grow. Some of the large semiconductor companies may enter the race too. It won’t be a surprise if they direct some of their teams’ design capabilities to design and fabricate ASIC mining chips. And it is quite likely that every major ASIC manufacturer already has a new 7nm ASIC up its sleeve.

ASIC mining is a huge global industry, so large mining farms are willing to pay millions in order to have a sneak peek of exclusive miners.

Risk Disclosure (read carefully!)

29th November 2018
TradeInvest90 – Why Trade With Them
3 min read

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- Traders Paradise delves into all aspects of this online trading brokerage.
ABOUT

TradeInvest90 is a relatively new and unregulated trading brokerage. The question is how do they compare to the competition and can they be trusted? You will find out in this in-depth review. Traders Paradise delves into all aspects of this online trading brokerage and shines a light on the products and services they provide.

TradeInvest90 is an international online trading brokerage. It provides innovative trading services to traders all around the globe. The brokerage provides trade, invest and profit from the global financial markets. That include over 1000 top class assets.

Where and how it originated

TradeInvest90 was established in March 2017 and is owned and operated by Capital Force Ltd. The brokerage serves the international markets through their online trading platform. They are based out of Oceania with their company headquarters located in Samoa. As TradeInvest90 is an offshore trading brokerage, they have not acquired any sort of regulation from reputable regulatory authorities but claims to operate their services within the means of the strictest regulatory requirements.

TradeInvest90 Trading Platform

TradeInvest90 provides its very own proprietary web-based trading platform. The ever-popular MetaTrader 4 (MT4) trading platform is not offered. So, traders will have to learn a new platform. But, the TradeInvest90 trading platform is incredibly easy to learn and use. Their platform has a fantastically designed user interface that is fast and easy to use. That provides traders to trade multiple financial instruments all in one place. That is a great opportunity for traders who like to diversify their portfolio with one trading platform. The platform features a standard charting package with basic features for technical analysis.

You can find a variety of technical indicators, chart types, time frames, and drawing and analysis tools. This trading platform is satisfactory for most traders needs. But some of the traders could wish more recognized trading platforms like the MT4 and MT5 trading platforms. For such we have only a few words: TradeInvest90 is simple and easy to use trading platform.

Very good for beginners

The custom-made and in-house developed online trading platform has a user-friendly operating interface. That allows users to trade comfortably. Clients are not required to download anything on the PC. Instead, it can be accessed online using a computer connected to the internet. On the other hand, traders can also use the company’s online trading platform on all on-the-go devices. Such as mobile phones, and tablets. The supported versions of the online trading app for Android or iOS-based devices can be downloaded from Play Store and App Store respectively.

Exchange markets and tradable instruments

Traders at TradeInvest90 have access to over 1000 world class financial assets across 5 global markets including forex, stocks, commodities, indices, and cryptocurrencies. Traders can trade CFDs on the latter three markets and can participate in forex trading on the world’s most popular currency pairs. A complete list of asset index is available on the company’s official website. Clients can click the following link to access a comprehensive range of asset index.

See below, a quick overview of the CFDs and Forex markets.

CFDs

6 commodities
6 indices
Over 100 stocks
Trade on the leverage of up to 1:200
Trade both rising and falling markets
24 hours a day, 5 days a week
Risk management capabilities

Forex

Trade Majors, Minors & Exotics
Nearly 70 currency pairs
Trade on the leverage of up to 1:200
Trade both rising and falling markets
24 hours a day, 6 days a week
Risk management capabilities

Types of accounts

This company offers a standard account only. The minimum deposit is $250. All you need is to open an account at TradeInvest90 with the company’s recommended broker to get started. The broker offers Forex, binary options and CFDs trading all in one account. It has fixed spreads in place. It charges zero commission.

Clients can expect their investment to grow by 400% over time. It has state of the art trading facilities available for clients wishing to invest more than $250 including customized trading analysis and charting tools. It also provides its account holders dedicated customer support round the clock, six days a week.

Fees and commission

TradeInvest90 offers its traders zero commission trading by incorporating the fees into fixed spreads. The fixed spreads are higher compared with most of the competition. For instance, the fixed spread on the EUR/USD currency pair was 3 pips which are 1.5 pips higher than the industry average. Also, traders have to pay an account maintenance fee of $7.50 per month. Also, traders incur a profit clearance fee. Here are the profit clearance fees associated with the number of profits cleared.

250$ or less = 1.5$
$251 – $500 = 2.00
$501-$1000 = $3.00
$501-$1000 = $4.00
$1001-$2500 = $4.00
$2500 or more = $5.00

Other penalties

If traders account is inactive for longer than 31 days, they have to pay.fee of $10.00 per month. Honestly, this time frame could be too short. Withdrawal fees are of 3.5% and a minimum withdrawal fee $30. We have to say, the fees on traders by TradeInvest90 are pretty much high. But, clients can withdraw their funds as and when they wish to. The company offers a wide range of deposit and withdrawal methods to its clients including debit cards, credit cards, payment via e-wallets (Skrill, Neteller), bank transfers, web money, and other local payment methods.

Tradeinvest90 customers can withdraw their funds and benefits whenever they need to when they pass the compliance procedures. It could take 5-7 business days to process the withdrawal request.

Demo account

Unfortunately, the company doesn’t offer any demo account. We do hope that in future it will begin offering demo accounts as well.

Customer support

It looks like this broker is created with great intention to be helpful to traders who just started. The broker understands the importance of excellent customer service which is excellent for novice traders. It offers 24/6 dedicated customer support to its clients. The company ensures the availability of professional and competent staff round the clock to assist its customers.

Clients can contact the company using a telephone line. This is wonderful because of the opportunity to talk with a real person. Inquiries can also be made through email at [email protected]. A live web chat feature is also available on the company’s official website to facilitate clients on a runtime basis.

The bottom line

We made a very careful review. TradeInvest90 is one of the best online brokers available in the market. It’s user-friendly and award-winning trading platform. It definitely states of the art trading tools make it stand out of the crowd. It provides excellent customer support to its clients round the clock. Recommended for novice traders as well as for advanced.

You can also find more companies we recommend in our wall of fame, and be aware of the ones inside our wall of shame.

Risk Disclosure (read carefully!)
Screenshots from website www.tradeinvest90.com
28th November 2018
Mining with GPU versus CPU

Both CPUs and GPUs are inventions made from billions of microscopic transistors packed on a small piece of silicon. But they have some differences.

By Traders-Paradise Team

To find the answer, we must first look into how mining works. A computer guesses a string of characters and puts them through a hash function to try to reach an expected hash output. However, the computer has no way of knowing how to get to that output. Let’s say the output needed is “6”. The computer doesn’t know what calculations are used to generate the output; it could be 3+3, 5+1, 6+0, 3×2, and a nearly limitless number of other functions. Once the computer has found an input string that works, it can be easily verified by the other computers.

Go back to CPU and GPU!

A CPU is great for multitasking, such as saving documents, editing video, deciphering instructions, running the OS, and much more. However, because it needs to figure out what to do each time, it is a lot slower than a GPU. Think of a Swiss knife. The knife itself may not be very useful, but it has a lot of different tools attached.

What is CPU

The CPU, or central processing unit, is the part of the computer that performs the will of the software loaded on the computer. It’s the main executive for the entire machine. It is the master that tells all the parts of the computer what to do – in accordance with the program code of the software, and, hopefully, the will of the user. They are designed to perform very complexly, and often changing in the mid-stride, operations. Most computers have multi-core CPUs nowadays (which is almost the same thing as having multiple CPUs in a single physical package), and some computers even have multiple CPUs.

The CPU is usually a removable component that plugs into the computer’s main circuit board, or motherboard and sits underneath a large, metallic heat sink which usually has a fan, and few are cooled by water.

What is GPU

The GPU, or graphics processing unit, is a part of the computer for the video rendering system. The typical function of a GPU is to assist with the rendering of 3D graphics and visual effects so that the CPU doesn’t have to. Powerful GPUs are needed mostly for graphics-intensive tasks such as gaming or video editing.

These days, miners are moving quickly to GPU because when GPU was discovered it was said that, it could offer more hash power compared to CPUs, its cost is lower and can save electricity.

Why mining with GPU

A CPU is designed primarily to be an executive and make decisions, as directed by the software. For example, if you type a document and save it, it is the CPUs job to turn your document into the appropriate file type and direct the hard disk to write it as a file.

CPUs can also do all kinds of math, as inside every CPU is one or more “Arithmetic/Logic Units” (ALUs). CPUs are also highly capable of following instructions of the “if this, do that, otherwise, do something else”. A large bulk of the structures inside a CPU are concerned with making sure that the CPU is ready to deal with having to switch to a different task on a moment’s notice when needed.

Differences

A GPU is very different. Yes, a GPU can do the math, and can also do “this” and “that” based on specific conditions. However, GPUs have been designed so they are very good at doing video processing, and less executive work. They are designed to do a high number of simpler operations than CPU and to do them quickly.

GPUs have large numbers of ALUs, more so than CPUs. While CPUs can have up to a handful, modern GPUs have between 1.500 and 2.800 ALU. As a result, they can do large amounts of bulky mathematical labor in a greater quantity than CPUs.

That, in a nutshell, is why GPUs can mine Bitcoins so much faster than CPUs. Bitcoin mining requires no decision making, it is repetitive mathematical work for a computer. While CPU can do these calculations one or a few at the time, GPU can do more than a thousand at the same time. The only decision making that must be made in Bitcoin mining is, “do I have a valid block” or “do I not”. That’s an excellent workload to run on a GPU.

GPU can mine much faster than CPU. In order to mine Bitcoin, you must have at least one GPU installed on your computer.
Also, GPU has the ability to mine different coins such as Ethereum, Bitcoin Gold, and many others besides Bitcoin.

Why mining with GPU?

GPU is very good at complex computation, is easily sourced, is standardized hardware, has high resale value.and is easily upgradeable. A GPU is great at doing the same thing over and over again: producing graphics. Normally, this involves performing a mathematical equation with two or more numbers that give an output that is rendered as a pixel. Sounds familiar?

That’s because it is. This task is exactly like mining – putting a set of inputs through the same function. Because of GPUs when mining has to do this one thing, they can do it very fast. And can do a high volume of these operations, just like drawing a high number of pixels on your screen.

The choice of CPU in a crypto mining setup doesn’t matter that much because it is only doing telling everything what to do, which isn’t that much of a workload.

The GPUs are the ones doing the heavy lifting. The choice of which GPUs to use is important because you want the best hashing performance. And you are limited as to how many GPUs you can connect in a rig as each GPU requires at least a single PCIe slot.

Thus it is important to choose the motherboard carefully as they can come equipped with between one and six PCIe slots.

Luckily, those slots do not have to be of the x16/x8 kind, and x1 suffice well enough. Hashing performance is often rated at hashes per watt given that electricity is your largest cost after the initial investment in a mining rig.

Why mine with CPU?

At the point when Bitcoin was begun, the only way to mine was utilizing Central Processing Unit (CPU) on PC and Bitcoin core wallet. Intel and AMD were the famous names in CPUs. When bitcoin was released you could dig only 100 coins a day using CPU. But it is impossible today to CPU mine bitcoin because of much higher difficulty which gave rise to ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit). Specially designed chips just for mining of a one or the other cryptocurrency.

CPU was designed to switch between different complex tasks. Hash required proof of work in not very complex mathematical calculations. And CPU has less arithmetic logical units. So, when it comes to performance in the large calculation CPU is relatively slow. CPU has the ability to mine different coins such as Zcash, Nexus, Hold coin, Reicoin.

Advantages of CPU mining: there is no specialized hardware required, a very good starting point to enter mining, invaluable educational experience. And it is fun to mine with CPU.

The bitcoin network hash rate is really high, so in CPU mining there is no longer a guarantee for profit. During the mining process, the miners use fast running hardware to try to solve blocks. And slow CPU hardware can only make a certain amount of hashes in a given time frame. You need very good and fastest hardware for faster hashes.

Both CPUs and GPUs are creations made from billions of microscopic transistors crammed on a small piece of silicon.
Trying different hashes repeatedly is a very repetitive task suitable for a GPU. Each attempt varying only by the changing of one number (called a “nonce”) in the data being hashed.

That is why GPUs can mine Bitcoins so much faster than CPUs. Bitcoin mining requires no complex decision making because it is repetitive mathematical work on the same set of numbers. The only decision making that must be made in Bitcoin mining is, “do I have a valid block” or “do I not”. That’s an excellent workload to run on a GPU which can do a high number of these calculations at the same time.

27th November 2018
Cryptocurrency mining – how to start
2 min read

Cryptocurrency mining involves two particular functions: adding transactions to the blockchain and also releasing new currency. Mining needs a powerful computer and a usually complex program. That helps miners compete with their peers in solving complicated mathematical problems. Cryptocurrency mining requires a lot of computer resources and power.

Cryptocurrency mining will celebrate its 10th year of existence in 2019. The very concept of mining with high-end computer hardware is starting to become mainstream. Mining is the way a certain kind of blockchain pays for participants to maintain it, its integrity and records, by paying ‘miners’ in the blockchains own coins.

How cryptocurrency mining works

The main point of mining is to fulfill three things:
- Provide bookkeeping services to the coin network. Mining is just about 24/7 computer * accounting called “verifying transactions.”
- Get paid a small reward for your accounting services by receiving fractions of coins every couple of days.
- Keep your personal costs down, including electricity and hardware.
Since Bitcoin is the first cryptocurrency that dictates the destiny of all others, we will use it as an example

Cryptocurrency mining is simply just converting a sha2 hash into an integer and seeing if it is less than some value. Finding that number is difficult.

How do miners find this number? By guessing at random. The hash function makes it impossible to predict what the output will be. Miners guess the mystery number and apply the hash function to the combination of that guessed number and the data in the block. The resulting hash has to start with a pre-established number of zeroes. There’s no way of knowing which number will work because two consecutive integers will give wildly varying results. What’s more, there may be several nonces that produce the desired result. But there may be none and the miners keep trying, but with a different block configuration.

The first miner to get a resulting hash within the desired range announces its victory to the rest of the network. All the other miners immediately stop work on that block and start trying to figure out the mystery number for the next one. As a reward for its work, the victorious miner gets some new bitcoin.

What you will need to mine cryptocurrency

You will need several, well more than several things to mine.

You will need a wallet. This is a password-protected container that stores your earnings and keeps a network-wide ledger of transactions. Also, a free mining software package typically made up of cgminer and stratum. You’ll have to be a member of an online mining pool. It is a community of miners who combine their computers to increase profitability and income stability. You’ll have to be a member of an online mining pool. It is a community of miners who combine their computers to increase profitability and income stability.

Your hardware has to be set up in a cool and air-conditioned space.

And your desktop or custom-built computer has to be designed for mining, separate dedicated computer is ideal. You may use your current computer to start, but you won’t be able to use the computer while the miner is running. It isn’t recommended to use a laptop, gaming console or handheld device to mine because these devices are not effective enough to generate income.

An ATI graphics processing unit (GPU) or a specialized processing device called a mining ASIC chip is the must. The cost will be anywhere from $90 used to $3000 new for each GPU or ASIC chip. The GPU or ASIC will be the workhorse of providing the accounting services and mining work.

And you have to provide cooling the hardware.

Mining generates substantial heat and cooling the hardware could be critical for your success. You can use a house fan to blow air across your computer. But many currencies require specialized, high powered machines that use large amounts of electricity, and create excess heat.

There are ongoing technology changes for optimizing crypto mining results. Why we are pointing this? Because if you want to be cryptocurrency miner, you have to constantly learn. You have to follow new techniques and perhaps, spend hours studying the best ways to adjust and improve your cryptocurrency mining performance every week. We hope you’ll stick around for each new guide and explained.

Is it worth it to mine?

If you want a hobby venture, the answer is yes. Cryptocurrency mining can generate a small income of a dollar or two per day. You can recoup $1000 in hardware costs in about 18-24 months.

On the other hand, cryptocurrency mining is not a reliable way to make basic money. The profit from mining cryptos only becomes significant when someone invests $3000-$5000 in hardware costs. On that way time, you could potentially earn $50 per day or more. Miners have to keep electricity costs to under $0.11 per kWh. Mining with 4 GPU graphic cards can bring you around $8.00 to $10.00 per day or around $250-$300 per month.

Have reasonable expectation

There are two things you have to be informed about:

The investment in 4 ASIC processors or 4 AMD Vega graphic processing units

The market value of cryptocurrencies

There is a small chance your chosen digital currency could jump in value alongside Bitcoin at some moment. And you could find yourself sitting on thousands of dollars in cryptos. The accent here is on “small chance”. This means slightly better than winning the lottery.

If you want to try cryptocurrency mining, you should. But start with a very small income return. You will not collect gold nuggets but you will not lose your money. And do your research to avoid a scam currency.

Risk Disclosure (read carefully!)
27th November 2018
LinkedIn breaks the rules

2 min read

Some of LinkedIn’s practices were uncanny and violated data protection rules, shows a report published Friday by Ireland’s Data Protection Commissioner. The Report is covering activities in the first six months of this calendar year.

The details were revealed in this report. In a list of investigations are Facebook, WhatsApp and the Yahoo data breach. The DPC revealed one investigation that had not been reported before. The DPC had concluded an investigation of Microsoft-owned LinkedIn, originally prompted by a complaint from a user in 2017, over LinkedIn’s practices regarding people who were not members of the social network.

What is it all about?

In a bid to get more people to sign up to the service, LinkedIn admitted that it was using people’s email addresses. About 18 million in all, in a way that was not transparent. LinkedIn has since ceased the practice as a result of the investigation. LinkedIn has been called out a number of times for how it is able to suggest uncanny connections to you. It’s not even clear how or why LinkedIn would know enough to make those suggestions in the first place.

The DPC found that LinkedIn in the US had emails addresses for 18 million people who were not members of the social network. LinkedIn used these in a hashed form for targeted advertisements on the Facebook platform, “with the absence of instruction from the data controller”.

There is the story behind this. After the EU was implementing of GDPR, LinkedIn, Facebook and others moved data processing that had been going through Ireland to the US. May 25 was the date that GDPR came into force.

The claim was that this was to “streamline” operations. Critics have said that the moves could help to shield companies a bit more from any GDPR liability over how they use to process data for non-EU users.

“The complaint was ultimately amicably resolved,” the DPC said, “with LinkedIn implementing a number of immediate actions to cease the processing of user data for the purposes that gave rise to the complaint.”

But there was more

The DPC then decided to conduct a further audit after it became “concerned with the wider systemic issues identified” in the initial investigation. There, it found that LinkedIn was also applying its social graph-building algorithms to build networks to suggest professional networks for users, or “undertaking pre-computation,” as the DPC describes it.

Their idea was to build up suggested networks of compatible professional connections. In order to help users overcome the hurdle of having to build networks from scratch. This may be one of the hurdles in social networks for some people.

Excerpt from the report

“As a result of the findings of our audit, LinkedIn Corp was instructed by LinkedIn Ireland, as data controller of EU user data, to cease pre-compute processing and to delete all personal data associated with such processing prior to 25 May 2018,” the DPC writes in their report.

Denis Kelleher, Head of Privacy, EMEA, for LinkedIn, said:

“We appreciate the DPC’s 2017 investigation of a complaint about an advertising campaign and fully cooperated. Unfortunately, the strong processes and procedures we have in place were not followed and for that we are sorry. We’ve taken appropriate action, and have improved the way we work to ensure that this will not happen again. During the audit, we also identified one further area where we could improve data privacy for non-members. And we have voluntarily changed our practices as a result.”

LinkedIn’s reaction

It would seem that the company is trying to show that it is acting in good faith. They go one step further than simply modifying what has been identified by the DPC. They are changing practices voluntarily before some get to call them out.

LinkedIn would not be the first company to “ask for forgiveness, not permission.”

What they do when breaking the lines of what is permissible behavior? The very first step is to ask for forgiveness. Don’t you think that asking permission is the right way? Before everything.

LinkedIn was not punished in this process because the regulator had no power to enforce fines.

The main question is, where LinkedIn obtained those 18 million email addresses, and any other related data? We would like to know the answer.

More in the report

There are other cases reviewed in this report. The inquiry into Facial Recognition usage by Facebook, or how WhatsApp and Facebook share user data between each other, are still ongoing. Others are now trickling down into the companies modifying their practices. Such as the investigation Yahoo security breach that affected 500 million users.

Risk Disclosure (read carefully!)

Image Credit: LinkedIn

26th November 2018