Everything you need to know about digital asset trading

The number of digital assets keeps growing at an ever-increasing pace all around the world. These decentralised digital instruments have revolutionized the world of finance. Because of this, there has been a steady increase in the demand for tools and services made available from digital asset trading platforms.

Talos Trading, a technology provider for the institutional trading of digital assets, today announced the public launch of its platform that connects the diverse group of participants involved in today’s crypto-asset market structure — institutional investors, prime brokers, exchanges, OTC desks, lenders and custodians. The Talos platform, which — has been live for the last year, delivers a suite of solutions that supports clients through the full trading lifecycle — from price discovery to execution through clearing and settlement, across spot, futures and FX markets.

A digital asset trading platform is an outlet where cryptocurrency exchanges are directly connected all around the globe. This is a platform that permits its users to buy or sell digital assets through a single account/platform. Cryptocurrencies can be traded for several other assets such as government-issued fiat money or other digital assets. Certain digital currencies can be represented by real-world tangible commodities such as treasured metals (gold and silver) or real estate.
It is easily accessible and is user-friendly for both novice and professional traders as it prepares and measures data with no delay while simultaneously providing accurate charts. Additionally it is well-equipped with enough cyber-security technologies and infrastructure.

Consequently, by offering a wide array of benefits, such a platform is viewed as a way for growth and is being adopted in a widespread manner.

Types of digital assets that may be traded on the platform
A digital asset is reported to be a digitised right to possess, use, control and own a secured asset. In simple words, it can be viewed as content owned by a person that can be stored digitally. It really is a repository of value.

Digital assets are of the following two types:

Cryptocurrencies
These are virtual currencies that may be used for the purposes of trading and as a method of payment for goods and services. Their main features include:

Being decentralised, i.e., positioning reliance on code for handling issuance and transactions instead of developing a central issuing authority.
Utilising blockchain as their technology for managing their transactions.
Engaging cryptography (hi-tech encryption technique), to protect and verify their transactions.
Examples of cryptocurrencies are Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash and Ripple.

Digital/security tokens
To put it simply, tokens are units of value circulated by organisations with the capacity of being customised and built over blockchains that are already in existence. They are digital versions of tangible traditional assets which have already a value such as traditional shares or real estate. They are given away in Initial Coin Offerings, a public sale to improve funding for particular projects and can further be traded in the secondary market.

Terminologies found on a digital asset trading platform
Although there are many familiarities between digital asset trading and traditional trading, certain trading conditions are undoubtedly perplexing for beginners. Discussed below are the key trading terms:

Trading pairs- These represent the digital assets that can be traded for one another over a trading platform- for example Bitcoin/Litecoin (BTC/LTC). The main use of such pairs is to tell apart the costs of different cryptocurrencies.
Last price- It represents the price of the last trade occurred.
Market price- It constitutes the current price/value of the digital assets provided by the platform.
Order-book- It comprises a list of all open trade orders.
Open orders- When a user places a buy or sell order at a definite rate, such an order can be viewed and tracked in the ‘Open Orders’ column of the dashboard.
Market orders- These are orders of the very most basic kind. The purchaser specifies the total price he/she wishes to invest on purchasing the asset. He/she does not need a choice to limit the order both in conditions of size and price.
Limit order trading- It represents investing of an particular digital asset at a specific price. Therefore, a limit is positioned on the order in conditions of the purchase price per unit.
Ladder order or Stack order- In such types of orders, the user stipulates a variety of price limit orders. For every such order, the user supplies the same details as provided in an ordinary limit order. For example, if a user lodges 10 orders in a platform, after the first order is effected, it automatically triggers placement of the second order. The same continues on till all the 10 orders are executed. The ladder order can contain the variety of sell and buy orders.
Split order- in such types of orders, the size of an amount limit order is split into smaller sizes and many different limit orders are put in a single shot. Each of the several orders will be effected depending on their respective order parameters.
Stop loss- While trading in digital assets, minimising losses is of utmost importance. So as to evade huge losses, a user provides a target at which he/she wants to exit with a minimum loss when the cryptocurrency is falling. Such users can place an end limit, either in the buy order or when the coin is in the wallet.