Artificial intelligence has shown it’s leaving no stone unturned over the last few years, and the cryptocurrency sphere is no exception. Effective trading involves analyzing vast datasets to detect patterns and predict future price movements — which happens to be an area AI algorithms excel in. The rise of AI crypto trading has been an exciting development for many in the space, but it doesn’t offer a guaranteed way to earn profits due to the risks involved.
Unsure whether to embrace or avoid AI trading? Let’s take a look at the benefits and risks involved.
Benefits of AI in Crypto Trading
Let’s start positively by surveying the benefits of AI crypto trading.
Educational Tool for Beginners
Crypto trading has high barriers to entry. For most people, learning the ropes is a long and painful process with a steep learning curve. Some beginners opt to pay for an expensive course or coach, but this is out of reach for many — not to mention the high number of scams in the area.
AI offers an alternative. The trading knowledge and skill level to run an AI tool is lower than what you’d need when executing the trades yourself.
While relying on AI tools with zero knowledge of what you’re doing is unwise, AI trading democratizes crypto trading and opens it up to a larger pool of people. It’s also the perfect educational tool for beginners, who can learn from the AI and let it guide them through the trading process.
Better Decision Making
The main benefit of AI in crypto trading is that it has the potential to improve decision-making. As much as we like to tell ourselves we’re rational, humans are notoriously emotion-driven and operate based on biases, making us prone to making rash decisions. Estimates suggest that 95% of day traders lose money.
For instance, people might fall prey to the sunk-cost fallacy: the unconscious belief that money we lose is worth more than its inherent monetary value. This can make people reluctant to sell an asset that drops in value out of a desire to recoup their losses — even if the most logical course of action would be to pull out before its value plummets further.
We also tend to panic when prices fall, meaning we can throw logic and objectivity out of the window and make emotional decisions. Or, we may become greedy and prideful after a string of successes.
AI doesn’t have these issues. Algorithms are free of emotions and human biases, so they can always make the best decision based on the data and information. While this doesn’t mean that AI always makes the right call when trading cryptocurrency, it at least means it won’t make the wrong decisions due to acting on feelings and biases.
Able to Analyze More Data
Humans are, well, human. Even if we spend hours every day analyzing price charts and cryptocurrency market news, we’ll never be able to consume all relevant media. We also have to make time for activities like sleeping and eating, so we can’t spend every waking moment on data analysis.
AI doesn’t face such cumbersome restraints. Within seconds, AI can analyze a practically unlimited amount of data. It can literally examine every piece of publicly available historical data, giving it a powerful edge over human cryptocurrency traders. For instance, the AI trading bot from AlgosOne executes trades based on diverse sources such as global news, movements in currency markets, and cryptocurrency-specific data.
Perhaps the most exciting part about this is that new machine learning algorithms don’t just help AI to analyze data. They also allow it to continuously learn from data by trying different strategies and adjusting trades based on what works best. This means AI can become more intelligent over time, boosting its ability to predict patterns or future power movements.
Since AI doesn’t have to take breaks to sleep or make lunch, it can also analyze data and monitor the markets in real-time. In such a dynamic trading environment, this is a crucial advantage and increases the chance of making high profits.
Risks of AI Crypto Trading
Looking at these benefits may lead you to think that AI is practically infallible. But just because AI isn’t human, it doesn’t mean it’s flawless — here are a few risks to keep in mind.
Overreliance
AI can give crypto trading the illusion of being simple, but it’s just that: an illusion. Traders using AI can easily fall into the trap of thinking their algorithms will always make the right call, leading them to take greater risks and potentially more money than if they were only relying on their own decision-making.
This risk is amplified for those with minimal understanding of how AI and cryptocurrency trading work.
Inaccuracies
Part of the reason that overreliance on AI is so dangerous is its tendency to be inaccurate.
Even if AI is less prone to errors than humans, it can still make errors. Cryptocurrency markets and trading are incredibly complex fields, and we’re constantly presented with unprecedented events (meaning the historical data and patterns AI has observed won’t always lead to the right decisions).
Plus, while AI doesn’t suffer from human biases, it has its own biases.
Since AI lacks human judgment, data that is incomplete, low quality, or biased will lead AI to make the wrong decisions.
AI crypto trading is only useful when opting for high-quality tools trained on high-quality data.
Regulatory Issues
AI crypto trading is a fairly new field, so it is largely free from regulations at present. However, as the technology rises in popularity and AI crypto trading becomes more widespread, it is beginning to attract attention from authorities.
It’s crucial for traders using AI to ensure they comply with relevant laws (such as those regarding data privacy and market manipulation) and stay updated with the latest developments.
Failing to do so could lead to severe penalties or even restrict their ability to keep trading.
Striking a Balance
AI crypto trading is set to be a game-changer in the trading world, including cryptocurrency markets, and neither beginners nor seasoned traders can afford to ignore it for long. Its potential to increase accuracy and profits is an exciting prospect. However, AI trading also carries disadvantages, such as its potential for bias when relying on low-quality data and the increasing presence of regulation.