How to trade on OKEX?

Today’s article is about trading at OKEX. We are continuing our series of articles during which we have been introducing our readers to the basics а trading at the exchanges listed on our site.

Shortly we will be continuing the series with the advanced techniques that will involve more complicated notions (“Advanced Trading at…”, for which you will need to have read the first part), and articles for the very advanced users which will be called “Trading at … like a Pro”).

We recommend reading all three articles to the end to get a complete picture, although that’s far from all: we also recommend doing your own background research meanwhile. For that, we have gathered all possible information on our site.

We also recommend consulting a professional before you submerge into trading, not to trade with borrowed funds, and read the content of the exchange site carefully. We also recommend creating a shortcut on the desktop for the exchange of your choice so that you don’t get redirected to some scammy site. There have been multiple reports of redirect fraud, and we wouldn't’ want you to be a victim of that.

The one thing you will probably know already even though you haven't read the article yet is that OKEX is one of the top three exchanges if we go by 24 hour volume (which is $987 537 106 USD at the time of writing).

It is backed up by some serious names in the business, like Tim Draper, offers an app, API, and a browser version offers hedging and margin trading (although we’re still skeptical about that), probably the best liquidity around, and ridiculously low fees.

OKEX is a relative newcomer to the market since they have been around since 2015. With that, there is quite a lot of trading volume, and a decent number of trading pairs as well as an app and online support. You’ll be able to trade fiat currency here and enjoy famously low trading fees.

Also, OKEX is better suited for advanced and pro users, which is why we recommend you familiarize yourself with the three of our articles on OKEX carefully. Let’s take a look at what OKEX offers and whether it makes it stand out from the rest.

OKEX is a Hong-Kong-based exchange that pays meticulous attention to decent English. This, you may think, is not that important, but little things show us that they treat everything with professionalism. In addition, there is some never-seen-before CG here, which you will experience when you sign up. Seems like a trifle thing, but it is evidence of money and goodwill. Also, they say they have ok support, but actually, it’s not just ok, it’s pretty good:

Fiat trading is a valuable feature in an exchange. It makes things easier and appeals to a large user base, thus providing more incentives for an exchange to grow. Exchanges like Coinbase, Gemini, Kraken, Coinmama, and Bitstamp all have fiat functions, and the fact that there is one here is a good sign.

Large trading volume is certainly a good feature, which shows that, even though this platform is relatively new, it managed to maintain a good enough level to attract and maintain plenty of users.

OKEX used to be second only to Binance for a while, and this is no doubt thanks to plenty of useful features like futures trading, great team (see one example below), due diligence with regard to KYC and AML protocols, and so on.

Moving to Malta is no doubt the peak of anyone’s career, and we have nothing to contribute at this point but slow, slow claps. Binance is also moving to Malta, apparently along with other 20 large cryptocurrency players, and Bitfinex is moving to Switzerland. Tim Byun, the Chief Risk Officer, who was the head of Anti-Money Laundering and Anti-Terrorist Financing team of Visa for 5 years and the Examining Manager of the United States Federal Reserve for more than 16 years, explains:

“Malta’s Virtual Financial Asset Act is a solid foundation for the industry and the government to work together in fostering the nascent blockchain/digital asset industry. More specifically, Malta’s sound risk-based approach will help cultivate a responsible, compliant, and healthy ecosystem.”

Now you’ve touched greatness, you’ll probably want to know what made OKEX so good at what they do. After all, if there is a technique, maybe it can be repeated, so if you did what they do you could move to Malta too. Let’s see if we can move you closer to the dream by signing up.

Signing up is pretty straightforward and you can just use any password you wish (not a good sign). We recommend you use upper and lower case and non-standard characters. Enter your personal information here and click Sign up. There are a few options, and we will go for the phone registration one because it’s the quickest:

• Fill in your country.
• Fill in your phone number.
• Click Get Code and get a code (also there is an option for choosing voice activation).
• Enter your password. Tick the box that says you have read an understood Terms and Conditions.

Congratulations! You’re a winner!

You are not taken to the home screen which looks like this:

You are all set to start trading.

Before you do, however, we recommend taking another look at all the technical documentation. “By visiting, accessing, or using OKEX.com and associated application program interface or mobile applications (“Site”), you consent to the policies and practices of our privacy policy (the “Privacy Policy”)”, so please read them carefully, and we wouldn’t want you to consent to something you don‘t want to do.

Remember that exchanges store a lot of your personal data as well as your money, and they are most of the time not liable for hackage, and may not want to do anything about data breaches or break-ins even if you did suffer because of them. You may also discover slightly condescending paragraphs like this in the Terms of Service documentation:

“While other platforms can help you settle or withdraw in fiat currency, OKEX does not allow nor enable settlement or withdraws in fiat currency. OKEX is a digital asset-only trading platform. The plain English analogy is that if you are looking for a heavy metal concert, don’t go to a classical music concert by mistake … you may come out with a headache.”

We have personally seen platforms that help you get fiat currency out and platforms that will require you to lose 12% of your money just to get it out. Remember, fail to plan=plan to fail.

Also, you may encounter you simply will not be wanted by OKEX because you come from a country that is “on international sanction lists” because “we simply don’t want to run afoul with various countries’ regulations”, and they will give you up in a heartbeat, too: “As good corporate citizens, we may be asked for information from law enforcement authorities and will assist if permissible by law.”

In short, if you or your government have committed a serious offence, OKEX is not for you. On the other hand, then, neither are we, so we hope you are a law-abiding citizen. Just kidding, we know you’re a beautiful person.

Please read project documentation to the end before you consent to the Terms of Service.

Go to your Account in the top right corner and then Token Deposit on the left. Choose the token and the address will be selected for you. Note that if you send the wrong coins to the right address you will lose them for good. In order to start trading, you will need to transfer funds from your wallet, which is where they will end up, to your trading account.

In order to withdraw, you will need to pass more verification, which will mean entering your Fund password and email:

Go to “Settings > Security > Verify Email > Show more” to complete the procedure.

Your Spot Account is your main account.

Use Future Account to trade futures. You can only transfer money into this account from the main account.

Fiat to Token Basic Zone / Fiat to Token ProZone is used to exchange fiat to crypto and vice versa.

The Fiat to Token service is quite useful, but also quite limited in terms of variety.

Please make sure you enable 2FA notification as part of the usual security measures. If you want to extend your opportunities, you will need to undergo additional security precautions that will mean giving up your country of origin and ID documentation.

When you have deposited your funds into your wallet by sending them to an address in the section we provided, you can start trading after you transfer the funds into your trading account.

The section we will cover in this guide is Token Trading. Check out our new articles in the series like Advanced Trading on OKEX and Trading on OKEX like a Pro for more advanced and Pro sections correspondingly.

So, you have ventured as far as https://www.okex.com/spot/trade. The first thing you need to do is to select one of the four markets at the top, then a trading pair on the left. Choose what you want to do, whether it is sell or buy, and place your order. We will also cover different types of orders, like limit orders and so on, later, but for now, we will settle for the so-called instant order.
Enter the amount. Click the button.

We recommend strongly against trading futures if you’re new because they are highly tricky and risky.

OKEX is a reasonably good exchange as exchanges go, even though we think they could use more security for someone with such volumes.

It has quite a few connections, and it also offers low commission, so why not? We wouldn’t say it’s the most equipped or the most heartwarming exchange we have ever, ever seen, but it is created for cold, restrained professionals who probably don’t want to get all cuddly and know how to protect their, ahem, assets, anyway.

We say with a little work it could actually remain at the top, although it is doing very well so far in terms of revenue. OKEX is one of the leaders in the industry, and we do recommend this exchange for their high liquidity and low fees. You won’t, however, find this platform easy to use and you will highly likely be here for a while waiting for the support staff to get back to you, so get something to read, turn off your phone, and be prepared for some deep learning required to master this classy yet a little snobby exchange with weak security and a profound dislike of Americans.