Becoming a professional OTC trader from scratch [Part 3]

There are thresholds for doing anything. Being an OTC trader is like a process of crossing one threshold after another. Each threshold will block many people, so the road to ultimate success is not crowded.

Part 4: Virtual Systems

If you are using Windows, you can skip this article because the story is not strong enough, but for users using MAC, it is indeed a very meaningful technical post. After all this trouble, I am more convinced that for most people, MAC is sufficient for daily work needs.

There are many people who cannot leave the Windows system until now, not for other reasons, but because they cannot do without the online banking that can only be used under Windows. The online banking systems of all Chinese banks were developed when Windows dominated the world, and the security mechanism basically uses the IE security certificate method. Although various banks have launched mobile versions, the functions of the mobile versions are more or less castrated. As a trader, especially when there are frequent foreign exchange receipts, mobile online banking cannot meet the needs. A MAC user has encountered severe challenges because he wants to use online banking on a computer.

Installing a Windows virtual machine should be the only choice for MAC users who rely on online banking. This is really a big challenge for me, a user who is used to simple things. According to the online guide, I installed VirtualBox step by step, and then installed win7. The process is not too tortuous, but it is by no means simple. The virtual machine uses online banking. Due to the characteristics of USB, the installation and use of the old version of the online banking system can be said to be full of difficulties. But there are always more solutions than difficulties. After nearly two days of hard work, and with the patient help of my partner Qiu Liang, I can finally run almost all online banking on MAC.

Starting from this day, my computer entered a dual system state, and my career also entered a dual system state. On the one hand, I continued to maintain the operation of the platform, and on the other hand, I was ready to work hard to become an excellent trader. I was actually a little excited.

Thinking back to the days when I was so idle that I didn’t know what to do, the busyness of the day now is like another world, but I prefer the present life, although my daily income is much less if I don’t trade:), but seeing the trading platform is getting more and more popular, I don’t care about anything else. (Written before posting)

Part 5: Western Union

After observing other traders, those with large trading volumes usually trade with foreign users, while domestic users have relatively small trading volumes. The reasons are as follows:

There are relatively few domestic users due to education and knowledge reasons, but there are many domestic exchanges, there is no threshold for account opening review, and transaction fees are basically free. This leads to the fact that regular domestic users can basically go to the exchange to trade on their own.

For occasional users, in addition to having a fixed service provider, they also have to overcome the threshold of understanding Bitcoin. Even if they cross this threshold, it is not easy to trade on LBC. Since LBC is often blocked by firewalls, access is unstable. After layers of filtering, only a few domestic users can finally trade. This also makes the transaction price in China relatively cheaper than that in foreign countries. The economic theory that the market determines prices also applies here.

If I want to become a good trader, trading with foreign users is almost an inevitable choice. How to collect foreign exchange is a difficult problem before me, and Western Union seems to be the most familiar channel. Due to occasional reasons, I have remitted Western Union remittances abroad before, but have never received any. Would it be a good direction to start from this channel?

According to Western Union's official website, Western Union is a remittance company that exists independently of the banking system abroad, and has three main partner banks in China, namely Postal Savings Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China, and China Everbright Bank. In addition, Bank of China is also an option. It is said that these banks can realize payment via online banking, but there is too little relevant information to be found, so I decided to walk to the bank to ask and find out the situation.

There are many banks around my office, but only on my way home from work are there Bank of China and Agricultural Bank of China next to each other. So I went out early and queued up at Bank of China. I didn’t go directly to Agricultural Bank of China because I thought that Bank of China would have an advantage in foreign exchange business. But the final result was ridiculous. I waited for an hour and a half and finally got to the teller window. The teller told me that Bank of China did not have Western Union remittance business and recommended me to try other banks. When I went to Agricultural Bank of China, it was closing. The clerk told me to come early tomorrow, blah blah…

The next morning, I went to the Agricultural Bank of China as scheduled. There was no problem with the card application process, but when I asked about the Western Union payment service, the waiter was hesitant and couldn't explain clearly. Finally, I found a girl who seemed to be a key business person and told me that Western Union remittances could be received, but generally cash was withdrawn directly at the counter. After I repeatedly asked whether I could use online banking to receive the payment, she contacted her superior by phone and finally told me that I needed to collect the first payment at the counter before I could receive the payment through online banking.

This made me feel very embarrassed. Would my customers be willing to wait so long for me? With a nervous mood, I published the first advertisement for accepting Western Union remittances on LBC.

July 8th is a memorable day. I received two orders early in the morning. The first one was for 575 US dollars. Now I think I was too bold at that time. I released the bitcoins without officially completing the collection. I just called Western Union to confirm that the remittance could be collected. According to the rules of Western Union, if the customer applies to withdraw the remittance at this time, it can be withdrawn immediately. My foreign exchange transaction was dead before it was born. Therefore, I took the initiative to tell the second user that the bank would open at 9 o'clock and hoped that he could wait for 2 hours. He actually agreed readily.

With a nervous mood, I went to the Agricultural Bank of China early in the morning. After completing these two transactions and successfully receiving the payment, my heart was so excited that I even felt the joy of recovering what I had lost. When it was officially confirmed that I could use the Agricultural Bank of China's online banking to receive Western Union remittances from now on, I seemed to see a golden road slowly spreading out in front of me!