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Nope, im not going to liquidate anything.,. only going to hold my actual bitcoin off the exchanges for a few days around August 1st.. then put btc back on the exhanges afterwards.. You can make a case that everything is tied to BTC, if it dives the whole market dives... so there isnt really any point to mess around with all the coins prior to the forking... I just want to have double coins in the rare chance that they hard fork and some exchanges might only support one chain and since they hold your private keys your stuck with the chain they support..

My account should be funded and running on Kraken well before Aug 1st, as a new trader should I wait till after Aug 1st to start trading? Not sure what hard or soft forking even means, and if Bitcoin does take a dive the whole market will go with it for a while right?

I really cannot imagine a hard fork.. while I will take precautions, I dont think it will happen.. and as long as its just the soft fork, everything will probably go up, because the fear in the market will be over.. everyone is just worried about this forking.. many traders will likely move there money off exchanges or into other coins.. its really hard to know whats the best plan.. but yeah after august 1st things could get really good