Bitcoin Forum

Why do so many people refuse to sell a coin that's consistantly losing money when they bought it at a high price, yet they would have no problem selling it if they bought it at a lower price? It shouldn't matter one way or another what one paid for the coin. After all, a dog is a dog no matter what it costs. Any ideas?

you already made this thread?

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1059045.0

 ???

Behavioral Economists call it loss aversion. They are afraid of losing money and believe that it's not a loss until they sell. Of course the whole idea of it not being a loss until they sell is redicilous, but selling does lock in their loss, and they are desperately hoping got a recovery.

That's a different question.

The lesson here is don't buy high - guy before you sleeps sound at night while you sweat.

Most people seem to think that prices are going to continue to rise, especially when a coin is being pumped.

The behavior of the market is driven by the many egos of its participants. Decisions, both buying and selling, are most often times fear-based.

Any time anyone does anything, it is because they think it will make them feel better (pain avoidance). If someone refuses to sell a coin for the reasons stated, it's to protect the ego from the possibility of loss/pain; loss of investment, feeling stupid, loss from missing a potential price rebound, etc., etc..

I think you're really on to something there. A lot of people blame everything on greed when fear seems to be the motivating factor much more than greed does.

Hope, people buy in a high price will don't want to sell at very low price, you have the coin , you still have the chance.

because even if you sell you make next to nothing. You just hold and hope someone pumps it. XSI baby! can anyone say 30 sats?? ahahahahahahahahaha

I bought some coin because there was huge pump. I always forgot to sell them when it was pumped higher. Not I refuse but I forgot to sell! :/.

Implicit in the OP question is that there is someone willing to BUY!

So the real question is: why do so many choose to buy "losing" coins?

Yeah there are bag holders for a reason. They hold their coins waiting on a positive valuation that they can then sell them on at a profit or lessor loss.

There are always people who buy a tiny amount of an alt coin and hold it when it crashes because they cannot be bothered dumping it for a few cents. Thousands of those people cumulatively hold a large percentage of the distribution.

Their loss is already too big to sell. It might be more worthwhile to hold them and see what will happen.
Even if they sell, they already lost a huge part of the capital.

Hope dies last. Until they have those coins there's always hope for minimizing losses, or even make some profit. In most cases it's a false hope, but still hope.

Because they're stubbornly holding on to it in the hope that they can recoup their money but the best practice would just be to let it go and recoup what you can. Alt coiners will never learn, though.