Bitcoin Forum

There is one group of people who suggest having low bids on btc or fiat on exchanges at all times so you can buy low. Whenever btc crashes, they cheer about the bids filling and ask others why those idiots didn't buy.

Then, there is another overlapping group of people who say that btc is a long term hold and that you should hold only btc and none of that constantly devaluing 'dirty fiat'.

The paradox here is that in order to place a bid or be in a position to buy, you need to hold fiat... So which approach is right? Is there some kind of system you use? Is there a certain percentage of btc to hold vs fiat?

Just Dollar-Cost-Average (buy the same dollar amount periodically), stop worrying and love the trend.

I don't like to be 100% bitcoin, if only because it means that I can't lower my average entry point on dips. It can be frustrating watching the price fall -- knowing it will rebound -- and have no cash to buy coins.

Why not have both?
If price goes up, you can be happy, because your Bitcoins are worth more.
If price goes down, slowly buy in more and more the more it drops, you can be happy that you are able to buy cheap.

Unless Bitcoins crash and burn, you can be happy all the time ^^

Yeah, until, like I said, you're all in bitcoin on the latest dip/crash and then all you can do is wait for recovery (or try to rush to inject fiat into an exchange to take advantage). I hate when that happens!  :)

There's a margin account for that (go long in big dips).

I'm often 100% in bitcoin, but if I see we've gone up quite a bit and think there's going to be a pullback soon I will either sell until I have 10-20% in fiat ready and wait for a dip or I will send in fresh fiat to the exchange hopefully before the dip happens or reaches the bottom. I was too late for the SR dip so I had to watch the price go down and bounce up again while I only had bitcoins on the exchange. I did try to sell some on the way down but with all the lag on bitstamp I chickened out and decided to just wait it out. There are always new opportunities ahead though, just learn from your mistakes and be better prepared next time. Don't stress too much over it. :)

You have income, right? Its probably in fiat, right?

So you have "dirty fiat", whether you like it or not. So, logically, you should be happy on a short dip because you have a place to buy. That doesn't mean you intentionally sell BTC for dirty  fiat, though.

IDK how this is a "paradox" at all.

It really comes down to what you think bitcoin will do and what you want to do with your sentiment.

If you believe that Bitcoin is eventually going to go to 1000 or 10k or higher in the next 10 years, then you could easily just let it sit and forget about it. That's what I do. Pick a % of your cash to invest, understand that its a high risk investment and let it sit.

If you think that the long term future of bitcoin is fragile and that volatility will define the market place for the short term, then you may want to trade to try to increase your holdings before you ultimately want to cash out.

Or maybe you are infatuated with bitcoin and want to trade or put in low order price bids to increase your holdings and add to your long term investment strategy.

There is no right or wrong way. But just understand that trading is a job/practice and holding is an investment.  They each have their responsibilities and risks.

That's why you get credit cards, dude - for emergencies.  ;D