This is very taxing on physical and mental health

All bitcoin speculation is a trade. You can never make money on Bitcoin by holding it indefinitely, because there are no dividends. You will just hold it until the day that inevitably has an abrupt crash to $0 and will have nothing to show for it, even if it reached $100,000 first.

Ethereum is already up 3000% this year and 40,000% in 2 years and is centrally ruled by a single king who forks the coin every month.

I predicted on here years ago that when you can buy Bitcoins with a normal brokerage, bitcoin would surge to $10K.  Now up at $8K we get news that BTC will be listed on CME? I dont know what to make of it now that we are already up here. Then the price moves just 10%? I guess insider knowledge of this is what was fueling the rally all along.

To become a successful trader, you have to go through 5-10 years of being a failing trader

I sent cash to btce using some shady payment processor.

Someone post the pic of Morpheus saying "When its time to sell Bitcoin, you wont have to"

In the past, the answer was yes. At this point for Bitcoin to increase further you are counting on it becoming a widely adopted currency by masses or to take over the world. Its going to be much heavier now. Its much different than speculating on gains from $1, $10, $100, or $1000. At this point I think trading is the way to go, at least until the currently rally crashes and consolidates. At any moment, Japan could become the next China and its all over.

You cant use a stop loss order in an illiquid market though, so dont trade those unless your VERY confident about the coin.

Bitstamp is best for dumping and withdrawing.

If you are not in the US, Bitfinex is best for trading BTC/USD.

It depends what you define as a "20% profit on your trade". As an altcoin trader, I see all profits as coins, not USD, but maybe youre only in the business of trading USD. When you say 20% profit, do you mean that the LSD/USD value went up 20% or that LSK/BTC value went up 20%?

If LSK/BTC went up 20%, then your 0.64BTC has increased to 0.768BTC. Multiple 0.768BTC by the BTC/USD and you have the USD value. If BTC/USD has remained the same since the time of your trade, then you have a 20% profit in USD as well. If BTC/USD dropped more than 20%, then you have a loss in USD (but not until you sell BTC/USD). If BTC/USD has increased, then you have have two different gains multiplied by eachother.

If LSK/USD went up 20%, then you need to know the price of BTC/USD to figure out how many bitcoins you have. If BTC/USD remained the same, then you have 20% more bitcoins. If BTC/USD fell, then you have two gains on your level of bitcoins. However, if BTC/USD has risen more than 20%, which happens quite often, then you have LOST bitcoins.

Three or more monitors. A PC (nothing special). Backup generator. Backup internet connection;

No, just no.

It is very difficult to monitor multiple charts, log in/out and operate multiple or even one exchange using a phone. For some reason poloniex logs me out every 5 minutes on a phone and crpytowatch likes to drop all my settings, and every time I switch back and forth between a chart, everything else is disturbed or logged out. Forget reactions to a split second movement, reaction to a wall-buy, or competing with other traders with your orders. The keyboard and mouse are very helpful for the process of order entry and split second movements.

I dont like ETH. ETH still has yet to do a proper consolidation from its rally from $10 in March. It is up 3000%. Or if you go back 2 years, it is up 40,000%. It has a market cap of $35B and wants to overtake BTC, which would be an implication if it rallied again. All based on speculation and ICO lotteries and not on actual adoption. Meanwhile it has a centralized leader who forks the coin whenever he wants and it seems to fork every month or so. I think it needs to go on a long crash like bitcoin in 2014, bitcoin in 2011, or litecoin in 2014-2015.

The question in the poll is irrelevant. Yes it could barely reach an ATH and then promptly drop back to lows like it did June'16 with DAO.

Its extremely easy to buy bitcoin at the right time during dips because you will see the volume support - when the price tries to go down again with the same volume as the last dip but it only goes down slightly or not at all then its a good buy time. Selling is a bit more tricky.

I like this distribution:
25% USD in bank accounts
25% USD in bitcoin exchanges
25% BTC in altcoin exchanges
25% BTC long term on chain

With this, I am always making profits. The altcoin trading portion is always making profits in bitcoin. If bitcoin goes up, all my BTC portions rise. If bitcoin goes down, my USD is more significant, plus there will always be a great bitcoin daytrading opportunity with the USD on exchange, plus altcoins usually go up even more. If BTC died, I'd still have the USD.  If all my money and accounts were stolen or frozen by the government, I'd still have the BTC on chain.

Bitcoin rallies after a new country starts trading it with high volume.

Altcoins also tend to rally when they open on new exchanges but also other times as well. It is hard to know when unless you are involved in the development community and news and or you are a TA expert.

I dont try to predict rallies and I just trade. I typically get in after something has already broken out and it dips the first time.

I am in the USA. I have some questions. I've been hesitant to sell any more bitcoins because it might push me into a higher tax brackets. However, with my altcoin trading, it may be irrelevant, depending on the answers to these questions:

1. If I trade an altcoin for bitcoin and make a profit in bitcoins, but never touch the US dollar (Sell) by the end of the tax year, are the profits taxed or not?
2. If I am taxed on the altcoin profits, and the the bitcoins that I traded with were a long term hold, are the altcoin profits taxed as a short term hold or a long term hold?
3. If I am taxed on the altcoin profits, what price basis is the tax - is it the price of bitcoin at the time that I closed the trades?

4. If bitcoin forks into bitcoin cash, etc, but I dont sell, am I taxed?
5. If I am taxed on the fork, and the the bitcoins that I had held were a long term hold, is the fork taxed as a short term hold or a long term hold?
6. If I am taxed on the fork, what price basis is the tax - is it the price of bitcoin at the time of the fork?

Thanks

Top of D Ichimoku cloud at 2K

Well first can someone explain the premise of Bitcoin going to $25,000? It still hasn't really consolidated from the run from $1200.

Three reasons I dont see a really big rise occuring right now:
1. The book on finex shrank rather than grew.
2. The volume has remained the same rather than grown.
3. It looks just like right before the dip from 3000.