What is succesful trading?

[Xendrios]

What do you consider succesful bitcoin/dollar trading?

If the total value of your portfolio:
-goes up when looking at it in total dollar value?
-goes up when looking at it in total bitcoin value?

Why I'm asking...

I've made a bot able to increase my value in dollars with at least x% monthly if the bitcoin/dollar exchangerate increases with an even greater amount.
If the exchangerate drops, my bot will make sure its value looking at it in bitcoin goes up.

This results in profit when the exchangerate does nothing but go up and down. However, when in a rally like the recent month, it seems like it might have been smarter to just hold on to bitcoins. (My value when looking at it in bitcoins declined...)

Should I keep my program going? or would it be smarter to just buy & hold?

[adamstgBit]

if its a good bot, and making money regardless of which way bitcoin happens to go, use it!

but thats no reason to not have a buy and hold as a big part of your strategy.

[notme]

I run a similar bot.  Only give it a small percentage of your holdings and do a few manual trades to help keep it on the right side of the longer term trends.

[Rannasha]

A bot, or an investment, can only be considered successful if it outperforms competing strategies that have the same, or better, accessibility and the same, or less, risk.

Buying a stack of BTC and holding it in a paper wallet is easy, accessibility is really high. A trade-bot, on the other hand, takes more effort and knowledge to set up, tweak and monitor and more risky than holding BTC. So if the trade-bot does not outperform simply holding BTC, it's not worth it. And when does it outperform a simple buy-and-hold strategy? When it increases your BTC and equivalent fiat value.

[notme]

A bot, or an investment, can only be considered successful if it outperforms competing strategies that have the same, or better, accessibility and the same, or less, risk.

Buying a stack of BTC and holding it in a paper wallet is easy, accessibility is really high. A trade-bot, on the other hand, takes more effort and knowledge to set up, tweak and monitor and more risky than holding BTC. So if the trade-bot does not outperform simply holding BTC, it's not worth it. And when does it outperform a simple buy-and-hold strategy? When it increases your BTC and equivalent fiat value.

Except a good bot can reduce your risk compared to holding BTC.  In case you haven't noticed, BTC can go from $266 to $50 in just a few days .

[BitCoiner2012]

BTC. USD index is irrelevant to my portfolio long.

[Xendrios]

A bot, or an investment, can only be considered successful if it outperforms competing strategies that have the same, or better, accessibility and the same, or less, risk.

Buying a stack of BTC and holding it in a paper wallet is easy, accessibility is really high. A trade-bot, on the other hand, takes more effort and knowledge to set up, tweak and monitor and more risky than holding BTC. So if the trade-bot does not outperform simply holding BTC, it's not worth it. And when does it outperform a simple buy-and-hold strategy? When it increases your BTC and equivalent fiat value.

Except a good bot can reduce your risk compared to holding BTC.  In case you haven't noticed, BTC can go from $266 to $50 in just a few days .

Both have a valid point. So I'm kinda wondering... Will bitcoin go down enough times for my bot to become more profitable than a buy & hold.

When the exchangerate crashes I end up with alot less losses in dollars than when I just did a buy & hold. My bot won't even notice and will be 'glad' to buy cheaper btc.

Either way, I consider it less risky to have money in my bot than in bitcoin on a paper wallet.

Are there alot of daytraders or bots able to increase their btc holdings on a consistent basis? Even during a rally like we're in at present?

[dserrano5]

What do you consider succesful bitcoin/dollar trading?

If the total value of your portfolio:

…allows me to buy a bigger house, either in bitcoin, euro or seashells.

[MAbtc]

I view my trading portfolio in dollar value.

My non-trading coins..... I don't think about it. That's down-the-line time.

[TERA]

Both. Each sell should be higher than the previous buy and each buy should be lower than the precious sell, so that fiat value AND coin value are constantly going up together.

Since society still runs on fiat, I find the fiat value of my portfolio to be more significant. However, that is not an excuse to make a terrible short trade, and I would still consider a rebuy higher than a sell to be an act of failure. It effectively reduces the fiat value of the portfolio (or what it could have been) and wastes time and energy.