Why is "bagholding" seen as a negative thing?

[rocoro]

I wouldn't have half the money I have now if I didn't "baghold"

[babybonobo]

speculative perspectives

[MicroGuy]

I think "bagholding" is a derogatory term in itself, thus likely to prompt negative thinking.

It might be like asking, "why are 'rednecks' seen as backwoods bumpkins?" It's because the meaning is implied.

[generalizethis]

I wouldn't have half the money I have now if I didn't "baghold"

If you are a trader, the last thing you want is to be is holding a large amount of coin you only value as a means to acquire BTC or $.

If you are an investor and have researched a coin, and better yet, use it, then bag-holding is what you want to be doing. Though the term bag-holder is meant to refer to someone who got it wrong and is sitting on a useless asset, it is commonly misused on this forum as anyone who is sitting on a large stash of a particular coin. No one knows for certain what coins will succeed or fail, so bag-holder is premature in this sense.

It's just a different mind-set. Both are a lot of work and require a skill-set (to be successful), but some people are wired better for one approach over the other.

The major difference is that the bag-holder gets to acquire spending power by sitting on what the trader wants and the trader gets to acquire what is most valued without taking the initial risks of getting the future market wrong.

There are a few people like Risto (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=68520) who are good at both.

[TaunSew]

I'm skeptical of OP's claim considering, with the exception of pump and dump, the market has been bear since February 2014.   That means a lot of people have been bagholding coins for 1.5 years and sometimes even longer (some alternates did come out in 2012-2013).

The people who bought NXT / Bitshares at $80+ million capitalization have had unrealized losses and been bagholding for a long time.  In fact, it's genuinely rare to find a crypto that is worth more today than what its' past peaks (Litecoin and Ripple are more good examples).  So unless OP is circle jerking about Bitcoin in 2010 (notice this section is called Alternate Discussion) I don't believe him.  I'm sure he will go invent some story or scrounge around on coinmarketcap for a story of some alternate that fits his claim.  

So how long do you have to justify waiting with the slim hope that you break even or see unrealized gains?  It's going to be 2 years soon for a lot of bagholders.  Do you have to wait 10 or 20 years?  "It's not a realized loss if you don't sell" I suppose but I wouldn't sleep easy either.


Lettuce beef cereal - only people who have been making money in cryptos have been developers, instaminers, IPO scammers and those who got in early into stuff like NXT and NEM.

[NorrisK]

He probably means he started "bagholding" (better term would be accumulating) coins in the lows and then sold them after a pump or rise in prise.. Than it is not really bagholding, rather smart buying

[tspacepilot]

It comes from a very old English expression "to give someone the bag".  The current idiom is "be left holding the back" which means be left with the negative consequences of something.  See this for the source:  http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/be+left+holding+the+bag

[aarons6]

I wouldn't have half the money I have now if I didn't "baghold"

i dont think you understand this term..
bagholding means you were left with a large sum of coins after it hit rock bottom.. meaning you didnt sell when you had the chance.. or you bought in too late while it was on the rise and it is now worthless.

the thing with altcoins is after the initial pump and dump of the premine, someone is always left with the large sum of coins they were conned into buying.. the bagholder..

[keats3]

I wouldn't have half the money I have now if I didn't "baghold"

i dont think you understand this term..
bagholding means you were left with a large sum of coins after it hit rock bottom.. meaning you didnt sell when you had the chance.. or you bought in too late while it was on the rise and it is now worthless.

the thing with altcoins is after the initial pump and dump of the premine, someone is always left with the large sum of coins they were conned into buying.. the bagholder..

Sometimes bagholders stuck with large sums of worthless coins get lucky when the coin rallies again. After Bitcoin hit its ATH there were posts by people saying that before the rally they considered themselves bagholders of worthless BBQCoins. Luckily for them BBQCoin mooned after Bitcoin and the BBQCoin "bagholders" made a huge profit.

[Spoetnik]

I don't consider it bad.. I consider the behavior of *some of them bad (big difference)

I would never throw the baby out with the bath water !

[rocoro]

I wouldn't have half the money I have now if I didn't "baghold"

i dont think you understand this term..
bagholding means you were left with a large sum of coins after it hit rock bottom.. meaning you didnt sell when you had the chance.. or you bought in too late while it was on the rise and it is now worthless.

the thing with altcoins is after the initial pump and dump of the premine, someone is always left with the large sum of coins they were conned into buying.. the bagholder..

Sometimes bagholders stuck with large sums of worthless coins get lucky when the coin rallies again. After Bitcoin hit its ATH there were posts by people saying that before the rally they considered themselves bagholders of worthless BBQCoins. Luckily for them BBQCoin mooned after Bitcoin and the BBQCoin "bagholders" made a huge profit.

Yeah there's a bunch of coins where I bought in the pump,  left with a "bag" , but continued to accumulate and they went back up.  
I guess it is just perspective,  I think pump and dump people just want people to be "scared" of bagholding so they end up selling out too soon
- while they (p&d) accumulates when the prices are low.

If you are an investor and have researched a coin, and better yet, use it, then bag-holding is what you want to be doing. Though the term bag-holder is meant to refer to someone who got it wrong and is sitting on a useless asset, it is commonly misused on this forum as anyone who is sitting on a large stash of a particular coin. No one knows for certain what coins will succeed or fail, so bag-holder is premature in this sense.

It's just a different mind-set. Both are a lot of work and require a skill-set (to be successful), but some people are wired better for one approach over the other.

I guess that sums it up the best,  in my view.  
It is work doing mainly averaging out your cost and mathmatically finding the point where you've accumulated enough to offset any downside price or "loss" that you had.
Plus keeping track of the many different coins I'm in and where they are at,  it isn't easy!

 

[The Sceptical Chymist]

The same reason "You're a fudge packer" is seen as an insult:  because you have no clue.

[Zetacoin Express]

In crypto being left holding the bag is not necessarily a bad thing,  at least with the older ones (2 years+) and maybe some of the newer ones that have come out in the last year.  It's not like the stock market where a company could disappear.  With these coins, none really controls anything, and that's the beauty of it.  The blockchain is forever.

However...

Bag holding could be bad not for the holder but for the coin it's self.  Investors are scared away by large holders since they have the potential to crash the market.  Problem is, while investors a able to think that far ahead, they fail to think beyond that detail...  Once the large holders exit and take their profits, there are no more large holders to crash the market and the coin's value can rise beyond the entrance point.

That is what appears to be the current issue with Zetacoin.

[Dxuz]

well, bagholding is risky....
that's all i can say
we don't know when it will be pumped or dumped...

[1986]

I wouldn't have half the money I have now if I didn't "baghold"

It's not really a negative thing, but I think it mainly has negative connotations because people are scared the bagholders will dump their stash of coins at one point, or it's used negatively to describe someone who is foolishly holding onto their worthless coins in the hope that they go to the moon in the future (which they will then dump).

[tspacepilot]

I wouldn't have half the money I have now if I didn't "baghold"

It's not really a negative thing, but I think it mainly has negative connotations because people are scared the bagholders will dump their stash of coins at one point, or it's used negatively to describe someone who is foolishly holding onto their worthless coins in the hope that they go to the moon in the future (which they will then dump).

The reason it's seen as a negative is because it's a common english idiom which dates back to at least the 1600s didn't you guys see my answer above?  OP, can we lock this thread?  I think your question has been answered.

[The Sceptical Chymist]

I wouldn't have half the money I have now if I didn't "baghold"

It's not really a negative thing, but I think it mainly has negative connotations because people are scared the bagholders will dump their stash of coins at one point, or it's used negatively to describe someone who is foolishly holding onto their worthless coins in the hope that they go to the moon in the future (which they will then dump).

The reason it's seen as a negative is because it's a common english idiom which dates back to at least the 1600s didn't you guys see my answer above?  OP, can we lock this thread?  I think your question has been answered.

Well my answer above should have put any doubts on the issue to rest for once and for all, but no.  OP is a fucktard, I hate to say it.  It's just a stupid question to begin with.

On a related note, there is a thread here something to the effect of "How can I make 1BTC a year?" and EVERY. SINGLE. RESPONSE. is "Hey U can join a signature campaign."  I have been begging for that thread to be locked for weeks but to no avail.  This board is a joke and the joke isn't funny anymore.

[CoinBateman]

Bagholding is a negative thing because it usually means you're holding something that is worth less than the value you paid for it with no foreseeable increase in its value.

All assets have ups and downs, but the value of a crypto coin depends very much on the pumpers, and the development.

Without development, there isn't going to be anything to really fuel pumps.

Thus, you're left bag-holding.

On the other hand, you could try to increase your holding of the coin at the point that nobody else wants to bag-hold anymore, and then run a pump very easily.