Altcoin Trading Price BTC Question

[jerry0]

Why is every altcoin traded against btc and not USD? 


This is what is even more confusing.  On bittrex, if you want to buy or sell a coin... lets just say lisk for example.  The price of lisk could be 5 dollars or 8 dollars or 3 dollars etc.  Now let say you want to buy lisk at 5 dollars when the price is currently 5.25.  Well if you do that, you have to check when lisk is 5 dollars or do an order of buying x amount of lisk when lisk hits 5 dollars.  So let say you want to buy 100 shares of lisk at 5 dollars.
But instead of putting down 5 dollars, you need to put it as a decimal in terms of btc.  Well isn't there a big issue with this? 


Because 0.00088 btc = $5 now.  However let say you put 0.00088 btc is the price you want to buy.  So let say the lisk price drops to 0.00088 and then it does the buy order where you buy 100 shares of lisk at 0.00088 btc.  However, that 0.00088 btc could be now 6 dollars instead of 5 dollars right?  Or of course it could be 2 dollars as well assuming btc price go down a lot?  So with btc and eth and litecoin where you buy it against USD, its easy to calculate your profit and buying it.  But with altcoins, are you suppose to look at the 0.000x btc decimal more than the actual dollar amount?  Because i always look at the dollar amount of an altcoin.  So in that example, wouldn't that mean you are buying lisk now at 6 dollars as oppose to 5 dollars even though the lisk price actually dropped?  So the lisk you got is at 6 dollars even though the price drop from 5.25 to 5 dollars?  I read others say you aren't suppose to look at the usd price with altcoins?  Can someone explain this more simpler?  The thing is it seems altcoin trading is very confusing because you are trading against btc and not usd.  I mean shouldn't you be looking at the price or lisk etc?  Because if you wanted to buy ETH if it drops to 250.  Well you can do that by doing a buy order of it when it drops to 250.  Or just buy it when its 250.  But with altcoins, say an altcoin is 10 dollars.  But you want to buy it at 8 dollars.  But if you wait till it hits 8 dollars but the btc price goes higher, then you actually lose here?  So if you want to buy an altcoin but wait for price to drop, you want the btc price is drop as well?  Or is that not relevant?   Its like even though the usd price went down, it would be cheaper if you got it at 10 dollars?  Because that makes no sense at all.

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[feelideb]

Altcoin are like Bitcoin because their concept is similar to Bitcoin though they might have different specifications. Now to address your concern. Altcoin is not dollar economy but individual coin economy. The reason many time altcoin is traded against bitcoin is simply because individual coin are not yet spread and saturated yet. And  since bitcoin is, they benefit from success of bitcoin. When it come to issue of price you will find out that the price behaviour of individual coin are different. So no matter the price of bitcoin, you will buy each individual coin according to their value in the market and that should not affect your profit or loss regardless of bitcoin prices.

[pawanjain]

Altcoin are like Bitcoin because their concept is similar to Bitcoin though they might have different specifications. Now to address your concern. Altcoin is not dollar economy but individual coin economy. The reason many time altcoin is traded against bitcoin is simply because individual coin are not yet spread and saturated yet. And  since bitcoin is, they benefit from success of bitcoin. When it come to issue of price you will find out that the price behaviour of individual coin are different. So no matter the price of bitcoin, you will buy each individual coin according to their value in the market and that should not affect your profit or loss regardless of bitcoin prices.

That's the right explanation to the question. Also, to add to your answer I would say that most of the exchanges prefer to trade on pairs with crypto to crypto which makes it easier for them to convert the currencies and maintain the charges. Since BTC is the king of cryptos, altcoins are traded with BTC pairs and then BTC is traded with USD.

[jerry0]

But you are buying altcoin in terms of btc price.  So wouldn't that mean if you buy an altcoin at 5 dollars usd price.  But then when you want to sell it at 7 dollars... its possible to lose money due to the btc price?  And let say you buy 100 shares of lisk at 5 dollars or some decimal btc.  But when you sell lisk at 7 dollars, assuming btc goes up a lot, wouldn't that mean you could lose money here because when you trade the lisk for btc, you are getting much less btc than you traded it for the lisk?

[thepo1m]

It all depend on the denominator you want to base your buy on, so if your denominator is USD there is no need to compare it to BTC which I think is vice-versa, some are even only interested in Ethers

[Sungoku]

It all depend on the denominator you want to base your buy on, so if your denominator is USD there is no need to compare it to BTC which I think is vice-versa, some are even only interested in Ethers

yes it is now a new bitcoin shows sharpness here hehe ,
the price is rising soaring makes altcoin worse

[jerry0]

funfair is now 2 cents.  But the amount it is in terms of btc is different compared to when it was 3 cents.  So is it possible to lose money if funfair goes higher to say 5 cents when you bought it at 2 cents if btc price changes a lot?