Is Auto Pool Switching really a good thing?

[Marty19]

I see the more and more pool providers are introducing automatic pool switching based on current profitability. Hell, I was even toying with the idea of doing it for my pools at http://ispace.co.uk

Then it dawned on me that it makes no sense .... when an alt coin is more profitable than BTC for a very short time, a mass of hashing power is pointed at it and simply drives up the difficulty and results in it being less profitable. Also, if the coin is only more profitable for a short time it has to be sold immediately which drives down the price on the exchanges, again making it less profitable.

Those that do not sell immediately then end up holding coins worth less than if they had just mined BTC.

In my opinion, people should do their own research and invest their hashing power in quality coins they feel are actually or could be worth something and not just blindly follow the crowd. This would build up better coin communities and a more stable marketplace.

[Asmorpheus]

I agree  I only dabbled on multipool for a couple of days with a sapphire 6850 and in the end I had like 8 different coins in amounts so small  that I couldn't withdraw because it didn't mine long enough on any one coin where as going after just one coin I atleast had a couple to trade after 2 days

[Wipeout2097]

You mean "LTC", litecoin in the OP, not BTC.

There are still some small gains to be had. Some coins take a while (hours, days) to adjust difficulty, others have a good market depth, pool operators are careful at selling, etc... That said, you have a great point and I rarely use pools that claim to mine the "most profitable coin".

[goldbars]

mine at a pool like https://ultimatecoinpool.com/ that doesn't auto-trade them

[kalus]

as a miner, yes auto pool switching is a good thing.  I treat this as a high-risk investment, and a pool that pays more money allows me to break even on my hardware quicker.  becuase altcoins are essentially gambling, i mitigate my risk by converting as much of it as i can to bitcoin.  I can do high-risk, but will not tolerate stupid or stubborn risk.  

Some people prefer to make their money on inital mines.  others manipulate, pump-and-dump, and speculate on coins i've already mined for them.  I prefer to make money by building rigs and mining.  

I also do not believe there are as many quality coins as people think there are.  There's room for a handful of coins, and the rest are doomed to be forked, starved, manipulated, and delisted.  That's my own personal view, and that's how i approach the altcoin market.