Does holding really make us avoid losses?

[bittraffic]

Holding means you are not losing any coins, the number of coins you got doesn't decrease at all si in a way you avoided loses but the value of the coins will just decline. In the end you lose money still. You'd rather be dumping if bear market still continues this at least you are not just watching your money fadeaway right before your eyes.

[cellard]

Basically, you have to factor in 3 things:

1) The possibility that you are selling the bottom. Everyone thinks to be a trading genious of themselves, but it's very often that people sell literal bottoms in panic. It's too hard to guess where a market like Bitcoin bottoms, so hence just hold it throught the storm and end up victorious. We have been through this many times.

2) The possibility that you don't sell the bottom, and as you sell, it continues going down, but all of a sudden there are very bullish news out of nowhere and you wake up to an huge green candle at a higher point where you left, or perhaps not quite there but close enough that it doesn't become profitable and you end up in loses because:

3) Taxes and trading fees. When you sell and fiat shows up in your bank account, you better be paying all of your taxes and reporting all of your trades and be sure you don't go bankrupt in the process.

[jadenunderhill]

I don't want to spread some "FUD". But..

First, what if we are standing not in front of cryptowinter, but the "crypto ice age" itself. Seriously, the adoption process is freezed. I started to worry then Stripe refused bitcoin few months ago. It was a real sign for me. Not so many companies are ready to accept payments in Bitcoins. And I have no proof  (if I'm wrong, please correct me) that this number is growing. Second, because of that, Bitcoin became more a speculative issue, but not a new age world currency. And, as we all understand,  global financial-industrial groups are natural enemies of Bitcoin itself. Satoshi started Bitcoin as a global  alternative to them. But now we pray that these people, these organizations will invest in Bitcoin. in fact, we are hoping, that they will buy the whole conception. And we will be ritch. But..  we estimate everything in $(!).  We want dollars, not new age currency. If I am the only person, who concerned, that their ultimate goal is to destroy bitcoin?

Bitoin has many enemies, but only few friends among the powerful people or institutes now (many of them are only pretending for now). So, I'm really worring that we can see a $3000, and then $2500, and even less.

So, to answer the TC question - holding is a great way, but what if they will win? Of cource, Bitcoin will not die. But it will be an underground currency. Foe geeks, for criminals. But it will never be as expencive (in fiat)  as in Dec 2017, even as in today. So, in that case holding strategy will fail.

[basyang]

Whenever coins prices fall, there are always many posts that suggest that we continue to hold and not sell.
But is this really helpful? In fact, losses have already occurred, and we cannot deceive ourselves with the reason of book losses instead of actual losses. This is simply a shit reason.
Indeed, if you hold coins and wait for a bull market, you may recover your losses，but this is uncertain, it is not necessarily happening.
More often, holding will only make things worse.

Well, you have a point about this topic. Now that we see everyday that Bitcoin is really down we are thinking if our decision in holding our tokens or coins is still right. Actually, if you feel that you want to sell instead of holding your coins then sell it. Holding is a matter of choice and its not good to have a regret in the end if you not follow what you want. Holding is risky because as long as bitcoin is down the value of it is losing.

[basyang]

Real hodlers do not even consider short term rise and fall in price,real hodlers hodl for years on end,and hardly ever monitor the little rise and fall,thats not to say it's a guarantee to success in trading,but it's a much more easier method to trade without much technicalities..
 So if you're hodling,its best to hodl and if you're not,then you're an active trader,selling and buying at every little dip or rise

Well you have a point about that. You Identify the difference between holding and not about bitcoin. In my opinion. Holding is for a person who wants a long term investment though it is really risky to lose you coins when the price is lower but you still wants hold it. And if you afraid to lose the value of your coins then sell it, in fact its your choice and we can not do anything once you decide either hold it or sell it.

[Hariyati Amin]

It is back to yourself to decide. If you think holding right now only brings losses then you can do a cut lose. Decreasing prices is a good time to buy instead of selling. But personally I prefer to hold and wait for the right time to sell. This is the time when the patience of a trader is being tested.

[cellard]

I don't want to spread some "FUD". But..

First, what if we are standing not in front of cryptowinter, but the "crypto ice age" itself. Seriously, the adoption process is freezed. I started to worry then Stripe refused bitcoin few months ago. It was a real sign for me. Not so many companies are ready to accept payments in Bitcoins. And I have no proof  (if I'm wrong, please correct me) that this number is growing. Second, because of that, Bitcoin became more a speculative issue, but not a new age world currency. And, as we all understand,  global financial-industrial groups are natural enemies of Bitcoin itself. Satoshi started Bitcoin as a global  alternative to them. But now we pray that these people, these organizations will invest in Bitcoin. in fact, we are hoping, that they will buy the whole conception. And we will be ritch. But..  we estimate everything in $(!).  We want dollars, not new age currency. If I am the only person, who concerned, that their ultimate goal is to destroy bitcoin?

Bitoin has many enemies, but only few friends among the powerful people or institutes now (many of them are only pretending for now). So, I'm really worring that we can see a $3000, and then $2500, and even less.

So, to answer the TC question - holding is a great way, but what if they will win? Of cource, Bitcoin will not die. But it will be an underground currency. Foe geeks, for criminals. But it will never be as expencive (in fiat)  as in Dec 2017, even as in today. So, in that case holding strategy will fail.

Bitcoin doesn't need to be used as fiat by the average joe to do groceries with in order to go to the so called moon. If Bitcoin gets a % of gold's marketcap we would go to $100k easily, and Bitcoin is already a better gold, so it's undervalued at any rate.

If you are going to be waiting for the average joe to use Bitcoin then keep waiting, it's not going to happen until they are forced to do so because fiat collapses, but like I said, we don't need that.

And if Bitcoin was "an underground currency. Foe geeks, for criminals." and 1% of all that trade happened on Bitcoin then we would be way past $250k already. There's billions moved daily on the "black market". Add in money moved via luxury art and so on and get the math. Bitcoin is TINY, anyone not buying at current prices is insane and increasingly insane as it goes lower.

[basyang]

Holding means you are not losing any coins, the number of coins you got doesn't decrease at all si in a way you avoided loses but the value of the coins will just decline. In the end you lose money still. You'd rather be dumping if bear market still continues this at least you are not just watching your money fadeaway right before your eyes.

You are totally right about that. The point is the number of bitcoin does not define how much many you hold but the value of it in the market. Just like if you have a 0.00010 bitcoin is it a few coins but what if the value of bitcoin price in the market is range from 200,000 to 500,000 dollars though you have a small coins but when the value of it is higher you can earn a good profit.

[imapessimist]

I agree that hodling should not mean holding on to the bitter end no matter if your coins are going up or down.  It means trying to buy at a fair price and holding till you have made a reasonable profit and then selling part of your holding.  But it shouldn't be extremes.  Like holding on to the bitter end when your investment could be worth nothing or else holding while you watch it go up and up and then you don't sell any and then complain when it goes down and cry over the profit you could have made but didn't.  Common sense is lacking with some of this.

[sheenaedago]

It is back to yourself to decide. If you think holding right now only brings losses then you can do a cut lose. Decreasing prices is a good time to buy instead of selling. But personally I prefer to hold and wait for the right time to sell. This is the time when the patience of a trader is being tested.

  I agree with you mate, perhaps bear market is an opportunity to everyone whom wants to gain profits easily. And I think it takes more easier if we bare patience on holding unto it and do not be attached by panic selling because it is a big a loses in a crypto world.

[EdenHazard]

Holding is only for investors who have a long term investment strategy and also, they are so confident about the development of cryptocurrency in the future. For someone who chooses investment in the short term or for those who don't believe in the development of cryptocurrency in the future, I don't know holding is one of their best ways. Even though they chose to keep holding, I'm sure they will find a lot of concern about falling prices.

[lalabotax]

Whenever coins prices fall, there are always many posts that suggest that we continue to hold and not sell.
But is this really helpful? In fact, losses have already occurred, and we cannot deceive ourselves with the reason of book losses instead of actual losses. This is simply a shit reason.
Indeed, if you hold coins and wait for a bull market, you may recover your losses，but this is uncertain, it is not necessarily happening.
More often, holding will only make things worse.

of course not, we know that the risks that really will await every altcoin or bitcoin holder especially in this downward trend. we all know that this investment is very risky, so the point. knowledge and experience must always be involved in each choice to invest in alt or ico.

[BitcoinPanther]

Holding specifically Bitcoin, yes it avoid us to suffer losses in our investment when the dip come.  But if we keep on hodling even if the market value is increasing then it is also avoid us of getting profit.  I guess hodling is a double edge sword depends on our decision when to hodl or when to sell.  But of course if the market is going down, since BTC will be here to stay, it is best to hodl to avoid unnecessary losses in our investments.

[Muzika]

We can avoid loses for a short period of time as long as the market is struggling to have a good value. Holding is the best thing to do to adapt the current struggle of the market because you cant do a good trading when the market is continuosly falling.

[safarabela]

When you buy at a high price and because the market falls you panic and sell low, and by selling low you will lose. If there is a decline in the market, holding is the best choice to save from losses, but the decision is yours, choose the best for yourself.

[joshv06]

When you buy at a high price and because the market falls you panic and sell low, and by selling low you will lose. If there is a decline in the market, holding is the best choice to save from losses, but the decision is yours, choose the best for yourself.

yes holding the coins will help in getting back huge profit when the market is up and bump again. There are few hard times we have seen for BTC and again it recovered with positive results so waiting with patience is the key to success in the crypt market.

[South Park]

Trading like mad, selling and buying back, not only do they have the capacity for ruin if you mistime it, but in plenty of places you may be setting yourself up for a ginormous tax bill that you may be unable to pay.

This is something that many miss, holding is a very effective strategy because it minimizes the amount of trading operations that you do which means the taxes you need to pay are lower, I know that for many this doesn't mean much because they think they can avoid their taxes if they are using cryptocurrencies, but that is not true, so that is a huge advantage that holding has over trading.

[Tagus45]

Depends on the coins you hold, if you have patience then holding can save you from losses. The market is in too bad conditions, and takes a long time to recover. And if you don't have patience, holding is not the right choice, because you continue to feel scared.

[nydiacaskey01]

Holding helps to avoid loses if you are holding the right coin. if you are holding a coin that is soon to be delisted or progress of the project is stuck or slow then better let it go and consider it as a loss than holding to it thinking that price will still go up. I use to do this when I a day trading then suddenly price went down. I have no choice but to shift from day trading to holding instead of selling at a loss.