Did i make or lose money on this trade?

[jerry0]

I bought an altcoin a long time ago.  I spent around $850 to buy it.  Example say i bought it at $0.01.  So i bought 85000 of it roughly.  I sold it when it was a bit over 2 cents... but sold exactly half.  Let say i originally spent 0.045 btc to all that altcoin.  When i sold the altcoin... i got back about 0.05 btc.  And of course i still had about 42500 of the altcoin.  But that altcoin has dropped over 90% and i still have it now.



Does that mean even if that altcoin i have go to 0... i still profit because i spent 0.045btc originally for the 85000 altcoins and got back 0.05btc for selling 42500 altcoins?




The thing is the btc that i received back when i sold the altcoin... i still have it.  But the btc price that i received the btc for the altcoin sale was higher than the current btc price now.  So in the end no matter what, i profited because i received more USD worth back then for the sale of altcoin? Or because i received more btc than i started with?



In terms of income, its the USD.  But in terms of btc accumulation, its the 2nd part but still its a yes because i received more btc than i put in it for altcoin right?



Now the thing is do ppl consider altcoin gain or loss... when you sell an altcoin for btc... do you look at the current usd value of total btc received?  Or you look at how much btc you received back?  Because you can easily receive less btc than you originally spent on the altcoin... but the usd value of the btc is worth more.  You could also have a usd loss but receive more btc than you put in... assuming that altcoin does better than bitcoin itself..

[almightyruler]

If you spent 0.045 BTC for coin X then got back 0.05 BTC when you sold half of it, yes, you've realised a profit (in BTC), and still have some potential to make more.

If you want to talk USD value, there's still a potential for overall loss, if BTC dips below what it was worth when you started trading, but look at it this way... which balance is worth more?

1. 0.045 BTC, if you'd done nothing

2. 0.050 BTC, from active trading

[joniboini]

altcoin gain or loss... when you sell an altcoin for btc... do you look at the current usd value of total btc received?  Or you look at how much btc you received back? 

It entirely depends on the traders, or in short: whatever you think is good for you. I personally consider both BTC and USD as my profits. Because in the end I want to cash out some of my holdings, and sadly I still need fiat because my country doesn't accept crypto as a medium of payment, USD/fiat is what I considered more important. But I won't think twice and will say yes If I could make more Bitcoin when I trade my coins/tokens.

[Thirdspace]

Now the thing is do ppl consider altcoin gain or loss... when you sell an altcoin for btc... do you look at the current usd value of total btc received?  Or you look at how much btc you received back? 

basically people will calculate gain/loss per trade basis
if you buy/sell altcoin with btc, then your btc amount as the gauge
if you trade btc/fiat, and you prefer fiat as your primary currency
then you should consider gain/loss in terms of fiat accumulation

to make it simple, I keep records of actual fiat money I used to buy bitcoin
and have separate records of gain/loss on my altcoin trades in term of btc
only cash out (or use) bitcoin as needed or when I think btc price is high enough to realize my profit

[akram143]

I bought an altcoin a long time ago.  I spent around $850 to buy it.  Example say i bought it at $0.01.  So i bought 85000 of it roughly.  I sold it when it was a bit over 2 cents... but sold exactly half.  Let say i originally spent 0.045 btc to all that altcoin.  When i sold the altcoin... i got back about 0.05 btc.  And of course i still had about 42500 of the altcoin.  But that altcoin has dropped over 90% and i still have it now.



Does that mean even if that altcoin i have go to 0... i still profit because i spent 0.045btc originally for the 85000 altcoins and got back 0.05btc for selling 42500 altcoins?




The thing is the btc that i received back when i sold the altcoin... i still have it.  But the btc price that i received the btc for the altcoin sale was higher than the current btc price now.  So in the end no matter what, i profited because i received more USD worth back then for the sale of altcoin? Or because i received more btc than i started with?



In terms of income, its the USD.  But in terms of btc accumulation, its the 2nd part but still its a yes because i received more btc than i put in it for altcoin right?



Now the thing is do ppl consider altcoin gain or loss... when you sell an altcoin for btc... do you look at the current usd value of total btc received?  Or you look at how much btc you received back?  Because you can easily receive less btc than you originally spent on the altcoin... but the usd value of the btc is worth more.  You could also have a usd loss but receive more btc than you put in... assuming that altcoin does better than bitcoin itself..

If you are still holding that 0.45 btc then you might be profitable with the current price but as I guess you are not in huge loss even after you only should half of that initial tokens.

[fullhdpixel]

Since I do not do much of BTC payment for on what I spend my currency on, I think I would look at the current value of the BTC IS USD, because whatever gain that I make will still be converted to fiat, and to me, it is when I see how heavy the fiat is that I will really know that I have made enough gain from whatever investment that I have.

The only time to consider quantity in btc and in altcoins, is when we are in bear market, and you know that the more the altcoins or BTC we have, the higher chances that we get of it increasing in future, it means more fiat will be gotten in future wen the value of bitcoin increases. It is a good thing that you are still holding half of the coin, the time you will appreciate your decision not to sell everything off is when the market of altcoins starts on bull run.

[slaman29]

I have no idea why I got confused by this unnecessarily long explanation. It all boils down to what you see as money. Is it fiat or USD? OR is it Bitcoin? And let's not pretend some of us see alts as money. For me, if it can be used to pay bills, and feed myself and give me a roof over my head, then that's money.

[Vispilio]

You need to analyze your p/l in BTC terms and in USD terms, and then consider how much of your entire net worth you were intending to

hold in cryptos vs fiat all along, and make the desired adjustments based on that...

[Reid]

The problem here is you keep on converting.
IF you keep on trading from altcoin to bitcoin and vice versa do not convert it to USD.
If you are just going to keep on converting to that form of currency then use BTC to Tether instead or your altcoin to BTC then a rush to USDT.
With that, you wont keep on regretting what you did because that you USDT will just be converted 1:1 to USD.
Problem solved.

In the end, you can still make a profit if you keep that bitcoin until it rise more.

[adzino]

I bought an altcoin a long time ago.  I spent around $850 to buy it.  Example say i bought it at $0.01.  So i bought 85000 of it roughly.  I sold it when it was a bit over 2 cents... but sold exactly half.  Let say i originally spent 0.045 btc to all that altcoin.  When i sold the altcoin... i got back about 0.05 btc.  And of course i still had about 42500 of the altcoin.  But that altcoin has dropped over 90% and i still have it now.
Does that mean even if that altcoin i have go to 0... i still profit because i spent 0.045btc originally for the 85000 altcoins and got back 0.05btc for selling 42500 altcoins?
The thing is the btc that i received back when i sold the altcoin... i still have it.  But the btc price that i received the btc for the altcoin sale was higher than the current btc price now.  So in the end no matter what, i profited because i received more USD worth back then for the sale of altcoin? Or because i received more btc than i started with?
In terms of income, its the USD.  But in terms of btc accumulation, its the 2nd part but still its a yes because i received more btc than i put in it for altcoin right?
Now the thing is do ppl consider altcoin gain or loss... when you sell an altcoin for btc... do you look at the current usd value of total btc received?  Or you look at how much btc you received back?  Because you can easily receive less btc than you originally spent on the altcoin... but the usd value of the btc is worth more.  You could also have a usd loss but receive more btc than you put in... assuming that altcoin does better than bitcoin itself..

Yeah, you did make a profit of 0.005 BTC. Its a very simple calculation. You spent 0.045 BTC to buy those altcoins. You sold half of those altcoins for 0.05 BTC after few months. That is it. You are in profit now. No matter how much the price of the altcoins drop, you are still in profit. If you sell those altcoin for even cheaper price, you will still be in profit. Its just that you missed your opportunity to make more profit. This is based on comparing the altcoin with btc trade. If you think about the fiat/USD value then it might depend on the price of the bitcoin.

[olamidey]

I bought an altcoin a long time ago.  I spent around $850 to buy it.  Example say i bought it at $0.01.  So i bought 85000 of it roughly.  I sold it when it was a bit over 2 cents... but sold exactly half.  Let say i originally spent 0.045 btc to all that altcoin.  When i sold the altcoin... i got back about 0.05 btc.  And of course i still had about 42500 of the altcoin.  But that altcoin has dropped over 90% and i still have it now.



Does that mean even if that altcoin i have go to 0... i still profit because i spent 0.045btc originally for the 85000 altcoins and got back 0.05btc for selling 42500 altcoins?




The thing is the btc that i received back when i sold the altcoin... i still have it.  But the btc price that i received the btc for the altcoin sale was higher than the current btc price now.  So in the end no matter what, i profited because i received more USD worth back then for the sale of altcoin? Or because i received more btc than i started with?



In terms of income, its the USD.  But in terms of btc accumulation, its the 2nd part but still its a yes because i received more btc than i put in it for altcoin right?



Now the thing is do ppl consider altcoin gain or loss... when you sell an altcoin for btc... do you look at the current usd value of total btc received?  Or you look at how much btc you received back?  Because you can easily receive less btc than you originally spent on the altcoin... but the usd value of the btc is worth more.  You could also have a usd loss but receive more btc than you put in... assuming that altcoin does better than bitcoin itself..

If you are still holding that 0.45 btc then you might be profitable with the current price but as I guess you are not in huge loss even after you only should half of that initial tokens.

It looks quite profitable to me. Looks like your conversion is the issues. Since you already sold half, then you're in profit. Always take note of your trades and keep tabs on different tokens if you trading multiple tokens. It's easier to get lost in transactions while seeing the BTC value as being good.

[omonuyak]

I bought an altcoin a long time ago.  I spent around $850 to buy it.  Example say i bought it at $0.01.  So i bought 85000 of it roughly.  I sold it when it was a bit over 2 cents... but sold exactly half.  Let say i originally spent 0.045 btc to all that altcoin.  When i sold the altcoin... i got back about 0.05 btc.  And of course i still had about 42500 of the altcoin.  But that altcoin has dropped over 90% and i still have it now.



Does that mean even if that altcoin i have go to 0... i still profit because i spent 0.045btc originally for the 85000 altcoins and got back 0.05btc for selling 42500 altcoins?




The thing is the btc that i received back when i sold the altcoin... i still have it.  But the btc price that i received the btc for the altcoin sale was higher than the current btc price now.  So in the end no matter what, i profited because i received more USD worth back then for the sale of altcoin? Or because i received more btc than i started with?



In terms of income, its the USD.  But in terms of btc accumulation, its the 2nd part but still its a yes because i received more btc than i put in it for altcoin right?



Now the thing is do ppl consider altcoin gain or loss... when you sell an altcoin for btc... do you look at the current usd value of total btc received?  Or you look at how much btc you received back?  Because you can easily receive less btc than you originally spent on the altcoin... but the usd value of the btc is worth more.  You could also have a usd loss but receive more btc than you put in... assuming that altcoin does better than bitcoin itself..

To me you actually make profits but you could have made it big if you know when to sell at the right time. I have some coins that I also take the same decision you took on them but I am regretting keeping some unit of it instead of sell all when there were very good in price. These are some investment decisions we made par time and we made those decisions because we can not accurately predict what will happen in the future.

[stomachgrowls]

~snip~.

Youre just spinning these words all over again and again,

You have just answered your own question.If you have invested 0.045 btc and when you sell getting back 0.05 btc on it then
you do make profits no matter whats the current price of btc.It depends if you do concerned about usd value of it or still on btc units.
It doesnt matter.

[noormcs5]

altcoin gain or loss... when you sell an altcoin for btc... do you look at the current usd value of total btc received?  Or you look at how much btc you received back? 

It entirely depends on the traders, or in short: whatever you think is good for you. I personally consider both BTC and USD as my profits. Because in the end I want to cash out some of my holdings, and sadly I still need fiat because my country doesn't accept crypto as a medium of payment, USD/fiat is what I considered more important. But I won't think twice and will say yes If I could make more Bitcoin when I trade my coins/tokens.

If anyone is buying altcoins from bitcoins then the purpose should be to increase the bitcoin and do not look for its usd value. There might be cases when a bitcoin pump makes the altcoin price look higher but it is infact low in satoshi.

[Ucy]

You clearly made a profit (could be a loss too).  . Probably not a good profit depending on how long you have been holding the coins.
I guess your profit should be calculated in the dollar value if bitcoin price was higher when you bought the coin

Do you remember how much bitcoin was worth back when you bought the coins.?

[exstasie]

Now the thing is do ppl consider altcoin gain or loss... when you sell an altcoin for btc... do you look at the current usd value of total btc received?  Or you look at how much btc you received back?  Because you can easily receive less btc than you originally spent on the altcoin... but the usd value of the btc is worth more.  You could also have a usd loss but receive more btc than you put in... assuming that altcoin does better than bitcoin itself..

I think most altcoin traders are looking at P/L in terms of BTC. I certainly am. Everybody is trying to stack up as much BTC as they can. This is especially true for low cap altcoins which don't even have liquid fiat markets.

This is how I look at it: in terms of ROI, was it better to hold BTC or the altcoin? That's why I analyze alt/BTC charts. Altcoins only bubble against BTC once every blue moon so I hold BTC for the most part while waiting patiently for the next altcoin season.

[Thirdspace]

I think most altcoin traders are looking at P/L in terms of BTC. I certainly am. Everybody is trying to stack up as much BTC as they can. This is especially true for low cap altcoins which don't even have liquid fiat markets.

agree. so basically we can divide traders into 2 types: altcoins traders and bitcoin traders
altcoin traders will be trading altcoins to accumulate as much bitcoin as possible
bitcoin traders will be trading bitcoin to gain profit in $ or his national currency
but at the end, altcoin traders will also try to cash out his bitcoin at the highest price to gain even more profit

[TheUltraElite]

no one will be profitable in trading in very short period of time that is effect if you do lots of investment and trade only if you can achieve some kind of profits otherwise you will need to be very hard work on trading then only you can clearly see the prophet in your hand.

You really need to work on your English if you wish to get merited and ranked up.

I would not say that short period of trading is not profitable. If you can buy some shitcoins which gets pumped after you buy them then you will be in profit. But is that practical? No, because you would have to know from beforehand which shitcoin is going to pump. Hence it becomes risky. The safer option is to buy those coins which have a long term track record of good trading volume and market cap so you get enough liquidity.

[jerry0]

Well are there more traders wanting to accumulate btc... or trading alts to get more usd or usdt?

[RealMalatesta]

Well are there more traders wanting to accumulate btc... or trading alts to get more usd or usdt?

You cannot compare the usage or interest of both, when did usdt come into existence that people would trade more for it, the reason why many people trade for now is to earn some fiats and the most popular fiat we still know right now is USD, although we still have some people that are holding usdt, but they are doing so to actually continue to keep the value of the fiat that will be used for further trade.

Once people trade, they tend to convert it straight to USD because that is the best pair to use for getting their money into their traditional bank. If I am trading on any platform, the pair I use most is BTC/USD and once I get my profit, I convert it straight to my usd account in other to further change it to my local currency through a local exchange.