Never sell for a loss - is a Myth !!

[mk4]

Interesting arguments in the replies lol.

tl;dr It's going to totally depend on the asset you bought. I'd say "never sell for a loss" when it comes to BTC. But sometimes, if you bought a total dogshit coin for a short-term trade just to hopefully immediately sell at a pump but instead it dropped, maybe it's better just to take the loss.

[Oceat]

It actually depends on who's selling since not everyone are dumb enough to sell at a very low price. So, the "never sell for a loss" might depend if the current market is going to go down just like most altcoins that's been using hype to pump the price. Then you're a bit late and you can't take your profit back but you can still take some of your capital by selling at a loss. Holding Bitcoin is different if you sell it like what the example of OP, I think it's just normal you suffer some losses since not everyone is too perfect to not make some mistakes.

Only weak-hands will sell it at a loss due to panic instead of holding.

[Theones]

This is why I think "Never sell for a loss" is a myth and we should always use a stop loss and play safe with a good risk to reward strategy.

You are ignoring one key point here i.e. at what price you bought the coin. If you buy when coin is at ATH (which is not a good strategy) then definitely you have to sell it as soon as market crashes since there are chances you may struck for longer duration. Key point is you have to wisely choose the price at which you buy coin.

[teosanru]

I have heard many people say that never sell for a loss but what does it actually mean ?

Assuming you have bought a coin at $10 and the price goes down to $9 but you don't sell.
You could have placed a stop loss at $9 but you take "Never sell at a loss" so seriously that you decide to not put a stop loss.
The price goes down to $8 but you are too good at HODL. Suddenly the market crashes and the price goes down to $5.
You could have limited your losses at $9 but now your portfolio is down by 50%.
Now the price has to go 100% so that you breakeven with no loss no profit whereas you could have bought back at $5 and gained potential profits using a stop loss.

This is why I think "Never sell for a loss" is a myth and we should always use a stop loss and play safe with a good risk to reward strategy.

This actually depends on person to person, some people are traders, for traders, having a stop loss is very important, you cannot even trade without a stop loss in your armoury, but for the investors, the issue is entirely different, for them it's about holding good positions and carrying those positions to a time when everything just skyrockets, the investors should never ever sell for loss because they aren't active every day in the market and once they sell, it's not necessary that they will immediately find another opportunity to enter the market at the correct point. Traders, on the other hand, should definitely have a stop loss because, for them, every drop can be a potential entry, moreover, their capital is all that they have, if they lose it they will really become zero. So it depends on what you do, there is no one universal truth.

[The Cryptovator]

Trading actually needs real-time experience to take a real-time decision. Sometimes should sell even in the loss to prevent a big loss. I learned it from my previous mistakes. I know every trader has different strategies to make a profit. But preventing loss is one kind of profit if you can buy back in more dip. I had bought a shit coin and didn't sell it at a small loss and eventually, I lost everything. Almost my portfolio become 20X down.

So I won't agree those are thinking never sell in the loss. A shit coin I am holding for 3 years due to the thought of never selling in the loss that drives me huge loss eventually. Always important to take real-time decisions based on the situation.

[yhiaali3]

For me, I do not prefer a stop loss, but I also think selling with a loss is better than continuing to lose, I mean I do not use the stop loss button, but I monitor the coin if it continues to fall, I sell 50% and then buy back from the bottom, and so this process can be repeated with each Falling so that you eventually get a low loss rate by buying from the bottom and increasing the amount of coin you own.

[Johnyz]

This is why I think "Never sell for a loss" is a myth and we should always use a stop loss and play safe with a good risk to reward strategy.

Many are afraid to sell at a loss because they still believe that the market can recover same thing on their holdings and there’s nothing wrong with that, we just have to respect that decision to keep on holding. For me, we all have different strategy and I personally have that stop loss level to secure and keep my money safe because I can always buy at the bottom price and this could be more profitable. Re-access your strategy, cut loss is something that you should understand more and don’t take it negatively.

[freedomgo]

This is why I think "Never sell for a loss" is a myth and we should always use a stop loss and play safe with a good risk to reward strategy.

Many are afraid to sell at a loss because they still believe that the market can recover same thing on their holdings and there’s nothing wrong with that, we just have to respect that decision to keep on holding. For me, we all have different strategy and I personally have that stop loss level to secure and keep my money safe because I can always buy at the bottom price and this could be more profitable. Re-access your strategy, cut loss is something that you should understand more and don’t take it negatively.

The problem with some traders is that they take stop loss as nothing but not so important which i think is very important though because it will help us to minimize the losses that we are going to experience. Although this is not applicable at all times but for me, its best to set stop loss every time you plan to sell your coins.

However, the myth "never sell for a loss" is definitely true for all investments. But if we can create some preventions not to lose that much like having a cut loss or stop loss is never a bad idea as long as we are taking it on our own advantage.

[AmoreJaz]

This is why I think "Never sell for a loss" is a myth and we should always use a stop loss and play safe with a good risk to reward strategy.

Many are afraid to sell at a loss because they still believe that the market can recover same thing on their holdings and there’s nothing wrong with that, we just have to respect that decision to keep on holding. For me, we all have different strategy and I personally have that stop loss level to secure and keep my money safe because I can always buy at the bottom price and this could be more profitable. Re-access your strategy, cut loss is something that you should understand more and don’t take it negatively.

The problem with some traders is that they take stop loss as nothing but not so important which i think is very important though because it will help us to minimize the losses that we are going to experience. Although this is not applicable at all times but for me, its best to set stop loss every time you plan to sell your coins.

However, the myth "never sell for a loss" is definitely true for all investments. But if we can create some preventions not to lose that much like having a cut loss or stop loss is never a bad idea as long as we are taking it on our own advantage.

you can get insights if you need to sell even at a loss if your instincts is saying that coin will continue to go down as the team has no plans of developing it further. you will get a hint if you are following their social media channels because some discussions are mentioned on those channels and not published on their site or thread. so even at a loss, you need to sell it to cut your losses. because in most cases, the revival of the project is hard esp if the team behind already abandoned their project.
better act fast and dont wait for miracles to happen. once the team leaves, you're screwed if you keep holding your coins.

[DoublerHunter]

For me, I do not prefer a stop loss, but I also think selling with a loss is better than continuing to lose, I mean I do not use the stop loss button, but I monitor the coin if it continues to fall, I sell 50% and then buy back from the bottom, and so this process can be repeated with each Falling so that you eventually get a low loss rate by buying from the bottom and increasing the amount of coin you own.

^ That is how the volatility of BTC works! We never know what will the result be ahead or even there is no button waiting for you ahead.
I will not prefer the stop loss because I can able to hold my coin for a long term until seeing my BTC was double the price from the time I was invested.
Sometimes we should understand that BTC investment needs time for us to gain profit, we should adjust whatever happens and hold it. If most of us were able to hold even 5 years before, we surely gain profit folded so many times by now.

[Ziskinberg]

Interesting arguments in the replies lol.

tl;dr It's going to totally depend on the asset you bought. I'd say "never sell for a loss" when it comes to BTC. But sometimes, if you bought a total dogshit coin for a short-term trade just to hopefully immediately sell at a pump but instead it dropped, maybe it's better just to take the loss.

Certainly agree with that as not all coins are meant good to hold for the sake to earn money but many of them are worthless. If I blindly bought coins that obviously have no chance to make a profit, I will surely sell them right away even I will lost them. I tend not going to sacrifice my time waiting for no hopes but instead to diversify my portfolio and start again. This seems to be the best deal with these shitcoins, I guess.

[famososMuertos]

I must be honest with you and I thought he meant the opposite, that you asserted that selling at a loss was a bad idea. In reality imo is not a matter of myths, it has to do more with the availability of that money or having such but so reliable information, like a crystal ball, and I am not exaggerating, that is, if you have The certainty that an asset is going to sink is sold at a loss regardless of the strategy you have.

But regardless of the above, it is a financial movement, which on a large scale of investment saves you from bankruptcy or from losing a lot of money, it is that simple and consequently its application is very useful.

At some point, at any moment in life is sold at a loss...it will happen.

[Bollexz1]

It's funny how people take "Never sell for a loss" the wrong crucial way. Matter of fact, these same set of people are the same exact entities that wouldn't still take profit when their positions opened does 1.3/1.5. Substantial profit aiming kills lot and that's why they could never be consider a trader anyway because they don't get to stay that long.

[3la9l_kolbaCa]

Trading with no certain outcome is more like gambling you future towards a situation that couldn't give you good outcome. It's very important to take precautions rather than having multiple choices, because we may end up loser in the end.
If you're doing trades in a spot, there's no room for you to lose because you already figure out the current value which you're going to take. Don't risk on placing orders, it can be frustrating when you can't get the exact price target.

[Slow death]

I don't believe in this theory that you shouldn't sell at a loss, this is a dangerous theory, there are many situations where a person needs to sell to reduce losses and buy lower to sell when the price increases a lot and get a high profit... no one can guarantee that the price will always go up, who can guarantee that? nobody!

[irsykes]

I have heard many people say that never sell for a loss but what does it actually mean ?

Assuming you have bought a coin at $10 and the price goes down to $9 but you don't sell.
You could have placed a stop loss at $9 but you take "Never sell at a loss" so seriously that you decide to not put a stop loss.
The price goes down to $8 but you are too good at HODL. Suddenly the market crashes and the price goes down to $5.
You could have limited your losses at $9 but now your portfolio is down by 50%.
Now the price has to go 100% so that you breakeven with no loss no profit whereas you could have bought back at $5 and gained potential profits using a stop loss.

This is why I think "Never sell for a loss" is a myth and we should always use a stop loss and play safe with a good risk to reward strategy.

If talk about spot trading, for me that is why i am not use any capital. If the condition is really bad then i will split capital into 3 levels anticipating if more dump come, but if the coin still considered as good coin like what i buy in market usually big volume coin then in that $5 i will buy again, so only need average $5 and $10 / capital and usually don't need to back to $10 to get my ROI.

[GreatArkansas]

If you don't know how to accept a loss or cut loss, you are not a trader.
This is one of the many ways to be a good trader.
Always remember that 10% loss is better than 40% loss. If you are worry about your loss, always thing that there are thousands, millions trade opportunities are coming, as long as you still have the capital.

[danherbias07]

Yes, because when that happens it's not trading anymore. It's a HODL and you are becoming one of their investors that trust the process.
When it goes $5 using your example you will not be able to sell anymore. In short, you are locked in. All you could do at that moment is wait and hope that the price will go back as soon as possible.
It's a common error of confusing trading and investing. Traders will save their ass from more loss while investors will try to maximize anything as long as they are being fed by sweet promises.

[adaseb]

Unless you are playing with money you can lose then you always need to have an exit plan somehow such as a stop loss.

Imagine seeing Bitcoin go to $69K and you bought the dip at $67K because people on the internet promised you $98K Bitcoin at the end of November. And it kept going lower and lower and lower and lower. And most likely you couldn’t take the losses anymore and you would sell at $42K like last time. If you used stops at like $65 or $64K and reevaluated your situation you wouldn’t be in this mess holding a huge bag.

[worle1bm]

I think you have to face loss as well as profit in the trading and you can't be perfect trader who always makes successful trade as there is nothing like that.Selling at loss means if you are holding btc or some good coin then selling them below your investment levels is loss for you which can be avoided but there is difference of panic sell as you are just selling due to some FUD.The trading always goes with profit/loss so gain experience from your past mistakes.