Is Trading BTC To AltCoin and Back to BTC as effective as CoinMixing services?

[bitconan]

Hello, I am big fan of btc's pseudo-anonimity. But noticed transactions can still be tracked if someone is looking or knows how. What I wanted to know is  if Coinjoin/Coinmixing is as effective or better than getting BTC/trading to altcoin/then back to BTC for staying anonymous. Please note that my question is for educational purposes. Thanks.

[wunkbone]

You would need to move the altcoins from exchange to exchange for this to potentially work. If you keep them at the same exchange then it would be the same as simply depositing the BTC at the exchange and then withdrawing it some time later (not that this would also not work to mix your coins).

Both exchanges would almost certainly use logs so unless you are trading DRK your transactions could be traced back to you. Even with DRK it would probably be easier to trace the coins back to you then if you use an effective mixing service like bitcoinfog or bitmixer

[MoneyShot2]

I don't really see the need to mix though an altcoin as you can easily deposit and withdraw at some bitcoin casino and the coins they return to you will usually not have any connection at all. Mixers like blockchain.info's shared coin is also very effective. They make sure to create new change addresses for you and everything.