Put down the pitchforks people.

I know that many people are anti this title. But let me explain before you click off.

See, if you check my blog, I did an experiment where I held and traded the same amount of Bitcoin for a year, and the results were spectacular. Hodling was profitable, yes, with an almost 100% gain. But with trading, I was up over 4000% on the year, even with losses factored in.

I get that hodling might be the go to for most people. They have $20000 to invest. They're busy guys and gals with day jobs, families and actual lives. They don't care about being rich through crypto, and of course they deposit into their retirement funds.

But the thing is, hodling is putting TRUST into the cryptocurrency you decide to hodl. And that's never a good thing.

As you would imagine, putting trust in something as volatile as cryptocurrency(let alone alts) is dangerous. Even fiat fails, and it's basis is trust.

Hodling is basically giving the market money and telling it that it can do whatever it likes with the money. So it can be nice at times, and it can be a real pain in the ass at times.

The fact that you're hoping that something big happens after a few years is somewhat weird, especially in the crypto world where the days of 5000% moves are long gone.

It's like this group of people on Twitter who are currently holding XRP. I saw one that said that he bought $20 worth of XRP and that he's going to hodl it till he can buy a McLaren sports vehicle. That's very wrong thinking, because with all the development and innovation that Ripple brings to the table, the token is still undervalued and might never be more than $5. Also, thinking that $20 will magically turn into $210000 because you bought a "super asset" is wrong thinking. For context, that's a 1049900% gain, which you probably won't see in your lifetime by simply holding on for dear life.

Also, you need to be able to react to big moves in the market. If you bought BTC at 3000, and it's now 4500, that's a pretty decent percentage profit. But since you're hodling, and you don't check charts everyday, you might not even hear about this. Or you might, but you'd think that "hey, a new uptrend is here! We might moon this time". Turns out that some news came out on BTC and made the spike, and then the price fell back to your buy spot. You just missed $1500 profit because of faith.

While many might argue that trading a requires sophisticated skill set, if I can learn to trade, anyone can. Seriously. I learnt to trade professionally while having 3rd year electrical engineering exams, preparing my research papers for a previously completed research we carried out, and trying to have a life.And I actually pulled it off. I passed my exams, submitted my research paper, albeit lower quality than I'd have liked, and attended my first college party, all within a few weeks.

But many might argue again that "we're adults, not college kids. We have jobs and no spare time to learn technical analysis and all that stuff".

But someone once said that "you create time for whatever you deem important". And while I am in no position to tell anyone what to do, I feel that instead of pigging out after work in front of the TV watching Money Heist(I'm trapped as well), you could devote just one hour of your time to learning something new about TA. You'd be beat after that anyway, and you'd get much better sleep.

"But isn't trading dangerous?" you say.

No. Trading isn't dangerous, unless you make it.

Let me explain.

You see, I hardly lose money in the markets. When I do lose money, it was out of impatience and a want for action. A wise trader once said that "Not having a position is a position", and I see that fully now.

To be honest, all you need to be successful in trading is, in the order: TA skills, proper money management, proper risk management and patience.

There was a trader in a popular discord group who posted all his trades for 365 days straight. He followed a simple trading plan. Guess what? He never made a loss. For 365 days. All profit. Some days, he hit the jackpot, doubling or tripling his money. Other days, he got out at break even. But never a loss.

Now, while we all can't be like this legend, proper practice and money management skills would allow us to at least come close to his level.

"But where would I find time to trade? I work full time, and when I'm not working, I have family responsibilities".

Well, the fun part about crypto is that the market doesn't close. Even if you're occupied on Saturdays, Sundays are pretty hot times in the crypto markets, because it's when everyone has time. Even if you only trade in Sundays, you'd be making more money overall than if you held.

What do you think? Is trading better than holding?