Now Suchmoon, don't do what you accused me of doing, picking data points to make your argument look good. 
I think our disconnect is the relationship between ION and BTC and the USD. I am not sure of your exact date range, so I think August 20 to December 24 is close to what you have depicted here. BTC went through a huge upward price movement as we all know. The price of ION to BTC went down, but the USD value went up. I did not check, but I imagine this happened to a large number of coins. I took just the two dates, August 20 and December 24, and entered their prices (from https://coinmarketcap.com historical prices) and show that both BTC and ION went up compared to the USD. It is only natural that ION went down compared to BTC due to BTCs huge increase. So to be fair and accurate, I think your chart needs to point out this information don't you?
I think our disconnect is the relationship between ION and BTC and the USD. I am not sure of your exact date range, so I think August 20 to December 24 is close to what you have depicted here. BTC went through a huge upward price movement as we all know. The price of ION to BTC went down, but the USD value went up. I did not check, but I imagine this happened to a large number of coins. I took just the two dates, August 20 and December 24, and entered their prices (from https://coinmarketcap.com historical prices) and show that both BTC and ION went up compared to the USD. It is only natural that ION went down compared to BTC due to BTCs huge increase. So to be fair and accurate, I think your chart needs to point out this information don't you?No, I don't. It's a chart straight from Bittrex. There is nothing wrong with it. Shark is already spamming this thread with various USD-based numbers, look at his screenshots if you prefer.
I think a great number of coins underperformed BTC, doesn't mean they are worthless.
Just because the math gets wonky doesn't mean the math doesn't work out, just harder to prove without putting private specifics on a public forum. I purchased one third of my coins (vague I know) on 2-16-2017 for .05 average cost. Sitting at $3.25 now. Can't see that as being a loss no matter how I try to spin it.
I think the risk is there for any coin, setting a risk factor score would be an interesting idea for a startup? Kind of like FICO, but we call it KINKY. Krypto INcome Kost Yearnings. What is your KINKY score Mr. ICO?
Just because the math gets wonky doesn't mean the math doesn't work out, just harder to prove without putting private specifics on a public forum. I purchased one third of my coins (vague I know) on 2-16-2017 for .05 average cost. Sitting at $3.25 now. Can't see that as being a loss no matter how I try to spin it.
I think the risk is there for any coin, setting a risk factor score would be an interesting idea for a startup? Kind of like FICO, but we call it KINKY. Krypto INcome Kost Yearnings. What is your KINKY score Mr. ICO?
You got it backwards. ION is shit because it's shit, not because its price goes one way or another. ION price underperforms BTC because ION is shit. It may not be worthless but it is quite certainly not worth the associated risks.
You didn't purchase your IONs for USD. You used some sort of crypto-currency, most likely a far more valuable and less risky one, like BTC, ETH, LTC, therefore trading a better risk-reward ratio for a worse one. Maybe your gamble will pay off eventually but given two hard forkups and an abject lack of revenue-generating business since the ICO, you're basically betting on ION being attractive to speculators on Bittrex. When the whole market is going up this might look like it works (if you use USD basis) albeit underperforming said market.
Another way to look at this: even if someone for some inexplicable reason really really likes ION they would have been able to buy twice as many IONs if they just kept their BTC since the ICO time.
