Mates, let's talk about HODL and break down all the myths how long to hold coins and whether it's beneficial to hold them for 2, 3 or 5 years. Is it as profitable as everybody says?
I will draw upon my own experience and reading of the situation. Hopefully, I'll also engage in the discussion! The worst advice (and the most popular at the same time in this forum) is to hold your coins as long as you can and that the five-year HODL will definitely make you extremely rich.
Everybody advise this each other without elaborating on the details and aims. It doesn't matter whether you hold Bitcoin or Ethereum or a conservative portfolio of the coins from the top 10 or a risky one of shitcoins. The only answer is HODL without other options and compromise!
Here is my story which tells you that there mustn't be the "one-size-fits-all" approach. I'll try to prove to you that you shouldn't leave the market for a long time if you want to make good money but not just make at most x4 (maybe) in some years in the riskiest market which more likely takes your money than lets you earn!
I got to one of the brightest historical moments in the market. I started using the exchange at the end of the summer of 2017. I saved 100-300 USD from my salary and purchased Bitcoin. After that. I exchanged it for different altcoins (BAT, Stratis, wings, omg, tenx, sia, golem.nem, xrp etc, ltc, and others). The set of coins was quite good, as you can see.
Nowadays I'm still not an expert, and at that time I purchased what seemed to be innovative. I considered Bitcoin not to give as many X as fresh and promising altcoins do. I wished the market had "gone along" with me. That's what followed next: altcoins kept falling - they also were falling when Bitcoin was going up. Looking back, I understand that the best strategy was to purchase Bitcoin and hold it by the end of November and then shift to altcoins which started going to the moon one after the other.
I followed my strategy and kept buying different altcoins losing my money. I'd been holding for a long time before bulls occupied the market and it started going up. But you know these human instincts of greed.
You can't just sell 80% of your portfolio at the first strong pump in your life especially when the whole forum tells you to hold to succeed! Naturally, I thought that my coins would grow forever. By the moment of the December pump and "bull madness" in the market, my portfolio had grown from 3,5 thousand USD up to 12 thousand USD in several weeks.
After that, there was a market crash, which has been lasting by now. Now my portfolio is in the hole, and I keep holding it hoping for another pump, then I definitely won't be greed! My portfolio hasn't changed in a year. I continue purchasing small amounts of coins which I'm not afraid to lose because the best moment for the purchase has been just now.
The message I've got from this situation is that long-term hold is not the best strategy. You must be flexible, ready to learn and adapt your strategy to the changes in the market. To make really much money, you have to be strong and able to take quick and executive decisions on the sale of all your assets at the moment when everybody around is jumping for joy and pouring all their money in the market!
The second moment: after the market fell down (we wait, don't lose money), and then fell again and again (and maybe one more time), it's better to purchase small amounts (!) of coins at each downfall investing more and more money. Along with this, the news not only about the market but also these assets must be positive! Thus, you'll be able to make much profit and withdraw money after some waves!
If you just hold your coins, you can do this for many years from big rises to big downfalls and get nothing. Yeah, maybe I'm simplistic, and everything depends on your financial situation and global understanding of the market, and hence the set of coins you're holding. The choice of coins is one of the crucial points because if I'm honest, there're few coins which cope with 5 years of hold.
Moreover, I'd emphasize that it's a bad idea to hold without following the news and correcting your portfolio by including new coins and deleting unpromising ones which stop to develop (because the team broke up, for example). In recent 6 months, I've included some ZIL coins (3%) and QuarckChain (5%) in my portfolio. I also got some TEZOS after its recent crash and excluded some coins which didn't meet my expectations in the last six months.
I'd like to say that even if you're a dilettante like me, you will notice the coming of the global bull or bear market. In December it was obvious but we were blinded by greed. I've got burned but now I'm ready for the second round! I believe it'll be in 6-12 months. The longer, the better! I'll manage to get ready for another wave.
And, yes, I believe in HODL but which I will manage, which allows me to adapt to the market, not the other way around. When the market will give me a hint to sell, I'll sell and get profit!
i think that all your post can be recap in this words: "buy low and sell high".
Off course if you hold your coin enough to sell when they reach maximum price and the buy again when they drop you will gain a lot of money...but how hard is to do that?