It is one question that comes to the minds of people, who are not day traders, most often in one form or the other. Looking at the soaring value of a bitcoin people make and have made a 'general' investment in bitcoins. There are again others who invest for a particular purpose like their children's education or to buy a property for instance. But whenever the right opportunity comes and when they want to sell, they are hesitant. This may be out of greed that they may miss out on even greater profits.
A long term investment is to meet the long term need of life. Throughout life there are needs. Even after the person dies, it appears there are needs hence insurance has become important. In such a scenario people do make investments for bright and secured future of themselves and their family. And this is necessary.
When such an investment is made in bitcoins, there is a chance that bitcoins may in fact prove worthy of their expectations and soar to a value that the investor initially desired. At this juncture, the investor can sell the bitcoins and choose to fulfill his desire. But most times he is tempted not to sell looking at the growth of bitcoin.
If selling the bitcoins he has invested for this purpose was the only way to fulfill his purpose, the investor of the present times seem to have been caught in confusion as to whether sell or hold.
I believe long time holding can be done by those who invested with their money and have already established their financial status and it is really wise to hold it that long if it will really increase in price in the future. It is really a good thing if we invest with our free money that we can afford to not touch it for a very long time until it meets our expected price. But as we can see, the majority of traders cannot do this thing because of certain factor like needing to cash out for the daily needs and being impatient and does not have a strong foundation of belief about the coins he is holding.
I think whether to hold bitcoin for a long time or to sell it to meet someone's need depends on their situations. If someone wants to earn more, they should hold their BTCs in long term investment, with this, they can be assured that they do have money for their future. But if someone needs money for some reason, they can sell their BTCs to the price they think is enough for them to earn more. Whether long term or short term, as long as you can earn profit and that profit satisfies you. I think any choice is wise and good.
Everybody wants profit and earn but the problem is that their financial capability cannot support the long term holding of their coins thus forcing them to sell their coins at a lost or when they run out of budget.