I had been thinking about responding to this post for about a week, jbreher; however, I had just been getting caught up with other matters before I was able to actually type out a message.
oh dear lord
for our meager blessings we give thanks
All good things must come to an end...
At least, that is what "we" are told.
is anybody so kind and explain or send me the link to the DCA strategy please?
oh man jjg will be here soon
be ready
I am sure glad to be missed... Thanks.. vapourminer...
I am going to hold back in making any substantive response to Gyrsur's post currently because 1) he framed the question quite weirdly... "the DCA strategy"... hahahahahaha have you heard of such a thing?, 2) there's 60 pages between my current readings and the current postings, so a) I am quite behind, and b) I have some confidence that either i) some charitable member has attempted to answer Gyrsur's question or ii) Gyrsur has reasked the question in one or more of the subsequent 60-ish pages.
Edit:You see (see below). I told you that some member would respond... that was the one that I mentioned above as option 2)b)i)...... Thank you Xhomer....
is anybody so kind and explain or send me the link to the DCA strategy please?
BTW, we should start something where the WO terms are explained to Newbies like me.
Dollar cost averaging is simply deciding how much you want to invest and then dividing it into regular contributions over a given period of time.
ie I want to invest $8000 this year into Tesla so I will make biweekly contributions of $307.69.
This method is supposed to lower your risk with respect to volatility but imagine doing that with a stock that continues to lose value over time - you're giving away your money.
I think the DCA strategy only works when markets are in an uptrend... but I'm no expert.
edit: JJG?
I agree with everything that you said xhomer.... the only two clarifications that I would make is:
1) the $307.69 per every 2 weeks from a hypothetical $8k budget suggests that the hypothetical person is spreading their DCA value injections over a full calendar year (26 times). I took out my calculator to verify your numbers.
2) DCA is o.k. with UP, DOWN, SIDEWAYS or whatever, it does not matter; however it presumes both that the investor a) has inabilities or unwillingness to predict the market price and b) overall, in the long run, the value of the asset is going to go up, at least that you would be able to cash out at profit at some point.
If the investor does not have enough confidence in an asset that they believe that it is going to go above their cost per unit at some point after DCAing for a while, then they should not be investing in such asset in that kind of DCAing way. Using DCA is usually intended as a long-term kind of investment strategy, but employing DCA still would not mean that the investor is locked into investing in the long term, especially if the investor loses confidence in the chosen asset in the future (sometime after beginning DCAing)....
Of course, all of us hear that we should buy high and sell low, which surely is a true concept if we can achieve it, so it is always preferable to be able to cash out of any investment, whether incrementally or in lump sums at a profit, so DCA has the best odds of allowing investors who don't really know about short term price movements to employ a strategy that increases their chances of having some time in the future in which they can cash out at profits, but of course, profits are not guaranteed, even by using solid DCA strategies, and if the investor comes to the conclusion that his/her investment is no longer viable, and is not going to recover from whatever downtrend or ever increasing downward spiraling, then DCA would not stop them from pulling out of their investment completely at some point that s/he perceives to be best for him/her.
Sure, bitcoin has downward spirals and extreme negative price points for extended price periods, so some people might decide to pull out of their investment and even their DCA plan at the worst time and when BTC prices are the best, but that would just mean either that they invested too much, or they did not have sufficient confidence in the long term viability, because they were shaken by the extremes that can happen, and of course, even with bitcoin there continues to be no guarantee that it might not end up in a never ending downward spiral, but if you do not invest more than you can afford to lose, then you would not be scared to either ride BTC prices all the way down to zero or even to continue to follow your DCA plan. You could end up being wrong and losing anything, or becoming richie (or more richie) because you continue to buy all he way down and when the BTC price recovers while you were able to bring down your cost per BTC during that whole negative price performance period.
Edit 2:[edited out]
DCA strategy works in long term. DCA is all about avoiding your market entry timing. It doesn't have anything to do with uptrend or downtrend. If you believe that a project will excel over long term, instead of timing the market you could go for DCA. If you use DCA and still end up in loss long term that just means that your investment choice is poor.
Hope I'm not wrong.
I agree with this akhjob assessment, too.