What I mean by straight HODL is that your hold through the crashes and the rises until you inevitably cash our and by trading I mean that you hold for a few months and then sell into fiat and wait for the expected dip/recession.
What i've noticed over the past years is that if I was less greedy and just cashed out after a reasonable profit and then held until the inevitable crashed, I would have made much more money than if i just held or bought another coin.
An example of this is when I bought eth at 475 and sold at 1380. Right after I sold I bought ltc at 230 thinking that it was gonna skyrocket after some of the money from the eth will flow back into the other coins. The problem with that was that the entire market crashed and so if I were to just hold my fiat i would have been able to easily double my money.
Let me know what your guys's thoughts are on this.
That is the risks involve. We don't know when the market will pump or dump. For now, I suggest that you hold your coins that you currently have and if you have more capital, take this opportunity to buy more coins. The crypto market is not green right now but I truly believe that this is just a trial in which when the market overcomes, will give us a stronger and more profitable industry.
None of us can know anything but we can at least use our sense, the indicators, the movements in the candle based on price action to know what to do. It is always good that whenever taking the step of trading, one should always have the knowledge but the truth is some may not even have the time, and would rather just hold for as long as they can without bothering themselves about what the market is going through since they already understand the volatility of the market and they have other better things to do.
In simple words from my experience, holding is the thing I am doing from day one and trading has become possible for me after gaining some knowledge on it. In same way, holding is for everyone and for any time but not trading.