As an average person we will always think of making good profits from any investment and we hope for the same from bitcoins too and that is only possible if you hold your bitcoins for a long term as day trading is very risky and you don't want to loose your money by making a wrong move so long term holding is better.
Well if people realized this before even getting their hands into bitcoin, then we probably would have less people crying about losing money after panic selling. It's important to understand that bitcoin is not something magical that will make you rich overnight.