Hi, I was thinking of trading between BTC, ETH and maybe a few others such as DOT and ADA but the fact that most traders trade between BTC / USDT or ETH / USDT etc suggests that it's probably a dumb idea that will cost me money.
If the market is sufficiently liquid for your needs (i.e. you won't be constantly experiencing bad slippage) then it really doesn't matter whether you trade against BTC or USDT.
I only trade against BTC personally because my goal is to generate BTC profits, not USD profits. Trading against and caring about fiat value would only distract from that. If altcoin trading is losing me BTC, that's a huge fail.
It also makes more sense to trade ALT/BTC markets because you basically never want to be holding fiat in this kind of bull market.
On the other hand, if you're the type of person who is very scared of holding crypto, and more concerned about preserving USD value than BTC value, then trading against USDT probably makes more sense.
For example ETH has just had a bit of a pump whilst Bitcoin is has been up and down so I've traded some ETH for BTC hoping that I can catch a raise from BTC whilst avoiding any potential correction on ETH. I was wondering if this kind of strategy is something that many people have tried and had much success with or had any bad experiences with?
That tends to be how these bull runs go: BTC sideways, alts up. Careful though, because when BTC goes on a ripper, ALT/BTC markets will dump hard. Since my primary concern is always preserving BTC value, I am pretty regimented about taking profits on alt trades and holding them in BTC. I avoid getting greedy with alts because the crashes are so epic and fast.
I like to look for big swing trade opportunities. When this multi-year formation pops, it's going to be much more profitable to hold ETH than BTC:
Just don't get greedy and think it's going to last forever. If you start hearing "flippening" talk, you should probably be taking profits off the table.