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However in terms of short-term investment I agree with you that most people normally get confused or couldn't distinguish between short-term and long term investment because one of the things I realized is that most people or rather investors feels that holding Bitcoin for six or seven months is a long term holding without knowing that they are only doing there normally trading because like you said a long term holding could be refer as holding Bitcoin for ten or more than ten years.
Yeah, sometimes we might be confusing the definitions, and it seems that bitcoin has a bit of a pattern that justifies the consideration of the 4-year cycle, even if the cycle may well end up getting broken at some point... however, if we already have a pattern of a 4 -year cycle, then, it is likely helpful to at least attempt to recognize that such pattern has so far tended to play around the timeline of the halvening.
So yeah we do not necessarily need to plan out 10 years or more in order to be considered long term, but if we really consider what people might want to do with their investment into bitcoin, then we likely can see that they are wanting to make their lives better in the future.... so yeah.. I suppose that there could be such things as long term, medium term and short term trades, and so any one getting involved in bitcoin for less than 4 years could be trading within various periods of time, yet it would be difficult to classify them as an investor in bitcoin if they have a timeline that is shorter than 4 years.
generally, the predominant reason why most people starch up Bitcoin for the long term is basically to secure their future and ensure that whatever is coming in through the work they are currently doing isn't spent all out for basic short termed needs and that a portion of it is invested into an asset like Bitcoin which will serve to solve a set out future plan or will stand to cover up for whatever unexpected event that will spring out in the future. And so it's important we know that considering one or two years as a long term investment is kind of a short sighted decision and taking up your investment for that short period of time would almost mean you will still spend it for short termed issues which leaves you with nothing to hold on to in the future.
Honestly, Apart from a four years halving pattern that might technically make a four years investment reasonable to some extent, I believe good and profitable investment should last up to the range of eight years and above and this is never to suggest that those that are working with a four to eight years plan based on thier budget and financial capabilities can't be in good profit but you know, making long term investment isn't all about taking out little profit whenever you're on the positive side, you've got to be disciplined and futuristic enough to accumulate more within a long period of time which will increase the quantity of your starch at the end of your accumulation and go on to meeting your set out plan.
Before even taking out your investment when you're in profit, it's also good to have a plan on ground regarding what your profit is going into or else you risk wasting your profit into something that's unprofitable and this is one obvious reason why you would need to set out a defined accumulation strategy which will be either the DCA strategy, the lump sum or a combination of the both and also make plan on what you're using your profit for at the end of your investment circle.