Most times at the process of learning your trading you make money by holding and after you may have gain your bases then you can fund your account to continue your trading than trying to be in haste to make profits from trading
If you are trading but turn to holding, you will have risk of holding for loss.
Only luckiness can help you to gain from holding this way because mindset of a trader and mindset of a trader are different. If a trader does not use Stop loss order, holding a position for long time will cause loss, not profit. Except if that trader has a very lucky open position in a market that gives a random decision chances to get profit.
Are you by any chance telling me that those who holds bitcoin for long periods now has never witness any significant gain? I still do not understand what you are saying because both trading and holding gives profits but the difference is that in trading you get quick profit than holding, while holding might requires you to choose between long term and or short, for long term holding then bitcoin would be more better to hold for long. While altcoin is always seen as short term investment where if you hold for short you make quick profits without incurring lost although there is no much difference what matters is that as holder who position herself for short term investment should be smart enough to sell off when the price may have gotten to where they are projected.