HODL: What Does It Mean and Where Does It Come From?

There’s little sense in earning a 10% annual percentage yield if a coin’s price plummets by 25%. Dozens of high-profile blockchains now use a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus mechanism to validate transactions. On these chains, anyone can lock (“stake”) their coins to earn a percentage-rate reward over time for their help securing the network. Staking on blockchains like Ethereum, Solana, or Polygon earns passive income with minimal effort. What started as a typo in an online forum has developed a real meaning of its own.

It is important to know when the right time is because this metric varies from one individual to another. The right time to sell will largely depend on the goals of investing. If these goals are achieved, the coin holder can sell at any price in the market; otherwise, they continue to HODL. HODLing campaigns are also witnessed whenever the price of an asset starts falling. In such a situation, any more selling could lead to further price correction and the best action for the long-term investors is to discourage weak hands from letting go and thereby mitigating further losses.

Is HODLing a Good Investment Strategy?

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• It functions as a medium of exchange and can also be held as an asset or investment.
• That means that you’re missing an opportunity for potential gains in those markets.
• With a high-volatility nature, the price fell from $716 by 39% to $438 in mid-December.
• Mr. Duggan is also the author of the book “Beating Wall Street With Common Sense” and has contributed news and analysis to U.S.
• Then, that person is left with “a coin they don’t want at a price they can’t sell it [at].”

Digital currency is notoriously volatile, and those who try to time the price swings may find themselves buying high and selling low — gradually or quickly eating away at their capital. The term quickly caught on, and soon, other investors in the crypto community started using ‘HODL’ to represent a long-term investment strategy, emphasizing belief in the future of digital currency. HODLing means resisting the urge to sell your digital assets, even when the crypto markets are notoriously volatile. It’s an approach that prioritizes long-term gains over short-term trades. If you’re interested in staking while you HODL, read through your cryptocurrency’s rules before depositing your funds. Be sure you know how long it takes to withdraw your digital assets and research the track record for each validator pool.

What Is HODLING?

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• It’s a tricky game and quite challenging for traders to time their transactions exactly right so as to maximize their profits each time.
• You are solely responsible for conducting independent research, performing due diligence, and/or seeking advice from a professional advisor prior to taking any financial, tax, legal, or investment action.
• Then, from 2018 to middle 2020 the price of Bitcoin (more or less) stayed below $10,000, and rarely broke the $10,000 mark.
• Many newer investors will start out HODLing by using a dollar cost-average strategy.
• It is not only a popular term but is also considered an investment strategy.

An affiliate of Public may be “testing the waters” and considering making an offering of securities under Tier 2 of Regulation A. No money or other consideration is being solicited and, if sent in response, will not be accepted. No offer to buy securities can be accepted, and no part of the purchase price can be received, until an offering statement filed with the SEC has been qualified by the SEC. An indication of interest to purchase securities involves no obligation or commitment of any kind. Although the term “HODL” originated in the crypto community, stock market investors have been HODLing for a long time. You can HODL any stock you own, but it’s usually best to avoid HODLing risky stocks. There are a host of stock market myths out there and just like any other investment including crypto, the stock market also goes through bull and bear periods.

FUD

It’s also commonly come to stand for “hold on for dear life” among crypto investors. In early bitcoin forums, someone posted a message that spelled the word “hold” wrong, and readers interpreted it as an acronym “hold on for dear life,” Saddington explains. “Now, it’s become a meme of sorts, so that when the prices are highly volatile, bitcoin buyers say ‘HODL!'” Saddington describes himself as “a long-term HODLER.” In that case, investors buy when prices are low, hold an asset while the value increases, then try to sell it before the price dips.

• A self-custodial wallet is strictly managed by the wallet holder, meaning there’s no centralized intermediary between the trader and their crypto.
• We introduce people to the world of trading currencies, both fiat and crypto, through our non-drowsy educational content and tools.
• Public’s Recurring Investing feature can help you use this strategy by automating your crypto investments.
• When you hodl one of the short-lived cryptos, that promised trip “to the moon” turns into a deep-sea dive with no return ticket instead.

At the time, the flagship cryptocurrency had lost 50% of its value in two weeks falling from a then all-time high of $1,120 to a low of $560 between December 4th and the 18th. GameKyuubi wrote his post on the 18th, attempting to communicate that he was changing tact to his Bitcoin investment. It is, however, more difficult to engage in market timing strategies in crypto where price volatility is high.

What Does It Mean to HODL?

That means that you’re missing an opportunity for potential gains in those markets. Jason Porter, senior investment manager at Scottish Heritage SG, says the HODL strategy can be particularly Hexn useful for crypto investors during market weakness, such as 2022’s crypto winter. NerdWallet, Inc. is an independent publisher and comparison service, not an investment advisor.

• The term whale means a very large marine mammal that lives in the ocean.
• Although hardware wallets are less convenient to use, HODLers are hanging on to their assets for years, so they only have to worry about keeping the device safe until it’s time to sell.
• Each investor should make a decision based on their goals and risk tolerance.

It’s important to state that debating whether or not a HODL strategy is worth it when investing in cryptocurrency is entirely different from the question of whether to invest in cryptocurrency at all. Cryptocurrency is still relatively new and isn’t subject to the same regulation as traditional investing. As with any investment, you should make sure you understand cryptocurrency before you begin investing. Buy-and-hold investing occurs when individuals purchase an asset—often stock—and hold it for a period of many years. Rather than trying to time the market, this strategy simply operates under the assumption that the asset’s price will increase over time.

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It is the kind of mindset that will help you learn and contribute more positively to the community. Since large is a relative term, a more acceptable definition of a whale is anyone whose singular actions are able to affect the price of an asset. Individuals who participate in shilling often have a stake in the asset, and by drumming up support for the project behind the asset, they are trying to build up buying pressure which could lead to a price gain.

What does HODL mean in Crypto?

Investors who use DCA regularly buy small amounts of their preferred crypto assets over a long period. Some people purchase crypto at regular intervals (e.g., weekly), while others buy coins whenever they fall by a preset percentage (e.g., every 10% drop in a 24-hour window). In either case, the goal of DCA is to lower an investor’s average cost per coin. However, most HODLers keep their crypto for a minimum of a few years before selling. People who believe cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin will become mainstream currencies may never sell their portfolios, opting to keep their assets until they can spend them like fiat currency. HODLing means buying cryptocurrency and holding on to it long-term.

HODL: A typo that became a crypto investing strategy

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Pros and cons of hodl

In crypto, the term is used to refer to individuals or institutions with an outsized investment in a particular asset. Mooning is a related term to ‘When Lambo’ that also refers to stratospheric price rallies. If the price of an asset rises very fast, the community equates that rise to a ride on a rocket to the moon which gave rise to the phrase going to the moon or ‘mooning,’ for short. Trying to beat the market by timing reversals is an expert’s game, and most newcomers to crypto are not experienced at doing that. HODLing thus becomes a safe play for such individuals and institutions looking for long-term gains rather than gaming the system. In the case of Bitcoin, if you’d purchased and HODLed your coins from the start, your profits would be unprecedented.

What if I don’t ever want to see this again?

As with many other popular memes, the origin of HODL can reportedly be traced back to a typo. Many or all of the products featured here are from our partners who compensate us. This influences which products we write about and where and how the product appears on a page.

How does the Federal Reserve impact stocks, crypto and other investments?

News & World Report, Seeking Alpha, InvestorPlace.com and The Motley Fool. Mr. Duggan is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and resides in Biloxi, Mississippi. The investor sentiment cycle is a visual representation of the emotions a typical investor experiences based on the performance of the investor’s portfolio over time. Several altcoins that soared during the 2021 crypto boom, such as Dogecoin (DOGE), Avalanche (AVAX) and XRP (XRP), are down more than 88% from their all-time highs. Bitcoin’s extreme volatility has produced a handful of horrendous annual returns throughout the years. For example, Bitcoin shed 50% of its value in less than 48 hours of the Covid-19 pandemic-induced sell-off in March 2020.

The new definition helped illustrate the gist of HODLing to the masses. It takes a lot of emotional strength not to sell a plummeting asset, hoping that it will revert to greater heights. The term HODL, which has been in use for a few years, is the article’s main point of emphasis.

Understanding the HODL Strategy

For cryptocurrency maximalists, HODL represents more than a strategy for reigning in FOMO (Fear of Missing Out), FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt), and other profit-eroding emotions. Long-term crypto HODLers stay invested because they believe that cryptocurrencies will eventually replace government-issued fiat currencies as the basis of all economic structures. Should that occur, then the exchange rates between cryptocurrencies and fiat money would become irrelevant to crypto holders. FUD is another acronym that stands for ‘Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt.’ Part of the reason why cryptocurrency markets are so volatile is that they are vulnerable to public perceptions. Whenever there is negative press coverage, the value of the entire market will fall and the reverse is true.

Depending on your investment strategy and risk profile, HODLing can be a good approach. However, crypto markets are highly unstable and there is no guarantee that HODLing will be successful. Even if HODLing doesn’t seem right to you, there’s still lessons to be learned from this approach. HODLers are a social bunch—their strategy relies on support from other investors, who urge them along and convince them not to sell if they are feeling unsure.