Avoid the profit-taking trap, $118.8k isn't the end

Those red candles are throwing a wrench into the weekend Honestly, I can't help but think about all those pessimists who always expect Bitcoin to drop. They haven't really noticed we're creeping up on a previous all-time high. You know these folks are the ones telling you to sell or convert to USD to hold onto value. But look at Bitcoin, it's been breaking barriers and just hit another ATH at $118.8k, and it’s still pushing up. Right now, you’ll hear a lot of chatter about taking profits while the charts are looking good. They say cash out and wait for the dip to reinvest. Here’s my take on that: That’s just the kind of advice you get from the speculation crowd. Don't miss out on the big opportunities because of that. Now, it’s not like Bitcoin only goes up forever, but in moments like these, it’s more likely to keep climbing. So, thinking that taking profits is the best strategy isn’t always the right approach. It’s about keeping that mindset of expecting more, like OgNasty does, as it gradually moves upward, and that’s where I’m at with this whole thing. Honestly, Tuesday feels like ages away, lol... OgNasty, you had it right, and that’s the attitude to maintain. For those who are quick to take profits, it’s crucial to grasp some key ideas. The biggest one is: Taking profits doesn’t mean you have to liquidate your Bitcoin holdings. That’s just a misstep. Profit is all about the growth on your initial investment. Remember, your capital stays put and can keep earning as the price goes up. So basically, You bought 1 BTC at $100k back in December.

I don’t blame people who took profits from these prices. I can’t. You shouldn’t too. Will you pay for their loss if btc drops to below $100k next week? You might say they haven’t lost anything as long as they keep their bitcoins but let’s be honest here, we still live in a FIAT world where we price things using FIAT. So if a guy sold his coins to buy a house, I would only congratulate him as that was probably one of the smartest decisions could be made. If it is a car? It is not as smart as buying a home but it is still close as long as it is not a luxury car which I consider a liability.

Always bet on greed, people will hold forever because they want more. It's hard not to exploit this, and the herd mentality that likes to follow rich people. Meanwhile, my old friend Michael will sell everything at some point and live happily ever after, while ordinary folks will drown.   Never count the money when you're at the table. Everyone who wants to get rich instead of pursuing utility and simply using it is being played. Not once in the whole history of the world has anyone become rich by following the herd or by copying a rich person. There's nothing wrong with using money to live the life, remember that the most valuable asset is time. You can't buy more of it, and every day you're losing it. Have fun while you can and don't look back, that's my advice.

Considering how solidly the bitcoin price is holding up and keeps steadily rising, I believe it is safe to say we are nowhere near the top (personally I don't believe bitcoin even has a top). Which means hardly no one is selling, and there are far more buyers than sellers. There are a lot of seemingly wild predictions for the price reaching in the millions of dollars per coin, but there is a lot of solid reasoning behind it. So for me I would not be quick to dismiss them.

On one hand it's always good to take profit if you're scared. On the other, don't do it if you don't have to. In other words, your mental health and well being comes first. If you bought bitcoin and have to check the price every hour it means you've bought too much. That's one of the best quotes that I know when it comes to bitcoin. It can also be paraphrased into something like this: if you get scared every time bitcoin goes below the price at which you bought, you've invested too much. If it's you that I'm talking about here - take profit right now. Decrease your investment. Aim to withdraw your base capital. If you bought $10k bitcoin and you're now $5k in profit, withdraw 10k and leave the profit in bitcoin. This way even if it goes down you will never be at a loss. Make sure you can relax while holding your investment. Don't let it control you!

Michael will definitely not sell his Bitcoin holdings, nore allowing his company micro strategy to liquidate their Bitcoin reserves, he has become so greedy with Bitcoin since he witnessed a landscape shift in the direction of Bitcoin since 2017 till date, so yeah he hard a change of mind now, but he hasn't apologized to Bitcoin community for his falacy statement way back in 2013. Bitcoin will definitely do much more than what it has done already, and for that anyone selling at the current all time high is definitely selling at a really cheap price and will regret later when he is unable to buy back in such amount that he sold it, so for that if you don't have any need to sell your Bitcoin, why selling, we can all enjoy the record breaking movement for Bitcoin and the multiple all time high records, but not selling at this point.

Played this one too many times, trying to get you to sell or have it dump and he gets a better buying position even when he doesn’t need that for his company. Wonder why his not selling even with his rain clouds prediction.

I personally think the idea to literally take profit -- like @OP wrote, selling only BTC for the value you "won" in this bull market -- is quite good if you're not willing to commit for the long run. I think also most investors that are taking profit in the current area at $115-120k probably have invested at much less than $100k so their ROI may be quite high already now. Some will have set an explicit goal of e.g. 50% or 100% profit and that should have been easy to achieve in the last 2-3 years. Of course, most of us think that Bitcoin can fly much higher still. But at least when it comes to what could happen in 2025, it is not that unreasonable to be a bit more cautious as we're already almost 3 years in a bull market (since late 2022's $15k lows, technically). My personal guess is that at least 150k are possible, but it's not guaranteed at all. And thus, if you're more of the cautious type, it's reasonable to sell a little bit lower. An alternative idea to taking profit I will always be advocating for: spend some bitcoins directly instead of selling them for fiat. For example travelling "Store of Value" is totally okay but Bitcoin would be even stronger and more resilient if it was used more for real payments (not for every coffee, mind you ...).

It baffles me to see that many people usually use this narrative of others shouldn’t selling off their bitcoin, I don’t understand why, everyone has their profit target and my advice is once this target gets triggered you simply just follow your strategy. The only time I am against selling bitcoin is when it is at a loss because I know that this bitcoin will definitely rise again, but if it is to actually take profit then there is nothing wrong with that, there is never a loss at taking profit you only regret taking it earlier when it goes up. Moreover there is always an opportunity to actually buy back again but it is not something i am really a fan off, once you decide to take profit just simply take profit and don’t go through the hurdle of actually selling to buying back later, if that’s your strategy it is a bad one. Take profit only to invest into other things or buy things, if it is to buy back later then there is no need selling off from the start

I don't blame anyone for taking profits at current prices, that's their right, of course. Every investor has their own plan and set return percentage, but for some, they tend to wait longer to achieve higher returns. Investors with large budgets and large asset portfolios will certainly wait, but other investors will take quick profits and may plan their investments again when prices fall lower. There are many ways to accumulate Bitcoin, even if you don't have a separate investment budget. One I've tried is selling Bitcoin at a higher price (for example, at a 3% increase) and buying back when it drops. This method can be used regularly because the market provides opportunities, but it certainly requires careful attention and patience.

Yes that sounds about right, good plan. But everyone has a different mindset and a different target, there are also unforseen expenses which happen and need to financed. Its not just as simple at what is posted in the OP. What if you only have 0.5 in Bitcoin but bought it in 2016 when it was valued at $1000? Then again, why now? why not ate $150k or whever you thing the top is?

We are not doing an investment to hold it forever. If you have invested a certain amount with the intention and plan to get a certain percentage added to it, if you see that amount, there is nothing wrong with selling and securing profit for yourself immediately. The price touched your expected value, as nobody can take all the profit from Bitcoin, and if eventually the price dumps after some pump, which it will eventually do even if it's not immediate, you can then buy and hold some more with a new target, which might take time before it gets to that level.

If we are to consider this; 1 BTC at $1k in 2016, that would mean, 0.5 BTC to be $500 in 2015 and now valued at 0.5 BTC to be $59.4k in 2025 Profit would be $58.9k Wouldn’t be so wise playing around or spending all that money now would it…definitely you get the free hand to enjoy a good amount of it if you will and mainly when it’s necessary I maintain and your capital is something you could grow as well. By not spending any significant amount and let what you hold be the capital rather than dating it back to 2016 which is over 9years behind us.

i mean that is definitely another strategy some people do this and i do not see anything wrong with this usually this kind of people have limited budget and would like to buy as much bitcoins as i can with as little money as possible so they try to grow their money then use that to buy bitcoins the next time around when it gets cheap

I wouldn’t be as enthusiastic selling my coins to buy a house on a mortgage that I have to still pay for the next 10 years. I consider that a liability just like a luxury car is considered a liability. Unless you can afford a house outright, I don’t think you should be so eager to buy one.

Bitcoin is an asset of investment and the price tag attached to it that’s making all of us to speculate about its price is what makes it interesting and more valuable to invest into. If there was no price tag attached to it and just left the way it is as a currency just like fiat, it’ll never get the mass adoption it has today and no one will even think of it as an investable asset but only be seen as a currency life fiat. We are all making investment in order to profit from it in the future. If your targeted profit in your investment in bitcoin is $118K and you sold it to take profit, I won’t say you’ve loss even if Bitcoin gets to $150K in this cycle. You have only taken profit early, and no one has ever died in taking profit early, so it’s perfectly okay. Because if Bitcoin goes back beyond their target price and cannot wait for another cycle for it to get there, they’ll regret not taking profit when it first got to their target profit price. We all invest to make profit, so not taking profit does not make sense to me or taking profit while already at loss is a bigger mess up to me. Let everyone take profit where they deem fit to take because Bitcoin is unpredictable and no one can account for anyone’s loss if they face one in their investment as a result of not taking profit when they should.

Taking profit is never wrong because the purpose of investing is profit, not holding forever. As long as we are satisfied with the profit we make, there is nothing wrong, even if we sell for less than $100k. If you think $118k is a trap, the price will go higher in the future and selling now will be a loss. I advise you not to sell when bitcoin hits $200k or $500k, because over time the price could hit $1 million or more. The future is unpredictable and anything can happen. So don't be too greedy and know when to stop, because as long as the market exists, opportunities will always exist.

People are free to choose what price they want to take profit. There will be no forcement to decide when they can sell their Bitcoin. But if they still hodl until now or in the next few years, they may make bigger profit than today. It will be no problem if they sell Bitcoin when the price hit $100k because they feel enough with the profit and hodl the rest of their Bitcoin. I also sold some amount when the price hit $100k but I still wait for the next high price, maybe $200k. But if the price can hit $125k or $130k, I may sell some more and take my profit. As you can see, you can sell Bitcoin at any price you want. But make sure you know when that time.

We can be holding it forever if bitcoin keeps performing good and a good hedge against inflation. Like where else you gonna put your money anyway to hedge against inflation other than bitcoin and possibly gold which if compared to bitcoin performance wise it's pretty lackluster. Institutional just getting into bitcoin right now to diversify because they see the potential of fiat's value tanking hard, meanwhile the paper hands are exchanging it for fiat, which is pretty ironic.

It is reasonable not to sell for just a minimal profits since it's significant to whatever it can be use for will be very small, selling to buy back is a complete waste of time, it might be truth that everyone has their profits targets but taken decision that can be regretted should be avoided, some who sold at their profits target in the time past seeing where Bitcoin has gotten to today can be full of regrets for most people that sold back then, it is true about people not starting the journey at the same time and of course with different inputs but however, if any one can do whatever they like with the value of their Bitcoin then such decision making should also be accounted for by accepting the responsibilities of their actions.