Thank you, @penguinpablo for the useful stats.
Noteworthy:
1- 1,162,393 STEEM withdrown from Polo. If it was transferred to a Steem account, then that is great. It would be great if someone can check it.
2- 474,868 STEEM of power down on one day! That is really bad. Most probably, this amount is going to be sold, causing high pressure on the price.
Based on the prices of the other cryptos, it looks like sustained selling by many. Each time BTC goes above $4,000 the big sellers would appear. This serves to dampen the mood and confidence of those holding other cryptos. STEEM isn't immune unfortunately.
Being a trader, I'm playing safe too. Although I'm not selling STEEM, I'm not buying either. Usually I'd add STEEM whenever the price goes down. But not this time. Instead I'm converting my unused BTC to USDT for the time being.
Those are uncertain times. Maybe what you did is wise!
Will only know whether it's wise or unnecessarily over-cautious in retrospect. After the facts. I suppose each of us will have to come up with his/her own general strategy in handling these coins and volatility. There's no "One size fits all".
This particular strategy suits me, my particular psyche. But others may have more nerves, or can afford to risk much bigger sums. So their strategy and approach should be different.
For now, or at least over the past several days, converting part of my Bitcoin (meant as capital for trading) to USDT was indeed a good decision. Had sold these at around $4,000 - 3,900.
With the market like this, having USDT instead of BTC sure helps to calm my nerves. It's no fun seeing BTC going down near to the $3,500 level...with the possibility it might go lower still until it finds a new footing.
Does tether seem shady at all to you? I guess I dont really understand how a blockchain can make units available and unavailable as to be perfectly aligned with usd on multiple coin exchanges... Honestly I like your strategy, and from what I can see there are four options - buy usd on bitfinex, buy tether, buy golos gold, buy steem dollar - but again , aside from the first option - i dont understand how these units regulate... - Anyone?
I don't know about "shady", but I'll admit there is some concern. Unlike Bitcoin, there's the counterparty element at play here. Holders of USDT and similar are banking on the counterparty to make good their undertakings.
Sure, they might be in the position right now. But what about the future? When push comes to shove, they will be taking care of their interest first and foremost. Obligations might only be partially met, renegotiated...or not at all where they abscond. Leaving holders high and dry.
This isn't "real US$" - regardless of what one may think of the US and other governments, they have real power and access to various resources. With US$, euro, yen and other fiat, holders will "get something" although the value might be less.
So, despite having some USDT, I regard this as just a temporary measure for the immediate and short term. After this I will either buy back BTC and keep; or send it to an exchange where I can sell for Malaysia Ringgit (because this is where I'm living).
Golos Gold... I've heard of that name before. Thanks for mentioning it. I will do some research and see whether it can also be a convenient and reliable alternative during moments of turmoil in the crypto market.
At the Tether website, the proponents/counterparty says all USDT is backed by the same amount in US$. There's also a link for holders and interested parties to check on this and audit.
All well and fine I suppose. But I'm wary when it comes to money. Especially in today's market where holders live throughout the world, as with the issuers and proponents. Should something happen, it's not like we can drive downtown to some office and demand to see some officer.
Be your own bank, as with the slogan at Blockchain.info (I think). When that's the case, WE have to make allowances for the security of out assets too. For now, USDT and its kind look okay enough. But I'd remain cautious and not place too much trust in them.
Yes - Lets say in the future BTC hits $8000 (or more) and then begins to crash - and by that time Tether has gained popularity - and so 20-50 BILLION dollars pour in - I just dont see how in the world they could immediately have those kind of USD assets at their disposal...
USDT?
US Dollar Tether - "Counterfeit US$" :) If I'm not mistaken, it's a service started/backed by Bitfinex. Not fully sure though.
But anyway it's a convenient option for crypto market traders during times of market turmoil. Especially those without a US$ bank account. Exchanges like Bittrex etc. offer USDT which can be bought or sold with Bitcoin and several other coins. Ethereum, Dash etc.
So it's a pegged currency like $BD and bitUSD on BitShares. The question is how closely it follows the 'real' dollar ;)
At the moment, not far off. In fact it has been fairly comforting to me over the past several days, to not be bothered too much by BTC's price. The USDT 's value remains more or less the same.
However, I do have other cryptos too besides STEEM in my portfolio. So if the general trend is downwards, the overall portfolio value declines too although having USDT does help to mitigate.
Nice, I think it is time to buy BTC however now that it is so low. Or do you have doubts any crypto might overtake it? Would be interesting to see what @Clif High says, he's not active on Steem, crazy stuff he says on YouTube, he has some webcrawler bots and I think uses Machine Learning to do sentiment analysis.
Regarding HODL there's this trader on #Dvideo making a lot of money buying low selling high so..
Either the steem went to a personal account or to annother exchange. There is no third alternative. Or am I wrong?
Wish there was a hardware steemwallet!
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