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I’ve had a few people asking about what strategies I use for holding, buying and selling cryptocurrencies. So I thought I'd share one strategy I utilise when taking profits from crypto. *Please note my disclaimer at the end!*
 
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# Park the Buying strategy
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I’m going to park my thoughts on buying cryptocurrencies for now. I generally don’t buy in bull markets (like the one we’re currently in). Also my strategies for accumulating coins are very different to what I'm going to outline here.
 
For now I want to concentrate on my approach to selling and taking profit in crypto. 
 
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# Balance sheet is sweet, now what?
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When you’re in the midst of a mega bull market it’s hard to determine what to do and when. Whether you've made all the right moves or haphazardly stumbled your way into profit, it can be difficult to know how to react when your investments suddenly go parabolic in a matter of days. 

What makes it worse is there are no obvious indicators on what the market is going to do next. You read forum posts and articles and the advice is contradictory. *Some say the crypto bubble will burst any day now... some say crypto is in it’s infancy and is about to go mainstream… some say sell for bitcoin… some say 'forget bitcoin', the flippening has arrived… some say get your money out of crypto altogether before a major exchange is hacked…* it goes on and on….
 
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# The SSS system in Bull Markets
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I’d like to point you to an article, I’ve found incredibly resourceful in times like this:
 
[Rpietila’s Sane and Simple Bitcoin Saving plan](https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=345065.0)
 
I use a variant of this plan to decide when and how to take profits from a crypto-investment.

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### The rake
<br>
 
The concept is simple:
* ### Each time your coin doubles in value, take out a certain percentage ('rake') in profit
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This money can be used to diversify your portfolio, treat yourself or increase your standard of living.

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### Example 1
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The SSS system is probably best illustrated with an example.

Say you bought 10,000 STEEM at 50 cents ($5,000). Or better still you earned 10,000 STEEM through months of adding consistent value to the platform. 
 
Your plan could look something like this (with a 10% rake):
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|  Price | Sold | Out | Left | Acc Value| Tot Out |
|  ------ | ------ | ------ | ------ | ------ | ------ |
|  $1 | 1000 | $1000 | 9000 | $9000 | $1000 |
|  $2 | 900 | $1800 | 8100 | $16200 | $2800 |
|  $4 | 810 | $3240 | 7290 | $29160 | $5040 |
|  $8 | 729 | $5832 | 6561 | $52488 | $9072 |
|  $16 | 656| $10498 | 5905 | $94478 | $16330 |
|  $32 | 590| $18896| 5314| $170061 | $29393|
|  $64 | 531| $34012 | 4783 | $306110| $52908 |
|  $128 | 478| $61222 | 4305 | $550998 | $95234 |
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As you can see, over time there is steady growth in the value of your crypto holding, as well as a healthy amount taken out. You can see that STEEM at $4 (three doublings from your initial 50 cents) will enable you to take out what you put in and still hold a very healthy amount. If one STEEM hits $128, you'd have cashed out $95k, while still holding an account worth over half a million dollars.

STEEM at $128 might seem far-fetched. That would give it a marketcap the same as what Bitcoin is today. However if you believe Steemit (and other Steem apps) have the potential to be the next Facebook, Twitter or Snapchat then you may not see such a valuation as so fanciful. 

Only a few months back, I’d have never envisaged coins like Ripple and NEM having the multi-billion dollar valuations they have today. But they do, and neither of those coins are close to mass adoption. This space has already proven virtually anything can happen, incredibly quickly. The SSS system allows me to take profit yet still have a substantial amount of skin in the game should another parabolic rise happen.

<br> 
### Example 2
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Here is another STEEM example. If back in March, you had the foresight to buy $5,000 worth of STEEM at 10 cents, you’d have racked up 50,000 STEEM. 
 
Your plan could look like (with a 10% rake):
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|  Price | Sold | Out | Left | Acc Value | Tot Out |
|  ------ | ------ | ------ | ------ | ------ | ------ |
|  $0.2 | 5000 | $1000 | 45000 | $9000 | $1000 |
|  $0.4 | 4500 | $1800 | 40500 | $16200 | $2800 |
|  $0.8 | 4050 | $3240 | 36450 | $29160 | $5040 |
|  $1.6 | 3645 | $5832 | 32805 | $52488 | $9072 |
|  $3.2 | 3281 | $10498 | 29525 | $94478 | $16330 |
|  $6.4 | 2952 | $18896 | 26572 | $170061 | $29393 |
|  $12.8 | 2657| $34012 | 23915 | $306110 | $52908 |
|  $25.6 | 2391 | $61222 | 21523 | $550998 | $95234 |
|  $51.2 | 2152 | $110200 | 19371 | $991796 | $171422 |
|  $102.4 | 1937 | $198359| 17434 | $1785236 | $308559 |
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You’d have made back your initial $5k investment when STEEM hit 80 cents at the beginning of May. This example also assumes you’re passively holding STEEM. Not further increasing your holdings by converting to STEEM Power and earning through interest, curating and posting.

Obviously this approach is not limited to STEEM and can be applied to any cryptocurrency. I like the approach because it is not unusual to see coins increase 1000% in value in a very short period of time and crash even more quickly. Having a 'simple and sane' strategy helps keep my feet ground when there is chaos in the markets.

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# Simplified
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I’ve kept the examples simple just to give you a flavour of an approach I find useful. 
 
In practice, you may want to price up your coin in BTC rather than dollars. You may adjust the rake in line with your risk tolerance levels. You may incorporate a ‘buy-back’ strategy should the market dip. You may want to ride some pumps a little.
 
The beauty of this approach is it allows perspective. I can step away from the daily trading volatility and dip in the market on a price scale of my choosing. 
 
As Rpietila states in his article Bitcoin is a disruptive technology. For me this extends to a number of good cryptocurrencies. If they succeed in shaping the future of finance and money, the gains could be astronomical. Or the value of your coins can dwindle to next to nothing. The SSS system is the best method I’ve found of keeping a balance between the two extremes.

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# Common Sense
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There is no substitute for common sense though. If your bag holding a coin that has no development, little community and liquidity, which then suddenly pumps - you may be best advised to get out of dodge and be thankful for small mercies! Equally, if you have bailiffs beating down your front door and a small fortune in crypto online, you may want to re-balance your finances!
 
However if you believe cryptocurrencies are the future, and that the coins you hold will have a big role to play, then you can do far worse than devising a SSS system for yourself.

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### Invest (or speculate) wisely!
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### *Usual disclaimer: none of this should be taken to be trading or investment advice... just random musings from a complete stranger online!*