Almost completely across the board we are seeing people flooding into bitcoin today as they hope to get “free coins” on the first when Bitcoin Cash is looking to fork. We even saw bitcoin move back above the 50 percentage of total market cap today and most likely it will get higher before the fork. With the current price that bitcoin cash is trading at on exchanges like Viabtc, it just makes sense to cash out, hold and then on the first move back into the currency you want, but I don’t think things are going to be that simple.
What I believe is actually going to happen, especially for some smaller less liquid cryptocurrencies is that smart money is going to be buying at a cheaper price and after the first there is going to be a squeeze. With some of the smaller currencies we are seeing 20%-30% drops in just a single day because people are literally just selling everything onto the order books, but getting back in isn’t going to be that simple. There aren’t the same amount of asks on the sell side, so people are going to have to push the price back up in order to get their positions back.
If you are thinking about cashing out now and then going back to a different currency, it might not make sense because you ultimately might not make anything. If the price gets pushed up and you want your same position back, after you sell the bitcoin cash, you probably will be at a wash. What I would say you want to do now is actually wait until we get closer to the first, or buy more of the smaller currencies right now. I don’t usually trade, but I personally bought a decent amount of smaller currencies that dropped today because ill end up making a larger profit on the price rise after the first than actually getting bitcoin cash.
Also in regards to the price of bitcoin cash, expect it to tank severely on the first and in the days after. If you want to take a gamble I would suggest holding it to November, when the hard fork to 2MB is supposed to take place. I expect core will push it back or just not do it and that will push people who are currently with bitcoin, to bitcoin cash. Roger Ver has already said that is what he will do if core doesn’t deliver, so I think the price will most likely rise around then. Try not to make the same mistake that happened when Ethereum forked.
Many people sold off all they could, but there was still some support on the other chain, which I believe to be the case here as well, so in time the price rose. People who sold immediately expected the chain to die and their coins to be worth nothing, but ultimately they ended up regretting their immediate sale. As long as there is some demand the price will probably go up a bit and if you want to sell, that would most likely be a better option. So if you are looking to exit your coins into bitcoin for bitcoin cash, you might want to think of another option. If everyone is doing the same strategy, it usually will only work out for a few select people who get there first.
Thanks to @Elyaque for the badges