Should You Dollar Cost Average DCA or Go All In?

Published July 11, 2025

  • YouTube Video Transcript

    00:02 And with the price of Bitcoin above two
    00:04 uh $106,000
    00:06 per coin, you’re probably wondering,
    00:08 “Okay, I should have bought more
    00:09 Bitcoin.” Well, of course, you should
    00:11 have bought more Bitcoin. We should all
    00:13 have always bought more Bitcoin. Uh so,
    00:15 don’t feel bad. Totally normal. Um but
    00:17 you’re probably thinking, “Okay, I’m
    00:18 ready to buy now. What do I do?” Like,
    00:20 you know, do I go all in? Do I dollar
    00:23 cost average? And so, this video is
    00:25 intended to talk about that. So, my
    00:28 default option is whatever amount of
    00:30 money you’re planning to invest in
    00:32 Bitcoin, just put it in. Just like go on
    00:35 Coinbase, ignore the price, and just buy
    00:38 as much Bitcoin as you can with whatever
    00:40 financial resources are available to
    00:42 you. And then, if you get more financial
    00:44 resources that become available to you,
    00:46 buy more Bitcoin at whatever the price
    00:48 happens to be. If the price dips and you
    00:51 decide you’re willing to put more into
    00:54 Bitcoin because the price is lower,
    00:56 great. buy more Bitcoin, but don’t don’t
    00:58 wait for a dip because if you wait if
    01:00 you try to wait for a dip, it’ll never
    01:02 come.
    01:04 You know, there’s still people when I
    01:05 posted that, you know, everybody ought
    01:07 to be buying at 88,000. There are still
    01:09 people who said, “I’m buying at 85,000.”
    01:11 Well, 85,000 never came. Like, we
    01:14 haven’t seen 85,000 since we were at
    01:16 88,000. And so, you know, 20,000 of
    01:19 upside has gone by um you know, since
    01:23 then. And in in exchange for not getting
    01:26 a a 3.4% dip from 88 to 85, now we’re,
    01:31 you know, $18,000 to the good. And
    01:34 anybody who didn’t buy missed out on
    01:36 that. So, do not wait for a dip. But if
    01:38 one does happen and you decide that
    01:40 you’re willing to up your exposure to
    01:42 Bitcoin, great. Do that. Okay.
    01:47 So, let’s talk about why I I prefer
    01:50 all-in versus dollar cost averaging.
    01:53 one, it’s worked well for me. Like if if
    01:55 I start deciding how I’m going to invest
    01:58 in something and I have to decide on
    02:01 dollar cost averaging, I tend to get
    02:02 decision paralysis. In fact, everybody
    02:04 gets decision paralysis because if
    02:06 you’re not going to go if you’re not
    02:08 just going to put whatever money in
    02:10 you’re planning to put in, now you have
    02:11 a decision to make, which is how much do
    02:14 you put in of what you’re planning to
    02:16 put in? Do you put in a little bit every
    02:18 week? If so, for how long? Do you do
    02:21 that for 3 months, 6 months, 12 months,
    02:23 3 years? And what do you do with the
    02:26 money that you’re not putting in
    02:27 Bitcoin? Do you leave it sitting in US
    02:29 dollar cash, which is melting like an
    02:31 ice cube? Do you put it in a uh
    02:33 certificate of deposit that gets 4%
    02:36 interest? You just There’s all these
    02:38 decisions that mess you up. If you’re
    02:40 not just going to go buy Bitcoin, if you
    02:43 just go buy Bitcoin with whatever
    02:45 financial resources you have available,
    02:48 then it’s done. You hit buy and you’re
    02:49 done. like you don’t have to think about
    02:50 it anymore. You don’t have to decide,
    02:53 you know, are you going to put some in?
    02:54 Are you going to put a quarter in? Are
    02:56 you going to put a half in, three/4ers
    02:58 in, two/3 in, one/ird in, and then are
    03:01 you going to dollar cost the rest of it
    03:02 in? You just all of those problems go
    03:05 away when you just buy Bitcoin with
    03:07 whatever financial resources you have.
    03:09 Then you don’t have to worry about all
    03:11 those complicated questions. Um so also
    03:14 historically just buying Bitcoin has
    03:17 resulted in better returns than dollar
    03:20 cost averaging. Now there is an
    03:21 exception to that. In a bare market
    03:24 which is a down market, a pessimistic
    03:26 market which is called a bare market. In
    03:28 a bare market, dollar cost averaging
    03:31 tends to outperform going allin but only
    03:35 for small periods of time when the price
    03:37 is consistently dropping. We are not in
    03:40 one of those times when the price is
    03:41 consistently dropping. We are in one of
    03:43 those times where the price is
    03:44 consistently going up. Uh therefore, I’m
    03:47 not recommending dollar cost averaging.
    03:49 Uh because dollar cost averaging is
    03:51 typically what you do when things are
    03:53 doing the opposite of what they’re doing
    03:55 right now. So that’s why I’m saying
    03:57 whatever you can afford to buy, just buy
    03:59 it. Like buy it and be done with it.
    04:01 Okay. So if you decide, let’s talk about
    04:03 what dollar cost averaging is just in
    04:06 case you know that’s something you want
    04:07 to understand. So dollar cost averaging
    04:09 is deciding that you’re going to buy the
    04:11 same US dollar amount of something every
    04:15 single week. Typically it’s weekly. It
    04:17 can be daily. It could be monthly, but
    04:18 almost everybody does it weekly. So you
    04:20 decide, okay, I’m going to spend I’m
    04:22 going to buy a $100 of Bitcoin every
    04:24 single week. And you can actually set
    04:26 that up on Coinbase in a recurring buy.
    04:28 So every single week, it’ll
    04:29 automatically draft $100 from your bank
    04:31 account and buy Bitcoin with it
    04:33 automatically. And I think on automatic
    04:36 buys, they don’t have fees. I’m not sure
    04:38 about that. I know some of the different
    04:40 providers have no fees on automatic uh
    04:43 uh d uh automatic uh buys. Recurring
    04:46 buys. They’re called recurring buys, but
    04:48 I can’t remember. I think Coinbase has
    04:50 no fees on recurring buys, but anyway.
    04:51 So, you buy the same amount every single
    04:53 week, and you just do that. You just let
    04:55 it run. Um and you let it go run until
    04:58 you can’t afford to do it anymore or
    05:00 whatever. So, generally that’s a good
    05:03 strategy for a lot of assets like the
    05:05 stock market, the S&P 500 because they
    05:08 tend to go up and down and it sort of,
    05:10 you know, lets you buy a little bit
    05:12 more. You know, $100 gets you a little
    05:14 bit more of it when it’s down and it
    05:15 gets you a little bit less of it when
    05:17 it’s up and it sort of evens out over
    05:18 time and it it keeps you from feeling
    05:20 bad that you bought at the wrong time.
    05:22 Um, but Bitcoin is so aggressive in its
    05:25 price moves that it’s way easier with
    05:28 Bitcoin to miss out on the upside. So,
    05:29 for example, with dollar cost averaging
    05:31 in the stock market in general, you
    05:34 could you could buy at the wrong time
    05:36 and your money, you’re not in the money
    05:38 in the stock market for three, four,
    05:40 five years, six or seven years
    05:42 sometimes. So, dollar cost averaging
    05:44 makes sure you’re not in that position.
    05:46 Uh, with Bitcoin, you’re virtually
    05:48 guaranteed to be up within, and I think
    05:50 the probability I I posted this
    05:52 previously, but I think it’s like 97% of
    05:54 the time you’re up within three years,
    05:56 and 100% of the time you’re up within
    05:58 four years with Bitcoin. So, um, and 67%
    06:01 of the time you’re up within 2 years.
    06:03 And right now, I think the probability
    06:05 is much, uh, you know, much better than
    06:07 that because we’re not in a bare market.
    06:08 We’re in a bull market, which means an
    06:11 up market, which means a positive, you
    06:13 know, everything’s moving in the right
    06:14 direction. But for people who dollar
    06:16 cost average, they just buy the same
    06:17 amount. Some sometimes it’s $100,
    06:19 sometimes a thousand. I’ve known people
    06:21 who are dollar cost averaging 10,000 a
    06:23 week. Um, okay. If you have the
    06:25 financial resources to do that, great.
    06:28 But you tend to underperform. People who
    06:30 are just buying and holding, you tend to
    06:32 underperform by doing that. The other
    06:34 reason, again, going back to what I said
    06:36 initially, the reason I don’t like
    06:38 dollar cost averaging is that it forces
    06:41 you to make a bunch of decisions that
    06:42 tend to leave you in decision paralysis.
    06:45 Like how much a week and how long am I
    06:48 going to leave it going? So, you got to
    06:50 decide how much. You got to decide how
    06:52 long you’re going to keep it going. You
    06:53 got to decide am I doing this weekly,
    06:55 monthly, am I doing it daily, like how
    06:57 often? Uh and you have to decide what is
    06:60 your initial position, which means what
    07:01 percent of your money you’re going to
    07:03 put in up front before you start dollar
    07:05 cost averaging. And there’s like a few
    07:07 more. So in total there’s four there’s
    07:09 somewhere between four and seven little
    07:12 decisions you have to make before you
    07:14 can dollar cost average because it’s how
    07:17 much and how much initially versus
    07:19 dollar cost average and how much you
    07:20 know for what period of time and what
    07:23 interval and you know there’s a few
    07:25 other things as well and what are you
    07:27 going to do with the money when it’s not
    07:28 in Bitcoin while it’s waiting to become
    07:30 Bitcoin. there’s just like seven
    07:32 different decisions you got to make
    07:33 that’s going to result in you just not
    07:35 pulling the trigger and not buying the
    07:36 Bitcoin which is what happens to people
    07:38 all the time. So, um that that you know
    07:41 the main way people invest are just
    07:43 taking the money and putting it in. It’s
    07:45 called allin. Although nobody’s
    07:47 advocating you put 100% of your
    07:48 financial resources in Bitcoin. Uh even
    07:51 I’m at like well it was like 97%. It’s
    07:53 probably getting close to like 98% now
    07:55 but it’s like let’s call it 97%. Even
    07:57 I’m at 97% of my liquid assets. Uh which
    08:00 is not 100%. Uh although 97% is pretty
    08:03 close. Um so uh you can dollar cost
    08:06 average or you can do allin which means
    08:08 all in whatever money you have decided
    08:10 that you are going to buy a bitcoin. You
    08:12 just go ahead and buy it now which is
    08:15 what I recommend. Or, you know, you can
    08:17 do half and half, which is you take half
    08:19 of the money that you want to put in
    08:20 Bitcoin and you put it in right now and
    08:23 the other half you figure out these
    08:25 complicated multi-art, you know,
    08:27 decisions to decide how to dollar cost
    08:29 the other uh other half of it. The
    08:31 fourth thing you can do if you’re not
    08:33 doing allin or dollar cost averaging or
    08:36 half of each is you can come up you can
    08:39 use a method that I I don’t I think I
    08:41 came up with it myself, but I probably
    08:44 didn’t. I probably I’ve read so many
    08:45 books I probably got it from some book
    08:46 somewhere. But if I did, I can’t
    08:47 remember. I think I think I came up with
    08:50 this myself, but it’s probably also in a
    08:52 thousand different investment books that
    08:54 I haven’t read or maybe some I did read
    08:56 that I forgot. Give me one second.
    09:05 And that is that you can invest the
    09:08 amount of money where psychologically
    09:11 half of you wishes it would go up
    09:14 because you have enough money in that
    09:16 you would enjoy the upside, but the
    09:17 other half of you wishes your investment
    09:19 would go down so that you can buy more.
    09:22 It basically guarantees that you never
    09:24 really lose because if it goes up, well,
    09:26 it’s up and if it goes down, you buy
    09:28 more. But in some ways it also
    09:30 guarantees you never really win because
    09:33 if it goes up you wish you had uh you
    09:36 know you wish I had bought more before
    09:38 it went up. And if it goes down you’re
    09:40 thinking dang if I had just waited a
    09:42 little while I could have bought my
    09:45 money at the lower price. But uh it’s a
    09:47 it’s a great way to dip your toe in the
    09:49 water. And it gets over the decision
    09:50 paralysis of somebody trying to decide
    09:52 you know when to buy and how much to buy
    09:54 and all that sort of stuff. It’s like
    09:55 great let’s just make it easy. What
    09:58 amount of money do you want in Bitcoin
    10:00 where half of you would wish it goes up
    10:02 and the other half of you would wish it
    10:04 goes down? So if you put that amount of
    10:07 money in Bitcoin, in some ways you can’t
    10:09 lose because if it goes up you’re happy
    10:11 because your money’s going up and if it
    10:13 goes down well you’re also happy because
    10:15 you think wow I could buy more and
    10:17 that’s what I wanted to do anyway. So,
    10:19 sort of guaranteed you don’t fully win,
    10:20 but also guarantees you don’t fully
    10:22 lose. And it’s a good way of
    10:23 psychologically getting over the hurdle
    10:25 of how much do I invest? And you know,
    10:27 the decision paralysis is like great,
    10:29 just invest however much makes you part
    10:32 of you wish it goes up and part of you
    10:34 wish it goes down in price. Then you
    10:36 won’t really be disappointed either way.
    10:38 But anyway, regardless, I think now is a
    10:40 fantastic time to invest in Bitcoin. At
    10:43 some point if Bitcoin’s continually
    10:45 grinding down for what appear appears to
    10:48 be a solid, you know, trajectory, I will
    10:51 probably start recommending people
    10:52 dollar cost average.
    10:55 I don’t think that’s going to happen in
    10:57 the next 6 months. Probably not in the
    10:58 next 12 months and maybe never. So, you
    11:01 know, for now it seems if you know any
    11:04 extra money I have every time a paycheck
    11:06 hits every two weeks, boom, straight in
    11:08 Bitcoin. No questions asked. It just
    11:10 straight in Bitcoin. I mean, I don’t
    11:12 think about it. I don’t care what the
    11:13 price is. It just goes any financial
    11:15 resource that I can get my hands on or
    11:17 that’s free up or I realize I’m not
    11:18 going to need for something. Boom.
    11:21 Straight in Bitcoin. No matter the
    11:23 price, boom, straight in Bitcoin. And
    11:25 then obviously move to uh self-custody
    11:27 in Bitkey for anything other than just,
    11:30 you know, the day-to-day balance I need
    11:31 to keep in Coinbase just to make sure my
    11:33 debit card always works. So everything
    11:35 else I keep in supercure cold storage.
    11:38 Again, I recommend bit key.orld world is
    11:41 their website bitke.w
    11:44 WLD
    11:45 and uh anyway, great time to buy a
    11:47 Bitcoin and for all of you who bought
    11:49 Bitcoin in the past, it’s been a super
    11:51 fun especially last six weeks. So
    11:53 anyway, and I think we just have a long
    11:55 long long way to go before uh you know,
    11:58 Bitcoin’s going to 500,000 or a million
    11:60 a coin. Easy. Easy. That’s before it
    12:02 breaks a sweat and really has to compete
    12:04 with gold. Bitcoin has to go 750% more
    12:09 before it even starts really competing
    12:11 with the price of gold. uh gold’s worth
    12:13 like 18 trillion and Bitcoin is only
    12:16 worth two trillion. So there’s a long
    12:17 way to go even to compete uh with gold
    12:20 and then we can start debating whether
    12:22 it’s two times better than gold, three
    12:23 times better than gold, five times
    12:25 better than gold. So but regardless, you
    12:27 got 700 you got a an 8x at least eight
    12:31 times its current value. Uh somewhere
    12:34 between eight and nine times its current
    12:35 value just to get to the point where the
    12:38 total market cap of of Bitcoin is
    12:39 equivalent to the total market cap of
    12:41 gold. We got a long way to go and it’s
    12:43 going to be a very exciting ride for
    12:45 decades to come, but especially the next
    12:47 few years. Thanks everyone.

**Originally recorded 12/16/24**

Share this content

Disclaimer:

The content provided in this post is for educational purposes only. It should not be considered financial, investment, or trading advice. I am not a licensed financial advisor, and all opinions expressed are my own. Always conduct your own research and consult with a qualified financial advisor before making any investment decisions. Investing in Bitcoin or any other assets carries risk, and you should never invest more than you can afford to lose.

Post category:

  • Facebook Live

Subscribe to Joel's Friday Roundup ✉️

Stay current with the latest bitcoin insights with the Friday Roundup newsletter –  Joel’s latest posts from the week, wrapped up in a single email for easy viewing. 

Global Email List Subscription Form

NOTHING for sale. No SPAM ever. Unsubscribe anytime.