I think this is a serious question we must ask ourselves - not that I'm not negative on btc or crypto, far from it. And I certainly don't want to spread fud, not that I have the power to anyways (one day ;)).
But whether you think we are going to zoom past 10k btc or not, we cannot ignore the possibility of a steep correction following this unbelievable run up November has had. With that in mind, I think it's essential to have a contingency plan in the event we enter a corrective bear market.
As optimistic as I am, two things cause concern for me. 1 being that we are projecting
To break 10k before the cme futures go live. This price action is based on purely hype/speculation...and as the saying goes buy the rumor sell the news - could we potentially see a relatively short lived sell off once as the cme futures go live? Or worse, the possibility that it doesn't end up happening, and at best was a logistical error or at worst collusion among the string pullers to hype bitcoin up, then sell out before the news of btc futures being canceled (purely a hypothetical here, there is no proof or reason to believe that will be the case)
The 2nd thing that worries me is the futures are by and large considered a good thing, but I think people are overlooking how instiutional traders operate and think they will just be pouring money into btc. However there is a very real chance these derivative experts are going to try and short Bitcoin, which would not result in the explosive price action we are all anticipating.
That being said, I'm still very bullish on btc going into 2018, but I think have a strategy laid out in the event a bear market unfolds is something we all must have in our back pocket.
Devise your strategy however you deem fit in accord with your risk/reward tolerance.
Imo minimizing exposure to risk, especially if you've been in crypto long enough to make some serious roi, is the name of the game.
As we approach the big even of 10k, it may be wise to lock in a percentage of your profits, in the event we see a 20 30 or 50percent correction,which is quite common in markets that have had parabolic run ups.
If Bitcoin crushes through to 11k and can close on it, well then we are back in full mode and you may have missed some profits, but hedged yourself against a steep correction.
I'm not saying to sell all your Bitcoin, but as we approach the uncertainty of how Bitcoin will react to 10k, hedging is a wise move imo.
You can come up with your own figures and strategies, but I think a fairly safe/risk averse strategy that still gives you exposure to big time run ups would be something like this:
33% of your portfolio in btc, 33% in alt coins, 33percent in fiat.
You still have 66 exposed to the exlonential gains that may be looming, but incase of a bearmarket you have 33% in fiat which you can use to scalp up heavily discounted coins.
And if the market continues to bull through, well keep on top of it and throw that 33 percent fiat back in, you'll miss maybe 10 or 20 percent gains if you kept it all In crypto, but hedge yourself against losing 20 30 50 percent in what may turn out to be a bear a market.
Ultimately I think 2018 is going to be a great year for crypto, and just holding your coins over the next few months no matter what happens, will likely prove profitable In the long run.
This post was just intended to get the wheels spinning on the min/maxers out there who may not have forseen the possibility of a steep correction coming.
I don't have good reason to.believe one is, but when dealing with something as precious as money (or in this case crypto, even more precious) you better believe I have a contingency strategy played out and I hope you do too!
Not sure I even have to say this, but this is just an opinion from a dude engulfed in the crypto world, not actually financial advise. #dyor
-best