FinanceQuantitative Analysis

BTC DCA vs Buy the Dip

A quantitative comparison of Dollar Cost Averaging vs Buy-the-Dip Bitcoin investment strategies.

PythonPandasNumPyMatplotlib

Overview

This project analyzes the performance of two popular Bitcoin investment strategies: Dollar Cost Averaging (DCA) and Buy-the-Dip. The goal was to determine which approach yields better risk-adjusted returns over various market cycles.


Problem Statement

Retail investors often debate between:

  • DCA: Investing a fixed amount at regular intervals regardless of price
  • Buy-the-Dip: Waiting for price drops before investing

This analysis provides data-driven insights to inform investment decisions.


Data

  • Source: Historical Bitcoin price data (2012–2025)
  • Size: Daily closing prices spanning 13+ years
  • Analysis Windows: 3,950 rolling 3-year periods

Approach

Methodology

  1. Collected daily Bitcoin price data
  2. Implemented both investment strategies programmatically
  3. Calculated returns across 3,950 rolling 3-year windows
  4. Computed risk-adjusted metrics (Sharpe ratio, Win rate)
  5. Statistical comparison of strategy performance

Key Metrics

  • Total return
  • Volatility
  • Sharpe ratio
  • Win rate

Results & Impact

MetricDCABuy-the-Dip
Avg Return312.46%268.57%
Sharpe Ratio0.5410.467
Win Rate63.02%36.98%

Key Finding: DCA is more consistent (wins 63.0% of the time), with better risk-adjusted returns.


Key Learnings

  • Market timing is difficult; consistent investing often wins
  • Rolling window analysis provides robust conclusions across market cycles
  • Visualizing thousands of scenarios helps communicate complex findings

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