The term "HODL" originated in 2013 when a user who was frustrated with trading and drunk decided to make a thread about how it was better to hold instead and misspelled the word in a Bitcoin forum

It all came about when a user who was drunk and frustrated by trading decided to make a post about how holding was better than trading.

It has also come to mean "Hold on for dear life", although that was originated later on.

The poster in wanted to encourage himself and others to hold instead of trading, which they said didn't work out for them very well.

He said:

"You only sell in a bear market if you are a good day trader or an illusioned noob. The people inbetween hold. In a zero-sum game such as this, traders can only take your money if you sell"

Only an hour and it had already become a meme. And today it's a word every investor has already heard.

Many people think that it means "Hold on for dear life", but this is where it actually came from first.

Very interesting reading these threads on the forum back then, and seeing how so many of the terms people use now originated at a time when not many people knew what Bitcoin was. Especially going as further back as 2013.

It does seem to be better to hold in the end than trade and lose money, where you can never predict the short term prices.

Of course, this doesn't work with every coin, but only with those you think actually have some utility and will do good in the long run.

An article about this:

https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2019/02/02/the-history-of-hodl/