You need a little over 500SP to get a slider, I think, but sliding may be overrated anyway.
And yes, the advent of, um, new earning mechanisms on Steemit made me power down as well, with the added benefit of having been able to sell when the price was high. I could buy back rather more Steem now if I wanted to. Hodl is not necessarily sound financial advice.
Think there will be a little over 511 SP left after I stop the powerdown again. And if it takes a while longer to get the slider back, so it be.
Could be I started the PD at the wrong time. But it is time for me to do so. Who knows I might be buying some back in the future.
And you are right, to HODL is not always the best strategy. Buying and selling takes quite some time and effort, steal nerves, a healthy heart and strong stomache.
With EOS RAM speculating eventually worked out for me, but at the cost of my ZEN.
Want to get out more, too many Cryptos dominated days.
Yes, walk, walk already!
511 gets you a slider, I'm quite sure of that ;-).
Yeah!
And I shall walk...!