With the price of Steem dipping down a few days ago, many people are noticing the Estimated Payouts drop down a bit. Let's answer a few questions to get a better idea as to why this is happening, why it's nothing that should scare you and setting proper expectations of active post payouts.
Q: Why are my post payouts going down? I'm not seeing any flags!
The dollar (or other currency) value you see with your active posts are only estimations. Instead of using up to the second information, these use a 3.5 day average of the Steem price. The reason we're seeing our active post values drop right now is because of the drop of the Steem and Bitcoin prices from a few days ago. Since then, it has rebounded from some of that. So we will be seeing the estimates on your posts go up during that period.
Remember that technically our posts are being allocated Steem. Since Steem doesn't directly trade with the US dollar, it's value is based off the Steem to Bitcoin rate AND the Bitcoin to US Dollar rate. Both of these prices effect the actual dollar value we're seeing.
Q: When does the payout get locked in?
You will likely see fluctuations of your post value (outside of votes) throughout the 7 days it's active. When the payout hits, the (3.5 day average) price of Steem at that moment is used to calculate what goes into your wallet.
Q: Should I be worries about this?
No, don't let the price fluctuations bother you. While I understand the feeling of seeing those payout estimates go down...we also get the benefit of those increasing while prices are going up. They do balance out in the end!
Q: Is there any benefit to the price going down?
When the Steem price is down, you earn more Steem on payouts. The benefit here is that when the price rises again, all of those "extra" Steem you just earned will be worth more too.
Example: So if you have a post paying $10 as Steem Power(SP), you'd get 10 SP when Steem costs $1, but if it were only at $0.50, you would get 20 SP.
Q: Does this effect posts that are paid out and unclaimed?
The short answer is no. When that post paid out, it used the 3.5 day average Steem price at the time of payout. So how much Steem/SD you got was locked in to that specific time. However, the actual dollar value of the Steem/SD does continue to fluctuate with the market.
Q: Does the price of Steem effect what's already in my wallet?
The amount of Steem and Steem Power you have is unaffected by the actual price of Steem. However, the estimated account value so many of us look at uses the 3.5 day average of the Steem Price in it's calculation.
Q: But isn't that my money being taken away? [A quick word on expectations.]
Until a post is actually paid out, it's earnings are only POTENTIAL...not set in stone. Sure, nobody likes to see the estimated payout go down, but remember it's not actually yours yet. It could all be wiped out by a powerful flag on it too.
Don't get stuck in the trap of being scared or offended when your posts estimated price goes down from simple price fluctuations. Instead, use it as a learning experience to be more comfortable with the inner workings of Steemit. This will also let you see the upswings that benefit you easier, so you can know that it does balance out.
Feel free to ask me anything. I'm here to Help!
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