Good man! I have actually found it to make a little more sense speculating against /BTC or /ETH vs. USD (and a bit funner!).

So many people are tracking Alts against USD because they haven't taken a second to realize what they are doing. If you purchase coin XYZ with .5 ETH (which is $500), and then ETH rises from $1000 to $1500 and their XYZ position decreases from .5 ETH to .4 ETH, they are still happy because their USD position has increased. I still consider that a loss because your ETH value is now lower than it was if you were to have just held the ETH.

Happy to hear about other people using this mindset.