my portfolio which is basically me with a piece of paper (cold storage in case it was not clear) under my pillow which is growing each month by me adding more satoshis to it or it gaining value as the price goes up in the long term.

there are all kinds of people calling themselves all sorts of names. you'll be surprised how many "prophets" we have had already!
and he doesn't have any fan-base! it is a large number of self made worshipers with some newbies who fell for the pretty front.

these people are like leaves on a tree at the end of autumn. with a little gust of wind they change directions. so far it was a big rally all year long, so obviously self-praising people like him will talk about how bitcoin is going to go to the moon. and guess what that is where bitcoin is always headed!
then we have a well known period (January) where bitcoin starts some drop and side way action. again self-praising people like him wait to be sure it will be repeated this year too, then start "prophetising"

... and here is where it gets interesting:
lets say he tell you bitcoin is going to $5000 in near future. if it happens, with all the shilling he become a GOD who predicted bitcoin in the eyes of newbie followers with $10 to invest. but if it doesn't happen, he is just another idiot like 10000000000 others like him and be forgotten in the mix.

this is all i can see from your statement. and that is enough to show you what i think!

who else is left? which bankster is going to call bitcoin scam, fraud, Ponzi, dead,... this time? and more importantly how much are they going to invest in bitcoin right after they said this?!!!

there isn't exactly a connection between bitcoin and altcoin prices but as others mentioned most of the times there is this connection that whenever bitcoin is either rising or falling, altcoins drop and whenever bitcoin stabilizes altcoins rise.

my guess is that it is because the altcoin market is more like a side market like penny stocks even which nobody is taking seriously despite what the advertisements say. because of that whenever bitcoin market is more active all traders take their money there so altcoins drop.

yes it will happen. it will drop to $1000 and the go down lower to $10 after 14 hours 27 minutes and 19 seconds and fall down more to $1 after $3 hours 41 minutes and 53 seconds.
Trump also agreed with this speculation.

it is possible and it can even be more profitable but the biggest difference is that when you enter crypto markets you will see that they are a lot less predictable than forex market and that makes trading that much harder.

the unpredictability goes so far as even technical analysis becomes useless in some cases. so you are left in a market without any "tools" and only experience, lots of hype and manipulation and pump and dumps.

maybe we need to change the meaning of "crash" first before starting to talk about bitcoin. i mean there is nothing else like bitcoin (at least not that many other markets) so the comparison is impossible. what we call big drop most of the times is simply daily fluctuations of price. for example the $1000 that goes up and down these days!

and the same way the "crash" is a simple market correction most of the times and then it is followed by the large number of newbies panic selling.

there are two types of rises and you need to decide which type you want to believe in and participate in.
1. a real solid rise based on real adoption of something that has real world applications. for example bitcoin is being used as a currency, its utility is a decentralized currency and because of that it will be adopted more and rise in value. if you believe the same thing can be true in anything else then invest in it. it doesn't matter if it goes up 10x or 10000x. what matters is that it will be going up for real and you will make a solid profit with a small chance.

2. a fake manipulative rise which is also known as a pump. in which case the said coin has no real utility, no real world usage and nothing interesting about it. this type of rise is only good if it is huge and fast and gives you the best profit. if you want to participate in this type then you should not lock your money in an altcoin that is not moving and is already in a bubble.

they all have one big flaw and that is their huge supply which will kill the price in the long term hence the big drops when you hold it that long.

the difference that i see is that coins like Doge have accepted the fact that they are a Joke-coin and because of that people are using them as a joke! so they perform better. other coins that are a Joke but choose a serious front will get no attention.

which altcoin?
every altcoin that is getting pumped at any present time.

what opportunity?
the opportunity to make a huge amount of profit in a very short time usually in less than a day.

how long is this future?
usually a day or two and sometimes a week.

it is hard to say which one is better!
some people prefer ICOs and as you can see there is a lot of money being poured into them even in the worst ones and the obvious scam ones!

but i personally prefer investing in something that i can see the history of. that means an altcoin that is already on an exchange with some history and a chart that i can look at.
that way i can at least make some speculation, even wrong speculation, based on some solid data that i can read. everything about an ICO is pure luck just like gambling.

stop loss is a great option to prevent loss, obliviously!

but when it comes to placing a stop loss on an altcoin that is extremely manipulated and even more volatile, you can face a lot of problems.
what percentage to choose? if you choose a small percentage like <5% then it will be reached multiple times a day in some cases! if you choose a larger size to prevent that then it doesn't make any sense and you may end up selling at the bottom.
that is the problem that i believe everyone is facing.

what i do is that i stay away from altcoins whenever market becomes unpredictable or whenever there is a large dumping going on like the past 4 days.

bitcoin is just starting bro.
it is not an old technology that has been around for years to now be out of date. it is the brand new technology that has come here to start replacing some old systems.
and right now it is doing just that. but in this route there will be a lot of bumps on the road.

keep doing this with all these coins. buy each low and sell them high.
this is a much better strategy than just pouring money in a long list of altcoins every now and then and creating something that people call "portfolio" to just feel better by holding 10000 different altcoins
it is much harder and will take a lot of time but it can also be much more profitable and less risky than holding alts.

technically speaking you should understand the "market" not the "coin". to understand the coin means to understand the code, and lots of technical stuff that are not necessary for an investment although they can be helpful in some cases.

understanding the market means knowing where the money is going and when it is going out so that you can be able to go in with that smart money and get out before it does for maximum profit.
it means understanding the things that makes a coin rise and the things that make it fall

you seem to be pretty new to this market

what you expereinced as a "depression" is a massive scale altcoin dump that happen each time bitcoin makes a major move which is very often these days. and altcoins being pumped they needed that large all over the place dumping anyways.

CMC???

you mean coinmarketcap.com?!! if so you shouldn't be looking at the price there, specially when you want to short bitcoin! that price is an average and is far off from the price you see on exchanges most of the times.

for example right now it is $12,450 on bitfinex.

why?
it seems like you are gambling here...

care to give more information? because a 1 liners saying you are going to short because it will fall does seem like a "recommendation". more like FUD if you ask me.

it depends on what coin, and when you enter it.

for bitcoin, any time you buy it doesn't matter it will be a good HODL
in long term you will be in good profit.

altcoins depends on the coin but if you enter right before the pump you can hold it for a short time to get the biggest profit and then get out. but if you get in late after the pump is already over then you have to either dump with a big loss your keep waiting and praying that it gets pumped again maybe in 6 months or 1 year from now so you can get your money out.

it seems to be over and bitcoin price has been recovering nicely, just as it was expected.


the result of the dip may be good for the market only because it kicked a lot of the weak hand newbies out and they gained a lot of experience from their mistakes and they won't repeat it again.

but nothing about it was healthy! it was pure manipulation with a lot of FUD.

99% of those who are saying stuff like that are holding bags of lots of altcoins and wish to see them recover. and 1% remaining are parrots who are repeating them!

the fact is if someone thinks it is a bargain then they wouldn't be wasting time. they will tell others how said coin is going to die and how they should sell because them selling means these people can get a better deal.
check out bitcoin board to see what i mean

couldn't agree more.

true. i will actually look for coins that start rising with a large volume injected in them after this blood bath was over.