If it were 2017 the the answer would be yes but with the market this year ico's are a risky adventure. I've gone into ico's this year and picked mostly good ones and a couple of duds. so far max 3x on most of them at best but I'm hoping that may change. If you are careful and research a lot then Ico's can still be good but the gains of 2017 just don't seem to be there this year (so far)

I dont think so. Telegram user numbers are sometimes bot heavy but the main reason i think this is not a great measure is because of the volume of bounty hunters. A telegram group can be 8000K one day then blow to 50K on an airdrop announcement. The bounty hunters rarely buy in at ico so a large group crypto can still 1. not sell big at ico 2. not be supported at exchanges 3. drop like a stone once bounty hunters cash in (because they don't hold like an investor)

forget about faucets. the amounts are tiny. go in on airdrops instead which have still small but much larger amounts when compared to faucets. airdropalert is good for this.

This is really unexpected with little news to determine whats driving the drop. I had finally just got back to parity with my investments last week and now 30% below invested. This year has been dire. To those just starting out in crypto ( within the last 2 months) you're in the box seat with the market where it's at. the rest of us are trying to claw some gains to get back in the black.

Airdrops are so small that i just store them in mew and forget about it. they are free so maybe in a year I'll consider selling or looking at how they are going. I'm much more concerned with the crypto I've paid for and how that is progressing.

every single person will have an experience like this one. selling then watching the coin moon at a later date. You have to ignore this and not say "i could have..." the crypto market will do this again and again. plus you didn't lose anything, you just didn't make a ton of $$$.
don't sweat it and never look back.

I'm still a believer in XRP. Yes there is a large supply out there not yet released however ripple would likely release this as needed so as not to devalue XRP too much. there has been tons of news on XRP and ripple this year and I feel like mass adoption of ripple and hopefully XRP is just around the corner. lots of partnerships and testing going on. cross fingers!

I may have posted here already. not sure but I bought a ledger nano s and have been totally happy with it. easy to use and safe. covers a large variety of coins. only downside is you can only have 5 or 6 coin apps loaded at a time so if you move your coins a lot you have to keep loading and unloading the apps. not a big deal as you can still hold all your coins but it would be better if you could fit more apps on the stick.

I'd suggest holding coins which either give dividends, are solid enough to remain over time or have a use that will grow.
NEO - gives percentage in gas and is a top 10 coin
Ripple - top 3 coin and tons of news out this year. i think it's undervalued
Switcheo - exchange coin like binance coin but very small price at the moment. as th exchange grows this price will go way up.
Suchapp - ico soon. social media with cryptocurrency integration. best features out there. a bit riskier than the one above but it could be huge.

joined airdrop
telegram username:  @CharlieKevin

interesting. I'll have to do some further investigation
telegram username: @CharlieKevin

#Proof of authentication #Proof of participation:
- Bitcointalk profile link: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=1410588;sa=summary
- Did you check our ANN thread? YES/NO: YES
- Are you participating in our bounty campaign? YES/NO: YES
- Did you check our last updates on whitepaper? YES/NO: YES

No problems with MEW however I'm using it with a ledger hardware wallet. It's really the only way to go for safety and security. The hardware wallet keeps all my MEW coins safe.

Yes a lot of ICO's will not have legs in the log run and will fade away to zero. I think the numbers being thrown around 90% 95% as scams is way high. I would guess closer to 50% or below. I think many ico's have the intention of having a product, getting on exchanges etc but fail in this task. After all if they succeed then the higher the value of their company/product and more riches so it's to their advantage to succeed. Unfortunately so many have an average idea or lack the follow through that they don't and then will skidaddle with the remaining money.

I've been involved in about 10 ico's so far and all are still here and on exchanges (touch wood) just have to be picky where you put your money.

I'd be very wary of a youtuber telling you how to day trade and make lots of profit. The cyrpto market does not follow the same charts and rules as the stockmarket. It can be influenced too easily by big players with their own agenda. I agree with some of the posts here that there is skill needed and would apply more to BTC market than the altcoins. The higher the volume the more the market will behave (this is why stocks/shares follow chart theory better)
I'd be scared of losing it all as a day trader in crypto. maybe give it a try with a smaller percentage of your holdings first and see how you go.

BTC futures are for the whales and they will also manipulate the market to their advantage. I believe 2018 so far...the multiple crashes and lack of recovery has been the result of the futures market. Yes futures has stabalized the market but only in that it doesn't hold any gains and when it does move...like when leading up to a futures deadline it moves a lot and so far only down. It makes a lot of sense if you are a whale. take out a futures contract...buy crypto and drive the price up over time...sell in a hurry at he high market (make $$$ here) and crash the market down to your futures contract (make even more $$$) start the process again. I think it's the worst thing that has happened to cyrpto ever!

While I don't necessarily agree with your suggestions I agree the merit system seems flawed. I've been on this forum for quite some time with no merit. It also strikes me as hypocritical when members with lots of Merit post negative comments saying people just want to rank up for sig campaigns...while themselves being personally involved in a sig campaign.
Where did the original merit come from? Were the hero/snr/legendary members allocated merit at some point. Merit's are rarely given out and seem to be all in the hands of high ranking members.
And if merit is being sold then that points to a system not working as it should.

Forgive me but I'm surprised a hero member would be posting this question. that being said I use cryptopanic daily which links me to other sites like coinmarketcap, coin telegraph, and CoinDesk to name a few. I also tend to get a little news through telegram.

I don't know your situation but for me I put aside a little every pay to put toward crypto. It builds up and you can then but small amounts of coins. Also do some airdrops and bounty campaigns. again small amounts but they can build and if you do enough when you put them all together you will have some $$ to buy btc.

Just start in where you can. It sounds like you will be limited to airdrops and bounty competitions at first. check out airdropalert and many other sites for these. They aren't big returns but it's a start and if you hold for a long time could nett you some profit. Bounty contests are good and  if you have a big social media following even better. As you do the above you will start to learn more and see more opportunities.