Same boat actually. I had rough experience in day trading back then that's why I just decided to screw it and just go with BTC for now.
Sometimes subjectivity in choosing altcoin comes from how much money does a trader hold as their capital, since altcoin prices are pretty much below Bitcoin and it's cheaper to buy and trade.

You said "hard-earned".
My advise? Hold that  US Dollars you're holding.
If you're really into investing right now, don't go more than half of that 16000 as your capital and go for ETH first.
Unless that amount is really just intended for investment and you still have a lot that is intended for your needs then you should think twice first in your investment.
I don't want that 16000 USD to go even below 10k.

They're called altcoins for a reason.
Those mentioned coins are your alternatives if you want to trade/invest aside from Bitcoin. There's only one Bitcoin.
Altcoins have lower price than Bitcoin per coin making it an opportunity to buy, in case that money is a bit tight right now while still being able to earn a bit though I would advise some people to don't think of loaning and/or investing if you don't really have the money right now.

Hold up. Do not buy as much as you "can". Buy if those money you hold are worth losing, OP.
The last number is the guilt of the many actually. Emotional trading is quite common here in crypto and it's unavoidable sometimes. That's most of my weakness back then. Hard to overcome.
Most of the items in the list are "buy on low and sell on high" situation.

I remember when I panicked back then because it felt like recoveries aren't a thing adding up that Bitcoin price is unstable in nature.
I want to add up as well that people shouldn't worship celebrities and their words about something. Being driven by celebrities to do your decision is not a good thing.
Their reputation doesn't tell that they're always right about something.

It could take a while. There are countries that aren't even sure that they really want to ban Bitcoin.
Back then, I can still remember when there was a proposal to ban Bitcoin in India. I can't fully recall the whole article but it mentions around that line of "proposal".

Are you newbie to invest? Look into CMC for now and probably your endpoint would mostly be Ethereum, if not altcoin then BTC.
Don't focus for now in projects because many aren't into long-term and just for quick $$$$ for the team.
Many altcoins tend to follow Bitcoin's increase so take note of that as well, OP.

I would consider searching at the coin that I would through my 100.
Think of it like right now in Bitcoin, when it was still back in 10k.
Imagine I bought that time and I waited for it to reach by 20k  and there boom. Goal complete, but wait. This is Bitcoin, so this 20k still feels a bit small for that price surge.
Waited and waited then there boom 40k. It doubled. I am somehow contented to sell right now.

So in conclusion, search the coin first. If it never "potentially" reached a certain peak, then sell at that goal, otherwise think twice first.

If I am trading right now, I would up that risk a bit higher because pretty much all my capital are all those that I don't fear losing like around 7% - 10% maybe but hey it depends on how worth does the amount really hit you when you lose it as you assume it.

On your second statement, it's quite common for it to already happen because we're all inside the crypto space. There are investors considering to take opportunity of other coins in the market as BTC show its green in the chart, but then dump really really hard when BTC doesn't smile upon the greens that's why many tokens tend to be dry.

Oh hey there. We're on the same boat actually .
Actually in my case, I stopped trading at all and am just leaning tiny bit to get back to it but it just doesn't hit me that I should really trade right now. I just kept holding since I am focused more into earning from freelancing, wherein it is outside crypto and haven't got that much time to do my trading.

Time's pretty rough right now for us busy bees to do trades , huh?

Controlling emotions somehow applies to holding as well, since like me I usually take a peak in the price quite often like spamming F5 in the price charts since it is being updated continuously anyway.
Some people are just too emotionally driven by the price because what they invest were like all sacrifices from their assets and that's really really bad move.

It's like you're asking if Bitcoin becomes a stable coin at one point. 
Depends on the current situation.
I would still buy it if majority of my country already adopts its usage, because why would I invest if I can't even use the coin at all and since the price is stabilized, what's the point of still holding one?

Though this is just an assumption, it still entirely impossible for this to happen though.

One can only hope if that "adoption" is truly happening right now. It is a slow climb but hey while we're above 40k, let's do a little bit of trading, why not?
6-digit amounts as you mentioned might take while, but hopefully we'll get there.
We don't have any leads yet on when we might get those fancy 6-digits.
Just don't hold if you need money, otherwise keep holding.

Creating their own coins, huh?
I guess it's like those rewards system in  some e-commerce sites. Not sure how would this play out and I am not sure as well why would someone buy it just to buy merchandise inside the site instead of just paying with bank account.
It would be at least convenient if they also allowed Bitcoin payment.

Loss is a loss there, OP.
You got nothing to do but to move forward and learn your lesson.
Now I see that this price surge isn't really for everyone. Don't panic there, as you know for sure that it will just make your standing there much much worse.
The only question that I am thinking is, were those coins worth losing?

Making more money? Are you sure? For how long do they make "more" money? I understand that such project could be invested with lots of $$$$$$$.
But in longer term, are you sure that such project will still make "more money"?
I wonder why Bitcoin is still in number 1, ey?

What do you mean by complicated to understand, OP?
Like too technical to understand? Not sure why would a project would get so technical that investor won't have any idea what in the hell are they're investing at.

In an example scenario:
If I sell you a desktop computer, would you still be interested in buying if I told you the CPU Slot that the motherboard allows, what's the timing of the RAM, how many CUDA cores does the GPU have, but it's all a shitshow only to make you think that I am selling you a computer with the best specification.
I could be scamming you with those technicalities.

So now why project should get too technical? I wouldn't throw money if I don't have any idea what the project is all about.

To wrap this list into a single guideline for all the newbies: Don't go into trading if you're easily driven emotionally. Regardless if you're winning or not. I've been there when I was still day trading back then.
Panic selling is common thing to happen, but if you know it is just the way that the coin really go when it comes to price then you should think twice what you're doing.

Another Bitcoin fork? What's going on in here?
How many Bitcoin prefix were used by many projects right now only to try to claim the top cryptos, and no. No matter what color or descriptive second word you put in Bitcoin, there would always be just one Bitcoin.

Petition? Change.org doesn't change (hehe) crap. Even outside crypto, many petition were already done there having to get thousands to millions signatures, from stopping cutting down trees to stopping island's extinction, but it won't do any single thing in the world.
Petition won't change crappy projects to golden ones.

Basing on the history of Bitcoin aren't we?
Although it is a visible pattern, we're still not sure.
I would guess just ready for it but don't make hasty decision to sell. I would do the opposite by that date, because I am not yet sure if the history will surely repeat itself.

Quite disappointing that some people here didn't read the OP's questions and just straight up reply after reading the title.

@OP
Those are a lot of technical analyses you learned. Now on to the next part, how will you actually use them in real-life situations in trading.
That's where your "learning"  gets tested. It's like learning how to strum guitar and play different notes then you'll use those learnings to make music.