I like your strategy.  I agree that ICOs seem to be the most profitable way to invest.  However, I tend to simply hodl tokens that I purchase from ICOs.  I have noticed the trend that you mentioned, as they all seem to lose value after the first few weeks.  The trick is knowing when to sell. 

Absolutely.  ICO's have been my most profitable way to invest.  However, it's important to pick the winners.  I would rather wait for the right opportunity than rush into a poor investment.  When researching an ICO, there are a couple excellent resources like ICOdrops, ICObench, CrushCrypto.  Good luck.

I doubt that Tether is legit.  There are too many red flags.  That said, remember that it only has a 2 billion market cap, compared to the entire 520 billion value of crypto.  If and when Tether collapses, it may have a short-term impact on the market, but things will recover.  No worries.

In my opinion, there is absolutely a bright future for ALT coins.  As you know, Bitcoin has scaling issues and high transaction fees that have not been resolved.  In the meantime, ALT coins are bringing new innovations to the Crypto marketplace.  Many ALT coins will fail, but the ones that succeed will change the world.

I think that formal education has very little to do with success in business.  To be successful, a businessperson must be willing to learn independently and seek information.  In addition, successful business people are usually excellent in sales.  They know how to connect with others, form partnerships, and win clients.  These are things that you learn from experience, not in a classroom.

They're banning cryptocurrency exchanges for one simple reason.  Governments want control.  Some of them see the decentralized nature of cryptocurrency as a threat.  That's why they have painted cryptocurrencies as tools money laundering and drug dealing.  If we can develop solid decentralized exchanges with fiat gateways, cryptocurrencies will change the world.  

Since blockchain technology is still relatively new, there are few developers with experience in this field.  Solidity programmers are especially difficult to find.  If you have some programming knowledge, perhaps you can become a blockchain developer yourself.  Google the phrase "How to Become a Blockchain Developer: Crash Course".  There is an excellent article on how to get started.  Good luck.

I think that Waves has a very bright future.  The platform was built with regulation in mind, as they are partnered with Deloitte.  This puts them ahead of the game, as major corporations will only adopt platforms that are compliant with government regulations. 

Take a step back and look at the charts for a moment.  The crypto marketplace has seen tremendous growth, and is still on track.  Corrections, like our current one, are necessary for further growth to occur.  Whenever this happens, people always look for a reason behind it, such as FUD from South Korea.  In reality, this is just part of the market cycle.

For short term trades, I keep my tokens on the exchanges.  But for long term and medium term holds, I try to store my tokens in a desktop wallet.  MyEtherWallet is my main wallet for different erc20 tokens.

If a project is solid, it's okay to HODL in my opinion.  It's too hard to time the market correctly, and selling at the bottom is a good way to get rekt.  But it takes patience.  Could you do better selling at a loss and reinvesting elsewhere?  Maybe.  But it's risky.

Ethereum has an advantage of far more adoption than any of it's competitors, like Stratis, Waves, or EOS.  I think that it will continue to lead the pack for some time.  However, the best money in my opinion comes from low market cap ALTS with potential.  

There are coins that skip the ICO stage.  However, these are usually new blockchain projects, like Pascal Coin or LUXCoin, and have a finished product.  They're created by very small teams, usually working part-time.  On the other hand, projects that are after corporate partners need marketing, software development, sales, etc.  They need an ICO to fund development.  So it depends upon the product.
Generally speaking, prices are usually better in the ICO stage.  But promising projects will grow in value after hitting the exchanges.

By far, investing in ICOs has been my most successful trading strategy.  When evaluating an ICO, I look at several key factors.

1.  How solid is the team?  Are there experienced members on the team, and who are the advisors?
2.  How is the token used?  Does their project really need a token, and how will the token grow in value?
3.  Do they have partnerships?  Are they partnered with solid companies that have a track record of success?
4.  Does their whitepaper concept make sense?  Is there a market that is hungry for what they have to offer?
5.  What does the competition look like?  Does this project bring something unique to the table?

Finally, I conduct research using icodrops, icobench, crushcrypto to get additional oppinions.  Good luck.

Simple.  I don't check my Blockfolio.  With solid investments, I feel comfortable holding long term.

This is normal.  Look at charts from the last five years.  The market has consistently tanked in January, only to pick up in March and reach new all time highs. 

Thanks for the advice.  I'm going to look into hiring a solidity developer.  I'll also check out Lisk.

I was looking into BlockCat and EtherParty, but neither have a functioning product yet.  They only have beta demos.  Are there any working smart contract creation tools available?

Look at the market now.  Even with the Bitcoin exchange ban in China, Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies are thriving.  With decentralized exchanges of the future, it will be impossible to ban cryptocurrency trading anywhere in the world.

I agree with your assessment.  Gold is a safe investment, and it will only grow in value compared to the dollar.  Silver has even more potential for growth, as it is far more undervalued than gold.  However, I feel that Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies offer the greatest investment opportunity today.  But people have to take responsibility for their own decisions.