One thing to look at is which coins have fallen hardest during the recent slump. Once you've identified these, sift through them to find good coins that don't deserve to have fallen that far. One good example is NEM, which still hasn't recovered after the exchange theft that wasn't NEM's fault.

Look longer term on the charts, it really helps to give perspective.
You will see the huge rise starting in December, followed by a huge correction. We are possibly now starting the recovery as we've had a double-bottom now at around $270 billion for the whole market.

Ethereum price changes at the moment are irrelevant, ETH is moving with the rest of the market.

I agree with NEO, and agree that the Chinese factor gives it a great possibility for growth. But this Chinese factor is one reason why I think I prefer Walton Chain to VeChain - plus Walton has a much lower cap at the moment.

A lot of people are confident of an upcoming bull market, and I also think it will happen soon.
However the small recovery of the last couple of days is not evidence of this - that is merely part of the overall bearish trend of the last couple of months.
One sign for optimism is that the market has double-bottomed and bounced back twice from around $280 billion whole market low. This I think demonstrates underlying strength at that level, which will provide reassurance to traders and investors.

Early price movements can sometimes be discouraging, but I think it is advisable to look long-term. IoT will be huge, and IoT Chain surely has a good chance of capturing a decent % of the market.
A lot of people are drawn to NEO because it is 'the Ethereum of China'. Well then, IoT Chain is 'the IOTA of China'

The USA taking a hard line on anything Venezuelan is not remotely unexpected. Any country with a left-leaning government will expect to be opposed by the US.

I like IoT Chain and I have had some coins for a while. I'm glad they've got a supportive thread on bitcointalk now!
Yes, I think it is definitely undervalued, especially with regard to the valuation of IOTA.

I think that crypto is here to stay. We are moving towards a smart IoT connected world, and an internet of value. Crypto will underpin everything. I'm sure that it has a huge future.

Ethereum's drop in price over the last couple of months is due to the whole market moving down. It doesn't really say anything about the merits of Ethereum itself.
I would say just be patient, Ethereum will rise again as will the rest of the market.

One more thing - you are right that a lot of people do think that Ethereum might pass Bitcoin, but this is obviously in terms of market cap, not individual coin price. It is very unlikely that 1 ETH will ever be worth more than 1 BTC.

Ethereum price moves at the moment have very little to do with the viability and prospects of Ethereum itself.
It is one of those times when the whole market moves as one. When the recovery comes, expect bitcoin to lead and then the alts (at least the good alts like Ethereum) will also start to rise.

Don't panic!

Ripple seems to be a very professional project with a great future, but the price moves perplex me. Or rather the lack of price moves. It is very difficult to predict. There can be huge amounts of good news and the price doesn't move at all. And then suddenly it shoots up astronomically seemingly for no reason. I don't know if it is just that the huge popularity of Ripple in South Korea means that price moves seem strange only from a western perspective.
Anyway, if anyone can accurately predict price moves with this particular coin, they are better than me!

ICOs that take payments in ETH do tend to sell large quantities of ETH too, it's just what happens. Crypto is volatile, and it makes sense to have (at least some of) your budget in dollars. For the same reason that although I love crypto, I do at the moment need my salary to be paid in fiat because the real world demands on me are also in fiat. It's just how it works, and will be until crypto reaches maturity and stability.

You can't really class all alts together. Some are great projects with excellent long-term potential, and some are just junk. The question really is not how long should you hold alts for, but which alts should you  hold.

You haven't lost anything until you sell.

Do you still believe in the long term future of crypto? I do, and it has helped me to put the losses of the last couple of months into perspective.
We all know that crypto is volatile, and recently it has been even more volatile than usual. Your timing looks a bit unfortunate as you bought close to ATH, but it is important to remember that an all-time-high is only all-time to the present moment. I believe that future highs will make current prices look very low. In a couple of years' time you will probably count yourself fortunate for having bought in when prices were so low. Yes they have dipped in the last couple of months, but crypto is very likely to rise well over the $1 trillion cap threshold in the medium-term. Don't panic; have faith!

This is sometimes the case, and sometimes not. There are numerous factors that can contribute to the success or failure of a project. The quality of the idea is obviously important, as is budget, but some of the many other things to consider include:

• implementation - is it buggy, misses deadlines etc?
• team and organisation
• timing - is this what is needed right now?
• publicity - not necessarily related to budget - this can be the development of a supportive community or the influence of certain high profile individuals
• and of course brute luck.
  

but the list really goes on forever.

I think that last December was an aberration, and is not likely to be repeated in the short-term. But long term the prospects for crypto have not really changed; the big price drop was just an effect of too high and too sudden a rise in December.

I believe that the market will recover naturally, and not really in response to any official news or rumours from governments or corporate execs.

Give it time. April is normally a good month.

Everyone is guessing, any specific price is just a guide as to what it *could* hit.
In general I do agree that crypto is here to stay and will grow in the long-term.
Also I do think that the December rise was too high, which is why we saw such a big drop this year. It does make sense that there should be a strong rebound upwards, and a lot of people do seem to be expecting this to happen.
The market has bounced back twice now from a bottom of around $270 billion, so maybe the upswing is coming...

I think the effect of outside news is exaggerated. The main reason for market fall these last couple of months is just that the December rise was too high and was unsustainable. Today we are seeing a second supporting bounceback around the same low we had in Feb. I don't think that it is mostly due to good/bad news, I think it is mostly whole market confidence in response to the rise in December and the subsequent fall.

NEO in my opinion has great potential and should have a good year.
NEM however is also good, and I think is underpriced following the fallout from the exchange incident earlier this year.
So in general NEO is a good coin to buy, but personally I would be reluctant to sell NEM at the moment.

It's all because we rose too high too quickly in December and early January, this is just the pullback from that.
Don't panic. IF you have good coins, they are still good coins - don't panic sell at a low price. Just hold, and the market will recover soon enough. April is usually a good month.