Unless you're a very professional trader, most likely you'll lose money in a bear market. The best way to do is to not panic sell, and wait for good entries to buy more bags and hodl until the next bull run.
You are partially right, as I think this is the main point of merits. If you contribute to the community you'll get merits. I've seen many posts of people offering merits if you can prove you added a value to the community and posted quality post... You can check one of the lists here:
Unfortunately, ethereum follows where BTC is going. I think you should always keep an eye on BTC no matter what coin/token you're watching. Obviously, this week been tough on the crypto market and I hope a recovery is coming soon, June should be good