The selling part is what I'm concerned about since isn't there a potential lag between having my Bitcoin on Bittrex and its finding its way over to Coinbase? 

With that in mind, I just checked out cex.io as recommended by john2231.  Assuming I do a bank transfer (free), wouldn't this exchange make more sense than the process I described?  I'm now wondering if Coinbase/GDAX are *really* meant for folks who are just interested in BTC, ETH, LTC while other exchanges are geared towards people who want to dive into different alt coins...

Thanks so much!

Hi,

Day 2 of getting my feet wet with crypto, so sorry for the noob question...

I've opened up a Coinbase Account and am going to use Bittrex to buy/sell some alt coins.  I understand that I need to buy Bitcoins first on Coinbase (GDAX), then send them over to Bittrex for the alt coin purchase.  So, it sounds like the flow is:

Desposit USD in Coinbase -> Buy Bitcoin on GDAX -> Send to Bittrex -> Buy Alt Coin on Bittrex

Then, when I want to withdraw USD, I'll need to:

Sell Alt Coin for Bitcoin on Bittrex -> Send bitcoins to Coinbase (GDAX) -> Sell bitcoin for USD -> Withrdaw from Coinbase

Is this the correct flow?  And if so, since I'm making 2 conversions (USD <-> Bitcoin <-> Altcoin), couldn't there be a major fluctuation before I complete my trade?  For example, the Altcoin goes way up, I convert it to Bitcoin, then Bitcoin happens to go way down, then I convert it to USD, ultimately losing money?