ICX before it hits other exchanges.  Already some big gains, but still a price point in its infancy.  AION and WAN (when available) should be solid choices.  I like AION for the lower supply... similar to NEO.  Lots of growth potential here.

Others include BRD, OST, MTH, LSK, LINK, WABI.  I think IOTA will surprise some people.  WTC deserves a mention.

WAVES has been sitting silent for too long.  But I think it has some serious upswing ahead.

I think 2018 will bring several things.

First, we see a continuation of money flowing in.  As I write, Market Cap at an all time high of $800 billion.  Unless something drastic happens, which I doubt, hitting a trillion should be easy by the end of January.  This will benefit all.

Second, the continuation of newbies and FOMO on "penny stocks" continues.  That isn't to say there isn't money to be made here or that a low priced coin isn't backed by good tech.  But there seems to be a common misunderstanding of circulating supply as it relates to price.  It would appear to be human nature to want to have a "whole" coin instead of a portion of one.  There are many people thinking they might be getting in low and see the price go to Bitcoin type value.  I don't know if it happens in 2018, but this could end up leading to a lot of losers who invested in coins just because they had a low price, but who also didn't have any tech behind them.  Even worse, scam coins.  But, where there is high risk, there is also high reward... so I'm not necessarily saying there couldn't be an ICO that becomes a top 10 coin in potentially a multi-trillion dollar market later in 2018.  That would be some serious gain.  Anything is possible.

Third, 2018 has promise for further integration of crypto.  If a few big players start accepting crypto, you may see the market shift considerably.  The "real world" application of crypto will become the focus rather than speculation.  Which coins become winners and which become losers?  If you're holding Litecoin, which already shows a great deal of usage, there would be a good chance you will be handsomely rewarded.

Is anyone puzzled, like me, about the amount in which Litecoin retreated after it's run this week?  I'm happy for the run, but to have dropped from nearly $400 to about $275 now seems a little more than a correction compared to other coins that go on a run.

I guess I'm also a little biased as I feel real strongly for its speed and economical value.  I just don't see why it's not the 2nd or 3rd coin.

Anyone have any thoughts?

My speculation of one reason LTC might have seen a nice bump... many of those Coinbase transactions from their spike in users should be posting and some to come.  Since you can only buy BTC, ETH, and LTC on Coinbase, I bet a lot of early investors said "what the heck?"

Another aspect is as simple as the alt coins enjoying some love with BTC break off the high.

That being said, the reality is ETH is up 55% for the month and LTC up just under 90%.  It's hard to get too excited over ETH and LTC not trending BTC with those nice returns.  Going forward, I'll be interested in seeing if ETH and LTC take on a life more of their own, go back to trending BTC, or perhaps investors will lose interest.  Time will tell.

First, I hope you'll respect I'm a newbie having started only in November.

One observation in that short time is that any significant increases in Bitcoin generally had Ethereum and Litecoin following with increases of their own.  With the push to and exceeding $12000 ($12500 as I write this), Ethereum and Litecoin are both down (nothing of great significance, though).

It could be just a blip in the grand scheme of things of no consequence, but I wonder if there is something else at play?  I could certainly point to IOTA taking off almost over night and surpassing Ripple.  I had texted a friend about IOTA being $400 million under Ripple.  Here we are 24 hours later and IOTA is $4 billion over.

Anyone else share the same observation of Ethereum and Litecoin not seeing a little boost of their own when Bitcoin hit its new high?  Any significance other than coinciding with IOTA moving up?