feel free to share your theories of certain tendencies you've noticed when looking at (or trading) cryptocurrencies.  Like, do you find that the value of certain altcoins skyrocket upon hearing good news about bitcoin, only to fall to zero a week later?

do coins with nothing truly unique about them follow a certain pattern, perhaps taking a similar amount of time to play out? (or does it accelerate over time?)

do you have any strategies for trading altcoins that you would like to share?  myself, i've never really done it before... but I would like to buy different altcoins based on the unique qualities that make them truly stand out, such as peercoin's proof of stake or litecoin's usage of scrypt (arguably making mining more democratic at the moment), holding over the course of about two years or so.  I figure that a return of 500% over such a period of time should be... conservative...

investing in newly emerging cryptocurrencies does sound quite appealing, though.  if you have any theories about how the exchange rate goes over the lifespan of a given currency (specific examples would be appreciated!), please share.  like quarkcoin, which i've been hearing so much about...

thanks!