Question about LTC/BTC and Backups

[quarternions]

Hi, I have been lurking around the bitcoin market for a long time now but just recently started trading. Because I only watched (never had the resources to buy coins) I never had to worry about backups and only just recently saw somebody making a post about backups. But what do they mean with backups? I currently have a verified kraken account and a gdax/coinbase account. Do I have to take extra steps in backing them up.

Also I wanted to try out LTC to spread out a bit. Since I can't buy them with euro's from GDAX (Barely any money yet at kraken) I bought them with bitcoins. But just to be sure, I wanted to ask if bitcoins are having a nice rally or just going up in general. And LTC is also going up but a bit slower, then it could be that ltc/btc is going down but my investment is going up right? Or am I overlooking something?

Also nice forum, just my second post here but found loads of information 

[Chris!]

Backups from an exchange aren't possible unless they provide you with the private key. I don't know of any exchanges that do. When people talk about backups it's either backing up their 12/18/24 word seed, their wallet.dat from bitcoin core or writing down/printing your private key in more than one physical space or on another piece of hardware like a computer or anything that can store a few bytes of data.

Litecoins just had a huge pump because segwit is going to be activated. I don't see Litecoins actual value as around where the hyped up price is right now. I'd be careful with that. They're what $30 each but a month ago they were steady around $4. Makes you think. Bitcoins have had a good rally of about 40%, but it's also a much bigger market to move than Litecoins.

But anyway about your question, yes the ratio of Litecoins that it takes to purchase a bitcoin would decrease if say bitcoins went up to $2000 and Litecoins stayed the same or the price in USD rose slower.

Edit: just to be clear, you shouldn't leave bitcoins on an exchange or Web wallet. They aren't banks and they aren't insured. If your bitcoins are lost, they're lost forever. I'd recommend a paper wallet created on any Linux live system.

Edit 2: another clarification, if/when the bitcoin ETF is declined tomorrow there will be a dip in bitcoin price. That would help your ltc/btc ratio. No one knows if it will go through though. I'm thinking no, but if it does it would mean lots of money coming into bitcoin = price jump.

[quarternions]

Thanks Chris! so that is not something to worry about for now. How about my other question?

[European Central Bank]

no one can tell you anything about price movements. it's pointless asking for predictions.

neither of those exchanges have ever  been hacked, but as pointed out above it's not a great idea to leave coins on any exchange. even if they remain safe, while they're on there all you have is an IOU, not coins.

[quarternions]

Yea, probably shouldn't start of posting while at a party but I kind of freaked I guess when I heard of backups.. Thanks for the heads up about Lightcoin, reminds me to not to join in because of hype
Also I am currently looking into creating a wallet on windows any recommendations?, I have no issue's with running a VM but that seems overkill.  I do however have  a synology which is running on linux.

[Chris!]

I have no issue's with running a VM but that seems overkill.

There is no such word in the world of bitcoins. If your money is stolen, it's gone forever. When you're new to the ecosystem it's easy to let that slide but you should really let that sink in. If you lost $100, $1000 or $10,000 could you live with knowing you could have prevented it? If yes, by all means go with a less secure way of crating wallets.

I suggest downloading bitaddress.org, running it in a live environment and creating paper wallets to hold large sums. Large is a relative term of course. Anything you aren't too worried about losing you would keep in any hot wallet. I like mycelium on android, electrum on android and Windows. I don't recommend any Web or online wallet or any exchange because all you own at that point is an IOU from a company stating they'll give you x amount of bitcoins if you decide to cash out. Do not confuse them with a bank. Think of them more as a western union (but in the wild west).

[quarternions]

Well for long term investment I can understand that I'll setup a VM and setup incremental and full backups to my NAS.

I do have a question about day to day trading, I know people seem to not like it but it keeps me busy and as a programmer it is fun toying with apis and making my own algorithms. But if I transfer my bitcoins away from the exchange and I think I detect a ripple/wave/breakout you name it. Sometimes transferring bitcoins takes minutes or even longer and then those minutes can be crucial.

How do you handle that? Creating a "hot online stash" and cold offline one to somewhat manage any complications?

Also thanks for the consistent advice guys , was a bit scared that people would immediately rip me apart for asking.