Thank you for those great responses. I never purchased Bitcoin and the current rates are too high for me to at the current time and may be too risky.
bitcoin is the most reliable investment that you can wish for among cryptocurrencies and it doesn't matter if it is worth $1 or $1,000,000 you can buy a portion of bitcoin you don't have to buy a whole
1
BTC so invest the amount of money you can afford to.
also the risks is much lower than altcoins.
It seems Monero can only be purchased if I buy Bitcoin first.
4 out of your 5 replies mentions Monero
if you really think it is a good investment then go for it.
and yes the safest way to purchase monero is with bitcoin but there are some other places that you can buy with other altcoins like LTC, NXT, ... or some of the fiat currencies like USD, CNY although i don't suggest any of them but you can find the markets on coinmarketcap.com
Can someone point out to a reliable source or news which shows on why a cryptocurrency is going to do well ? for e.g. I was excited by the prospects of Ripple whose investors include Santander and Google etc.
there is no "reliable" source you have to find it on the news and on the forum and decide how reliable it is.