Is it too late to invest in altcoins?

It seems like all the altcoins which started out as low prices has increased a lot already. And with the prices they are at, it seems like the prices just stay stagnant. For example, when i first heard about waves... i thought this sounds like a great coin because the website looked so good. But the price was around 5 dollars or so. I heard people say it will be the next ETH. And i figure hey if its around 5 dollars, best to buy a lot because if it goes to 100 dollars or 300 dollars like ETH, you can make a lot of money etc.

I didn't know about altcoins until earlier this year. I had bitcoin but only knew of bitcoin and litecoin. Never even heard or paid attention to ETH etc. When i look at the market history for many altcoins like litecoin, waves, ETH etc... i thought... wow these coins were so cheap back then. I can't believes waves was like 25 cents when it first came out. And litecoin stayed around 5 dolllars for a long time etc. ETH was pretty low for a long time as well and just boomed.

But now, it seems like these coins aren't going up or going down that much. I had wondered how did coins 10x and 20x very easily but now it seems its much harder to do that? Not sure what the right term for it but since so many people know or heard about crytocurrency, does that mean there is less money to be made? For example, not that long ago im sure many of you didn't know about altcoins right? Sure you know or might know bitcoin and litecoin etc but im sure altcoins are something very few ppl heard of? I didn't even pay attention to altcoins or know about it until i noticed bitcoin going up to like 1000 dollars or so and that was when i shocked at how much it was going. Then i checked altcoins and many of these coins are like 25 cents or 5 dollars not that long ago and now they are at least 10x minimum the amount. Thus if you got these coins when its very cheap, then you would already be making a lot of profit when you cash out.

I thought altcoins are great idea to trade because these coins go up and down a lot. However does that even feel like the case anymore? What if these altcoins just stay at these prices or go up or down very little? Then how do you make money then if thats the case?

With bitcoin, i think its risky investing it in now assuming you are buying it now because of the high price. But if you got it earlier thats good.

Also if many people know about altcoins and trade it, does that have any effect on the prices? Like imagine you play poker and many other players play poker and study it. Well if there are many poker players at your table and they are competent, well there isn't that much money to be made. But with bitcoin and altcoin, who is controlling the prices? Is it traders or whales?

The one thing i hear though is always invest in bitcoin because bitcoin keeps going up. But if you want to daytrade... then isn't altcoins the answer? I feel like bitcoin is great to invest and hold. Altcoins are for trading where if theres a huge surge in prices, you sell. Then when it drops down, you buy etc. But the issue though is you have to get it when it happens which is not easy since no one can predict it.