My experience with the exchange is something else, its very slow when you want to put up a trade and I have concluded it is not flexible for trading.
HitBtc is good for trading. Just a precautionary measure that you should withdraw your funds from the trade once it is completed successfully. It is risky to keep the funds on the small exchanges.
small exchange ? no its not . hitbtc is not a small exchange but i can say its a big exchange because its well known . storing funds in hitbtc is not a problem because hitbtc is already proven to be safe .
active traders will prefer to keep thier cryptos on an exchange so that they can act quick if ever there is a price change . but if you dont are not an active trader , then its better to withdrew your funds and keep the money on your own hands to avoid further problems .