If a coin is having very low trade volume, then there will be a reason for that. In all probability, it doesn't have any real life usage and therefore the trading volumes are low. And in most cases, I wouldn't recommend investing in them. In rare occasions, the promoters may trigger a pump as a result of manipulation and it may take the exchange rates to 10x or 20x the current levels for a short duration. Even if that happens, remember that the ordinary user doesn't know when to sell his stash. So overall, it is not advisable to invest in such coins.
Don't rely on the possible pump that may happen because for me, that's not a reliable approach. It is hard to trust projects with low trading volume, because that means the project is not that strong. And you will find out that the trading movement is quite slow in most of this type of coins. And as you said, the probability that they have no real app is actually true. Because if they have strong support from its supporters, they can easily get a very active trading performance. So in my opinion, better stay away from this kind of project, losing your funds is very high.
Its never been reliable but rather turns out to be a gamble when you do deal will low cap or low volume coins.You wouldnt know if they would really be having a long term potential or would
just simply showing off some common pump and dump scheme on where do leave you out in the dust but if you do really pursue on dealing with these things then its your choice.
You wouldnt know on what happen next and if youre lucky then it would give out tons of profits and actually there are really people who are really fan of looking with low cap coins
because of this primary motive and some of them do really take out some good hit.