Right now, the altcoin market's going through hard times: that's why you see a lot of gloom and frustration 'round here. The current bear trend explains why "No More Shitcoins!" is the latest fad in this here board.
This kind of frustration/gloom/anger is typical in bear markets. In a microscopic fringey scale, it's a lot like the gold market in the crisis of '08. There was a lot of panic in the gold and silver markets at that time because the crisis spilled over into huge dumps of gold by big institutions who needed the cash to meet margin calls elsewhere. That's the main technical reason behind the maxim: "in bear markets, all correlations go to one."
Down in the gold-stock market, particularly in the penny-stock gold-exploration subsector that I used to watch, that panic means a lot of good companies were selling really cheaply. I actually saw exploration juniors release drill-sample assay results that would have kick-started their stocks in a hot market - and the market yawned. Not only did their price go nowhere, but also their volume went nowhere. Those great results were ignored.
That, as I proved to my satisfaction, was the time to buy in.
But if you're going to play the game this way - which is actually the best way to play for a relative newb unless you have a special knack for putting yourself in the shoes of the punters 'round here and have a finely-tuned social 'radar' that clues you in to what they'll stampede into next month - the best approach to take is:
1. Select a quality coin that's been around for a long time and has held up despite being buffered and battered by the waves 'round here.
2. Try to buy at peak gloom or peak FUD. [
Important Note: This approach only works with time-tested alts that have a proven track record of bouncing back. If you get this part wrong, you will be a bagholder!]
3. Wait: if you need to, find something else to do that'll keep you distracted while you wait.
4. Keep waiting - you may have to wait for a long time.
5. When the altcoin market sizzles up again, consider selling - perhaps enough, in combination with any earlier sales, to get back your original spend
in fiat terms - and hold on to what you have left. If you pull this off, you'd be playing with what's called "house money," which means you can afford to relax. If your alt hasn't gained that much in fiat terms for you to do so, you might want to sell half to limit your risk which will also relax you.
6. Check up on your hold. Is it still on the growth track adoption-wise? Or is its underlying spread sort-of stuck, like Litecoins's is now? If the former, you might as well keep your money rolling. If the latter, you should give serious thought to getting out entirely.
7. Goto 5 until you liquidate.
As for the best coin to do this with, I'd have to say
Nxt.
In BTC terms, Nxt hasn't been all that hard on its bagholders who excitedly bought at the top of an intermediate-term bull run. It has the staying power - price-wise - that makes it a good starter coin for a relative newbie looking to try his or her hand at speculation the long-term way.
Variation To The Above: If you "buy the gloom," it will be inevitable that you'll buy before the bear trend ends. In the stock market, this is known as "trying to catch the falling knife." You can limit your risk of catching the falling knife by spacing your buys over time. With Nxt, for example, you could scrap up $100 this month, $100 next month, convert the found money into Bitcoin and head over to an exchange like Cryptsy or Bter and put your new BTC into Nxt. Do this over time and your average price will be pretty decent
as long as you stop buying when the gloom turns to excitement again.
[BTW: I'm using '$100' because, from what I've seen at Localbitcoins, $100 is pretty much the minimum you need to buy some BTC. If you know of a gateway that accepts a lower minimum, by all means lower the example figure I gave above.]
P.S: If you're in the mood for a pure speculation, you can plunk some money into the coin I'm associated with,
NFD. If you jump on board the NFD train, though, it's really important that you cultivate the art of patience. NFD is a plain Nxt clone with a rudimentary ecosystem at the moment, which makes it a pure speculation at this time. We're growing it, but we're also growing it prudently; the tech team are big fans of thorough testing.
If you check out
NFD and like what you see, I suggest you buy both NFD and Nxt.
Nxt is time-tested, with a lush and growing ecosystem, and is therefore safer than NFD at the moment. Buying both limits your potential gain, true, but it also limits your risk.
