Great reply and thankful for initial post as I was considering it as well and we're all here to get better (both in our trading philosophy and financially).

What I'm trying to decide in how to play these pairs and I think I agree with the original author on better to pair with BTC when you're in the 'trading mindset' but also agree with the replier (that a word?) that my end game is USD. So what I'm trying to decide is how that will play out over time? And we all have to make presumptions on what they believe and I'm in this camp:

1. USD is least volatile of any option and is my end game to eventually convert to
2. BTC is the less volatile, as compared to any other crypto and could be seen as the 'safest' investment in the crypto market today
3. Altcoins are most volatile of the three options and should be handled primarily as shortest term investments and only used a short term winners until they are not

So my questions are:

1. Is it worth to convert to the altcoin (including fees) for a short amount for time while it outperforms BTC and the convert back when it's underperforming BTC (including another set of fees)? Both ways of exchanging performance are assumed here.
2. Is it also worth the time to manage all of that back n forth AND/OR is there a gap that makes sense to trade and not trade? (10% diff, 25% diff?, etc)
3. Will the erosion of all the trades and fees just eat away any gains I made and what's the point to just HODL BTC instead long term?

I would also say that I'm not wanting to day trade either. I'm willing to watch daily and buy the big dips like last week (20-40% swing) mainly cause I don't want to get divorced. Hah! Again thanks for the original post and well thought out reply here.