I hate to say this, I really do...
For Godsake, to agree with Mark Cuban, outspoken owner of the Dallas Mavericks and what really irks me - a huge liberal, it drives me mad. But he is sort of right... Bitcoin and other altcoins are in a bubble. Not the bubble he's talking about though.
Cryptocurriencies are purely speculative at this point. I hope I am wrong as we all can agree on that, but the truth is that any new asset class in its infancy (and yes even 8 years of cryptocurrency in existence is peanuts by measure), will continue to remain volatile and see great highs and great lows until it reaches critical mass and its infrastructure becomes better over time which will ONLY happen by trial and error.
IT WILL FAIL for a while until others come along and learn from past mistakes, much like the new exchanges for example have learned a little bit from Mt. Gox's hack. Similar yet different in what I'm trying to explain. Feel free to gamble for now though, because you'll definitely get the blood flowing if you wanna throw your money into investing in these.
I only speak from experience. Please learn from me. Don't try to be the kid thinking he's onto something that no one else is and that you're going to be rich quicker than your parents and your grandparents. None of that will get you far. Never follow the money, follow the idea and it will yield the wealth you seek eventually but you must follow the concept, the big lightbulb if you will. Now, you are right to some extent that if you are currently reading this, you are aware of something not many people know about how it all works. If you've boughten and traded bitcoin and altcoins on some exchange and you've received fiat or you've accomplished what you set to accomplish, you are ahead of about 99.8% of the world on this.
It is true that I am long on all my holdings of coins. I believe that to try and time the market, you will get burned badly over time unless you are an incredibly gifted trader and even then I think being long will serve you best. Being by the book here and simply choosing x% of bitcoin and/or other altcoins to be in your portfolio is not a bad idea as long as x is something you're fine if it goes to zero. Again it should only be a PORTION of your portfolio, don't invest what you can't afford to lose. Put it away for 2-5 years and forget and come back and then you can thank me and yourself but having the discipline not to touch what is so tempting to mess up.