I know nothing about altcoin markets. The only cryptocurrency

>>1976495
You can't day trade penny stocks with $500, and even if you could, the fees would eat you alive.

Crypto is better
>More volatile
>Less manipulation (seriously, there is a lot of manipulation, but penny stocks are worse)
>No minimum balance requirements
>Largely unregulated
>Trades 24/7

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pattern_day_trader

>>1976495
500$ in pivx early on feb would be 150k today

Alt coins = high risk high reward

Learn trading by making bad trades, eventually you lose enough money that good habits get picked up.

Also buy edge/pivx/posw/bitbean and hodl

make sure that your altcoins have good liquidity

bittrex.com good site for trading altcoins

>>1976497
Forgot to mention
>Much lower fees
>Less bot trading

>>1976497
>>1976495

Also forgot to mention some important things that nobody thinks about, because they're stuck in NYSECuck mode:

1. In crypto, talk to the developers. Look them up. you can basically get "insider trading" info in their slacks, and it's not illegal, or even unethical. Not your fault some faggots throw their money around with no investigation.

2. you can try the wallets. Is it glitchy? is it actually functional? Despite some investor's attitudes, these things actually matter! for fucks sake!

3. you're on the cutting edge of technology. Not behind. Emerging market. You could just pick the top ten and walk away and come back a year later and probably see > 100% gains.

>>1976507
All true.

The emerging market part makes it very hard to lose money. There will be money continually flowing into crypto for years.

>A rising tide lifts all ships.

That's not to say there won't be downtrends. It's still possible to lose a lot of money i you aren't vigilant.

>>1976507
I shake my head at the people who trade things besides crypto. If you read any book on trading from a successful trader, you will realize they are trading the market that is booming in their era. The era right now is crypto. It is the most ripe market to make money.

This amounts to gambling to me, but I have some money to lose. How much could you potentially make from that initial $500?

>>1976542
Trading/speculation is similar to gambling. But it's different. You can create an edge for yourself. I think gambling implies a guaranteed house edge, where you will lose for sure over time.

If you have no experience with trading or crypto, watch Poloniex. Different coins will increase 10-30% on a daily basis. There is a lot of potential money to make. The volatility also works in the opposite direction though.

>>1976520
>The era right now is crypto. It is the most ripe market to make money
Exactly. I'm sick of stock market bullshit.

>>1976594
>But muh Timothy Sykes!

>>1976542
Depending how you spread your risk, it's not unheard of to get 5 - 10 times your initial investment. I would just recommend avoiding panic buying. I did that with zcash and eth classic, and lost more than I should have. On the flip side, you should try to get in on any initial coin offering that you can. It's the same as an ipo, and you can often get massive returns. Look for projects with reputable devs, and projects that you'd support

It is gambling, but for the most part newer alt coins go up. Know when to get out is key because you can always buy back in.

Just know devs can pull the plug and run. Exchange can delist.

>>1976500
But I don't want to make bad trades and lose money. I'd rather buy something popular underground yet still cheap like posw and hold until there are signs of crashing or steady decline (as opposed to simply a momentary dip) or something relatively stable like bitcoin or ethereum.

>>1976554
This. I used to gamble and
>In the end you pretty much always lose
>Gambling is imo more random and far more of a win all lose all situation: it's either a win or a lose for the regular bet and a ~66% chance with win or drawbets.
If you invest money in a currency there's a large spectrum of outcomes: you can lose a lot, lose some, win some, win a lot etc.plus you don't have to withdraw when it falls, it can correct later.

Thank you all so much for your insightful comments. I see the light.

I will continue to do my own research, but does anyone have any starting points or essential guides to read that will better equip me to jump in?

Buy bitbean

If you want to get your feet wet before going all in you can do this for free coins by using faucets. Won't get rich quick but it's a start

1. Make account at https://poswallet.com Use aprest as refferal ID (appreciate if you do)
2.Click Dashboard Scroll till you find the coin you want a wallet for
3. Click “Generate XXXXX wallet address” to create the wallet
4. Click Faucets find the coin you just made a wallet for and click it
5. Free coins sent to your wallet
6. Trade or keep the free coins