I don't know about you, but during 2017 you could have thrown darts at random alts and turned a profit. As for timing, basically all you had to do was hold until the end of the year. Dec 17/Jan 18 and alt prices were insanely high.
Hindsight is awesome but how many would have said in December 2017 "sell now, it's the top of the boom"? Even in February 2018 or April 2018, how many would have said "this is going to go down 80%, sell now"?
If someone new to crypto asked to invest, I'd recommend BTC first. Then maybe a little in ETH. However for those at a loss holding alts, I couldn't in good conscience tell them to lock in that loss -- it's certainly possible for decent alts (meaning in the top 100) to see a rise again.
If you don't recommend buying, you shouldn't recommend holding either, there is no difference.
I remember when bitcoin was around $800 in 2016/17 and it was speculated to get to $1,200 around March 2017. Etheruem also was not up to $10 then and litecoin was just $3.
Now, hodlers of these coins can attest to what benefit they are getting because of patience.
Again, it's very easy to cherry-pick examples from the
past. You have almost no chance to guess which coins will boom in the
future.
