No, this is the classic "dead shitcoin" pattern where people lose interest after the first pump and dump and the value never goes back up again. The only reason it still has volume is because the bag holders are cutting their losses.
Wrong, OP is right. You are the guy that always misses all the pumps. ETC has a lot of volume and a lot of people interested in it getting pumped again. It does not matter how much it will take to pump, it will pump.
All the idiots calling LTC, DOGE, XMR, MAID... (and the list goes on) dead coins, are the idiots that don't load up on the accumulation periods.
ETC/ETH breakup has shown that the community knows very little about economics. there are now twice the amount of coins with the same amount of total wealth invested.... the only way to keep this boat afloat is to sucker gamblers into buying it.... either way, the ideals that brought all the initial investors to the table have been thown aside, welcome to the titanic
All altcoins are is a means to experiment with technology and get more BTC in the process during the pumps and dumps. If an alt has good enough technology to implement in BTC, BTC will do so by protocol level or via sidechains.
Right now ETC is a good buy for speculation purposes, XMR not so much, who wants to buy during a pump? Not me. Good luck for those that do so, im not saying there isnt profit to be made, im just saying I agree with ETC being a better buy than XMR, and all alts are a gamble, so pick your winners.