Hi all,

I've been interested in cryptocurrencies for a while now. Did some research on the net and read some posts here on the forum. Been looking at different wallets etc... but can't seem to find the best way to proceed for what I have in mind.

Basically, I would like to invest for mid-long term in a handful of altcoins selection. I've been checking out the market by making a dashboard for myself on Coincap, been checking out Poloniex and Bittrex exchanges and looked up info on the companies/people behing the different altcoins I want to buy.

Now, I don't want to start trading every other day and stuff. What I want to do is, for example, buy 100$ worth of let's say Monero, Maidsafe, Ethereum and Dash and let it all sit hoping values will rise and then mauby in 6 months/1 year time, sell them and hopefully make a profit.

I know I need to buy Bitcoins first in order to exchange it for other currencies but what I have a hard time grasping is the best way to proceed to buy the altcoins and the best way to store them afterward. As I read that it's not a good idea to leave them on the exchange wallet.

So... Do I absolutely need to go through an exchange to convert my Bitcoins into other currencies? Can I use only something like Shapeshift or something better?

Once I got all my currencies... Can I store them on a hardware wallet or one software wallet where I could see all my currencies?

Or do I absolutely have to transfer each currency into it's own wallet and then transfer it back to the exchange wallet when I want to sell?

Many thanks for your help!