After a break from mining for some time (when BTC difficulty and Butterfly labs couldn't keep up with demand) I've been pretty inactive in the scene simply trading a few BTC.

I've come to realise with the popularity of Monero, Dash and Etherium recently that there is still plenty of mining scope for GPU miners, something I probably didn't realise as I lost interest in Doge and Litecoin pretty early on. I like using the calculators on Crypto Compare and appreciate they are estimates only.

There are older posts on this topic but I've not seen a recent one comparing all of the options below I'd appreciate some support with:

• WHAT to mine - Current profitability and ROI suggest Ethereum or ZCash, typical ROI ~100 days, will this sustain beyond?
• BUY Option - Do I buy hardware? The pro is I'd own it, the con is short availability of hardware in the market and delay to receive, build and operationalise
• CONTRACT Option - Do I buy a mining contract, such as with Genesis. I won't own hardware but I may get some initial coins before complexity escalates. If I do get a contract, which coin should I mine for?
• LEASE Option - Do I buy mining on demand, such as at Nice Hash? Again I won't own hardware but I may get some initial coins. If I do get a contract, which coin should I mine for?
• TRADE Option - Do I buy and hold and not bother mining, trading between crypto's as price dicates?

I would prefer to own hardware, but if there is a good argument to contract or lease, I'd love to hear about it! Thanks in advance for your feedback and thoughts.