i tried cloud mining before but most them are scam it's a waste of time that I do not recommend. It's better to trading you can get profit from altcoins.
Yes, you are right cloud mining is always risky and at the same time trading is also risky. But when compared to cloud mining through trading we can make money because sometimes control will be in your hands but whereas cloud it is not possible.
if we still want to do cloud mining, i think we need to search the best cloud mining service because for now, i think there are a few site that really legit. but i think if we compare between cloud mining and trading, cloud mining still have the big risk because we don't know how long the site will still online. but if we do trading, we can learn many thing in trading so we can increase our skill to reach our goals.