I would also suggest learning about trading in general. You don't have to actually own bitcoin to trade them as some of the forex brokers do have them. It's just that you have to pay a broker's fee every single day, but you can trade as many times per day as you'd like.

Trading alt coins might be a little bit too hard for a beginner, mainly because so far, they don't tend to follow any traditional trading rules. Good luck, though!