Please vote the right one to help beginners.
My take here for short term is altcoins with potential for growth because it is more profitable but one needs to constantly change and update stash every now and then to not miss a good buying and selling price. For long term investment though, I would prefer bitcoin because it is the one requiring less effort for one to profit and is the less riskier one. All one needs to do is to look at btc price from time to time and wait for a good sell price.