It's not really your fault. Most of the altcoins serve no purpose (often referred to as shitcoins), which basically means that this market moves based on the moods of the market movers. For a regular person who's just looking to make a few bucks with trading altcoins (you fit in that category as well), it's impossible to properly trade these markets. You'll either need to anticipate on a potential future event that might have a certain impact on that market, which to a certain extent can be seen as gambling since you are betting on a good outcome, or you need to have close ties to those who move these markets. It's almost an impossible task, which basically means that most of the people are just gambling since they just depend on hope.