FUD makes bitcoin drop=altcoins follow because you buy altcoins with bitcoin. Altcoins drop=people sell their alts for BTC because it is considered safer, or because that's the road to getting it to fiat. When people jump on the panic sell train of either BTC or alts it will drop even further, really a FUD cycle. I think that over time with adoption altcoins will be less and less pegged to the bitcoin prize. Think about it, most people have just learned what a bitcoin is. When they realize there are alot of better technologies out there, it's logical to think that altcoins will grow a lot. Considering how long bitcoin has been alive compared to other currencies this won't happen over night, but it will probably happen. If you believe strongly in the tech/devs etc of an altcoin, I would HODL for sure.