Perfect said. You must do your own research. As not to be biased, here are some hints to eliminate 98% of the crap coins out there.

Here is what to NEVER do!!!

1. NEVER Buy an ICO. Guaranteed 99.99999% loss!!!
2. NEVER Invest in a coin were the dev is a newbie. Here is why: The dev has a strong influence on the direction and strength of a coin. There is a reason why the newbie dev is not using his Ledgendary account, and that is because he is not staying around. But, it does NOT guarantee that a legendary member will stick around either, but its not a 100% guarantee he will abandon the project after a few weeks/months like all the newbie devs.
3. Check the mood of the thread. Are people angry? If so avoid!!! If they seem happy, then continue to look.

So , hopefully I have eliminated 98% of the coins you should NEVER touch. Take your time with the other 2%.  I will strongly endorse DMD. I am not affiliated with dmd, but I DO know most of the investors very well as well as the Coin OP, Cryptonit, can be trusted 1000%. Also you can safely invest in ANY/ALL Limxdev coins. He is 1000% honest also. He has many coins to choose from, including Bitsend , Bitcore, and more.

Here is his git.

https://github.com/LIMXTEC

The top 7 coins are ALL awesome!!

All of these coins are safe to invest in because of his extreme trust level.  Also buy LOADS of ltc LTC is simply my opinion.

Vegas