As I see it, the newbie cannot deal with the day trading as in 95% he will make a mistake and lose the money. Here, the beginner should better hold.
At this stage, it actually depends on how long one wants to hold as for the past few months and the behavior of the market generally, we all know that is simply a hard thing to hold on to any market for long now and most especially altcoins. No one is sure how the market is going to be like in the long run, probably altcoins will be able to do their own thing without getting a hit from bitcoin, but as it is now, they get beaten hugely and one of the reasons why long term trade makes a lot of sense.
all of those are profitable depend on how you handle it. Holdinh btc is profitable if it rise and you aqymuire it at a very low price. Short term trading or daybtrading is also effective way on how to gain more but with a higher risk than long term.
Holding is actually something that is good for those who may not have choice than to hold anyway. Normally, it is either you are holding or you are trading as an investor and the reason a lot of people hold anyway is because they may not have the time or the knowledge to trade. However, when it comes to the idea of playing with the highs and lows in the market with that huge volatility, Holding for me is out of it, and better to trade them and increase your position in the long term.