The movements of the whole year 2017 were mainly caused by the attention of mainstream media and speculants. It was in my eyes an abnormal fast upturn of nearly all well established cryptocurrencies. Now we have a market again with steady upmovements, which reflect the blockchain based developments.So my advice is:
1. Keep your money out of crypto, that is needed to pay your bills.
2. Think long and don't follow each little market movement. Keep your coins.
3. Build up your longterm portfolio with some well established cryptocurrencies.
4. Keep your eyes open for innovative blockchain based projects.
Excellent points. Mainstream media was not the only reason behind the insane bull run last year though. Japan accepting cryptocurrencies and other factors contributed to the sudden rally overall if you think about it.
Among the 4 points that you mentioned, I think that your first point is the primary point that every newbie investor needs to consider before blindly investing into this extremely volatile cryptocurrency market.
Your third point is another important point that investors need to consider since popular cryptocurrencies like Ethereum, Ripple, Litecoin etc will survive for a long period of time even though they might return low profits.