If something has fallen a lot recently it is exactly the same, start watching from afar before trading. The best time to trade something is while its standing still without a move or when its just going up but hasn't gone up too much.
That depends on your style of trading anyway but most of the time, whichever trend the market is in, your knowledge and strategy on how to deal with each market is what would determine if you will thrive or not. Actually as a day trader, it is always a good time to trade when the market is trading within a range sideways and you are always in a good position most of the time when you are trading a bull market as even that time, a small child will even be able to call a signal. It takes someone who is very professional and has a huge experience to be able to take advantage of a bear market actually.
At the current market a big NO.
I do not even think anyone at this moment would want to be trading the altcoin market with how volatile they can get most especially when there is a great instability in the market with bitcoin trying to find a direction. Like you said, in this current market, it is really a very difficult time to trade altcoins, but at least in a bullish market which seems an easy one to achieve and knowing that the altcoins have more potential to move up than down, it is always very easy to trade such a market at that time. Everything still balls down on the knowledge of each individual anyway and how they are able to make a trade effectively without adding any form of emotions.