I am quite new to this game and have begun mining alts late Oct 13.
These are some of the points I have found frustrating when dealing with bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies.

1). The exchanges appear to be unregulated and trusting them can lead to a load of heartache (Read MtGox here).
2). Time taken to send bitcoins to these exchanges (with confirmations) can be rather lengthy and this may lead to missing any good buy/sell windows.

With these 2 issues in mind, can anyone see a way round them so that you can leave coins on exchanges safely? Or at least speed up the transaction?
I would prefer to be able to leave coins and fiat on trusted exchanges so that I can set up buy and sell orders but I am absolutely paranoid about doing so since this MtGox debacle.
It would seem to me that until people feel safe trusting their money (be it coins or fiat) to these exchanges then this must be really stifling the growth of cryptocurrencies.
Mac.