I'm so new, I don't even know what that means. 

My total point in asking these questions is because I want to put some money into BitCoin. Not much. Maybe $1000 or so. I see more and more are accepting bitcoin for payment.  but
* I don't know the best way/place or why one exchange is better than the other or why (I guess I could have asked that first). I can read what the exchanges say the reasons are but that's marketing. I'd rather ask actual users.

* but more importantly, I want to understand fees. The fees are clear as mud. I don't like mud.

* Because market is so volatile I'd like to understand ways of mitigating losses, where possible, but especially losses because of ignorance.  The only time I would be considering cashing it out, is if I'm totally done with bitcoin system.  Otherwise I'd just leave it there and use the funds for buying and selling things, or transferring to friends or family.

The last thing I want to do is put money into something when I don't understand fees or how to get it out, and without being eaten up by fees on the way out.  The only reason I have any money in it now (albeit tiny) was to understand the process of how transactions worked.  I put $50 into Coinbase. Then I created a desktop wallet. Then transferred $some to that wallet.  If I recall it ate up over half just on the transfer.  I eventually lost the password to that wallet (created 3 years ago). So that's gone.  No big loss. It was just a test.  I had $25 left in the original Coinbase.

Now, if I decide to put a larger amount in bitcoin, I definitely want to know
* fees (for all types of transactions)
* best ways to get out if and when I'm ever done with it (maybe never. But need to know just the same)
* ways to avoid losses through ignorance

Seems like reasonable things to wonder about.