This is a good time to remind people of the importance of paper wallets.

We made an easy to follow tutorial for cryptocoin users here: http://mooncoin.info/?p=129

It's written for Mooncoin but the same principle works for BTC and anything else.

CoinEx was (and may still be) a great exchange. They were the first to list MOON (my coin) after launch and I've enjoyed using their platform as it was fast and stable. Hopefully they bounce back soon!