Usually, i participated into the public of any projects which are having great partnerships and backing from top capital farm. So it'll be best to participate into those projects which are doing their ido/igo on well-known ido platform. If anyone wanna take risk, than try to participate into the staking pool for guaranteed allocation, else participate into public whitelist with own luck for allocation. Talking about losing money, there is always risk for investing into projects, so hope for good and prepare for the worst situation, IMHO.