...My biggest concern is that there are so many exchanges. How the heck do I know which ones will pay me after I make an exchange? I know I have to check their reserve balance, but what else should I look for?
You should not forget that in addition to centralized exchanges, there are also decentralized ones, using which you will receive your coins to your wallet immediately after making a transaction. Since there is nothing more reliable than storing coins on your wallet, therefore, using DAX is preferable for medium-term trading.
What I don't like about decentralized exchanges is that they don't have the tools of centralized exchanges, for example I like the tools that bitfinex has because bitfinex has to place at the same time:
1.-Stop Loss,
2.-Take profit,
This allows me to totally make my commercial decisions and not be aware of the market, that is, if I win fabulous, then I hit the take profit and take profits, but otherwise I lose, I assume my loss and study what I failed, but the exchanges that I have operated are not like that, it is all very manual.