You will learn the fundamentals and you will find the right patterns for your successful trading practices, if you will take time to do your research and you will keep the right mindset in keep learning more strategy for your trades, it's possible for you to create your own trading style that will be more competitive whatever kind of market you will going to invest your money.
Not an easy task but very doable if you are keen in finding your success, and if you want to have a financial freedom in the in your future.
It will never be easy to do an analysis because whatever it is we can't completely eliminate the risk. The market will continue to fluctuate and the expected profit will not necessarily be generated if the trend changes quickly, so traders may have to be willing to wait for some time before the price increases for some time.
For now I'm more inclined to wait rather than force to buy assets other than bitcoin. I think bitcoin is still the safest to buy, but not for altcoins even though the trading volume is quite high.
I go with your statement, the fluctuation will really hurt your investment if you don't have patience, but like what I have said it's more on your own analysis and how you perform your research before dealing with your investment, lots of factors but having a good fundamentals will generate you good judgement each time you participate with your trade.
In regards to bitcoin, I'm positive that there are still many investors and traders that will choose bitcoin instead of trying to short or invest with alts.