Take note that you don't needs to analyze the market as a Bitcoin investor, just buy once your discretionary income is available because the price of Bitcoin now is still very cheap comparing to how much it might be in ten to twenty years time from now, so why analyzing?
And secondly, their is nothing as a short term investor, it's either you are a long term investor or a trader that buys with the intention of selling for minimal gains in a very short time interval, so in my own opinion, those people that buy and sold their Bitcoin just because it appreciate in value are not investors, they are traders that sold for minimal gains.
Finally, when it comes to investment in Bitcoin, the best way to go about it is to think only long term because the way Bitcoin is wired, you can only reap the full dividend of your investment when you buy and hold for a very long period of time, not minimal gains that wouldn't have any significant impact on your financial status.
Different people see it differently, but yeah, generally,
BTC is seen as the true store of value to be hodled for a long time, 4-5 years at minimal, to see good results, accumulating little by little.
So in your own opinion, holding Bitcoin for 4-5 years is long term?
If that's the case you are terribly wrong, when we are talking about long term holding, we are taking from 10 years and above not 4-5 years.
Other coins cannot be used for the same logic simply because they are not as stable.
This is the major problem you newbie guys have, you just love investing in shit coin, at the end of the day when you get burnt you will start thinking that Bitcoin is the same as all this shit coin out there, because it's mostly greed or ignorance that makes you guys venture such part, so my candide advice to you is to stay off any other coin that is not Bitcoin, so that you wouldn't start feeling regretful later.
I think @melineo has a fair stance with his last paragraph, if you look at the paradigm, no other coin has the stability of Bitcoin, look at how astronomic it value has grown right from inception, no other coin stands a chance when been compared. i agree that he might have missed a point when talk about longevity, which he was referring to holding for 4-5 years, which you had to remind him of holding for at least 10 years and above if he really wants to see a significant value in his asset holding. I think maybe as a newbie he is still still in the early stages of understanding, but I believe he not totally out of track though.