Great perspective on what I'm sure is a challenging time for some. Currency speculation is a game which I would rather not play, personally. Rather than focusing on charts and graphs and market movements, which as you say is something which only a very few people are equipped to succeed at, I prefer to look at underlying value and the prospects for the ecosystem to succeed long term.

If people are able to do useful things with the technology, and there is a potential network effect in play, then the long term value of the system will quite likely be much greater than the current value. Naturally, that's true, barring some catastrophic event. Catastrophes can and do happen. It's best to be smart, and your advice about mitigating risk is definitely smart.

Since I can't avoid a shameless plug, STEEM is incredibly undervalued in my estimation, as an ecosystem. The primary reason for this is the incredible transaction processing capability. Is it perfect? By no means. Is it useful? Absolutely. By solving major usability issues with crypto generally, and providing a transaction system which is effectively no-cost, this is one of the most interesting places currently to be invested.

Like you said, not financial advice. That goes for me too. If you want to be smart, don't just think about money. Invest time and energy. I believe it's worth it, as a basic risk/reward tradeoff.