i've started to day-trade Bitcoin very frequently this year (i document my trades on altcoinnewsletter.com). I've also began focusing on binary options and small market penny stocks. All of these trading products are very volatile and move up and down significantly in price. Since they can increase over 1000% in value, they can be traded for a significant profit. Most traders tend to look at their investments over the long-term, but these investments are very short-term Most traders only hold their positions for very short amounts of time. They will enter or exit their positions over periods as short as minutes or days.
Investments like binary options or penny stocks are traded very differently than long term, traditional investments. When most casual stock investors look to make a purchase, they research a company, make a purchase, and hold on to the stock. They hold onto a high-value stock with hopes that it will increase in price over periods of years. On the other hand, when "day-traders" buy and sell micro-cap stocks, they try to puy and sell them as the price rises or falls. They are not looking at these stocks as a long term investment, they just seek to ride these price increases and decreases.
Altcoins are very new types of digital currencies which have different functions. These altcoins can be programmed to be anonymous, donate to charity, or save interest. They are very much outside mainstream adoption, but i believe they will eventually be used by most people. Altcoins are being created at a rate of about 5 per day. This gives them questionable value. Their ever increasing numbers may lessen their value, but certain altcoins will become adopted and gain value. This did happen with darkcoin. As its technology progressed, it has gained more adoption. In my opinion, technology plus mainstream adoption gives these currencies value.