I agree with you, I personally will choose a safe coin and have a good popularity as well. there are for long-term coins such as etherum, litecoin and of course bitcoin. As for the short term I choose waves and dash. I am still learning to read charts of market price movements to be able to know when is the right time to buy and when is the right time to sell.
your option is good, i see waves is good enough for short term, for dash, i will make it as long term as bitcoin, ethereum, litecoin. don't forget with etc too because this coin is ready to explode too like ethereum but it is just in my mind. for short term, i think you can add nxt, maid, xcp and wings. but those coins is not for few days, maybe in a week. for daily trading, i think you can see with the movement from the coins itself so you can determine what coin will be good today.