Aztec,
I don't think bitcoins are finished rising. I've often said they could be worth $100K each.
So I don't think you've missed all of the opportunity in Bitcoin. However, there may be another even greater. Right now if you have $1,000 to invest you'll get about 5 bitcoins. If/when bitcoins reach $1,000 each you will have made $4,000. The way prices have been going they might hit that in less than a year, and a 400% increase on your money in 1 year isn't bad by any standards.
There is another story.
In October 2012 due to developments in this community - namely the creation of a power consolidating "Bitcoin foundation" - I realized it would be healthy for there to be market alternatives to Bitcoin. In a post called Solution to the Bitcoin Foundation I advised people to support other cryptocurrencies like
Litecoin.
My conclusion in that post is relevant to your question:
...
I think everyone (TBF opponents in particular) should begin adopting, promoting and using Litecoin to diversify cryptocurrencies in the market. People should have cryptocurrency portfolios, I think with BTC and LTC starting things off. Exchanges, eWallets, and merchants should add support for multiple cryptocurrencies so people can switch between them easily. Vircurex.com and Btc-e.com currently reflect this well.
The exchange rate for Litecoins I estimate should be around $3, which is about 4 times less than Bitcoin's current rate, because there will be about 4 times as many Litecoins than Bitcoins in total. I personally will be working hard to help the community move in this direction. It also means broader wealth distribution as there are already about the same number of LTC as BTC in existence.
At the time I wrote that litecoins, which had the most traction of all alternative coins, were worth about $0.04-$0.05 each. Today they are worth about $4 each. At that time bitcoins were about $12 each which is why I concluded litecoins should be worth $3 or four times less, since there are four times as many litecoins as bitcoins total.
I still believe litecoins should be about 4 times less than bitcoins, and while the market for them has obviously picked up I think it's still behind (bitcoins currently ~$200). Litecoins jumped from about $0.60 to almost $6 recently correlating with the surge in bitcoin prices.
If you do the math investing that same $1,000 in litecoins, should they ever settle at 4 times less than bitcoins, you'll make a lot more than 400%.
https://btc-e.com/