Being familiar with the terms Pump and Dump should be a way to understand what actually goes on in an altcoin investment. It creates that chance for a buy in the start of a pump and the early birds seems to gain the most, not excluding the team behind the project. You see the pump, see it for a coin with potentials and jump in huge. Then, the early birds take there profits and it starts to dump. The next step you know is, a complete liquidation of your asset. Some get rich while, others get poor and poorer. Sadly, thats the story of majority of the altcoins out there. My estimations puts it at 80-90%.
When it comes to bitcoin, the story is a lot different. Bitcoin is the only coin with some assurance on it out there. You've just got to be ready to hodl no matter what and for a long time.