Altcoin trading is more like gambling since there is no way for the average person to know what will happen, since the majority of the altcoins are only created to feed the operators (e.g. empty projects). If you look closely at people that are trading altcoins, or investing in altcoins, then it's clear they just hope for a pump to happen. In some cases repetitive patterns can book you easy profits, but that happens only once in awhile. You can't solely depend on these repetitive patterns unless you only trade when they show up. But that will make you an occasional trader. It's easy to speak for people, while in reality making profits whilst trading isn't so easy at all.