That's a great question. I'm learning as I go, but I think it's somewhat of an art. You try different things in different situations and find something that feels right. I can't answer for you, but I can show what I did with PIVX:

<a href="https://steemitimages.com/DQmU4Etg1bNB3TChLzNScA8AEVsAzmnXo769UnmEAGUErnc/image.png">![](https://steemitimages.com/DQmU4Etg1bNB3TChLzNScA8AEVsAzmnXo769UnmEAGUErnc/image.png)</a>

(That's from my copy of the spreadsheet I linked to in the original post). I bought 6k PIVX, starting staking and eventually sold 1k. Then I sold another 1k higher than that to get all of my initial investment back, plus a nice profit. Now I have 4k PIVX essentially for free that I can stake and keep long term. Obviously, it won't always work out that nicely, but it's a great example of when things go really well.

Some of the bitcoin I got from selling PIVX I used to buy Golem which I road up a little wave and sold for profit also. It's fun when all the candles are green, but when things go red it can be rough. I held all my bitcoin from $1,200 in 2014 down to the $250 range. Being emotionally involved isn't helpful for profit.