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i have heard stories of poloniex freezing funds when it comes to big trades they are blocked and not allowed to trade.

Then checkout bittrex

Thanks i will look into it. and i am also open to any opinions by other people on exchanges and/or other coins to look into

I have used Bittrex and Polo with no problems, though Polo got really slow recently because of heavy trading. You can also try out Bitshares DEX (decentralized exchange), but not as many people use it, so trading is not as efficient.

I'd recommend holding BTC, LTC and ETH, and you can also look into Factoids FCT, XEM (NEM), and Dash.

Thank you i have looked into dash but it seemed a little weird to me so i stayed away

Its marketing strategy is better than most cryptos, in that the Dash team are really trying to make it accessible to the average user. If they can manage that, its price is bound to rise. I'm long with Dash, and I am mining it.