You should do both. Pick 2-3 long term coins as a store of value , they should be seasoned coins that have proven themselves and are resistant to excessively wild price fluctuations and volatility. IE bitcoin , ethereum , litecoin etc. I would put 1.5 to 2k into these and play the market with the rest. Take a little and play the market with altcoins and newer projects , they are more volatile but present much higher chance for a come up overnight relatively speaking , like your trons , ripples , cardanos etc. also maybe save a little money for upcoming Icos , treat those like the lottery being that you only really want to spend the minimum they will allow you to contribute unless you really really believe in them , that way you could care less if they never come to market or go bust, but icos present probally the easiest way to see massive returns in short time periods. Whenever your doing well in the newer alt coins , icos or anything outside of your store of value coins , take a little profit or cash them out completely into your store of value coins when your altcoins are at all time highs. This way your building your long term coins up and keeping the money in the crypto space instead of cashing out to fiat. I would personally put 1500 in long terms , 1k to play the altcoin market , and 500 on icos if I was new with 3k to spend but that's just me.