Would it be a good idea to have several different *coin to protect oneself from fluctuations? I'm interested in *coin, but I'm afraid of sinking money into something out of idle curiosity and then losing that money to value fluctuations. Would it be a good idea to have several different *coin (lite, doge, idk what else there is) so that the fluctuations balance each other?  

Have different *coin in the past gained and lost value in 'lockstep', or totally independent or inversely?

I'm aware that I would also loose the chance to gain money from course fluctuations, but I don't that's something to loose sleep over.
I don't see how different coins would protect against volatility, as Bitcoin is by far the leading cryptocurrency, and the others (even all of them combined) are really totally insignificant in terms of market cap and trading volume. 

If you want to protect against volatility (given that you measure volatility in terms of value expressed in fiat currency), there's two options:


use Coinapult Locks
keep part of your money in fiat


Simple as that. Seriously, just not investing part of your money in something is the best and easiest way to suppress its volatility.