Checklist before buying cheap altcoins

Altcoins season is coming 🐻 🔜 🐂 ! Despite their real value is doubtful you must acknowledge that altcoins have greater chance to make you a millionaire short term. If you choose wisely your Return on Investment (ROI) can easily skyrocket 🚀. However, as of the time of writing, there are over 1500 cryptocurrencies listed on Coinmarketcap, so how do you know which ones are worth your attention and money?
I must mention that this article is not a financial advice. It is intended to give you a better understanding on how to evaluate if the coin has a potential to grow in value and is less likely to be another scam or Ponzi schema, so you will minimize the risk of losing your money on such coins. You won't find concrete examples of coins as I want to be as unbiased as possible.
So, let's begin! Here is your ultimate checklist:

• It is not an already pump & dump 💸
  On Coinmarketcap you could clearly see if there is a hockey stick price pattern forming. Usually, I skip coins that have >50% increase during the last 7 days. In the crypto world, you should go against the market!
• ICO returns are less than 3x
  If the project has conducted an ICO, always check the current price against the ICO price. If the returns are already high, then there is a high chance that those who bought during the ICO will sell their tokens soon, thus dropping the price significantly. Sometimes you can find coins that are more cheapier than their ICO price, this is a perfect option!
• Team is listed on the website
  It is very important that there is a team behind the project. Spend some time researching if these persons are real, find a video where any member talks about the project.
• Team has essential roles 💼
  Who is the CEO, does he or she have a good reputation? How many developers are there, are they qualified to work on a serious project? Look through their LinkedIn pages, read about their previous experience.
• Physical location 🏢
  Personally, I do not trust a project which only exists in the virtual world. I prefer startups that have a physical place registered, which makes them harder to make an exit scam.
• Are not lying
  Always check the partnerships and advisors list. Are they legit? Is there an official announcement from another side? Also, try to stay away from projects that display many imagined numbers. For instance, "We are 10x better than project X, targeting 700 million people industry and have faster transactions than Bitcoin" (well the latter may be true but generally I don't like when projects are boasting about themselves and criticize others). Optimism is good but it shouldn't become story-telling.
• Adds unique value
  If the coin is just another blind fork 🍴 of some popular coin with no further improvement, then you should probably stay away from it. You don't need 💩 in your portfolio. I know that if you are not a developer it may be hard to understand what this project brings to the table. Try to search for unbiased reviews from experts (avoid those who are just shilling to make the profit themselves). If you can't find one, read the whitepaper yourself and try to extract the essential information.
• Is traded on a trustable exchange but not on the most popular ones yet 💱
  It is not a secret that once the coin is listed on a popular exchange (like Binance, Coinbase, Kraken, Bittrex) the price rises significantly. This is also a good indicator which coins could bring you more money. If currently the coin is only listed on smaller, not so popular exchanges, then before buying you should also check the reputation of that exchange. If you don't think this strategy works, check the price of Bitcoin Cash after listing on the Coinbase and Nano (former RaiBlocks) after listing on the Binance.
• The roadmap is significant 🚩
  Is it clear and realistic, are there any good updates planned in the near future? An example of a bad roadmap:
  2018 Q1 - Website redesign
  2018 Q2 - Improving security
  2018 Q3 - How-to guides
  2018 Q4 - Mobile application
  You could clearly see that there will be no significant updates from a technological point of view that could drive the price crazy. They are just improving the existing technology.
• Social media accounts
  Check if the project has an active community. Take a look at their number of Twitter followers, Facebook page likes, Telegram members, etc. A good community is what makes the project to move faster.
• Website design
  This and the following point are not always the case, but personally, I like when the project has a website with great UI/UX. It is the 21st century, so the websites should also match. If the project is boasting about millions of dollars, but can't hire a web developer to fix their site, then I would highly doubt if it is worth investing in such project.
• Low price
  I know, circulating and total supplies are also important, but you have probably noticed that there is a psychological effect on these few satoshi coins. People are complaining that Bitcoin is already too expensive so they are looking for cheap ones that could potentially moon. And as seen with Ripple, the majority of investors do not care about the supply. That's why I usually use filters to leave coins that cost $0.01 or less.

Bonus - general tips:

• Never invest more than 20% of your portfolio in such altcoins - it is extremely risky and even if the project looks legit you have a high chance of losing your money.
• If there is a possibility, after purchasing these coins on an exchange, transfer them to your own wallet (the one that you have the private keys in possession). A secure choice nowadays is hardware wallets, Ledger Nano S and Trezor being the most popular.
• Always do your own research (DYOR), do not 100% trust any external sources, even this article.

That's all! Hope you enjoyed reading this article and if you have any questions, don't hesitate to drop a line the comments section down below. I would happily answer all of them.
Good luck in the altcoins hunting! 💰