Well, lots of questions, so I'll hit them quick.. Firstly.. its not always like this.. what is happening now is not trading its speculating. It is a false God so to speak and is going to trick a lot of people into thinking the are professional traders. So take time, invest in yourself and study.. learn the charts, learn the indicators etc. Me I like the MACD at 7/21/77, the Stoch RSI, Volume and Candlesticks; that me.. may not work for you. As to exchange.. well you can go Coinbase, but they monitor every transaction you make and if you send it somewhere they don't like they arbitrarily close your account. There is Kraken (low volume, allows shorts, but the API sucks, so only use it for a longer term up or down trade), I use Bitrex for ALTs, Coinbase is good for trading as the GUI is fast, I also use Gemini for arbitrage between the two and to buy and move coin to places (OTC BTC websites) Coinbase would close my account for.

Wallet always my own, on my laptop, or offline.. I use the default Bitcoin core wallet bitcoinqt I think its called on a laptop that is never online save when needed to transfer.

Tips? study, study, study, know the charts, no when to hold and when to fold.. I have been upside down in an LTC trade since yesterday about 5k worth.. Not due to a bad call just do to the volatility of this market; it happens.. did I panic sell nope.. I watched the charts and purchased more at a lower buy point (averaging down). Is that a good tactic generally, NO.. and can get you hurt much worse.. but I study the charts, and had faith in this PLANNED buy.. now I'm up 4k.. but that kind of stuff takes a lot of experience to do.. Other times I would of just taken the loss, eaten it and moved on if the charts told me that was a good idea..

If you want a good place to see free charts with indicators go here... https://cryptowat.ch/gdax/btcusd/1m