You can also use bitshares to trade out of STEEM.
But i took quite a bite in loss from the gulf between buy and sell.

Now on the weeks to power down.
HF-23 changed it to four... and so, if your old power down is still going at 1/13th, maybe you might want to cancel and start again.

i really do not know what the best amount of weeks to power down is.
If you have a great eco system, with people coming in and people leaving, then anything is no big deal.
So, anything longer than the vote payout time is fine.

On the other end, you want people leaving the sinking ship to exit in an orderly fashion.

In the middle, you would like people to not capsize the boat by all rushing one way or the other.