I would like to introduce a few working theories that I have come up since I began tracking Steem and its' dynamics that have been trending in my opinion in the last six to seven weeks. Like just about anything I cannot guarantee it staying the same, but in the short term, there have been some interesting correlations that are not necessarily prevailing, but there is at least a slight link to them.
--First, Steem is not a stock, while it is a cryptocurrency it provides a chance for those who trade it a chance to earn market based value. There are some competitive advantages to owning Steem as you may typically see in the investment world.
1.) You can lend/lease your Steempower. Such a unique angle to investing here, you can literally lease out your Steem, after converting it to Steempower (also called powering up). So if you intend to keep there for a lengthy time, this is a very wise move, but bear in mind it takes 13 weeks to power down steem that is transferred to steempower. It's difficult to find investments in the investment world that you can loan your money for a quarter of the year, and get any kind of return. On here it can be quite profitable when done correctly. Do your research on the platform about DELEGATING STEEMPOWER, there are countless posts on here further explaining it. Certificates of deposit do this at a bank, but the return on three months + one week is virtually nothing.
2.) You can trade Steem dollars for Steem (and vice versa). If you wish speculate in the nearer term and feel the steemdollar is going to do better than steem, you can swap them straight up on the built in market provided to account holders. It's a bit of a unique angle, as a chance to take advantage of the current (and future prospects) of the reward pool and buy steem dollars, or go longer on the steemit platform and the steem (token) by powering up or keeping it in your account for possibly other trading moves down the road.
3.) Trading is much more liquid with steem than with other cryptos such as Bitcoin. Not to trash Bitcoin at all, a lot of people who own steem also own Bitcoin as it is the most visible of the cryptos at the moment and carries a very high valuation day to day. While transaction fees have began to come down, they are still fairly substantial unless you are trading a very high dollar value amount of BTC.
(((--The intriguing thought I have come to notice with steem is that it could become a "pocket change" trade for the moment, at least until the price of the steem dollar/steem sees an exponential rise to a number like $100 market value trade. So, until the system gets overrun with transactions like what happened with BTC, which fortunately for the Steem holder is exponentially higher, people basically have the option to make steem market trades from bank to steemit account with very little headache and wastage in fees.)))
4.) The trend I have notice in the very short term is that Steem prices seem to move in an almost inverse opposite of more traditional international stalwart indexes, like say the Dow Jones since Bitcoin was able to traded on the CBOE (Chicago Board of Exchange) back in mid December 2017. Hard to say if that is intentional, but the amount of trades have certainly gone up. I welcome you to look at all the charts and make your decisions based on this theory, as it is something I have personally observed over the last six weeks.
--How you wish to maximize your holding in Steem, Bitcoin, any other crypto, or any traditional invest is obviously up to you. I am not here to tell you what to do next, just to provide my personal observations. What you choose to do with it is purely up to you. I do congratulate you on taking the plunge into a concept that 99% of the world has not yet had the guts to do so. You are among the first one to a party that is if nothing else incredibly interesting and entertaining. Congratulations, best of luck on the platform, may it be fruitful to you in what you wish to accomplish!
--Sincerely, 
