At the website www.cryptsy.com you can trade with almost all of the "crypto coins" there are available (like BTC, NameCoins, DevCoins, AuroraCoin, BlackCoin and etc). There you can see the "market" for, for example NameCoin/Bitcoin and how the value of namecoins has been changing related to the value of bitcoins. Often a very big dive in the recent days indicates that you should invest as you might expect the currency to gain some of its value back (NOTE: this is of course NOT NEARLY always the case!).
1. Visit www.cryptsy.com
2. Register for a free account
3. Read the "Support" pages for a detailed information about the trading you want to do