There's been so little to discuss and so few actionable trades that our priority right now is waiting for reliable signals to suggest a resolution from this trading range.
Price action in most crypto assets is still range-bound. It appears 46,000 is the critical level for bulls to reclaim.
There are many mixed signals, so we have no read on current price action as of the writing of this report.
It's the sound of tilted traders getting chopped up.
It's a tale as old as time: people playing the market like it's trending, when it's nothing more than ping-ponging.
Price is in a really well-defined range, and there's no point getting hyped by any moves - up or down - before we actually get confirmation of a real break.
This approach of remaining completely neutral has done a great job of protecting us from the tilt of getting chopped up.
We've taken shots at small long trades in a few altcoins during this time, only for us to ultimately get chopped up days after putting the positions on.
This is information.
Crypto as an asset class is range-bound at best, and unless you're incorporating a staking/yield/options strategy, the vast majority of crypto traders have been better off positioned in stables on the sidelines.
The macro environment continues to be heavily driven by geopolitical volatility and the situation in Eastern Europe.
Parabolic commodity prices are beginning to take their toll on the broad market indexes, which Bitcoin and crypto have been correlated with in recent months and quarters.
Moreover, whales and savvy traders are still in the process of selling.
There's quite literally an infinite amount of strategies, systems, and indicators you can integrate into your process.
But, at the end of the day, mastering just a select few will likely generate alpha as opposed to creating inconsistency in your approach.
Think about it: If you go to the gym, you have a structured program. You don't go to the gym and aimlessly decide on random exercises. You have a rigid plan that you're going to build on top of the lifts you did the workout before.
Trading's the same.
You don't need to switch between every time frame, make every decision using a different indicator from the last, or follow someone else with different objectives from yourself into our trade.
You find repeatable setups where you can find your edge.
For instance, you may only trade in the aftermath of liquidity cascade events that take place a handful of times every year. Mastered well enough, a few well-calculated trades in similar conditions can make your entire year.
In day-to-day life, being a "Jack of all trades, master of none" might serve you well.
Since November, the market has been grinding lower, and most cryptos find themselves in 50%-plus drawdowns.
There's no other way to put it: The altcoins have been bruised and battered.
It's at these stages of the market cycle that we analyze the names in the shallowest drawdowns.
When everything else is down the dumps, the few names that have bucked the selling pressure, and are even pressing against new highs are likely your next leaders when the broad selling subsides.
This is exactly what we've done.
We've filtered our universe of cryptos (all coins above $500M in market cap) by their drawdown from 52-week highs as well as their respective performance from Bitcoin's January lows and since war broke out between Ukraine and Russia.