How to avoid taking sh*tty altcoin trades in this market.👇 And, outperforming with the ones you take. (8 steps) 1. BTC pair uptrend Pair every single altcoin trade idea against BTC. If your altcoin is in a downtrend relative to Bitcoin, you might as well just go long the leader (Bitcoin). (exception being major HTF retests of the pair - depending on reaction you can long here with inval below). 2. Major support with clear invalidation Identify trade entries on high time frames (12H, 1D, 3D, 1W) with a clear technical invalidation level where, if hit, your altcoin trade thesis would be wrong - this is where you put your stop loss. 3. ⁠Positive flows Positive flows = more active buy pressure than sell pressure. This may seem like an obvious tip, yet most people still hold alts with little active buy pressure flows. A few tools to actually help you execute: • Monitor whale accumulation with @nansen_ai & @arkham • @debridge for macro ecosystem flows • @artemis for macro ecosystem flows • Look for projects with active buyback/token burn flywheels • Monitor on-chain activity with @DEXToolsApp • @tokenterminal for specific project flows/financial statements • Use AI/Grok 4 to monitor flows 4. Ecosystem health Ensure the altcoin you want to trade has solid fundamentals (TVL, Volume, Revenue, etc.) @DefiLlama is excellent here. You also want to ensure the overall mindshare/sentiment of that specific altcoin is healthy. @cookiedotfun is my go-to tool for mindshare analysis. Another tip for mindshare/sentiment analysis: Actively scan the Discord/Telegram of that altcoin to get a feel for the overall project sentiment. You want to avoid alts with harmful/toxic community sentiment, which can completely destroy a project. 5. ⁠Have conviction and understand the project Only buy what you understand and have conviction in. It'll make it much easier to hold through choppy waters. 6. Max drawdown Similar to point 2 (having clear invalidation), ensure you always assess your precise max drawdown on any given position before entering. This will help you determine appropriate risk-to-reward ratios before entering. 7. Core vs. Degen portfolio management You should have two portfolios. Portfolio 1: Your core portfolio where you want to be holding altcoins that tick off as many of the above points as possible. Portfolio 2: Your degenerate portfolio (<20%), where you can spray-and-pray a little more freely, but be aware of the higher associated risks in this portfolio. Bonus (most crucial tip): ⁠Position sizing Lastly, you need to ensure you understand position sizing. You can get all the other seven points right, but sizing incorrectly is a one-way ticket to losing everything (or, having a banger trade idea but not maximising it). Come up with a system that allows you to size up when the stars align on a specific altcoin trade, but also minimizes your downside on riskier altcoin trades where fewer of the above points are ticked off. I recommend creating a SWOT analysis dashboard with Claude and "scoring" your conviction in specific trade setups - this should help you match your position size to the conviction/validation you have on any specific trade. Bookmark this system so it stays top of mind (it will save you a lot of money).(Miles Deutscher)