Talking Outside the Lines

I remember in the article on New Year's Eve, we optimistically stated: we continue to be bullish on the overall performance of the crypto market

Source: Talking Outside the Lines

I remember in the New Year's Eve article, we optimistically stated: we continue to be bullish on the overall performance of the crypto market in the first quarter of this year. If no black swan events occur, we might see a good market in February, and possibly Bitcoin reaching 110,000.

However, the reality is that we are facing Trump's tariff policies, a $1.5 billion hacking incident, the Argentine president's LIBRA token event… which has triggered a large-scale liquidation in the market. This further confirms what we often say: the market is unpredictable, we cannot control the market, the only thing we can control is our own positions.

Looking back at the FTX collapse in November 2022, the fear and greed index was only around 20 at that time, while the recent liquidation caused the fear and greed index to drop to 10, the lowest level since the bear market of 2022, with people's emotions shifting to extreme panic at an astonishing speed. As shown in the figure below.

But for those who manage their positions well, encountering such market conditions can also be a good opportunity, as the occurrence of such extreme market conditions seems to indicate that we may have approached a local bottom of the phase.

1. What should you do during large market fluctuations?

At this stage, we may need to pay more attention to factors such as policies and capital flows. For example:

If the Trump administration continues to announce new tariff policies in the coming weeks, it may continue to exert short-term selling pressure on the market.

If the situation remains unclear, there may be continued outflows, which would further negatively impact market sentiment. If inflows start to occur again, it could be a relatively good short-term signal.

In terms of specific position management, we can take this opportunity to make some new optimizations. For example:

1) Continue to optimize your portfolio

If you are not a short-term trading expert, then continue to hold your Bitcoin and do not easily give up your chips. At the same time, you can take necessary profits based on your holding cost and target (the old saying: buy in batches, sell in batches).

If your risk tolerance is relatively low, you can continue to reduce your altcoin holdings, especially those without any bullish catalysts and weak rebounds. You should strictly follow your risk preferences for stop-loss or take-profit operations, and do not hold onto losing positions. Of course, if you have already strictly taken profits and are optimistic about a particular altcoin you bought, then you can continue to hold those altcoins.

If your risk tolerance is relatively high and you still enjoy researching and buying altcoins, then focus on those relatively strong altcoins. For example, if BTC is falling, it doesn't fall or only falls slightly, and it rebounds first after BTC stops falling—these are relatively strong altcoins. Try not to buy those that have fallen significantly and you feel have hit the bottom or are very cheap. Even if you are speculating, do not bet on weak projects, and think carefully about your reasons for buying. The simplest idea is that if you cannot quickly list three reasons for buying it within 10 minutes, then do not buy it.

Also, continue to keep a certain amount of liquid funds (USDT/USDC) to deal with potential new black swan events.

2) Continue to learn

Reduce the time spent staring at the market and consider doing things you wanted to do before but didn't have the energy for, or things you are interested in. Staring at the market does not bring direct results; just set up some necessary monitoring alerts. If staring at the K-line could move the market with your thoughts, I would definitely stay awake 24 hours a day to watch it.

Alternatively, you can consider continuously utilizing your existing funds through various means. For example, you can pursue better investment returns with idle funds (if participating in on-chain stablecoin investments, be mindful of project risks; if participating in exchange stablecoin investments, pay attention to lock-up periods and do not lock your assets), as shown in the figure below.

Additionally, you can use tools like Rootdata to find and research potential airdrop projects, engage in arbitrage operations using funding rates, etc. In short, use methods you like or understand to keep your investment portfolio growing continuously. Sometimes, small amounts of money are still money; do not always fantasize about making $1 million overnight and look down on various $1,000 opportunities.

Moreover, it is not only in a bull market that one can make money. In fact, if we ignore the concepts of bull and bear markets, there are always various opportunities to make money in the market; it is just a matter of whether you can discover, understand, execute well,