Many people ask me why I only talk about mainstream altcoins, never mentioning those small altcoins, and even less recommending them? In fact, it's not that I don't know that small altcoins have high volatility and strong wealth creation effects, but after understanding the 'liquidity trap' behind them, I really dare not say 'can make money'.
Those small altcoins that can rise more than 30% in place actually have a 'similar face': niche tracks, long-term consolidation at the bottom (to put it bluntly, 'light cars', the chips are not dispersed), mini market value, daily trading volume is pitifully low, and the chips are highly concentrated in the hands of a few people.
But the 'pit' of this coin is precisely hidden 'before the surge': if you ambush in advance, once your position is heavy, the main force will immediately stop—either they grind until you can't hold on and cut losses, then they pull up; or they first insert a big needle before the pull, deliberately creating a false breakdown to scare you out, then turn around and start the market.
What's even harsher is another situation: clearly breaking through the 4-hour or daily resistance level with a significant volume, just about to surge upward, but suddenly too many followers come in, 'the vehicle becomes heavy', and the main force directly changes its mind—what was truly a breakout instantly turns into a false breakout, leaving you hanging at the top of the mountain. Whenever you cut your losses, that's when they start pulling up again.
This is very similar to the 'copy trading curse': many 'genius traders' do well without following trades, and small amounts of capital are fine, but once there are more followers and the 'fleet' gets heavy, problems arise immediately. It's not that there's some 'curse', it's essentially that small altcoins have too poor liquidity, and the market's absorption capacity is insufficient—when your position is light, you can't see it, but once the funds increase, even a slight movement in buy and sell orders can cause the price to crash.
Relying on small altcoins for high returns, over 95% of people won't last 90 days. It's not that the skills are inadequate, but one day, you will step on a certain coin controlled by a market maker: clearly, the entry position is fine, but your position is directly 'taken out' by the market maker; what's even more frustrating is that once you cut your losses, it immediately rises according to the market you expected.
This is really not the fault of the trader or the strategy—sometimes the entry point is right, the logic is fine, but you just can't withstand the impact of insufficient liquidity, and continuous stop losses become the norm. But those who follow the trades don't care about this; they only see that they lost money, followed by a flood of abuse. Once their mentality collapses, even the greatest 'genius' will slowly fall.
Ultimately, the crypto space is a 'dark forest', and weak liquidity is the survival rule here, while the positions in our hands are the lights above our heads. When your position is light, the 'light' is dim, and no one pays attention to you; but once your position becomes heavier, you become like a bright light in the dark, all the market makers can focus on you—your entry and exit have long become signals for others to harvest.
Looking back now, were those losses you made really all due to inadequate skills? Perhaps, from the moment you chose a small altcoin, you already stepped into a 'liquidity trap.'
