Lately, I keep seeing people ask about block builders, bundles, and so on.

What level of knowledge do retail investors really need to learn… I think there's no need to push yourself to become a researcher.
All you need to know is: the transaction you send may not be included in the block "in the order you point out";
there will be packing, jumping queues, and front-running, especially when you're chasing hot topics on-chain or dealing with low liquidity,
a big slippage can basically mean you're giving away your assets.

I thought understanding some MEV terminology could help avoid being exploited,
but in reality, the most effective thing is the simplest:
don't chase market price during congestion, split large orders,
don't randomly set extremely high slippage,
use private channels/protected RPC if available,
at least don't publicly announce your intentions.

As for the macro stuff, rate cut expectations sometimes boost the market, sometimes drag it down,
the dollar index rises and falls with risk assets, and some can explain it…
Honestly, the noise is quite large.
Retail investors should pay more attention to:
does your transaction have "exploitable" space for others?
That's all for now.