When liquidity dries up, I first shove the idea of “bottom fishing” back in the drawer. Let’s be honest about markets: at the end of the day, it’s whoever runs out of money first and whoever breaks first. These days, everyone ties ETF capital flows to U.S. stock risk appetite and interprets them together every day, like they’ve uncovered some cosmic truth… but when the dump truly hits, there’s only one word on the screen: slippage.

Why do I start getting an itch to trade? Because I always feel like, “This time I can get in earlier than everyone else”—that illusion of beating human nature is the most intoxicating. The outcome is usually this: others cut their losses, and I add more; others are still alive, and I start talking about faith. In any case, my rules are still the same two: watch whether the funding rate starts going off the rails, and watch whether people in the group start shouting “one last time to board.” Before liquidity comes back, stay alive first. As for bottom fishing, I’ll do it only when I no longer feel like doing it.