Last night, I got the itch and placed an order that looked “so tasty” in terms of the spread—only to get schooled by slippage. The pool depth wasn’t really enough. I even split my order into two entries: the first one pushed the price up, and the second one ended up taking an even worse fill. The whole timing was off. Plainly put, I was carried away by the illusion that “I’m half a beat faster than the market.” The more I stared at the order book, the more I felt like I had to prove my read was right—so the easier it became to chase fills. After replaying it, the most basic (and honestly, the most boring) lesson is this: look at depth first before talking slippage. I’d rather miss out and get a smaller amount than force a trade against weak liquidity. It also made me think about the recent pile of debates over NFT royalties—everyone kept fixating on who gets a little more, but when the secondary liquidity dries up, in the end, nobody feels good… Anyway, I’m going to keep my hands in check first—I’d rather miss the chance.