Lately, everyone’s been talking about block builders, bundles, making it seem like trading is impossible without understanding them... I think retail traders just need to know "what level is enough": as long as you understand that your order isn't immediately included in a block, it might be bundled or front-run, slippage and execution prices are sometimes not due to sloppiness but because someone faster is in the path. Then the approach becomes very simple: don’t chase after sudden price surges to buy, don’t aggressively sweep during low liquidity, use limit orders when possible, and if you must use market orders, set your slippage tolerance conservatively.

As for how builders compete, how many transactions are bundled, the MEV details... honestly, that’s their bread and butter. We can only see it as “an unfair but predictable market background noise.” Recently, the incentives on testnets and the expectations for token airdrops have stirred up emotions again, with everyone guessing whether the mainnet will issue tokens. I’m just planning for the worst-case scenario: if it doesn’t issue tokens, don’t ruin your trading discipline just for some points.

That’s all for now. I’m going to review the transaction replay for my commonly traded pairs again and see where I keep getting front-run.