I got itchy again today and chased a trade from a new pool. Not only did I eat 0.3% slippage, but the depth basically stabbed me—when I tried to place the order to cover it, it had already jumped three price levels. 😅

Looking back, it’s actually pretty simple: my little script that I wrote to run signals was late by about a dozen seconds, and my brain was hot, so I just went straight to market, thinking if I pushed in fast enough I could grab the price. In the end, I got bitten back by liquidity. Basically, when on-chain depth is too thin, you should honestly use limit orders or wait a few more blocks before moving—don’t fight with the bots over those cheap fractions of a second.

I’ve also been finding the NFT royalty drama pretty interesting lately: project teams cut royalties to “provide liquidity,” but the secondary market ends up turning into a junk pile, and creators’ income becomes like a lottery. Anyway, I’ve set a rule for myself now: before placing an order, check the on-chain order book first—if the depth isn’t enough, leave it posted and don’t force my own money to have a problem. Once the habit sets in, the urge to do something dumb just drops by a lot.