Whoa! I saw a token spike yesterday and my first reaction was pure FOMO. Seriously? That green candle came out of nowhere. My instinct said: «somethin’ smells like a pump.» Initially I thought it was safe to hop in, but then I checked on-chain flows and orderbook depth and—okay, wait—let me rephrase that: I almost jumped, and then layers of data nudged me back. Trading crypto feels like sniffing out a story. Sometimes the headline is the whole story. Often it’s not.
Here’s what bugs me about headlines: they sell the sizzle and ignore the context. If you’re using a DEX aggregator without on-chain context, you miss the nuance. Hmm… on one hand an aggregator shows best prices, though actually it won’t tell you whether liquidity is rug-resistant. So you need both price routing and raw chain-level signals. I’m biased, but I favor a workflow that starts with a feed of trending tokens, then folds in liquidity health, token holder concentration, and watchlists for suspicious wallets.
How I scan trends without getting chopped up
Okay, so check this out—my day starts with a quick sweep: top movers, new listings, volume spikes. I glance at social chatter and then pivot to on-chain metrics. A few quick filters save you hours. First: volume must be real. Second: liquidity should be on-chain and not just routed through one pool. Third: whale concentration should be reasonable. These sound basic, I know. But they stop most traps.
I use dex screener as a core visual feed. It shows me pairs across chains and highlights big volume bursts. That little view gives me a first impression, and I follow that with deeper analytics. Something felt off about a coin last week because volume looked decent but liquidity came from one address. My gut said «danger,» and chain analysis confirmed it. The combo matters—visual first, analytic second.
Trading rules I follow are straightforward. Keep position sizes tiny on new tokens. Watch the pair’s tokenomics. Check for mint functions and owner privileges. If the dev wallet can mint unlimited supply, walk away. I’m not 100% sure on everything, but these filters remove 70–80% of bad setups for me. Oh, and I watch the slippage required too. If you need 20% slippage to enter, that’s not a trade — it’s a lottery ticket.
On a technical level, here’s the flow I use. First, spot a trending