The question here is how many assets are currently over their own slow trend and how many are under it. Each is measured against its own past rather than against some line held in common, and that is the only thing making a collection of wildly different assets comparable.

Participation is the whole point of the reading. A rally carried by two names and one carried by fifty look identical on a price chart and are not remotely the same market underneath.

What it actually measures

It is a state rather than a flow. This reports where things stand as of today, which is a different question from what happened today, and it turns considerably later as a result.

The extremes are read against the prevailing mood rather than along with it. Near-universal agreement in either direction is itself the fragile condition, whichever direction the agreement happens to point.

The middle of the range carries very little. A mixed field is the ordinary state of this market and says nothing much in either direction.

Near-universal agreement is the fragile condition

When almost every asset sits above its own trend the picture looks about as healthy as it could, and in one straightforward sense it is. Everything is working at once.

It is also the point at which nothing is left to convert. Every asset that could have joined has joined, and the only change available from there is in the other direction. The same logic runs in reverse at the bottom of the range, which is why both ends of this reading get watched rather than only one.

What it does not tell you

A reading at the low end names the surroundings in which lows have formed, which is not the same as naming a low. It has stayed down there for a very long time on more than one occasion.

It counts assets equally regardless of their size, so the field’s largest names carry no more weight here than its smallest ones do.

Each asset’s trend is measured over a fixed stretch, which suits some assets better than others and flatters the ones whose natural rhythm happens to match it.

It is a count of assets and not of capital. A field where the smallest names are above trend and the largest below reads as healthy participation.

How to read it

Capitulation. Washed out, and historically a zone in which bottoms have formed.

Risk-off. More than half the field has slipped under its own slow line.

Neutral. A mixed tape with no clear participation signal.

Risk-on. Broad participation, with the majority above trend.

Euphoric. Near-universal uptrends, historically a frothy condition.

Altcoin Breadth runs on the Relative Performance dashboard next to Advance / Decline, Alt Season Index and Top 10 Table.

Common questions

Why does participation matter more than price?

Because a rise resting on two names is brittle in a way one resting on fifty is not. What is counted here is how much of the market has actually turned up.

Why are the extremes read against the mood?

Because everyone agreeing is itself the hazard. With almost every asset over its trend there is nobody left to bring in, and the reverse holds at the other end just as firmly.

Does a washed-out reading mean the bottom is in?

No. It names the surroundings in which lows have formed before, and naming the surroundings is not naming a low. The figure has sat down there for months at a time.

Why keep this and the participation tally?

This is a state and that is a flow. This says where things stand now; that says what happened today, accumulated, and it turns first.

Are large assets weighted more?

No. Every asset counts once, so the largest names carry no more weight here than the smallest, and a field where the small names are above trend and the large ones below will read as healthy participation.