Market Pulse #1: Bull Market Trading Rules + Indicators That Actually Work
Current Market Reality Check - August 2025
The crypto market just hit $4 trillion, up 13% in July alone. Bitcoin's at ~$120k, ETH broke $4k, and institutional money is flooding in like never before.
MicroStrategy bought 21,000 BTC in one week. Harvard holds $116 million in Bitcoin ETFs. DeFi TVL jumped 24%. Even your barber is probably talking about crypto again.
I think that we're entering the final part of this cycle. This is where the most money gets made and lost. When everyone's euphoric, you need a game plan.
$4 trillion is just the beginning - things are going to get wild. And you need rules because when euphoria takes over, it blinds you to risk.
Here are some rules to consider and remember whatever you're trading. I've also included some indicators and tools you can monitor to better prepare to "time" the top and take some profits at good levels.
Whether you're trading futures, chasing memes, or building a spot portfolio, these conditions require discipline. Let's dive into the rules that actually work. Hope this helps.
FUTURES TRADING RULES
• "The Sleep Test" - If your position keeps you awake, it's too big
Reduce position size or use a stop loss at breakeven if you're in profit
• "The Dopamine Rule" - When checking prices becomes addictive, reduce position size
• "The FOMO Prevention Rule" - Never buy green candles above 20%
Never chase trades or force entries when everything is green. Wait for corrections - they will come. Especially if it is into HTF resistance.
If a trade moves away from you, you missed it. Accept it and wait for the next setup
Wait for the market to cool off. Monitor LTF RSI for the 50-level retest for better entries, or continuation trades
• "The Revenge Trading Rule" - After a big loss, wait 24 hours before next trade
Depending on your risk management, if you encounter multiple losses, take a longer break
Implement the 3-loss rule: After 3 losses, step away completely
This is where most traders lose their money, telling yourself "just one revenge trade"
You make a couple good trades, get confident, make stupid decisions, then give back all profits to the market
This is why systematic rules must be implemented in your trading
• "The 1% Rule" - Never risk more than 1-2% of your account per trade
MEME COIN TRADING RULES
• "The Screenshot Rule" - If you screenshot gains to show friends, take profits
• "The House Money Rule" - Once you're up 100%, you're playing with house money
Sell your initial investment and enjoy the ride with profits
• "The Ladder Out Method" - Sell 10% every 50% gain (scale out quickly)
• "The Hot Potato Rule" - Hold what you understand, trade what you don't
In memes, it's hard to hold long-term. For conviction bags, do deep research
Look for strong communities - people who are still here after 80% drops
SPOT TRADING RULES
• "The Conviction Test" - If you can't explain why you hold it, sell it
• "The DCA In And Out Strategy" - Enter and exit like you entered
When choosing coins, look for strong support levels, EMAs, good technical levels to DCA into
The beauty of spot: you don't need to buy the exact bottom, you can always buy at lower prices
DCA at bottoms and at the tops - this is where you scale out
You won't time the top, but you'll sell much higher. Use price projections and monitor market context
Have an Exit Strategy (Don’t Round-Trip Gains): Bull markets don’t last forever, so plan for how you’ll de-risk when the cycle matures. A common approach is using trend indicators to time your exit. For example, watch the 200-day moving average or 20-week moving average as long as price stays above these key trend lines, the bull market is likely intact.
• "The Original Investment Rule" - Always take out your initial investment first
• "The Core Rule" - Keep Bitcoin, trade the rest. Stack the sats.
• "The 70/30 Rule" - Keep 70% in blue chips (BTC/ETH), trade 30% in alts and rotate the profits back to BTC
THE GOLDEN RULE
"The Life-Changing Money Rule" - If it's life-changing, take it off the table
Don't look at CT and compare to others - everyone's situation is different. This is why we're here: to make money and actually take it.
Indicators and useful sites to monitor
This next section includes some indicators I use and some sites you can monitor depending what are you trading and looking, these are the ones I find interesting
Futures
Coinglass - (free website) let you monitor real-time funding and aggregated open interest across exchanges.
Mobchart – Heatmaps and order book data for various crypto derivatives.
Spot
Google Trends - is another handy tool: spikes in searches for a coin (e.g. “How to buy Shiba Inu”) typically coincide with peak public frenzy. In 2017, the search term “how to buy bitcoin” famously peaked at the same time Bitcoin’s price topped, illustrating this effect
WEEKLY or 3D RSI divergences
Divergences must appear in a extremes, as you can see in both cases it resulted in ~50% drop.
Pi Cycle Top indicator
uses two moving averages crossing to historically call tops (it signalled the 2013 and 2017 bull highs to within a few days)
Fear & Greed Index
if the Crypto Fear & Greed Index reaches extreme greed (near 90–100), or if on-chain metrics like the Pi Cycle Top indicator flash, it might be time to take significant profits before the bear returns.
Free TradingView indicators
Here are the some TradignView indicators I personally use, and you can apply them on all timeframes.
XO Macro Trend Scanner
Simple combination of 12 & 25 moving averages for trend following. You can read more about indicator here:
XO Macro Trend Scanner
Cuban Revision Bands
Please read more about this and how to use it:
“I would only play reversals during a ranging environment, however even if the market is trending, these bands will assist in spotting a weakening trend”
Cuban Revision Bands
Spaceman key levels
One that I use the most for tracking key levels.
Spaceman key levels
Smart Money Concepts (SMC) [LuxAlgo]
“This all-in-one indicator displays real-time market structure (internal & swing BOS / CHoCH), order blocks, premium & discount zones, equal highs & lows, and much more”
I recommend that you check LuxAlgo page he has more excellent free and paid indicators
Conclusion
Remember: No indicator is 100% reliable. Use multiple signals together for better timing.
Leverage technical indicators to trade the trend, and sentiment/cycle indicators to sniff out when euphoria or fear is peaking.
All the above tools are available for free either within TradingView’s indicator library or on external sites.
By combining market data with these indicators, you’ll be better equipped to navigate the bull market riding the upside and “knowing” when to secure your profits before the tide turns.
Good Luck.