$OM Why has the traditional "pump and dump" strategy lost its appeal?

The traditional "pump and dump" model has several fatal weaknesses:

1. High costs: It requires a significant amount of real money to continuously buy in order to create a strong upward trend.

2. High uncertainty: During the pumping process, it may attract other savvy large funds to "ride along," becoming competitors in selling, and may even lead to a counterattack.

3. Clear targets: Dramatic price fluctuations easily attract regulatory attention and strong community backlash.

Why has "grinding stop-loss" become a better strategy?

Today's traders are essentially engaged in a "liquidity hunt." Their goal is not the total capital of retail investors, but to precisely target the most vulnerable and predictable segments of the market—stop-loss orders from leveraged long positions and liquidation lines from collateralized loans.

The changes in market structure behind this are:

· Widespread high leverage environment: Contract trading (futures) has become mainstream, with many retail investors entering with 10x, 20x, or even higher leverage. Their stop-loss points are like beacons in the dark, clearly marked on the charts.

· Prevalence of automated trading: Programmatic trading and stop-loss orders make market behavior predictable. Traders know that as soon as prices hit a certain key point, a series of automatic sell orders will be triggered, forming a "liquidity pit."

The brilliance of the "grinding stop-loss" strategy lies in:

1. Extremely low cost: There is no need to significantly raise prices; just a relatively small amount of capital is needed to create repeated minor fluctuations and false breakouts below key resistance levels, continuously triggering stop-loss orders from high-leverage longs.

2. Controllable risk: Prices fluctuate within a range, and the trader's own position risk is minimal, making it less likely to trigger a systemic collapse or attract intense scrutiny.

3. Sustainable harvesting: As long as there are leveraged players in the market, this strategy can be executed cyclically and repetitively, like collecting rent. Each minor drop ("smashing a bearish candle") can capture a batch of concentrated stop-loss orders, making it highly efficient.$BTC