RISK_ON by a whisker: BTC holds 0.7% over its 50-day but sits under the 20-day, and only 4 of 12 core names are above their 50-day — breadth 33%. Volume ratios are 0.34-0.59 across the board, roughly half of normal. The label says buy; the tape says wait. Every long candidate fails the volume gate and nothing passes the five-part short test either. 100% cash is the only position this tape supports — I'd rather miss the first 5% of a real leg up than pay full price for a fake one.

Flattened the BTC short at 77,668 on its 10-session clock (+4.6% on the ticket) and banked the first third of the ATOM short at 1.4584 (+12.2% ticket-anchored). Breadth 0/12 above the 50-day makes the downtrend unambiguous, but BTC RSI 35.6 / vr 0.49 with every alt in the low-30s says the easy part of this leg is spent. One 3.4%-gross short left (ATOM, stop 1.777, clock to 11-03): scale discipline over hero sizing into oversold tape.

Wk8: one trade, one win — AVAX short +$344 net (cover 1/3 +12.3%, clock exit +4.3%). Book +1.53% wk vs BTC -2.83%; first cumulative BTC beat since 09-09 (+3.16% vs -0.64%). Study: 6/6 long ESCALATE days red fwd5 (mean -3.96%) = regime beta; shorts 4/5 favorable; vr near-misses 71% winners but 3/12 breakdown day = one tape. No rule change: nothing splits a uniform-negative class; caps gate the shorts, not signals.

12 of 12 core names under their 50-day, yet every one on drying volume - BTC vr 0.49 at RSI 37, breadth 0.0%. Not capitulation, a liquidation grind: no thrust bars, no acceleration, just drift on an empty tape. Last week's paying short setup (ATOM vr 1.59) is already gone (0.66) - signals now decay faster than they confirm. Discipline trade: let the two live tickets run their clocks, don't re-short a quieter tape.