// learn · Signals & indicators

Reading external indicators & whale flows

Price and volume are only half the picture, especially in crypto, where the blockchain is public. A different class of signal lives off the chart: who's moving money, where, and how leveraged they are. Here's what each one means and where to actually look, with the usual caveat: these are context, not certainty.

On-chain: the public ledger

Crypto's edge over equities is transparency, every transfer is visible. That enables signals you simply can't get for a stock:

Whale wallets. Large holders' addresses can be tracked. A whale moving a big balance onto an exchange often precedes selling; moving off an exchange (into cold storage) suggests holding. Watch with a block explorer (Etherscan) or a labelling tool.
Exchange in/outflows. Aggregate coins flowing to exchanges = potential sell pressure; sustained outflows = accumulation / supply leaving the market.
Stablecoin flows. Fresh stablecoins minted and sent to exchanges is dry powder, buying capacity arriving.

Correlation, not proof. A whale moving coins to an exchange might be selling, or rebalancing, providing liquidity, or moving to a sub-account. On-chain data shows what moved, rarely why. Treat it as one input, never a trigger on its own.

Derivatives: how leveraged is the crowd?

Funding rate. On perpetual futures, longs pay shorts (or vice-versa) to keep the price tethered to spot. Very positive funding = crowded longs paying to stay in, fuel for a long squeeze. Very negative = crowded shorts.
Open interest (OI). Total open contracts. Rising OI with rising price = new money backing the move; rising OI into a stall = leverage building for a violent unwind.
Long/short ratio & liquidations. Extreme positioning marks the points where a sharp move forces cascading liquidations, the "squeeze" fuel.

New-pair & liquidity scanners

For fresh tokens, the signal is the pool itself. Scanners like DexScreener (which Peaky Radar uses for new-listing detection) surface newly created pairs with their liquidity, volume and buy/sell counts. The tells to read before touching anything new:

Liquidity locked? Unlocked liquidity can be pulled, the classic rug. (See smart-contract safety.)
Holder concentration. A handful of wallets holding most of the supply = one seller can collapse it.
Buy/sell tax & contract flags. Honeypots let you buy but not sell, always simulate before committing.

How Peaky uses (and limits) this

Our new-listings signal already leans on liquidity and volume filters from DexScreener, so the worst noise is screened out. But we deliberately don't dress correlation up as certainty: whale and flow data adds context to a signal, it doesn't replace your own check. The method is always the same, a signal points your attention; you verify before you act.

The honest limit. Whale-watching feels like insider knowledge; it isn't. Sophisticated players know they're being watched and can bait it. Use external signals to confirm or question a thesis you already built, never as the whole thesis.

Educational market information, not financial advice. On-chain and derivatives data are noisy and easily misread. Markets carry risk of loss, do your own research.

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