It's said that altcoins will eventually go to zero, so why not just short them to make money?

It sounds reasonable, but reality will teach you how to behave. Frankly, the timing isn't right yet.

When big players are frantically shorting, transaction fees are still negative, and the market makers are desperately pushing the price—entering the market to short at this time is basically sending your head to be chopped off.

**Why is shorting the worst at this time**

Let's start with the fuel theory. When prices are rising, short positions are piling up. For traders manipulating the market, these trapped shorts are not risks—they are fuel. They will deliberately push the price to the most uncomfortable level for you, forcing you to close your position. When you close your short, it becomes a buy order that pushes the price up—helping them in reverse. Shorts don't die, and the upward trend continues—that's no joke.

Next, look at the fee rates. During negative fee periods (like -1.01%), you not only suffer unrealized losses, but every four hours, you also have to pay longs. This mental toll is inevitable. If you can't endure the true top, you'll be forced to stop out halfway due to exhaustion.

The most terrifying part is the unlimited upside potential. Spot market manipulation requires real money, but futures manipulation only needs to liquidate traders. Raising the price from 10 to 20 is difficult, but trapping you at 10, pushing to 12 triggers your liquidation, and the system automatically places buy orders that push the price to 13—this is a chain reaction. No one knows how high the market maker needs to push to wipe out all the shorts.

**What is "eating the tail"**

Since the market maker is pushing the price up to kill the shorts, joining the longs means siding with them. The short squeeze can be the most aggressive and outrageous, even if it's just the tail, it’s the most profitable. As long as you hold key support levels and cut losses, the gains can be substantial.

**The correct timing for shorting**

That "perfect short entry point" is definitely not when the price is skyrocketing and you're trying to guess the top (this is called left-side trading, which is very risky). Instead, it’s when the market cools down and emotions settle—this is right-side trading. When the market is calm, and sentiment has cooled, shorting at this time has a real chance of success.