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Ladder Trader

Ladder Trader Research

Research &
insights.

Independent analysis of crypto market structure: liquidity, volatility, derivatives, and the methodology behind defensible data. Figures are computed from live market data.

Publications
37
Published 2026
12
Published 2025
25
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Featured

MicrostructureResearch Note

Reading the Book: What Order-Book Depth Really Tells You

Displayed liquidity is a starting point, not an answer. A practical framework for interpreting depth, imbalance, and resilience in crypto order books.

  • Depth should be measured within price bands around the mid, not as a count of levels.
  • Top-of-book imbalance is informative over seconds, but decays quickly as a signal.
  • Resilience — how fast depth refills after it is consumed — matters more than a snapshot.
Read the research9 min read

Research library

Showing 9 of 36
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Volatility

Volatility Regimes in BTC, ETH, and SOL

Realized volatility is not a single number. How it clusters, how the three largest assets differ, and why regime awareness belongs in every risk model.

Read research note8 min
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Cross-Asset

Correlation Is Not Constant: Crypto Co-Movement Across Regimes

Diversification across crypto assets is real in some conditions and nearly absent in others. Measuring how co-movement shifts over time.

Read research note7 min
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Liquidity

Spreads in Basis Points: A Fair Way to Compare Execution Cost

A $1 spread means very different things on a $100 asset and a $70,000 asset. Normalizing the cost of immediacy across instruments and venues.

Read explainer6 min
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Derivatives

Perpetual Funding Rates, Explained for Allocators

Perpetual futures have no expiry, so a periodic payment keeps them anchored to spot. What funding measures, how venues calculate it, and how to read it.

Read explainer8 min
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Methodology

Two Clocks: Why Exchange Time and Receive Time Diverge

Every market event carries two timestamps: when the venue says it happened and when you learned about it. Treating them as one silently corrupts research.

Read methodology7 min
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Liquidity

Weekend Liquidity: How Crypto Trades When Traditional Markets Close

Crypto never closes, but its participants keep calendars. What changes in depth, spreads, and volatility when banks, desks, and equity markets are offline.

Read research note7 min
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Microstructure

Intraday Seasonality in Crypto Spreads and Volume

A 24-hour market still has rhythms. How activity follows the handover between Asian, European, and US trading hours — and why averages hide it.

Read research note6 min
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Market Structure

Stablecoin Pairs and the Hidden Cost of the Quote Currency

BTC/USD and BTC/USDT are not the same instrument. How the quote currency affects price comparisons, basis, and measured liquidity.

Read explainer6 min
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Derivatives

Basis Trades Explained: Spot, Futures, and the Carry Between Them

The gap between futures and spot prices is one of the most watched numbers in crypto. What it represents, how it is traded, and what can go wrong.

Read explainer8 min

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Complete archive

Every published note

37 publications

2026

2025