Note: Please find the revised version of this article at https://www.altcointradershandbook.com/picking-out-microcaps-101-revised/

Microcaps have proved to be the most profitable coins for me, and the process by which I pick them out is pretty simple.

www.coinmarketcap.com: Click view all. Order by market cap in $. Scroll all the way down to the coins with a smaller market cap than $250,000, or 50btc, (these are the ones that can be the mega-winners over time). Note down all the coins below this mark with a low to medium coin supply i.e less than 50m. For all of these, also note down their 24H volume in $. Cross out the coins with a lower than 2% market cap to volume ratio (if X has a market cap of $100k, it’s 24H volume should be $2000 or more). This is simply to filter the microcaps that are getting a decent amount of attention. From these remaining coins, cross out all the coins that have a far greater total supply than their circulating supply (this is usually indicative of a large premine, and fuck that noise — there’s plenty of coins to pick up without this added liability). The ones you’re left with (there’s usually quite a few) are the ones you need to do further research on.

2. Head over to Bitcointalk, and read through the announcement threads of every single coin that you have left on your list. Make a note of the level of activity in the thread, the number of pages it contains, the last time there actually was communication on there (some coins will be dead ones), and get a general feel for the community of each coin. Read through the announcement itself to find out where the coin has come from and where it is heading — look for roadmaps, Slack and telegram channels, and active devs. Have a look at their websites and explorers. Remove coins from the list of remaining ones that do not have at least a decent standard for all of the above (room for improvement can be a profitable thing).

3. You should now have a smallish number of coins on your list. These are the ones you’re looking to pick up, but whittle the number down even further by doing further research on how they are currently trading. Fuck anything that trades only on Yobit, remove it immediately. Of the other exchanges, CoinExchange, NovaExchange and Cryptopia are great for microcaps. Look at the charts for each of these coins, and spot accumulation patterns: contricted ranges with mid to high volume; spikes of high buying volume etc.

Another research tool is the Block Explorer for these coins. Some may have rich lists or largest wallet tabs. Keep tabs on movements within these addresses. Are the largest wallets getting larger over time or are they being depleted? Screenshot the top 25 richest addresses and then screenshot the top 25 again a few days later. Compare your lists. Are these coins being accumulated?

4. Take the plunge and buy the ones you’re most confident in. It may take you weeks to accumulate a decent amount of any single coin. And it most likely will take months before you start seeing serious returns on them, but it’s worth it if you have the patience.

Thanks. Hope this article helps with your search.