Relative Strength
Glossary · Technical Analysis
Relative strength is a coin's performance divided by a benchmark's — against Bitcoin, against its sector, against the whole market — so that a rising ratio means it is outperforming regardless of dollar direction. It is not the RSI oscillator. A coin that falls 3% while its sector falls 8% has strong relative strength, and that is the tell.
"Every alt is green in a rally. The one that stayed green when the rally stalled is the one with a real bid under it."
Compute it as the ratio of two prices over a window — coin over BTC, or coin over a sector index — and read its trend. Outperformance during weakness is the highest-quality version: buyers absorbing supply while everything else is sold. Our BTC-strength tool ranks coins against Bitcoin, and the sector tool ranks sectors against the market and the coins inside them.
The trap is confusing relative strength with a chart that went up: a coin up 40% while its sector is up 60% is lagging, and the laggards in a strong sector are the ones that give it all back first. Read the ratio, not the dollars. And remember it is a filter, not a timing tool — strength tells you which coin, structure tells you when.
Related jargon
Questions
- What is Relative Strength in crypto trading?
- Relative strength is a coin's performance divided by a benchmark's — against Bitcoin, against its sector, against the whole market — so that a rising ratio means it is outperforming regardless of dollar direction. It is not the RSI oscillator. A coin that falls 3% while its sector falls 8% has strong relative strength, and that is the tell.
- How would a trader say it?
- Every alt is green in a rally. The one that stayed green when the rally stalled is the one with a real bid under it.
Part of the Crypto Jargon glossary — every term, decoded the way a trader would say it.
Crypto Jargon
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