Most retail crypto traders size positions off gut feel and get wrecked by correlated drawdowns. Here are 3 metrics that separate traders who survive multi-year cycles from those who blow up:

1. Portfolio Heat (aggregate open risk)

Add up the max loss (entry to stop) across every open position, as a % of total equity. If it's above 6-8% at any time, you're one bad week from a serious drawdown — even if each trade looks "small" individually.

2. Correlation-Adjusted Exposure

Most alts move together in a risk-off environment. Two "different" positions in BTC and an alt can behave like one 2x position when volatility spikes. Track correlation, not just position count, before you call yourself "diversified."

3. Realized Volatility vs. Your Stop Distance

If your stop is tighter than the asset's recent realized volatility, you're not managing risk — you're guaranteeing a stop-out. Match stop distance to the asset's actual movement, not a round number that feels safe.

Institutional desks track all three in real time. Most retail traders track none of them.

We built a plug-and-play dashboard template that tracks all 3 automatically (plus a drawdown tracker), packaged with a full course on how to use it. Check out Crypto Risk Dashboard Template on our store page if you want the ready-made version instead of building it yourself.