RSI is widely known, but many traders use it on a single chart and keep misreading it. The reason is simple: one coin can look oversold while the whole market is still weakening. That’s why on our website we track Median RSI—an aggregated indicator that reflects the market’s condition across most coins and helps you react to screener alerts with more consistency.
What is RSI?
RSI (Relative Strength Index) measures the strength of price momentum and shows whether buyers or sellers dominate the move.
Classic reference levels:
- above 70 — overbought
- below 30 — oversold
RSI is not a guaranteed reversal signal. In strong trends it can stay elevated or depressed for a long time, so it’s better treated as a temperature gauge, not a buy/sell button.
What is Median RSI?
Median RSI is the median RSI value across all traded coins on a selected timeframe. On our website it is calculated on the 30-minute timeframe.
Why median matters:
- a simple average can be distorted by a handful of extreme movers
- the median reflects the “typical” market state—the majority’s condition
In practice, Median RSI answers one operational question: is the market broadly overheated, broadly washed out, or neutral?
How Median RSI is calculated
The logic is straightforward:
- calculate 30m RSI for each coin
- collect all RSI values into one list
- take the median (the middle value of the distribution)
This produces a stable market-wide metric that is less sensitive to outliers.
What Median RSI shows
Median RSI is the market’s “temperature.” It’s most practical to read it in ranges:
- above 60: broad strength, hot momentum
- 45–55: neutral zone, often choppy and noisy
- below 40: broad weakness, cold momentum; rebounds become more likely, but confirmation matters
Levels above 70 or below 30 on the median are rarer and usually reflect genuinely extreme market conditions.
Overbought and oversold at the market level
A high Median RSI is not an instruction to short. It means the market is already stretched and chasing momentum becomes riskier—pullbacks and shakeouts are more common.
A low Median RSI is not an instruction to buy. It means the market is under pressure—often you first see capitulation or a final push down, and the cleaner opportunities appear after a buyer reaction and normalization.
Why Median RSI is more useful than RSI on one coin
Single-coin RSI without context is a frequent trap:
- a coin can be “oversold” while the overall market keeps bleeding
- a coin can be “overbought” while the broader market remains strong and continues trending
Median RSI helps you see whether a coin-level signal aligns with the broader market regime or fights it.
How to use Median RSI with an event screener
Our screener sends alerts at the moment events happen: pump moves, open interest growth, and liquidation bursts. Median RSI turns those events into a structured workflow rather than a chaotic stream of entries.
A practical filter:
- Median RSI > 60: the market is broadly strong; bullish scenarios are higher priority, but avoid chasing impulse candles
- Median RSI 45–55: mixed conditions; be selective and keep risk tighter
- Median RSI < 40: broad weakness; patience is key—longs make sense only after a clear buyer reaction and stabilization
Reading events through Median RSI
- Pump alerts: the hotter the market, the higher the cost of chasing; execution is cleaner after confirmation/retest
- Open interest growth (OI): OI growth signals participation and positioning; it’s most valuable when the market is recovering from weakness and returning toward normal conditions
- Liquidations: a liquidation spike means acceleration—either a final push or a washout before reversal; the post-event price reaction is what matters
Cross-checking with SMA 200 and regression channels
If you also use SMA 200 breadth and regression deviation/channels on our website, you get a practical regime model:
- SMA 200 breadth: is the market broadly above or below its baseline?
- regression deviation: how far are we from “normal” conditions?
- Median RSI: is momentum overheated or washed out?
When these factors agree, decision quality tends to improve. When they conflict, a conservative approach is usually justified.
Practical scenario: correction → oversold → normalization → building longs
After a broad market correction, Median RSI moved into oversold, showing widespread selling pressure. That alone is not a “buy” signal—it’s a signal to watch for a buyer response.
Then the actionable part appears:
- price reacts from key zones,
- participation returns: open interest stops fading and starts growing,
- the screener starts sending OI growth alerts, while price bounces and holds levels.
In this setup the logic is straightforward: when the market exits oversold and moves back toward normal readings—and OI confirms renewed participation—you’re no longer catching falling knives. You’re trading a regime recovery.
Execution typically looks like this:
- start with a minimal entry after a confirmed reaction from a key zone,
- scale in only while conditions remain intact (recovery holds, reaction persists, OI supports the move),
- if the recovery fades and participation is not confirmed, you simply don’t build size.
This is a disciplined process: context (Median RSI) → event (OI growth) → execution (reaction from zones) → scaling based on confirmation.
Use it together with individual charts in the terminal
Median RSI gives market context, while individual charts in the terminal let you quickly assess the specific coin: location relative to zones, the quality of the reaction, and whether the event supports continuation.
Availability
Median RSI is available for free to all registered users on our website.
Conclusion
Single-coin RSI is useful, but without market context it often produces false conclusions. Median RSI provides the broader regime view and helps you work screener alerts—OI growth, pumps, and liquidations—as a repeatable process rather than guesswork.