Sabuj has given a stick to this post
The stage is set for ether to pump. Why doesn't it pump? BTC had rallies, altcoins had little rallies, but ETH — it is just traveling in a channel between $1100 and $1250.
We have news of exchanges running low on ether, more traders wanting it, the Ethereum foundation teasing a deflationary system for it, and predictions from every shill about ETH going to $50,000 in the next 2 seconds. So why doesn't ETH moon even when everything else does?
Well, the fact is that trends are just that — trends. They lead to certain outcomes, but they do not create those outcomes until those outcomes are created. Make sense?
In order for ETH to moon, the order books have to thin out and people have to stop selling to an extent that buyers find a shortage. That hasn't happened yet. There is a trend towards it, but it hasn't happened.
The reason you see instant moons in alts right after a shill or some news is that the order books are so thin compared to ETH. The new volume overwhelms the flow that is already there and shifts it dramatically. You're talking a few million maybe as opposed to ETH, which does billions in exchanges every 24 hours.
The bottom line is that ETH can absorb much more news than altcoins or even BTC at this point. Institutions are pouring into BTC, so its order books respond more quickly to news than ether, which is only now at the very opening stages of institutional buying. If you want to know how much a bit of news will move a price point, take a look at the asset's ability to absorb news without affecting the order book. You will have a much better idea of whether that asset will pump or dump or not.