> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.dequan.xyz/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Velocity & Momentum

Price tells you where a token *is*. Velocity tells you where it's *going*. Acceleration tells you whether the trend is still real.

Dequan exposes all three.

## Live velocity, not stale percent change

Traditional feeds show you "+47% in 24h" or "+12% in 1h." Those numbers are useful for context, but they're useless for decisions in a meme-token market that finishes its life cycle in 90 minutes.

Dequan computes a **live, smoothed velocity** in real time as trades arrive. It is the rate at which a token's market cap is currently climbing. It updates on every market tick, not on every refresh.

You see velocity in three places:

<Card title="Vertical position on the Pump Zone field" icon="arrow-up">
  Higher on the field = climbing faster right now.
</Card>

<Card title="Gold velocity line on every chart" icon="chart-line">
  Open any token's chart and a thin gold line traces velocity beneath the candles. When the gold line is rising, momentum is building. When it flattens or turns, the move is done.
</Card>

<Card title="Kinetic state badges" icon="signal">
  Tokens carry a state: **Awakening**, **Building**, **Pumping**, or **Mooning**. The state is derived from velocity and changes live as conditions change. You don't compute anything — you read the badge.
</Card>

## Acceleration: the early-warning system

Velocity tells you the trend. **Acceleration** — the change in velocity — tells you whether the trend is still alive.

A token that has run hard for ten minutes might still be at high velocity, but if velocity is *no longer increasing*, the move is mature. The crowd is exhausted. The crash is more likely than the next leg up.

Conversely, a token that's been sideways but suddenly shows positive acceleration — even at low absolute velocity — is the signal you wanted. It is the **inflection** that experienced traders try to catch and that beginners always miss because they're staring at price.

Dequan surfaces acceleration directly in the chart and on the field cues. You don't have to compute it. You don't have to draw a derivative on a chart. The signal is there.

## The Token Quality Score (TQS)

Velocity and acceleration tell you what a token is *doing*. The **Token Quality Score** tells you whether you should care.

TQS is a 0–100 score that synthesises multiple risk and quality dimensions into a single number. The components are weighted so that:

* **High TQS (≥70, "HOT")** — clean profile, real activity, low concentration risk. Worth a closer look.
* **Medium TQS (40–69, "WARM")** — mixed signals. Worth opening the chart, not blind-buying.
* **Low TQS (`<40`, "COOL")** — concentration is high, dev is questionable, or the action looks manufactured. Most traders should pass.

TQS is shown as a badge on the token and is the basis for **chart color**:

| TQS  | Chart palette      | Meaning                              |
| ---- | ------------------ | ------------------------------------ |
| HOT  | Gold candles       | Clean, accelerating, worth attention |
| WARM | Cinematic teal/red | Mixed; trade with awareness          |
| COOL | Ice blue           | Risky profile; consider passing      |

The color shifts live as the score updates, so a chart that goes from teal to gold while you're watching is a **tell** that the underlying conditions just improved.

<Note>
  We deliberately don't publish the exact TQS weighting. The score is one of Dequan's research outputs and changes as the meta changes — what predicted quality six months ago doesn't predict it now. What we *do* commit to is that TQS is never paid promotion, never tied to which DEX a token uses, and never adjusted because someone asked nicely.
</Note>

## Filtering by velocity band

You can hide every token that isn't in the velocity bands you care about. The most common configurations:

<Tabs>
  <Tab title="The Hunter">
    Show: **Awakening + Building**.

    You are trying to enter early. You don't care what's already mooning — you care about the next mover. The field becomes a slow ballet of pre-breakout tokens.
  </Tab>

  <Tab title="The Surfer">
    Show: **Building + Pumping**.

    You are trying to ride confirmed momentum without buying tops. You wait for tokens to graduate from Awakening into Building, then enter on confirmation.
  </Tab>

  <Tab title="The Sniper">
    Show: **Pumping + Mooning**.

    You are looking for parabolic moves and willing to wear higher risk. The field condenses to the active vertical band. Reaction time matters.
  </Tab>

  <Tab title="The Scanner">
    Show: **All bands**.

    You want full awareness. The field shows everything; you trust your eye to filter.
  </Tab>
</Tabs>

## Why this matters

Most retail traders lose because they confuse **price** with **trend**. They buy after a token is already up 200% because the green number looks good, not realising the green number is decelerating and the move is over.

Dequan gives you the slope and the slope-of-the-slope. You stop chasing prints. You start recognising shapes.

That's the entire shift.

<Card title="Continue → Open a chart and trade" icon="chart-candlestick" href="/charts/overview" horizontal>
  Tap any token and the candle drawer opens — buy, watch the candles, and exit from the same surface.
</Card>