Just curious...how would we know it there was a rally in altcoins? Seems like we all judge for ourselves based on the coins we own. But with 900+ coins, there isn't anything of which I am aware that gives a wide look at the total market. Maybe my portfolio is awesome compared to the market. Maybe I am leaving opportunity on the table.
I have 6 indexes of my own creation that I have created that I am trying to track and test, but I am limited by a lack of historical info. It is really pissing me off that I can't find anything suitable.
I found something called the DAC500 that purports to be an index, but
1) it only seems to update once every 24 hours, and
2) the index is 95% weighted to just bitcoin, litecoin, and ripple (which I really don't get why ripple is as high as it is) which basically makes it fairly useless. Might as well just track the BTC price.
Also found something called UltraCoin Cryptocurrency Index, but it hasn't updated in months and BTC is heavily weighted.
How do you gauge the market?
You can probally tell a Bitcoin rally by an increased Bitcoin market cap.
You can probally tell a Altcoin rally by an increased overall altcoin market cap.
Both infos can be found on coinmarketcap.com