Cross-sectional momentum ranks a universe of assets, say, the top 10 crypto majors, by trailing return over a lookback window, then holds the top-N ranked names, rebalancing on a schedule (weekly, for instance) as the ranking shifts. It's a relative strategy: it doesn't care whether the whole basket is up or down overall, only which members are outperforming the others right now.
This makes it structurally different from single-asset trend or momentum strategies, which take an absolute view on one thing at a time. Cross-sectional momentum can, in principle, stay invested through a broad downturn as long as it's rotated into the relatively strongest names, though in practice, momentum crashes (a sharp reversal where the prior losers violently outperform the prior winners) are the well-known failure mode of the approach across every market it's been studied in.
This is currently a roadmap strategy type for zengtrade, not yet live on the paper worker. Running it properly needs basket-level rebalancing logic the current single-asset engine doesn't have yet.
Educational content, not investment advice. zengtrade is paper-first and non-custodial.