Support and Resistance levelsSupport and resistance levels, the bedrock of technical analysis, are fundamental elements. They serve as critical points that delineate potential price movements and are pivotal in decision-making processes for traders and investors alike
The basis:
There are several fundamental concepts in trading that remain the same over a long period of time. Among them, the concepts of support and resistance levels stand out. When used correctly, support and resistance levels improve trading efficiency in financial markets.
Today we will delve deeper into these concepts.
Price behavior:
The fundamental principle of price behavior lies in the concept of supply and demand, governing the existence and operation of any market.
When demand outweighs supply, it prompts an upward push in prices, while in reverse circumstances, a decrease is observed. By identifying levels of supply and demand, traders significantly enhance their success rate.
A support level indicates a price range where strong buying positions are concentrated, typically defined by two minimum price points.
A resistance level, conversely, denotes a price range around which strong selling positions are clustered, often marked by two maximum price points.
It's important to note that support and resistance levels should not be viewed as precise lines. Prices may not necessarily adhere to these levels point by point; often, they may not even touch the level directly, sometimes piercing through it. This variability is normal, so these levels should be perceived more as zones of support and resistance. The width of these zones can vary, with the magnitude of dispersion dependent on the timeframe in which trading occurs. The higher the timeframe, the potentially broader the range of support and resistance levels.
Once again for strengthening:
Support and resistance levels represent specific price ranges on a chart (often represented by rectangles in my analysis) where the direction of price movement has historically changed. These ranges attract traders' attention because they provide clear points for setting stop losses and entering trades. In addition, these levels usually attract large buyers or sellers whose limit orders contribute to market dynamics.
Essentially, the level denotes the price area in the market where traders perceive the price to be either overpriced or underpriced, depending on the prevailing market conditions. Therefore, it is extremely important to closely monitor key levels where the role of support and resistance has changed or where significant price reversals have occurred.
Blending levels signify pivotal points on a price chart where price action can prompt a reversal in the opposite direction. In the presence of a robust trend, price movements may penetrate through these supply and demand levels, leading to potential shifts in direction. Such occurrences typically coincide with heightened transaction volumes. The interplay of price adjustments, heightened market activity, and trading volumes collectively influence market direction.
When resistance is breached and the price retraces to its previous level, there's a likelihood that bulls will once again push it upwards. Conversely, if the price retraces to the breached level after breaking through support, bears are likely to actively drive it downwards. Support and resistance levels can be identified as areas in the market where traders are more inclined to buy or sell, depending on current market conditions. This creates a zone of collision between buyers and sellers, often prompting the market to change its direction.
Retest:
A retest of a level refers to a brief return of the price to the breached support or resistance line for testing purposes. Following the retest, the price typically continues its movement in the direction of the breakout.
On higher time frames, support and resistance levels become more powerful:
It is important to observe the price action around levels:
If the price swiftly reverses from a level into the opposite trend, it indicates significant importance of that level.
If the price tests a specific area multiple times with minor retracements, it's likely that the level will eventually be breached.
Swing zones refer to areas where the price retraces to the previous pullback in either a downtrend or uptrend. In less robust trends, the price tends to return to the boundary of the previous correction before continuing its movement.
Of course, support and resistance are dynamic concepts that require constant attention and analysis as their meaning changes depending on prevailing market conditions. Moreover, it is critical to consider multiple confirmations such as volume analysis and breakouts to confirm the strength of these levels.
Thank you for your attention!
Community ideas
History of Bitcoin: The Underdog That Rewired FinanceBitcoin, a phenomenon that emerged at the onset of the 2008 financial crisis, has changed the way we think about money. To celebrate the token’s $73,000 milestone, we trace its origin story and look ahead into the future. To infinity… and beyond?
Table of Contents
A Financial Product Too Big to Ignore
Born in 2008 as the World’s First Cryptocurrency
The Very Early Days of Trading on Exchanges
The Volatile Phenomenon That Sparked a Change in Finance
A Place to Find Value in the Face of a Global Pandemic
Cryptocurrency Trading Lands on Wall Street
What’s Coming Next for BTC Price as We Move Deeper into 2024?
Bitcoin for Your Thoughts?
📍 A Financial Product Too Big to Ignore 📍
Bitcoin’s story is the story of an underdog that pushed through volatility and disbelief, but also dashed forward riding on hope and enthusiasm.
Bitcoin ( BTC/USD ), the world’s largest cryptocurrency, has so far managed to survive and overcome each one of its many pitfalls and obstacles thanks to its novelty, mystery, and investment appeal. Not only that, but the orange coin has progressed so remarkably, it has risen to rival the valuation of the world’s biggest companies.
As we’re about to close the first-quarter chapter of 2024, we take a closer look at what has fueled Bitcoin’s price to record levels about $73,000 a pop.
To celebrate the token’s historical milestone of $73,000 , we go back to its creation, tracing major development milestones. From wiping out billions of dollars from its valuation to logging stratospheric gains, Bitcoin’s history is nothing short of a miracle.
Today, Bitcoin boasts a valuation of more than $1.4 trillion. In other words, more than double as electric carmaker Tesla (ticker: TSLA ), founded by the uber-rich eccentric engineer Elon Musk.
With great power, comes great interest from Wall Street. A bunch of spot Bitcoin ETFs are now strutting among asset managers, finding their way to ordinary (and some degen) investors and money-spinning professionals alike.
📍 Born in 2008 as the World’s First Cryptocurrency 📍
The history of Bitcoin is relatively short. But it can sting. Because we were all playing games or being 8 years old instead of buying Bitcoin at 4 cents.
Back in 2008, the financial system crumbled under the pressure of a global crisis. A collapse in the housing market led to millions of homeowners not being able to cover their mortgage payments.
About that time, an individual—or a group of people—called Satoshi Nakamoto, concluded the banking system was not reliable. A new asset class emerged—one that did not need the intervention of banks to function.
Bitcoin, as it was called in the white paper released in November 2008 , was born. Essentially, Bitcoin represented a new type of money. An innovative software system that intended to rewire the worldwide financial system.
Bitcoin sprouted to life as an open-source software running on a peer-to-peer network called blockchain. One way to think of Bitcoin is to see it as an electronic form of physical cash without gatekeepers such as banks. The participants in the decentralized network are responsible for the verification of transactions, and all transactions are visible for the public.
📍 The Very Early Days of Trading on Exchanges 📍
Once it was born, Bitcoin stayed confined to a small network of only a few computers (and the early adopter group of ultra-niche geeks). Then, mining Bitcoin was able to get you hundreds or even thousands of coins in a few days’ time due to the low level of computing power required. Safe to say, the first people to play around with Bitcoin had no idea the tiny orange-themed gig will turn into a fire-breathing $1.3 trillion dragon.
Instead, the squad of core developers would try and make the network operate as smoothly as possible. Once this was achieved, Bitcoin hit its first exchange in 2010. The first Bitcoin to be transacted on an exchange was worth zero dollars. Then at the peak of 2010, one Bitcoin reached a record high of 39 cents.
Since then, the price of Bitcoin has experienced a wild ride as millions of people have onboarded the crypto bandwagon. Hundreds of exchanges have opened and traders today reach daily volumes of tens of billions of dollars exchanged in Bitcoin.
Bitcoin's mind-blowing price increase from its first steps through March 12, 2024 - Source: TradingView
📍 The Volatile Phenomenon That Sparked a Change in Finance 📍
It did not take much for Bitcoin to be noticed as a wonder of technology and a catalyst for change. Once it landed for trading on its first cryptocurrency exchanges, Bitcoin quickly gained popularity purely from an investment perspective.
The first traders would buy and sell the token in a matter of hours only to realize a small profit and savor the rush of adrenaline. This same speculative behavior could still be found today even after the stratospheric gains that have made Bitcoin a heavyweight in terms of valuation.
The price gyrations have crushed many traders and investors who were found unprepared to stomach the aggressive swings. Along the way, Bitcoin has endured over 17 selloffs of more than 30%. It has been through six declines of more than 60%, and four of more than 80%.
Still, after all these spectacular drops, Bitcoin has clawed back its losses and returned stronger than ever. So strong, it crushed all doom-and gloom forecasters and permabears when it blasted through the $73,000 threshold in March of 2024. Not long before that, Bitcoin had a chance to prove its worth as a safe haven in troubled times.
📍 A Place to Find Value in the Face of a Global Pandemic 📍
It’s important to mention that the current record high in the price of Bitcoin arrived after BTC’s previous peak of $69,000 in November 2021. Back then, the coronavirus crisis, which hit in March 2020, turned out to be a key period of growth for crypto.
The original digital currency served as a safe haven and a store of value—digital gold, if you like, or better—amid lingering uncertainty in the broad financial markets. In numbers, during the pandemic’s low point in March 2020, one Bitcoin was worth about $3,900.
Presently, a single Bitcoin is up more than 1,700% from its coronavirus-fueled meltdown.
The pandemic helped shift investor focus on the crypto market as participants sought to find pent-up value. The search has led to millions of Bitcoin proponents flocking to the digital asset. In practice, the interest to invest in Bitcoin has been so big, the top cop on Wall Street—the Securities and Exchange Commission—finally gave its nod.
📍 Cryptocurrency Trading Lands on Wall Street 📍
The big dogs on Wall Street welcomed the first Bitcoin-centric products to trade alongside stocks , bonds , and forex . More specifically, there are now eleven exchange-traded funds (ETFs) offering spot Bitcoin, or the real deal, unlike Bitcoin futures, which don’t hold genuine BTC. The step is a monumental milestone in Bitcoin’s path toward mainstream adoption and acceptance in the financial markets.
The eleven Bitcoin ETFs , approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission, were greeted by investors with billions of dollars injected. Giant asset managers such as BlackRock and Fidelity are seeing overflowing demand for Bitcoin from both institutions and retail investors.
The positive thing about these spot BTC ETFs is that they’re backed by the physical asset. Whenever inflows start to outpace liquidity, the asset manager needs to purchase new Bitcoin and add it to its reserves. The more the net inflow, the more it needs to buy BTC. And that drives prices higher.
From inception in January to March 2024, BlackRock’s BTC ETF hit $10 billion—faster than any US ETF ever.
📍 What’s Coming Next for BTC Price as We Move Deeper into 2024? 📍
Looking ahead into 2024, there is no doubt that we are going to see new bouts of volatility. More than that, many are optimistic we will continue to see a string of fresh records in the price of Bitcoin. With this in mind, the risks will be there too.
Both new and old, market participants need to know that price swings may be stomach-churning as the market adjusts to shifting moods in the rarefied air of $70,000.
Buying at the top is scary.
📍 Bitcoin for Your Thoughts? 📍
How did you first get exposure to Bitcoin? When did you buy your first piece of the crypto and are you brave enough to buy again at the top? Let us know in the comments!
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With 💖, TradingView Team
Powerful Fibonacci Trading Strategy For Beginners
I am going to reveal a powerful fibonacci trading strategy that I learned many years ago. It combines structure analysis, fibonacci retracement and extension levels and candlestick analysis.
Step 1
Find a trending market - the market that is trading in a bullish or in a bearish trend on a daily time frame.
AUDUSD is trading in a bullish trend on a daily.
Step 2
Execute structure analysis - identify key horizontal and vertical structures on a daily time frame.
Take a look at key structures that I spotted on AUDUSD.
Step 3
Draw fibonacci retracement levels.
Here are the important ratios you should look for: 382, 50, 618, 786.
In a bearish trend,
draw fibonacci retracement levels from the high of the trend to current low based on wicks.
In a bullish trend,
You should apply fibonacci retracement from the low of the trend to a current high based on wicks.
Take a look how I draw the retracement levels,
I took the low of the trend and the high of the trend.
Step 4
Find confluence.
Look for fibonacci numbers that match - lie within key structures that you identified.
Support 1 matches with 382 retracement.
Support 2 matches with 786 retracement.
Remove other ratios from the chart.
Step 5
Wait for a test of one of the fibonacci levels that match with key structure
The price perfectly tested 382 retracement level.
Step 6
Wait for a confirmation on a 4h time frame.
Our confirmation will be a formation of an engulfing candle - a strong candle that completely engulfs the entire range of a previous candle with its body.
In a bearish trend, we will look for a formation of a bearish engulfing candle. Bearish engulfing candle indicates a strong selling pressure and the strength of the sellers.
In a bullish trend, we will look for a bullish engulfing candle. It indicates a strong buying reaction and imbalance.
Have a look at a bullish engulfing candle that was formed on AUDUSD on a 4H time frame after a test of 382 retracement.
Step 7
Open a trading position, set stop loss and choose the target.
After you spotted an engulfing candle, open a trading position.
Open short after a formation of a bearish engulfing candle and open long after a formation of a bullish engulfing candle.
If you sell, your safest stop loss will be 1.272 extension of the last bullish impulse on a 4H.
If you buy, your stop loss will be 1.272 extension of the last bearish impulse on a 4H.
In our example, our stop loss will be 1.272 extension of a bearish impulse leg on a 4H time frame. The extension is based on high and low of the impulse.
If you short, your take profit will be the closest key structure support on a daily.
If you buy, your take profit will be the closes key structure resistance on a daily.
Here is our take profit level.
Being applied properly, the strategy should generate 60%+ winning rate.
Always remember to check your reward to risk ratio before you open the trade. It should be at least 1.1/1.
Also, before you place a trade, always make sure that you trade WITH the trend and take only trend-following trades.
The strategy works perfectly on Forex, Gold, Silver, Oil, Indexes.
Good luck in your trading.
❤️Please, support my work with like, thank you!❤️
The Gap Between What Is and What Will BeThere are 5 basic ways to trade a Gap or any line. In this video, I discuss two ways to enter the market using a Gap before I make the trade plan. The Gap entry techniques by themselves are of little use, but if we make a few distinctions in market structure and the process of a swing cycle, they can become functional.
Swing cycles have a process that they go through. As long as we understand that process we can view Gaps in the light of where they happen in that process. I'm going to focus these two Gap entry techniques in the lower portion of the reaction leg at the bottom pivot of a swing. The Gaps are what make up the pivot portion of the swing.
If you observe markets and swings you will often see this distinct pivot portion of a swing, it looks like a U at the bottom of a reaction leg as the buyers wrestle control back from the sellers.
Shane
Mindfulness : The Zen approach to Trading SuccessMindfulness is a practice that involves being fully present and engaged in the moment, aware of your thoughts and feelings without judgment. It originates from ancient Buddhist meditation practices but has been adopted widely in various forms across the world for its mental health benefits. In this post, we'll dive a bit deeper into what it is, where it comes from, and how it can help you when trading. Some practical tips and where to start are included as well, so keep on reading till the end.
❔ What is mindfulness?
Mindfulness is like having a special tool that helps you pay close attention to what's happening right now, in this very moment, without wishing it was different. It's about noticing the little things - how your breath feels going in and out, the way your body feels sitting or standing, or even the sounds around you. It's all about being fully present and aware, like watching a movie and noticing every detail on the screen without getting distracted by thoughts of what you will do later.
When you practice mindfulness, you're training your brain to focus on the present moment. It's like when you use a magnifying glass to look at something closely; you see a lot more detail than you would if you were glancing at it. Mindfulness works the same way, but instead of looking at something outside, you're paying close attention to your thoughts, feelings, and sensations.
By practicing mindfulness, you learn to respond to situations with more calmness and less knee-jerk reactions. Instead of getting immediately upset or stressed by something, you give yourself a moment to decide how you want to react. It's like pressing a "pause" button, giving you the chance to choose your response.
In simple terms, mindfulness changes your mindset by helping you live more in the "now," handle your emotions better and be kinder to yourself. It's like having a secret garden inside your mind where you can go to find peace, no matter what's happening around you.
❔ Where does it come from?
Mindfulness, originating over 2,500 years ago within Buddhist meditation practices, transcends its ancient spiritual roots to address a universal human need: the desire to be fully present and aware in our lives. This practice, once cultivated in the serene landscapes of ancient India, has evolved beyond its religious confines, finding a place in various Eastern traditions such as Taoism and Zen Buddhism . Each culture enriched the concept, emphasizing awareness, intention, and compassion, and highlighting mindfulness's universal appeal and applicability.
The late 20th century witnessed a significant cultural bridge as mindfulness made its way into the Western world, largely thanks to pioneers like Jon Kabat-Zinn . His approach through the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program at the University of Massachusetts Medical School showcased mindfulness as a powerful tool for psychological well-being, stress reduction, and enhanced quality of life, irrespective of its religious origins. Today, mindfulness is embraced across diverse fields for its profound benefits, embodying a timeless practice that enhances the human experience by promoting a deeper connection with the present moment.
❔ Why Mindfulness for Trading?
Why is mindfulness important for trading? Think of trading like a big room full of buttons. Each button can make you feel something different – happy when you win, sad or scared when you lose. Mindfulness is like having a special guide in this room. This guide helps you walk through without hitting every button by accident. It teaches you to notice the buttons (your feelings) without having to press them all. This way, you can feel happy about the good things and not feel too bad about the not-so-good things, keeping your mind steady no matter what happens.
Mindfulness helps you stay calm and clear-headed. When you're trading, it's easy to get caught up in the excitement or worry a lot. Mindfulness is like putting on a pair of glasses that helps you see everything more clearly. You learn to pay attention to what's happening right now, instead of getting lost in thoughts about what might happen next or what happened before. This can help you make better decisions because you're thinking clearly and not just reacting to your feelings. It's like having a secret weapon that keeps you feeling good and thinking smart, no matter how wild the trading world gets.
❔ How does it help in trading?
Emotional Regulation : Trading can be an emotionally charged activity, with the potential for high stress, anxiety, and strong emotional reactions to wins and losses. Mindfulness helps traders recognize their emotional states without becoming overwhelmed by them, promoting a balanced approach to decision-making.
Improved Focus and Concentration : Mindfulness enhances the ability to concentrate on the task at hand. For traders, this means being able to focus on analyzing markets, monitoring trades, and making decisions without being distracted by irrelevant information or internal chatter.
Reducing Impulsive Behavior : By fostering an increased awareness of thoughts and feelings, mindfulness can help traders avoid impulsive decisions driven by short-term emotions such as fear, greed, or frustration. This can lead to more disciplined and considered trading strategies.
Stress Management : The practice of mindfulness has been shown to reduce stress levels. Given that trading can be a high-stress occupation, particularly during volatile market conditions, mindfulness can help traders manage stress, maintain clarity, and avoid burnout.
Enhancing Decision Making : Mindfulness promotes a state of calm and clarity, allowing traders to evaluate situations more objectively. This can improve decision-making by reducing the likelihood of decisions being clouded by emotions or cognitive biases.
Learning from Mistakes : Mindfulness encourages an attitude of non-judgmental observation. This perspective can help traders view losses or mistakes as learning opportunities rather than personal failures, cultivating a growth mindset that is crucial for long-term success.
Incorporating Mindfulness into Your Trading Routine
Here are a few things you can do to build in mindfulness routines in your trading day.
🧘🏽♀️Daily Meditation : Start with just 5 minutes a day. There's a plethora of apps like Headspace or Calm to guide you.
🤯Setting Intentions : Each morning, remind yourself of your trading goals and how you want to approach the day mindfully.
😤Mindful Breathing : Feeling overwhelmed? Pause and take ten deep breaths to reset your mental state.
⏸️Mindful Pauses : Before you click that trade button, take a moment to ensure this decision feels right in the gut.
✍🏽Reflective Journaling : End your day by jotting down your emotional journey alongside your trades. You might be surprised by the patterns you find.
📚 Get started:
Interested in expanding your mindfulness repertoire? Here are some resources to get you started:
Jon Kabat-Zinn's " Wherever You Go, There You Are " for mindfulness 101. ISBN 978-0-7868-8070-6
The Headspace Guide to Meditation and Mindfulness by Andy Puddicombe for those looking to integrate mindfulness into everyday life. ISBN-10 1250104904
10% Happier for meditation skeptics who want practical insights. ISBN-10 0062265423
✅ Takeaway
Who knew that the path to trading success could involve a bit of Zen? By embracing mindfulness, you're not just becoming a better trader; you're investing in your overall well-being. So, here's to trading mindfully and finding that inner peace amidst the market's chaos. Remember, in the world of trading, the best investment you can make is in yourself.
📣 Join the Conversation!
Now, it's your turn! Have you tried integrating mindfulness into your trading routine? Notice any shifts in your decision-making or emotional resilience? Or maybe you've got some mindfulness tips and tricks of your own to share. Drop your stories, insights, or even your skepticism in the comments below. Let's build a community of mindful traders, learning and growing together. Can't wait to hear about your experience!
Diversification: What It Is, Why It Matters & How to Do ItDiversification is a market strategy that enables you to spread your money across a variety of assets and investments in pursuit of uncorrelated returns, hedging, and risk control.
Table of Contents
What is portfolio diversification?
Brief history of the modern portfolio theory
Why is diversification important?
An example of diversification at work
How to diversify your portfolio
Components of a diversified portfolio
Build wealth through diversification
Diversification vs concentration
Summary
📍 What is portfolio diversification?
Portfolio diversification is the strategy of spreading your money across diverse investments in order to mitigate risk, hedge and balance your exposure in pursuit of uncorrelated returns. While it may sound complex at first, portfolio diversification could be your greatest strength when you set out to trade and invest in the financial markets.
As a matter of fact, once you immerse yourself into the markets, you will be overwhelmed by the wide horizons waiting for you. That’s when you’ll need to know about diversification.
There are thousands of stocks available for trading, dozens of indices, and a sea of cryptocurrencies. Choosing your investments will invariably lead to relying on diversification in order to protect and grow your money.
Diversifying well will enable you to go into different sectors, markets and asset classes. Together, all of these will build up your diversified portfolio.
📍 Brief history of the modern portfolio theory
“ Diversification is both observed and sensible; a rule of behavior which does not imply the superiority of diversification must be rejected both as a hypothesis and as a maxim. ” These are the words of the father of the modern portfolio theory, Harry Markowitz.
His paper on diversification called “Portfolio Selection” was published in The Journal of Finance in 1952. The theory, which helped Mr. Markowitz win a Nobel prize in 1990, posits that a rational investor should aim to maximize their returns relative to risk.
The most significant feature from the modern portfolio theory was the discovery that you can reduce volatility without sacrificing returns. In other words, Mr. Markowitz argued that a well-diverse portfolio would still hold volatile assets. But relative to each other, their volatility would balance out because they all comprise one portfolio.
Therefore, the volatility of a single asset, Mr. Markowitz discovered, is not as significant as the contribution it makes to the volatility of the entire portfolio.
Let’s dive in and see how this works.
📍 Why is diversification important?
Diversification is important for any trader and investor because it builds out a mix of assets working together to yield returns. In practice, all assets contained in your portfolio will play a role in shaping the total performance of your portfolio.
However, these same assets out there in the market may or may not be correlated. The interrelationship of those assets within your portfolio is what will allow you to reduce your overall risk profile.
With this in mind, the total return of your investments will depend on the performance of all assets in your portfolio. Let’s give an example.
📍 An example of diversification at work
Say you want to own two different stocks, Apple (ticker: AAPL ) and Coca-Cola (ticker: KO ). In order to easily track your performance, you invest an equal amount of funds into each one—$500.
While you expect to reap handsome profits from both investments, Coca-Cola happens to deliver a disappointing earnings report and shares go down 5%. Your investment is now worth $475, provided no leverage is used.
Apple, on the other hand, posts a blowout report for the last quarter and its stock soars 10%. This move would propel your investment to a valuation of $550 thanks to $50 added as profits.
So, how does your portfolio look now? In total, your investment of $1000 is now $1,025, or a gain of 2.5% to your capital. You have taken a loss in Coca-Cola but your profit in Apple has compensated for it.
The more assets you add to your portfolio, the more complex the correlation would be between them. In practice, you could be diversifying to infinity. But beyond a certain point, diversification would be more likely to water down your portfolio instead of helping you get more returns.
📍 How to diversify your portfolio
The way to diversify your portfolio is to add a variety of different assets from different markets and see how they perform relative to one another. A single asset in your portfolio would mean that you rely on it entirely and how it performs will define your total investment result.
If you diversify, however, you will have a broader exposure to financial markets and ultimately enjoy more probabilities for winning trades, increased returns and decreased overall risks.
You can optimize your asset choices by going into different asset classes. Let’s check some of the most popular ones.
📍 Components of a diversified portfolio
Stocks
A great way to add diversification to your portfolio is to include world stocks , also called equities. You can look virtually anywhere—US stocks such as technology giants , the world’s biggest car manufacturers , and even Reddit’s favorite meme darlings .
Stock selection is among the most difficult and demanding tasks in trading and investing. But if you do it well, you will reap hefty profits.
Every stock sector is fashionable in different times. Your job as an investor (or day trader) is to analyze market sentiment and increase your probabilities of being in the right stock at the right time.
Currencies
The forex market , short for foreign exchange, is the market for currency pairs floating against each other. Trading currencies and having them sit in your portfolio is another way to add diversification to your market exposure.
Forex is the world’s biggest marketplace with more than $7.5 trillion in daily volume traded between participants.
Unlike stock markets that have specific trading hours, the forex market operates 24 hours a day, five days a week. Continuous trading allows for more opportunities for price fluctuations as events occurring in different time zones can impact currency values at any given moment.
Cryptocurrencies
A relatively new (but booming) market, the cryptocurrency space is quickly gaining traction. As digital assets become increasingly more mainstream, newcomers enter the space and the Big Dogs on Wall Street join too , improving the odds of growth and adoption.
Adding crypto assets to your portfolio is a great way to diversify and shoot for long-term returns. There’s incentive in there for day traders as well. Crypto coins are notorious for their aggressive swings even on a daily basis. It’s not unusual for a crypto asset to skyrocket 20% or even double in size in a matter of hours.
But that inherent volatility holds sharpened risks, so make sure to always do your research before you decide to YOLO in any particular token.
Commodities
Commodities, the likes of gold ( XAU/USD ) and silver ( XAG/USD ) bring technicolor to any portfolio in need of diversification. Unlike traditional stocks, commodities provide a hedge against inflation as their values tend to rise with increasing prices.
Commodities exhibit low correlation with other asset classes, too, thereby enhancing portfolio diversification and reducing overall risk.
Incorporating commodities into a diversified portfolio can help mitigate risk, enhance returns, and preserve purchasing power in the face of inflationary pressures, geopolitical uncertainty and other macroeconomic risks.
ETFs
ETFs , short for exchange-traded funds, are investment vehicles which offer a convenient and cost-effective way to gain exposure to a number of assets all packaged in the same instrument. These funds pull a bunch of similar stocks, commodities and—more recently— crypto assets , into the same bundle and launch it out there in the public markets. Owning an ETF means owning everything inside it, or whatever it’s made of.
ETFs typically have lower expense ratios compared to mutual funds, making them affordable investment options.
Whether you seek broad market exposure, niche sectors, or thematic investing opportunities, ETFs are a convenient way to build a diversified portfolio tailored to your investment objectives and risk preferences.
Bonds
Bonds are fixed-income investments available through various issuers with the most common one being the US government. Bonds are a fairly complex financial product but at the same time are considered a no-brainer for investors pursuing the path of least risk.
Bonds have different rates of creditworthiness and maturity terms, allowing investors to pick what fits their style best. Bonds with longer maturity—10 to 30 years—generally offer a better yield than short-term bonds.
Government bonds offer stability and low risk because they’re backed by the government and the risk of bankruptcy is low.
Cash
Cash may seem like a strange allocation asset but it’s actually a relatively safe bet when it comes to managing your own money. Sitting in cash is among the best things you can do when stocks are falling and valuations are coming down to earth.
And vice versa—when you have cash on-hand, you can be ready to scoop up attractive shares when they’ve bottomed out and are ready to fire up again (if only it was that easy, right?).
Finally, cash on its own is a risk-free investment in a high interest-rate environment. If you shove it into a high-yield savings account, you can easily generate passive income (yield) and withdraw if you need cash quickly.
📍 Build wealth through diversification
In the current context of market events, elevated interest rates and looming uncertainty, you need to be careful in your market approach. To this end, many experts advise that the best strategy you could go with in order to build wealth is to have a well-diversified portfolio.
“ Diversifying well is the most important thing you need to do in order to invest well ,” says Ray Dalio , founder of the world’s biggest hedge fund Bridgewater Associates.
“ This is true because 1) in the markets, that which is unknown is much greater than that which can be known (relative to what is already discounted in the markets), and 2) diversification can improve your expected return-to-risk ratio by more than anything else you can do. ”
📍 Diversification vs concentration
The opposite of portfolio diversification is portfolio concentration. Think about diversification as “ don’t put your eggs in one basket. ” Concentration, on the flip side, is “ put all your eggs in one basket, and watch it carefully. ”
In practice, concentration is focusing your investment into a single financial asset. Or having a few large bets that would assume higher risk but higher, or quicker, return.
While diversification is a recommended investment strategy for all seasons, concentration comes with bigger risks and is not always the right approach. Still, at times when you have a high conviction on a trade and have thoroughly analyzed the market, you may decide to bet heavily, thus concentrating your investment.
However, you need to be careful with concentrated bets as they can turn against your portfolio and wreck it if you’re overexposed and underprepared. Diversification, however, promises to cushion your overall risk by a carefully balanced approach to various financial assets.
📍 Summary
A diversified portfolio is essentially your best bet for coordinated and sustainable returns over the long term. Choosing a mix of various types of investments, such as stocks, ETFs, currencies, and crypto assets, would spread your exposure and provide different avenues for growth potential. Not only that, but it would also protect you from outsized risks, sudden economic shocks, or unforeseen events.
While you decrease your risk tolerance, you raise your probability of having winning positions. Regardless of your style and approach to markets, diversifying well will increase your chances of being right. You can be a trader and bet on currencies and gold for the short term. Or you can be an investor and allocate funds to stocks and crypto assets for years ahead.
Potential sources of diversification are everywhere in the financial markets. Ultimately, diversifying gives you thousands of opportunities to balance your portfolio and position yourself for risk-adjusted returns.
🙋🏾♂️ FAQ
❔ What is portfolio diversification?
► Portfolio diversification is the strategy of spreading your money across diverse investments in order to mitigate risk, hedge and balance your exposure in pursuit of uncorrelated returns.
❔ Why is diversification important?
► Diversification is important for any trader and investor because it creates a mix of assets working together to yield high, uncorrelated returns.
❔ How to diversify your portfolio?
► The way to diversify your portfolio is to add a variety of different assets and see how they perform relative to one another. If you diversify, you will have a broader exposure to financial markets and ultimately enjoy more probabilities for winning trades, increased returns, and decreased overall risks.
Do you diversify? What is your strategy? Do you rebalance? Let us know in the comments.
Liked this article? Give it a boost 🚀 and don't forget to follow us if you want to be among the first to be informed.
TradingView Screener Update - Now with CHART views !!!This has to be one of the best updates on TradingView in a while - certainly from my perspective.
The TradingView Screener was what initially brought me to using TradingView to be able to quickly and easily filter thousands of stocks down to just the handful that met my criteria and that I wanted to research further to look at investing in.
If you have ever had to rely on signal services or other people to tell you what and when to buy and sell, I would STRONGLY recommend you spend some time on the screener.
No matter how you like to trade - technicals, fundamentals, indicators, price action, RSI, MACD, volume etc etc, the TradingView Screener can quickly help you narrow down any stocks that meet your criteria.
Well worth exploring.
Great update by the team!
What Are Cryptocurrency Bear and Bull Traps?What Are Cryptocurrency Bear and Bull Traps?
In volatile crypto markets, traders must contend with many challenges. One of the most common is the bear and bull trap, which can quickly catch traders off-guard if they aren’t careful. In this FXOpen article, we’ll explore how these traps work, provide examples to illustrate their characteristics, and tell about practical ways to avoid them.
What Is a Bear Trap in Crypto?
In cryptocurrency trading, a bear trap is a signal indicating that a crypto asset is declining, luring in short sellers to position themselves for a price drop. However, this signal is false; after reaching a new low, the asset rebounds sharply. On a chart, this may look like a breakout below a support level, then a quick reversal, usually leaving a long wick.
The term ‘bear trap’ comes from the way it ‘traps’ bearish traders. They are almost instantly at a loss and psychologically vulnerable – they have to either realise a loss or risk further losses by holding their position.
Typically, covering these shorts (i.e. closing the short by buying back the position) fuels the bear trap, driving prices higher as traders rush to get out of the market to avoid further pain. It’s also worth noting that long traders expecting the reversal are also often stopped out during a bear trap – after all, it’s commonly repeated advice to set stop-losses beyond a support or resistance level.
It's essential to understand that bear traps are primarily psychological. They often occur when market sentiment is overwhelmingly negative, with traders expecting further price decreases. Institutional players in the market use this negativity to their advantage. They take long positions and briefly push prices down to trap many short traders and trigger long stop-losses. When shorts begin covering, and other traders start to buy, prices rise and put these players in profit.
Example
In the example above, we see Bitcoin dropping heavily on the left, continuing a larger downtrend off-screen. Price finds a bottom, creating an area of support that is held throughout the day. It’s reasonable to expect lower prices, given that BTC has been in a long downtrend.
As a result, when the price begins to break down with a sizable candle, breakout traders begin entering short positions. Those who took a long position, anticipating a broader trend reversal, are stopped out.
When the price begins to reverse as buying pressure picks up, short traders are trapped, likely at a small loss; stopped-out long traders are looking for a re-entry. As shorts began closing their positions and long traders rushed to enter again, Bitcoin surged higher.
What Is a Bull Trap in Crypto?
A bull trap is effectively the opposite of a bear trap: prices rise, encouraging traders to buy a cryptocurrency. It makes a new high and shortly reverses, putting traders who bought the breakout at a loss. This is the primary difference between a bull trap vs a bear trap.
Likewise, bull traps are all about emotion. Bulls are trapped, realising that they will likely take a loss. Bears that are correct in predicting an impending downtrend are stopped out and look for another entry. The fear and frustration of both types of traders add selling pressure to the market, driving prices lower.
Example
In the chart above, Bitcoin drops after an extended uptrend off-screen. It forms a low, retraces, and reacts at an area of resistance. Price continues higher, breaking through the resistance and forming a long wick. Traders buying the breakout see their position move to a loss as the long wick forms, while many short traders’ stops are triggered.
As it moves lower, a bear trap on the lower timeframe forces prices higher once more to form the real bull trap. Breakout traders think it’s for real this time as the high is broken and open long positions, while some short traders that found a reentry are stopped out again. When the price begins to decline sharply, the realisation of the market’s true direction forces the price even lower as traders pile in short.
This example is interesting in that it demonstrates that bull traps can occur repeatedly in the same area. While we won’t cover it in this article, learning the Wyckoff methodology can help you deal with and understand why you may see multiple bear and bull traps in a given area.
Want to mark up charts like we’ve done here? Head over to FXOpen’s free TickTrader platform, where you’ll find each of the tools used to create the examples in this article.
How to Avoid Bear and Bull Traps
It can be tricky to avoid falling into bear and bull traps in crypto, meaning traders should take precautionary steps to prevent frustration and potential losses. Here are four ways that may help traders sidestep these traps.
Understand Where Liquidity Lies
Bear and bull traps serve two purposes: to play on the emotions of traders and to tap into liquidity. Liquidity allows traders to take large positions without significantly affecting an asset’s price, reducing slippage/transaction costs. The deepest areas of liquidity are often found just beyond support or resistance levels, where stop losses are placed, and breakout traders are waiting and are usually tapped into before a considerable move occurs (as seen in the examples).
Liquidity builds up in areas with roughly equal highs and lows, along seemingly-strong trendlines, and at round numbers (e.g. $24,000), but is also present beyond every key high and low. In setups where the obvious place to set a stop-loss is one of these areas, you can consider using a wider stop-loss. Beyond the next significant support/resistance level is a good place to start.
Trade With the Trend
The phrase 'trend is your friend' is popular among traders for a reason. More often than not, these traps push the price in the direction of the broader trend. Understanding this can help avoid such traps. If the broader market trend is clearly bearish, for example, traders might want to reconsider taking a long position based on a potential breakout. Similarly, if the trend is bullish, it might be wiser to hold off on initiating short positions. This doesn't mean that counter-trend opportunities should be completely ignored, but rather that they should be approached with caution.
Check Volume
Trading volume often provides valuable clues about market activity. A sudden price movement accompanied by high trading volume can indicate a genuine breakout, while low volume may suggest a trap. This isn’t always the case since bear and bull traps can generate significant volume themselves, so it’s worth comparing a recent breakout’s volume with a potential trap’s volume to gauge strength.
RSI Divergences
Lastly, traders can use the relative strength index (RSI), a popular momentum indicator, to find early warning signs of reversals where traps often occur. Divergences between the RSI and price suggest weakening momentum and the possibility of a bull/bear trap. For instance, if the price reaches a new high but RSI does not, a reversal could be due. Conversely, if the price makes a new low without the RSI confirming, it could be a sign of a potential bull trap.
The Bottom Line
In conclusion, bear and bull traps are just one of the many challenges traders face when navigating the crypto markets. Understanding how they work and how to avoid them can significantly reduce the losses a trader takes and may even present opportunities for profit if taken advantage of correctly.
In fact, these traps occur across all types of markets, not just crypto. If you want to put your newfound knowledge to the test across over 600 stock, forex, and commodities markets, you can open an FXOpen account. You’ll be able to take advantage of the advanced TickTrader platform, low-cost trading, and blazing-fast execution speeds. Good luck!
At FXOpen UK and FXOpen AU, Cryptocurrency CFDs are only available for trading by those clients categorised as Professional clients under FCA Rules and Professional clients under ASIC Rules, respectively. They are not available for trading by Retail clients.
This article represents the opinion of the Companies operating under the FXOpen brand only. It is not to be construed as an offer, solicitation, or recommendation with respect to products and services provided by the Companies operating under the FXOpen brand, nor is it to be considered financial advice.
High Volume Times to Trade / Part 1 🔣Hello traders welcome back to another Concept video. In this video, we detail some of the best times to trade the Eur/Usd Currency pair. This happens to be at Session opens. We go through the 3 Session opens and walkthrough examples of increasing volume ( Large candles). Session opens can provide a great catalyst for 1) a continuation of momentum of the preceding trend or 2) a dramatic reversal. The Euro and the U.S. Dollar are not open during the Asian session and so the candles are much smaller and the average volatility is much less. However, the same concept applies regarding the former.
Where will the liquidity go next ?Liquidity is shifting within the market, moving from niche to niche as presented in the accompanying chart. One standout winner in this regard is the meme domain , which has seen significant gains because its market capitalization is small. Another area of focus is the AI niche , which is currently experiencing a surge in investor interest and capturing a considerable portion of the liquidity.
Coins with their own independent ecosystems are also drawing in more investors, thanks to their relative liquidity and robust ecosystems. This trend is expected to continue, albeit with some patience required as the market adjusts.
However, it's essential to recognize that liquidity will also flow into other niches within the cryptocurrency space. It's crucial to approach these opportunities with caution, as not all coins or tokens will attract the same level of attention from investors . Simply being invested in a particular coin, even at a lower price, does not guarantee massive returns. Achieving extraordinary gains, such as a 10x increase in value, can be challenging in many domains and niches within the cryptocurrency market.
Additionally, as larger institutional investors enter the cryptocurrency market, the potential gains may become more limited for individual investors. While a 10% profit may be significant for an investor with a capital of $1 million, it may not hold the same weight for someone with only $10,000 to invest.
Happy selling !
Why Central Banks Buying Gold & Institutions Hedging the Yields?While many of us celebrate the stock markets reaching new highs, central banks worldwide are actively purchasing gold, and institutions are hedging into treasuries and yields.
Interest rates are determined by the central banks whereas Yields are determined by the investors.
If you choose to lend or borrow money over a longer period, such as 10 or 30 years, you would typically expect to earn or pay more interest for this extended duration loan contract. However, currently, we are witnessing an inversion of this relationship, known as the inverted yield curve, where borrowers are required to pay higher interest on their short-term loans, such as the 2-year yield we're observing, compared to their longer-term borrowing.
2 Year Yield Futures
Ticker: 2YY
Minimum fluctuation:
0.001 Index points (1/10th basis point per annum) = $1.00
Disclaimer:
• What presented here is not a recommendation, please consult your licensed broker.
• Our mission is to create lateral thinking skills for every investor and trader, knowing when to take a calculated risk with market uncertainty and a bolder risk when opportunity arises.
Gaps and How Markets Move In Contraction and ExpansionThere are several ways to trade gaps but first, there should be a solid understanding of what Gaps are and how they show up. Markets aren't that hard to read if we have some simple ways to see them that adhere to the principles of movement.
All markets move in contraction and expansion. A Gap is the sudden supply/demand imbalance that comes out of the contraction and shows up as the expansion. These expansions can even be used to measure how far the next expansion will go.
Start with a simple bar chart and erase everything else off the chart. Look and simply see the dense areas of contraction (Range). Then see the expansion (Gap), followed by another contraction.
Look for same-size contractions and expansion and you will start to see how organized price flow can be. It's no different than swings in that minor contractions and expansions make up the major contractions and expansions.
Shane
Three Simple Intraday StrategiesThree Simple Intraday Strategies
Intraday trading is a technique that commands your attention, rewarding those who can swiftly analyse market data and act decisively. Armed with the right strategies, traders can make the most of market fluctuations within a single trading day. This article explores three successful intraday trading strategies: Breakout + 50% Retracement, RSI Trend Following, and HMA Crossover with VWAP. Read on to enhance your intraday trading toolkit.
Understanding Intraday Trading
Intraday trading entails buying and selling a given asset within a single trading day. The focus is on capitalising on short-term price movements. Unlike other trading styles, intraday trading techniques require quick decision-making, as positions are not held overnight. Two key factors are liquidity, allowing for easy entry and exit, and volatility, offering price movement opportunities. While the potential for quick gains is high, risks are equally elevated, emphasising the importance of sound strategies.
In the sections below, we’ll cover three intraday trading strategies. For the best understanding, consider using FXOpen’s free TickTrader platform to follow along in real time.
Breakout + 50% Retracement
The Breakout + 50% Retracement strategy combines the power of a price breakout with a midpoint entry, generally utilised in the context of an established trend. When a convincing breakout occurs, traders often look for entry points at the midpoint of the initial trading range. A convincing breakout is one that closes above or below the range's high or low, ideally with a large candle.
Entry
Traders typically watch for a breakout to occur from a trading range.
Entries are generally taken at the 50% retracement level of the trading range in the direction of the breakout.
Stop Loss
Stop losses are commonly positioned beyond the high or low of the initial trading range.
Take Profit
Profit-taking usually happens at identifiable support or resistance levels, aligning with the trend direction.
This strategy capitalises on the momentum generated by a breakout. By entering at the midpoint of the trading range, traders can position themselves during the pullback while maintaining a decent risk/reward ratio. The use of stop losses beyond the trading range's high or low helps in mitigating risks and taking profits at support or resistance levels helps traders to maximise their returns before price potential reverses.
RSI Trend Following
The RSI Trend Following strategy fine-tunes the Relative Strength Index (RSI) to be more sensitive by using a 7-period setting instead of the traditional 14. In the context of a well-established trend, this strategy suggests waiting for a pullback and then entering a position as the RSI swings back into its normal range.
In the chart above, we’ve used Apple (AAPL), one of the best stocks for intraday trading due to its high liquidity. However, this strategy will work across all types of assets.
Entry
Traders usually look for an established trend, marked by higher highs and higher lows for an uptrend or lower highs and lower lows for a downtrend.
During a pullback, the RSI often crosses into overbought (above 70) or oversold (below 30) territory.
Entries are typically made when the RSI crosses back into the normal range, confirming the trend's continuation.
Stop Loss
Stop losses are generally set above the most recent high in a downtrend or below the most recent low in an uptrend.
Take Profit
Profits are often taken at pre-identified support or resistance levels in line with the ongoing trend.
The strategy aims to capitalise on the continuation of existing trends by making the RSI more sensitive. A 7-period RSI allows traders to react more quickly to short-term price changes. By setting stop losses around the most recent highs or lows and targeting support or resistance levels for profit-taking, traders aim to balance potential rewards with manageable risk.
HMA Crossover With VWAP
The HMA Crossover With VWAP strategy integrates the Volume Weighted Average Price (VWAP) with the Hull Moving Average (HMA) set at 21 (orange) and 50 (yellow) periods. It's grounded in the principles of mean reversion, using the VWAP as a reference point for buy or sell decisions.
It’s worth noting that the VWAP is one of the best indicators for intraday trading. It effectively balances price and volume throughout the day and gives intraday traders a clearer view of potential market direction.
Entry
Traders generally observe the VWAP to determine the market bias; if the price is above the VWAP, the bias is to sell, and if it is below, to buy.
An entry signal is typically considered when the 21-period HMA crosses over the 50-period HMA in the direction of the VWAP bias.
Stop Loss
Stop losses are usually placed above or below the nearest swing high or swing low.
Take Profit
Profits are commonly taken when the price either touches the VWAP or when a reverse HMA crossover occurs.
This strategy leverages the mean-reverting nature of financial markets. By aligning the shorter-term 21-period HMA with the longer-term 50-period HMA and using the VWAP as a directional filter, traders aim for more precise entries. The HMA is a highly responsive moving average, making it ideal for intraday trading.
The Bottom Line
In summary, these three intraday trading strategies can provide traders with distinct approaches to capitalise on market volatility. Each has its own unique advantages and can be implemented using our robust TickTrader platform. However, it’s worth remembering they should be modified in accordance with your trading approach. To practise these strategies and more, consider opening an FXOpen account for a comprehensive trading experience tailored for traders with any level of experience.
This article represents the opinion of the Companies operating under the FXOpen brand only. It is not to be construed as an offer, solicitation, or recommendation with respect to products and services provided by the Companies operating under the FXOpen brand, nor is it to be considered financial advice.
Beware of Crypto scams- Rug PullsWith the crypto market on a strong run since October of last year and with many dreamers hoping for 100x or even 1000x returns, we must be extremely cautious of scammers.
In this article, I will explain one of the most common types of scams: Rug Pulls.
The term "rug pull" in the cryptocurrency industry refers to the moment when the founding team abruptly abandons the project and sells or removes all liquidity. The term originates from the phrase "pulling the rug out from under someone," meaning the unexpected withdrawal of support.
In 2021 alone, during the previous bull market, rug pulls were responsible for losses of approximately $2.8 billion, a figure close to historical highs and an 81% increase compared to 2020, according to a report by Chainalysis.
The cryptocurrency market is susceptible to such scams due to the lack of regulations from central authorities. Unlike traditional companies subject to strict government control, the decentralized nature of the crypto space allows for complete control by private entities. This makes it vulnerable to exploitation by these entities.
Types of rug pulls:
Liquidity Theft:
Liquidity theft is the most common type of rug pull. It involves a developer listing an altcoin on a decentralized exchange (DEX) where it can be traded with a top currency like Ethereum (ETH). To enable trading, the developer must create a liquidity pool.
The team generates hype around the new project and attracts investors. As more investors join the project, the coin's price rises, attracting others who believe the project is a viable opportunity. As the coin increases in value, the developer withdraws all ETH from the liquidity pool at some point, leaving investors in the pool with no way to exchange their now-worthless tokens.
Technical Manipulation:
Some developers intentionally design tokens with the aim of deceiving investors. Therefore, they will include specific lines of code to limit the ability of retail investors to sell, thereby controlling both demand and supply. Of course, they are the only ones capable of selling, and when the price has appreciated sufficiently, they will sell all the tokens they hold.
Dumping:
This means that developers or promoters who hold a large percentage of the total coins sell off their entire holdings. As new entities invest in the new cryptocurrency, they exchange their valuable cryptocurrencies such as BTC or ETH for the new cryptocurrency. As a result, when the price increases significantly, developers sell off all their tokens, causing the price of the cryptocurrency to plummet.
How to Protect Your Investments from Potential Rug Pulls?
Lack of a Website:
Not all projects start with a website, but many that intend to exist for a long time do. If the developers of the token you want to invest in don't have a personalized domain for their project, this is a clear warning to stay away. There are also fraudulent projects that have websites claiming to be under construction or launching soon.
Check the White Paper:
This is an excellent way to learn about the plans of the project you want to invest in. Check for the existence of such a document, as well as any discrepancies between the white paper and the website. ALSO, VERIFY IF THE TEAM IS AVAILABLE TO PROVIDE INFORMATION ON PLATFORMS SUCH AS REDDIT OR TELEGRAM. If a developer cannot answer basic questions about their project, this raises major red flags.
Anonymous Developers:
While the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto, the developer of Bitcoin, is not known for certain, the fact that a project you want to invest in has anonymous developers should raise concerns. If the developers of a cryptocurrency or DeFi project choose not to associate their names with it and remain in the shadows, they may have reasons for doing so, and it's best to avoid such a project.
Low Liquidity:
Low liquidity of a cryptocurrency means that it is difficult to convert it into fiat currency; therefore, the lower the liquidity, the easier it is for developers to manipulate the price. The best way to check the liquidity of a cryptocurrency is to analyze its trading volume over the past 24 hours. A general rule used by experienced investors is that the trading volume should be more than 10% of the coin's market capitalization.
Locked Liquidity:
To provide trust and enhance the public perception of their legitimacy, developers of serious projects will relinquish control over the liquidity pool by locking it in the blockchain often with a trusted third party. This process is called locked liquidity and prevents developers from trading with tokens from the pool, thereby making it impossible for them to steal or dramatically reduce liquidity. If liquidity is not locked, then nothing prevents developers from withdrawing their funds.
Low Total Locked Value (TLV):
TLV is another reliable measure to verify the legitimacy of a project. This term refers to the total amount invested in a particular project. Serious projects have a TLV of hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars, while newly emerging projects with only tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in TLV should definitely be avoided.
Token Distribution:
Checking the token distribution of a project on Etherscan or Binance Smart Chain explorer will show who holds the largest amount of tokens and how they are distributed. If a single wallet or two hold more than 5% of the total available, there is a risk that the price may be manipulated.
The Project lacks an Audit Report: The most notable projects will have independent audit reports in the fields of security and financial transparency, guaranteeing their authenticity. A project without an audit report is not necessarily fraudulent, but it means that you should research the project in detail before investing in it.
Losing investments through a rug pull is a common phenomenon; therefore, before investing in a project, it is wise to analyze the project, developers, liquidity, and also the developers' activity on social media platforms.
Additionally, you can opt to use online tools that can detect a potential rug pull. One of these tools is Token Sniffer. This site lists all the latest hacks and scam coins. Rug Doctor is another useful tool for detecting rug pulls. The site analyzes the code of crypto projects, attempting to identify the most common rug pull strategies.
Stay safe and good luck!
Mihai Iacob
Our Strategy For "The Leap"Hey guys! Today, we explore 'The Leap', and our strategy for the competition.
It's easy to register if you haven't done so already.
In this video, we cover;
1.) DIRECTIONAL BIAS
2.) WHERE TO TRADE
3.) WHERE TO RISK
4.) POSITION MANAGEMENT
for the strategy we'll be using. It's a simple breakout strategy we're going to bring to a lower timeframe, so we can get enough trades in before the competition expires.
Good luck to all, we look forward to competing with you!
Want more high-quality trade ideas? Follow us below. ⬇️⬇️
What Is Bitcoin Halving? Here's All You Need to KnowWhat Is Bitcoin Halving? Here's All You Need to Know.
Halving is the event of slashing Bitcoin's mining rewards every 210,000 blocks, or roughly every four years. Read all about it here.
Table of Contents
Overview
What Is Bitcoin Halving?
When Is the Next Bitcoin Halving?
Deep Dive into Blockchain
How Are Miners Rewarded?
Why Halving Matters?
The Big Picture
What About Bitcoin’s Price?
Halving and the Way Forward
Overview
Bitcoin’s halving is a milestone event for the crypto space. Essentially, halving pushes back the moment we see all 21 million BTC tokens pulled out of their cryptographic hash puzzles.
Satoshi Nakamoto, the individual or group who created Bitcoin , programmed it to a fixed amount of 21 million coins. In other words, the total amount of Bitcoin can never exceed 21 million. Presently, miners have picked up just over 19 million through a process called Bitcoin mining.
This amount is over 90% of the total supply with mining having started with the creation of Bitcoin 15 years ago. That leaves just about 2 million tokens to be unearthed before the final Bitcoin enters our dimension. How long should we wait until this mammoth of a milestone happens? More than a century, or around the year 2140 , according to forecasting wizards.
The logic behind this peculiar mechanism lies in the so-called halving and this guide will help you understand all about it.
What Is Bitcoin Halving?
Halving, in its simplest form, is the process of gradually reducing the rewards of Bitcoin mining. As we mentioned, Satoshi Nakamoto originally hard-coded Bitcoin to a fixed supply of 21 million. All of them will come to life at an increasingly slower rate. More precisely, the pace at which Bitcoin is created is “halved” every 210,000 blocks.
The current block reward is 6.25 Bitcoin as the last halving occurred on May 11th, 2020.
When's the Next Bitcoin Halving?
In April 2024, miners will add the next batch of 210,000 blocks. And that only means one thing - they will have their revenue immediately slashed in half to 3.125 Bitcoin.
All halvings are evenly spread out approximately every four years, consistent with Bitcoin’s hard-coded design. This way, supply will keep increasing, just at a slower clip. The reason is simple - the Bitcoin halving rewards will continue to reduce.
Deep Dive into Blockchain
In order for new Bitcoin to come into circulation, miners need to create blocks in a chain, hence the term ‘blockchain’.
Network operators—the hardworking miners—uncover blocks through computer-powered mining operations. These crypto diggers compute hashes as quickly as possible. What they do is search for the successful fixed-length output that they add to the block.
The more hashes per second (hashrate), the more chances for hacking out new blocks and adding them to the blockchain.
How Are Miners Rewarded?
Generally, miners have two ways to reward themselves for the effort. The first one is to earn revenue from transaction fees of users who send and receive Bitcoin. That’s when they act as decentralized network operators and validate transactions without a central authority.
At their height during the crypto boom in April 2021, the Bitcoin network fees reached as much as $60 per transaction and took hours to complete. After all, the network can only handle 4-7 transactions per second. To compare, payment giant Visa can validate 24,000 transactions per second.
Average transaction fee of Bitcoin, USD
Timeframe: April, 2021
Source: bitinfocharts.com
The other way to reward Bitcoin miners is to let them pocket the newly-minted Bitcoin contained in the block. Halving is basically a reward system for miners.
But more broadly, halving is part of the proof-of-work model associated with high levels of energy consumption. Millions of mining rigs soak up that energy and crank out new Bitcoin.
Why Halving Matters?
Halving the block reward for mining Bitcoin is a way to protect its integrity. This immutable feature of the OG crypto makes it stand out as a unique asset class. In this light, it is also an alternative to inflation-prone national currencies, also known as fiat money.
With that in mind, in a world that craves disruptive innovation, a technology that’s rewiring the global financial system has progressively moved into the limelight. The growing role of Bitcoin as a new investment vehicle is apparent, factoring in the elevated investor appetite .
Bitcoin transacts tens of billions of dollars of daily volumes, with a peak of more than $126 billion on May 19, 2021. The figure is sufficient to prove it has piqued the interest of enough crowds to form a market around it.
Before we revisit Bitcoin as an investable asset, let’s take a breather and trace the original crypto back to its origins where halving was introduced.
The Big Picture
Just over 15 years ago, the mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto mined the initial “genesis” block . For the effort, the clandestine developer(s) earned a hefty reward of 50 Bitcoin. And also bothered to leave a message hooked to the chunk of transactions. The message read: " The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks. "
Since then, the Bitcoin network has witnessed three halving events:
On November 28, 2012, Bitcoin’s block reward was cut from 50 BTC to 25 BTC.
On July 9, 2016, Bitcoin’s block reward was slashed from 25 per block to 12.5 BTC.
The last one occurred on May 11, 2020, when the reward was axed to 6.25 BTC.
The next Bitcoin halving event is on deck for April 19, 2024. Rewards will fall to 3.125 BTC.
The Bitcoin halving dates may vary and we're yet to get a confirmation over the next one. Estimations indicate that every 10 minutes or so all network operators add a new block to the Bitcoin blockchain. With the current reward of 6.25 Bitcoin per block, miners dig out around 900 new Bitcoin a day.
At today’s prices , this is equal to around $50 million worth of Bitcoin extracted daily. This is where the halving becomes interesting not just to the geeks among us.
Halving events play a key part in shaping up supply and demand and weigh on the price of Bitcoin. Speaking of price movement, how does the rate at which new Bitcoin is churned out affect valuations?
What About Bitcoin's Price?
Bitcoin, as the world’s first cryptocurrency in a sea of many, is the quintessence of scarcity premium. Investment professionals are quick to say that Bitcoin carries a unique glamor as the only large tradeable asset with a predictable emission leading to a hard cap.
In that light, analysts consider Bitcoin to be the newest entrant in the store-of-value category. An investment product that holds its purchasing power over time. Ideally coming with consistent price increases.
This is possible thanks to halving - the brilliant mechanism hard-wired into the Bitcoin protocol. The minds behind the original digital currency conceived it as deflationary. A concept alien to the present financial system, flooded with central-bank cash and government stimulus.
The reason is that, contrary to fiat currencies that inflate over time, Bitcoin should not be debased by inflation. Satoshi Nakamoto explained this inflation-rate flaw in an online forum around the time of Bitcoin’s inception.
"The root problem with conventional currency is all the trust that’s required to make it work. The central bank must be trusted not to debase the currency, but the history of fiat currencies is full of breaches of that trust.”
Halving and the Way Forward
If there’s a need to draw broad conclusions, here are some of the more salient points to make a compelling argument.
Bitcoin’s purchasing power is likely to avoid debasement thanks to the halving mechanism. With less than 10% of Bitcoin still to come to the surface, it will take more than 100 years for the last unmined Bitcoin to pop out.
Once all the 21 million Bitcoin spring to life, miners will no longer stake their livelihood on uncovering new tokens. Instead, they will earn revenue from network fees for their work on validating transactions. But that’s only if the network sticks to the plan.
FAQ
❔ "What is the purpose of halving?"
► Halving maintains a decreasing pace of block rewards, which emphasizes on the idea of scarcity in Bitcoin.
❔ "When is the next Bitcoin halving?"
► The next Bitcoin halving event is scheduled to occur on April 19, 2024. This date is approximate, and the actual date may be different, depending on the time it takes to complete one full batch of 210,000 blocks.
❔ "Is halving related to price increase?"
► Technically, when the supply of new Bitcoin is cut in half, and demand remains the same, prices may go up. But the price discovery of Bitcoin does not obey archetype models of economics.
❔ "When will the last Bitcoin be mined?"
► Estimates point that the last available Bitcoin will be mined in the year 2140.
Understanding Momentum to filter out the Best SetupsIn the video I discuss how I analyse momentum using MACDs and the 5min and 1min charts when daytrading.
Knowing these key concepts helps me filter out the best setups to get on the right side of the market and in the right trading zones.
The basic concepts discussed are :
- Momentum
- Price Action
- Candle Analysis
- Multi-timeframe Analysis
** If you like the content then take a look at the profile to get more ideas and learning material **
** Any Comments and likes are greatly appreciated **
Mastering the 70/30 RSI Trading Strategy - Plus Divergences!Mastering the 70/30 RSI Trading Strategy: A Comprehensive Guide
The 70/30 RSI technique stands out as a popular and effective method for making informed decisions in the financial markets. Leveraging the Relative Strength Index (RSI) indicator, this strategy empowers traders to navigate the complexities of buying and selling various financial instruments, from stocks to currencies. In this article, we delve into the intricacies of the 70/30 RSI trading strategy, exploring its fundamentals and practical application in forex trading.
Understanding the 70/30 RSI Trading Strategy:
Developed by renowned technical analyst J. Welles Wilder, the RSI indicator serves as a powerful tool for evaluating market strength and identifying overbought and oversold conditions. With a range from 0 to 100, the RSI provides traders with crucial insights into market dynamics, enabling them to make timely trading decisions.
At the heart of the 70/30 RSI strategy lies the establishment of two key threshold levels on the RSI indicator: 70 for overbought conditions and 30 for oversold conditions. These thresholds serve as crucial markers for generating buy or sell signals, offering traders valuable guidance in navigating market trends.
⭐️ Adding and Setting Up the RSI Indicator on Your Chart:
The RSI (Relative Strength Index) Indicator is a freely available tool accessible within your TradingView Platform, irrespective of your subscription plan. Whether you're using a Free membership or one of the Premium plans, you can easily find and add this indicator to your charts. Below, I'll guide you through the process of adding and customizing the RSI indicator on your platform with the help of the following images.
To begin adding the RSI indicator to your chart:👇
You can also customize the colors to your preference, just like I did by selecting your favorite ones.👇
Now, let's delve into what the RSI indicator is and how to interpret it.
Interpreting RSI Signals:
In essence, an RSI reading of 30 or lower signals an oversold market, suggesting that the prevailing downtrend may be ripe for reversal, presenting an opportunity to buy. Conversely, a reading of 70 or higher indicates overbought conditions, implying that the ongoing uptrend may be nearing exhaustion, presenting an opportunity to sell.
The Relative Strength Index (RSI) Explained:
As a momentum indicator, the RSI measures the speed and magnitude of recent price changes, providing traders with insights into whether a security is overvalued or undervalued. Displayed as an oscillator on a scale of zero to 100, the RSI not only identifies overbought and oversold conditions but also highlights potential trend reversals or corrective pullbacks in a security's price.
Practical Application of the RSI Strategy:
Traders employing the 70/30 RSI strategy must exercise caution, as sudden and sharp price movements can lead to false signals. While RSI readings of 70 or above indicate overbought conditions and readings of 30 or less indicate oversold conditions, traders must consider additional factors and use other technical indicators to validate signals and avoid premature trades.
Let's examine a few examples.
Example No. 1: EUR/USD Daily Timeframe
On the EUR/USD daily timeframe, we observed an overbought condition indicated by the RSI rising above the 70 level. This signaled a potential reversal in price direction. Subsequently, the price indeed reversed, confirming the overbought scenario.
It's crucial to emphasize that while scenarios above the 70 RSI level or below the 30 RSI level suggest potential reversals in price, it's essential to complement your analysis with additional filters. These may include consideration of the economic environment, effective risk management strategies, and identification of triggers or patterns before initiating a trade. Below, I'll illustrate a potential trigger that aligns with the RSI 70/30 strategy: the crossover of the RSI line with the RSI-based moving average (MA).
Example No. 2:
In this example, the RSI strategy proved effective as we observed the price falling below the 30 level, indicating potential oversold conditions and a forthcoming reversal from the market's potential bottom. Additionally, in the image below, you'll notice the introduction of white lines, known as "divergences." I'll provide a clearer explanation of divergences in the next example.
Example No. 3:
In this example, denoted as circle N.3, we encounter another instance of the RSI reaching the 70 level, indicating an overbought condition. Once again, the strategy proves effective, but this time, we notice a shallower reversal compared to the previous two examples.
Following this reversal, the price experiences growth, presenting a new opportunity for traders with a subsequent higher high. However, unlike before, this high does not breach the 70 RSI level, resulting in a deeper reversal.
This scenario exemplifies a "divergence."
But what exactly is divergence trading?
Divergence trading revolves around the concept of higher highs and lower lows.
When the price achieves higher highs, you would expect the oscillator (in this case, the RSI) to also record higher highs. Conversely, if the price makes lower lows, you anticipate the oscillator to follow suit, registering lower lows as well.
When they fail to synchronize, with the price and the oscillator moving in opposite directions, divergence occurs, hence the term "divergence trading."
I'm confident that the previous three examples were well explained to help you understand the 70/30 RSI strategy, along with the MA moving average trigger and the relative divergence strategy. Please share your thoughts in the comment section below.
Key Considerations and Limitations:
While the 70/30 RSI strategy offers valuable insights into market dynamics, traders must remain mindful of its limitations. True reversal signals can be rare and challenging to identify, necessitating a comprehensive approach that incorporates other technical indicators and aligns with the long-term trend.
In Conclusion:
The 70/30 RSI trading strategy represents a powerful framework for navigating the complexities of the financial markets. By leveraging the insights provided by the RSI indicator, traders can make well-informed decisions, identify lucrative trading opportunities, and optimize their trading strategies for success in various market conditions.
How-To: Use the TradingView Paper Trading featureTradingView's Paper Trading isn't just for practice; it's a detailed educational platform that closely simulates the real trading environment, all without the risk of losing money. This feature is carefully crafted to mimic actual market scenarios, offering users a realistic preview of how their trading plans might fare.📖🧾
The video is packed with valuable tips 💡 on making the most of the Paper Trading feature. From initiating your paper trading account to executing trades, tracking your positions, and evaluating your trading approach, this guide is essential for anyone looking to refine their trading skills on TradingView.
Engaging in paper trading means more than just trial runs; it integrates you into a community of well-informed traders. It encourages the prudent, yet proactive mindset advocated by TradingView. Such a strategy distinguishes the most successful traders. 📈
In summary, the Paper Trading feature reflects TradingView's dedication to providing its users with the necessary knowledge 📚 and tools ⚒️ for trading success. It champions the "look first, then leap" approach, ensuring that your venture into trading is informed, confident, and well-prepared. Immerse yourself in the video 🎥, delve into the Paper Trading feature, and start your path to becoming a knowledgeable and prosperous trader. 💹
❓Have you tried our Paper Trading feature yet? How did you find it? Love it 🥰, hate it 👎🏽, we want to know especially with our upcoming competition where you could win up to $10,000 paper trading right here on TradingView.
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Happy trading, and always remember – look first, then leap! 👀🦘
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Timely Opening Range Breakout Strategy (TORB)Today, I’ll tell you about an amazing research study back from 2019 by a team of Taiwanese researchers, “Assessing the Profitability of Timely Opening Range Breakout on Index Futures Markets.”
Takeaway: The study's results are compelling. Implementing the TORB strategy yielded over 8% annual returns across the tested markets. Remarkably, the TAIEX index showcased a staggering 20.28% annual return. These numbers underline the potential of TORB in maximizing trading gains.
█ What is Open Range Breakout?
Open Range Breakout (ORB) is one of the simplest and safest strategies day traders use in a relatively low-volatility market. Opening Range means exactly just that. You check an asset's highest and lowest price in a certain time frame (usually 15 to 60 minutes) from the market's opening time.
These levels become your resistance and support that guide your trading plan for that day. Say if your chosen stock price goes higher than the highest level after the opening range; it indicates a bullish run for the day. Conversely, it indicates a bearish run if the price loses support in a downward trend.
█ Timely Opening Range Breakout Strategy
ORB has a certain set of challenges, especially for volatile markets. The Timely Open Range Breakout (TORB) strategy has been proposed in response to these challenges.
TORB leverages high-frequency intraday data and aligns trading strategies with the active hours of the underlying stock markets.
By analyzing one-minute intraday data from 2003 to 2013 across various markets, including DJIA, S&P 500, NASDAQ, HSI, and TAIEX, the study by Yi-Cheng Tsai et al. demonstrates the effectiveness of this strategy.
The key lies in identifying the 'active hours' of the market, aligning with the opening range of the underlying index.
█ 1. PMMV and PMVR:
The research paper introduces two critical variables for the TORB strategy: Per-Minute Mean Volume (PMMV) and Per-Minute Variance of Return (PMVR). These metrics are essential in identifying the most active hours for futures market trading.
PMMV provides a snapshot of the market's activity level at each minute of the trading day. PMVR is crucial for understanding the volatility or the degree of fluctuation in the market at each minute.
PMMV (Per-Minute Mean Volume) is calculated by averaging the trading volume in a one-minute interval over a specified number of trading days.
The graph shows that the German 40 is most active during the London opening and 30 minutes into the New York opening.
PMVR (Per-Minute Variance of Return) measures the variance of the one-minute returns, calculated as the logarithmic difference between the closing prices of one-minute intervals.
Using PMVR, the German 40 is most active during the London opening session and approximately one hour into the New York session.
█ 2. TORB Trading Rules:
Basic ORB trading rules are applied here.
Buying pressure dominates if the price moves above the resistance level, suggesting potential upward price movement. Conversely, selling pressure prevails if the price falls below the support level, indicating a possible downward trend.
These rules are applied within the active trading hours, defined by the PMMV and PMVR metrics.
Buy Signal
Sell Signal
The strategy also defines three key time points: the beginning of the observed period, the end of the observed period (probe time), and the time of closing the position. The prices at these specific times determine the conditions for buying and selling.
█ 3. Data Sets:
The study utilized two main datasets for its experiments:
Intraday Data of Five Futures Markets: This dataset includes one-minute intraday data of the E-mini futures of the DJIA, S&P 500, NASDAQ 100, HSI (Hong Kong), and TAIEX (Taiwan). The period covered ranges from 2001/2003 to 2013, providing a comprehensive overview of these markets over a decade.
Transaction Data for TAIEX Index Futures: This dataset contains detailed transaction data for the TAIEX index futures, covering the period from 2006 to 2013. It analyzes the relationship between TORB signals and trader behavior in the Taiwanese market.
Interestingly, the research even considers the global financial crisis of 2007-2008, presenting test results for two sub-periods: before and after 2007. This approach ensures a thorough understanding of the strategy's performance across different market conditions.
█ Results and Analysis
1. TORB Profitability Test:
The TORB profitability test involved back-testing the strategy for the five futures markets.
DJIA, S&P, and NASDAQ results revealed that strategies with probe times in the early stages yielded significantly higher annual returns.
DJIA: The results showed that TORB transactions decreased as the probe time moved away from the beginning of active hours. This implies that the strategy was most effective when applied close to market opening times.
S&P and NASDAQ: Similar to the DJIA, these markets also showed that strategies with early-stage probe times earned higher annual returns.
Additionally, the TAIEX results demonstrated that TORB strategies earned significantly higher returns with probe times of less than 200 minutes.
2. Impressive Returns:
The study's results are compelling. Implementing the TORB strategy yielded over 8% annual returns across the tested markets. Remarkably, the TAIEX index showcased a staggering 20.28% annual return. These numbers underline the potential of TORB in maximizing trading gains.
It also found that the best probing times were shorter in the U.S. markets and longer in Asian markets.
The research demonstrated that TORB strategies yielded consistently higher returns than traditional TRB (Trading Range Breakout) strategies, with no significant results in profitability tests for all TRB strategies across the five futures markets.
To provide a clear picture, here's a summary of the daily returns for each market analyzed:
E-mini DJIA: See Table 1 from the research paper
E-mini S&P: See Table 2 from the research paper
E-mini NASDAQ and HSI: See Tables 3 and 4 from the research paper
TAIEX: See Table 5 from the research paper
The active hours, identified by peaks in PMMV and PMVR, played a crucial role in the strategy's success.
For instance, the E-mini DJIA showed peaks around 8:30 AM and 3:15 PM, coinciding with the opening and closing times of the underlying market. Similarly, peaks were observed for HSI around the opening, closing, and lunch break times.
█ Relationship Between TORB Signals and Trader Behavior
The study also examined the relationship between TORB signals and trader behavior, particularly in the TAIEX futures market.
It was observed that the daily volume for individual traders was about twice that for institutional traders. The returns of the TORB strategies were positively related to the net buy positions of institutional traders both before and after the breakout.
This suggests that by following the TORB signals, one could trade in the same direction as institutional traders and obtain positive returns.
Specifically, the returns of the TORB strategies were significantly and positively related to foreign investment institutions, both before and after the breakout, indicating that TORB signals align with the trading direction of the most informed traders in the Taiwan market.
█ Reference
Y.-C. Tsai, M.-E. Wu, J.-H. Syu, C.-L. Lei, C.-S. Wu, J.-M. Ho, and C.-J. Wang, "Assessing the Profitability of Timely Opening Range Breakout on Index Futures Markets," IEEE Access, vol. 7, pp. 32061- 32071 Mar. 2019.
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Disclaimer
*Our results are approximate. We encourage you to test the assumption yourself. We do not guarantee that you will get the same results. This is an educational study for entertainment purposes only.
The information in my Scripts/Indicators/Ideas/Algos/Systems does not constitute financial advice or a solicitation to buy or sell securities. I will not accept liability for any loss or damage, including without limitation any loss of profit, which may arise directly or indirectly from the use of or reliance on such information.
All investments involve risk, and the past performance of a security, industry, sector, market, financial product, trading strategy, backtest, or individual's trading does not guarantee future results or returns. Investors are fully responsible for any investment decisions they make. Such decisions should be based solely on evaluating their financial circumstances, investment objectives, risk tolerance, and liquidity needs.
My Scripts/Indicators/Ideas/Algos/Systems are only for educational purposes!
Navigating Sympathy Plays: A Guide to Trading BITCOIN & COINBASE** Introduction **
Sympathy trading, a strategic approach rooted in both technical and fundamental analysis, capitalizes on correlated movements between assets to uncover profitable opportunities. In this article, we delve into the nuanced realm of sympathy trading using Bitcoin (BTCUSD) and Coinbase Global Inc. (COIN) as case studies, exploring how a blend of technical and fundamental analysis can enhance trading strategies.
** Understanding Sympathy Trading **
Sympathy trading hinges on discerning and exploiting the symbiotic relationship between correlated assets. It involves analyzing both technical indicators and fundamental factors to identify potential entry and exit points, as well as underlying drivers influencing price movements.
** BTCUSD and COIN: A Sympathetic Relationship **
BTCUSD and COIN exemplify a compelling case study in sympathy trading within the cryptocurrency domain. Bitcoin's price dynamics often exert a significant influence on Coinbase's stock value, reflecting the exchange's dependency on Bitcoin's performance and trading volumes.
Technical Analysis Insights:
Technical analysis provides crucial insights into price trends, momentum, and support/resistance levels. Key technical indicators for trading BTCUSD and COIN include:
1.Moving Averages: Analyzing moving average crossovers and trends helps identify potential entry or exit points. Golden crosses (short-term moving average crossing above long-term moving average) or death crosses (opposite) can signal trend reversals.
2.Volume Analysis: Monitoring trading volumes in both BTCUSD and COIN can confirm price movements and signal changes in market sentiment. An increase in volume accompanying price movements suggests stronger market conviction.
3.Chart Patterns: Identifying chart patterns such as triangles, flags, and head and shoulders formations can provide insights into potential price reversals or continuation patterns, guiding trading decisions.
Fundamental Analysis Insights:
Fundamental analysis delves into underlying factors driving asset valuations and market sentiment. Key fundamental factors influencing BTCUSD and COIN include:
1.Regulatory Developments: Changes in regulatory frameworks governing cryptocurrencies can impact investor sentiment and trading activity. Positive regulatory developments may boost confidence in BTCUSD and COIN, while regulatory uncertainties could lead to volatility.
2.User Adoption and Trading Volumes: Monitoring user adoption rates and trading volumes on Coinbase's platform can provide insights into the exchange's revenue prospects and growth trajectory. Increased user activity often correlates with higher revenues for the exchange.
3.Market Sentiment and News Catalysts: Market sentiment surrounding Bitcoin, such as institutional adoption, macroeconomic factors, or geopolitical events, can influence both BTCUSD and COIN prices. News catalysts, such as product launches, partnerships, or earnings reports from Coinbase, can drive short-term price movements.
** Crafting Sympathy Strategies: **
Sympathy trading strategies integrating technical and fundamental analysis may involve:
1.Confirmation of Technical Signals: Confirming technical signals with fundamental catalysts can strengthen trading convictions. For example, if a bullish technical pattern emerges in BTCUSD, traders may look for positive fundamental catalysts supporting the uptrend in COIN.
2.Event-Based Trading: Leveraging fundamental analysis to anticipate market-moving events, traders may position themselves ahead of key announcements or developments. For instance, if positive regulatory news is expected for cryptocurrencies, traders may preemptively buy COIN in anticipation of increased trading activity.
** Risk Management Considerations: **
Effective risk management is paramount in sympathy trading to mitigate potential losses:
1.Position Sizing: Determine appropriate position sizes based on risk tolerance, account capital, and trade conviction. Avoid overexposure to a single trade and diversify across multiple assets to spread risk.
2.Stop-Loss Orders: Implement stop-loss orders to limit potential losses and protect capital. Place stop-loss levels based on technical levels, volatility considerations, or predetermined risk-reward ratios.
** Case study in action **
Let's look at the charts, both on the 1W time-frame in order to catch and get an understanding of the bigger trends and see if the theory is applied on the price action.
Bitcoin has provided 5 excellent Sympathy Play signals for Coinbase in the last 2 years. Starting with a Bear Flag that was rejected on its 1W MA50 (blue trend-line), Bitcoin initiated a huge decline on Coinbase (red shape), proportionally much stronger that its own. Then as its was attempting to find a market bottom, it provided 2 recovery signals that gave a proportionally bigger rise on Coinbase. Then a BTC Bull Flag again turned into a proportionally bigger rise on Coinbase with the last signal coming on October 2023.
As you can see during this significantly sample, Bitcoin tends to provide strong early buy/ sell signals on Coinbase. It is worth noting that even though Coinbase is a stock, it follows Bitcoin's price movements more closely than the S&P500 stock index, which we have illustrated on the right chart by the grey trend-line. As you can see there have been numerous occasions where Coinbase failed to follow a big stock market rally and instead was tied to BTC with the most notable examples being recently in January 2024, March 2023 and October 2022.
** A few things to consider that distinguish Bitcoin from Coinbase: **
Market Factors: Bitcoin's price is influenced by various market factors such as supply and demand dynamics, investor sentiment, macroeconomic trends, regulatory developments, and technological advancements. Coinbase's stock price, on the other hand, is influenced by factors specific to the company, including financial performance, earnings reports, regulatory compliance, competition, and market sentiment towards the cryptocurrency industry.
Liquidity and Trading Volume: Bitcoin, being the largest and most well-known cryptocurrency, typically exhibits higher liquidity and trading volume compared to Coinbase's stock. As a result, Bitcoin may experience more significant price movements and volatility compared to COIN, which could impact their respective charts differently.
Correlation vs. Causation: While Bitcoin's price movements may influence sentiment towards Coinbase and vice versa, correlation does not necessarily imply causation. While there may be periods where BTC and COIN prices move in tandem due to shared market sentiment or external factors, they are ultimately distinct assets with their own fundamental drivers.
Market Participants: Bitcoin is traded on cryptocurrency exchanges by a diverse range of market participants, including retail investors, institutional investors, miners, and traders. Coinbase's stock, on the other hand, is traded on traditional stock exchanges and may attract a different set of investors, including institutional investors, hedge funds, and retail traders.
** Conclusion: **
Sympathy trading using BTCUSD and COIN as case studies demonstrates the synergy between technical and fundamental analysis in identifying trading opportunities and managing risk. By integrating insights from both disciplines, traders can enhance their trading strategies, navigate market dynamics with confidence, and strive for consistent profitability in the dynamic cryptocurrency market.
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What Is Stage Analysis in Trading?Stage analysis is a powerful technique in trading that segments market trends into distinct phases, each offering unique opportunities and challenges. Developed by Stan Weinstein, this method helps traders understand and anticipate market movements. This article delves into the four stages of this analysis, offering insights into how traders apply these concepts, particularly in the context of stock trading.
Understanding Stage Analysis
Stan Weinstein’s stage analysis, a concept introduced in his seminal work "Secrets for Profiting in Bull and Bear Markets," offers a structured approach to evaluating market phases. Stage analysis in stocks divides the market cycle into four distinct phases. Each represents a specific phase in a stock's lifecycle, characterised by unique price movements and investor behaviour.
Weinstein's methodology is rooted in the identification of these stages through technical analysis, focusing on price action and volume. By discerning the current phase of a stock, traders gain insights into its probable future trajectory. This analytical framework assists traders in making more informed decisions about entry and exit points, aligning their strategies with the market's natural rhythm. Notably, it can be used in both intraday trading and long-term investing.
Below, we’ll walk through the four stages of Weinstein’s methodology. To better understand the topic, consider following along in FXOpen’s free TickTrader platform.
Stage 1: The Basing Area
In Weinstein stage analysis, the basing stage, or stage 1, marks the beginning of a stock's life cycle. This period is characterised by a period of consolidation after a previous downtrend. Prices typically fluctuate within a narrow range, indicating a lack of clear direction as the market sentiment shifts from negative to neutral. This transition is often overlooked in stage analysis trading, as it doesn't present immediate opportunities for significant gains.
During the basing stage, trading volumes generally diminish, reflecting a reduction in selling pressure. As buying volume increases, accumulation-distribution tools like on-balance volume (OBV) tend to bottom out and move higher, typically in tandem with price. OBV helps in tracking volume flow, offering insights into whether the volume is flowing in or out of an asset.
Additionally, investors watch for a gradual flattening of the price’s moving averages, a sign that the downward momentum is waning. It's a period of accumulation for savvy investors who recognise the potential for future upside. However, traders are cautious as stocks can linger in this phase for an extended period, and premature entry can lead to capital being tied up in inactive investments.
Traders employing Weinstein's method use this phase to prepare for potential entry points, keeping a close watch on stocks that show signs of breaking out of their base. The successful identification of a market transitioning from Stage 1 to Stage 2 – the Advancing Stage – may position traders to capitalise on the early beginnings of a new uptrend.
Stage 2: Advancing
In stock stage analysis, stage 2, known as the advancing stage, is where investors may see the potential gains. This phase begins when a stock breaks out from the basing stage (stage 1) with notable volume. It signifies a transition from a neutral to bullish market sentiment as more investors start acknowledging the market’s potential.
A key characteristic of Stage 2 is the sustained upward movement in the stock's price, often accompanied by increasing trading volumes. This rise in interest confirms the growing interest and commitment from investors, reinforcing the trend's strength. During this phase, the price typically moves above its key moving averages, such as the 30-period moving average, which acts as a dynamic support.
OBV is also useful in this period. An increasing OBV alongside rising prices is a positive sign, indicating that the upward price movements are supported by strong volume, thus validating the trend.
Traders focus on stocks that maintain their price above key moving averages and show a consistent increase in OBV in this phase. Such alignment of price and volume dynamics provides a more robust confirmation for continuing the trade in the advancing direction.
Stage 3: Top Area
Stage 3, known as the top area, marks a significant shift in the stock's cycle. This phase signifies the transition from an uptrend to a potential downtrend, characterised by a levelling off of the stock’s price movement after its advance in Stage 2. It's a period of distribution where early investors start to take potential returns, and new investors may enter based on the stock's past performance, not its future potential.
During this phase, price movements become less definitive, often moving sideways and creating a resistance level that the stock struggles to exceed. Price begins to hover around its key moving averages, such as the 30-period moving average, without a clear direction. This indecisiveness in price action is a crucial indicator of the weakening momentum.
Volume analysis during Stage 3 is vital. A divergence between price and volume starts to emerge; while prices might still be high, interest often shows a noticeable decrease. This reduced volume hints at a lack of conviction among investors, assuming that the stock may not sustain its previous upward trajectory.
Traders monitoring stocks in Stage 3 should be cautious. It’s a time to closely watch for signs of a breakdown or a continuation of the trend, as the stock may either revert to Stage 1 or unexpectedly surge into a renewed Stage 2.
Stage 4: The Declining Phase
Stage 4 marks the declining phase, where a stock transitions from a period of distribution to a clear downtrend. This period is characterised by a sustained drop in the stock’s price, often initiated by a decisive break below key support levels and moving averages, like the 30-period moving average.
The declining phase is typically accompanied by increasing trading volumes, reflecting a growing consensus among investors that the stock’s peak performance is behind it. This phase can be accelerated by negative news or poor earnings reports, further driving down the price.
The on-balance volume (OBV) is again a critical tool in this phase. A declining OBV indicates that selling pressure is increasing, reinforcing the downtrend. This downtrend is marked by lower highs and lower lows in both price and volume, signalling weakening investor confidence and diminishing interest in the stock.
For traders, stage 4 is a period of high caution. It's often considered a signal to exit positions to avoid further losses. Short-selling strategies may be employed by more experienced traders who seek to capitalise on the market’s downward trajectory. However, it's essential to approach this phase with a clear risk management strategy, as the volatility can lead to rapid changes in price.
The Bottom Line
Mastering stage analysis may equip traders with a structured approach to navigate the stock market's ebb and flow. By understanding and applying the principles of each stage, traders can potentially make more informed decisions, aligning their strategies with market trends. For those ready to apply these insights in real-world trading, opening an FXOpen account offers a platform to implement stage analysis techniques effectively in a dynamic trading environment.
This article represents the opinion of the Companies operating under the FXOpen brand only. It is not to be construed as an offer, solicitation, or recommendation with respect to products and services provided by the Companies operating under the FXOpen brand, nor is it to be considered financial advice.
Understanding LIQUIDITYIn this video I try to explain liquidity as it pertains to training in a simple manner.
Liquidity are basically orders in the marketplace. Since trading is a zero-sum game, without liquidity, there is no trading. Simply put, If you wanted to BUY, then you would need someone to SELL to you, and vice versa.
Smart Money has deep pockets and needs a large amount of liquidity to facilitate their positions. They want to be able to get in and our of their trades, as well as to be able to trade with capital that would be worth the reward.
The largest pools of liquidity usually reside above swing highs and lows, and equal highs and lows (double/triple tops and bottoms). Support and Resistance ideologies dominate the market, and besides that, psychologically it makes sense to put stoplosses at such areas rather than at some random area within a range. There are also breakout traders who see price breaking out of an area as a sign of strength (or weakness if bearish) and they set their entries above/below these levels. This is how liquidity is "engineered" in the market and sentiment manipulated. These pools of liquidity can be seen as a magnet, drawing price to these levels, either to grab liquidity before reversing or continuing in its current direction.
- R2F