Technical analysis I — price structure

A candle encodes four prices for its period: open, high, low, close. The body spans open→close; the wicks reach to the extremes. Green (teal here) means it closed above the open, red (coral) below.

The same market looks different on every timeframe — a 5-minute downtrend can live inside a daily uptrend. Pick a primary timeframe that matches how long you hold, and consult one above it for context. Flipping through timeframes hunting for a chart that agrees with you is not analysis.

Candlestick patterns are useful because they compress crowd behavior into shapes: a long lower wick means sellers were overwhelmed; an engulfing candle means one side capitulated. They are probabilistic hints, not commands — always read them at a meaningful level, with volume, never in isolation.

You've learned how candlesticks summarize price action over a period of time, but what does the market look like inside those candles? What does the live, beating heart of the exchange actually look like?

Every time a buyer's limit order matches a seller's limit order, a trade executes. In crypto, this happens hundreds of times a second across the globe.

Below is a direct market-data connection to Binance. Historical candles load through REST and the current candle updates through a WebSocket stream when the provider is available. The chart is an observation tool, not evidence that a configuration has an edge.

In trading, an 'edge' is a statistical advantage over the market. To find one, you must understand how to mathematically manipulate raw price data.

Moving Average (MA): The simplest way to smooth out price action. It takes the average close price over N periods. By stacking multiple MAs (like 7, 25, and 99), you can identify short-term momentum vs long-term trend.

Exponential Moving Average (EMA): While an MA treats all data equally, an EMA applies more weight to recent prices. This makes it react faster to new information, which is critical in fast-moving crypto markets.

Bollinger Bands (BOLL): Price is wrapped in bands a chosen number of rolling standard deviations from a moving average. A band touch describes price relative to that rolling sample; it does not by itself predict mean reversion.

VWAP (Volume Weighted Average Price): VWAP weights transacted prices by reported volume over a defined session or sample. It is a benchmark, not a universal estimate of every participant's entry price.

Click the ⚙️ Indicators button below. Compare how settings change lag and noise, then write a precise rule and validate it on unseen data before calling it an edge.

Support is a price area where buying has repeatedly appeared; resistance is where selling has. Levels work because of memory: traders who bought at a level defend it, trapped sellers exit flat at it, and algorithms anchor to it. The more times a level is tested and holds, the more meaningful — and the more violent the eventual break.

Trend is structure, not slope: an uptrend is a sequence of higher highs and higher lows; a downtrend, lower lows and lower highs. The trend changes when that sequence breaks — not when a pundit calls it.

Volume measures participation. A move on heavy volume was paid for — many participants repriced. The same move on thin volume is a rumor: easily reversed, often engineered. Volume doesn't predict direction; it grades the *quality* of the move you're watching.

Multi-candle patterns are supply-and-demand stories, not magic geometry. A range is balance — neither side winning. A flag is a pause in a trend while profit-takers are absorbed. A double top is demand failing twice at the same price. Name the story and you don't need to memorize a hundred shapes.