Basics · Candlesticks · Patterns · Indicators · Fibonacci · Ichimoku · Volume Profile · Psychology
A stock is a small ownership stake in a company. If Apple has 1 billion shares and you own 100, you own 0.000001% of Apple. When the company grows and earns more money, the stock price tends to rise. When it struggles, the price falls. Stockholders may also receive dividends — a share of the company's profits paid out regularly.
An ETF holds a basket of many assets in a single tradeable share. SPY, for example, contains all 500 companies of the S&P 500 — buying one share of SPY gives you instant exposure to all of them. ETFs are the easiest way to diversify without picking individual stocks. They trade on exchanges like regular stocks.
An index is a number that tracks a group of assets. The S&P 500 tracks the 500 largest US companies; the DAX tracks Germany's top 40. You can't buy an index directly — but you can buy an ETF that mirrors it (e.g. SPY ≈ S&P 500). Indices are the world's main benchmarks for measuring market performance.
Digital assets that run on decentralized blockchain networks — no central bank or government controls them. Bitcoin is the original and largest by market cap, treated as a store of value. Ethereum adds programmable "smart contracts." Crypto is significantly more volatile than stocks or ETFs — higher potential reward, higher risk.
A bull market is a sustained rise of 20%+ from a recent low — optimism, economic growth, rising prices. A bear market is a decline of 20%+ from a recent high — fear, contraction, falling prices. Most indices have historically trended upward over the long term, even after major bear markets.
Total market value of a company = share price × total shares outstanding. Large-cap (>$10B) = stable, established companies like Apple or Microsoft. Mid-cap ($2–10B) = growth potential with moderate risk. Small-cap (<$2B) = higher risk, higher reward. Major indices like the S&P 500 are weighted by market cap.
Support is a price level where buying repeatedly emerges — the price tends to "bounce" from it. Resistance is where selling pressure consistently appears — the price struggles to break through. These levels form because many traders remember past highs and lows and act on them. When resistance breaks, it often becomes the new support — and vice versa.
Measures overall market sentiment on a scale of 0–100 using inputs like volatility, momentum, safe-haven demand, and social media signals. Extreme Fear historically marks oversold conditions and buying opportunities. Extreme Greed signals euphoria — corrections tend to follow. Contrarian investors watch this closely: when everyone is greedy, it's time to be careful; when everyone is fearful, it may be time to buy.
The principle of not putting all eggs in one basket. Spreading investments across different sectors (tech, health, energy), regions (US, Europe, Asia), and asset classes (stocks, ETFs, crypto, bonds, gold) reduces overall risk. When one asset crashes, others may hold or rise. A simple diversified portfolio might be: 70% broad ETFs + 20% individual stocks + 10% crypto/alternatives. The exact split depends on your risk tolerance and time horizon.
Most price charts you see on this dashboard use candlestick charts. Each "candle" represents one time period (1 day, 1 hour, etc.) and shows four values: the Open and Close prices (the body), and the High and Low (the thin wicks). A green candle means price closed higher than it opened — buyers won that period. A red candle means sellers pushed it lower. See Tab 1 for full candlestick patterns.
Every candle — regardless of time period (1 min, 1 day, 1 week) — encodes exactly four prices: Open, Close, High, Low. The body shows Open vs. Close. The wicks (or "shadows") extend to the High and Low. Color tells you the direction: green = Close above Open, red = Close below Open.
Close is above open. The bigger the body, the stronger the buying pressure. A long upper wick on a green candle means sellers tried to push back but buyers recovered — still bullish, but showing some resistance above. A long lower wick means buyers defended the dip aggressively.
Close is below open. A large body with no lower wick = relentless selling pressure, nobody stepped in to buy. A long lower wick on a red candle = buyers tried to stall the decline but couldn't hold — still weak, but less catastrophic than a pure body.
Open ≈ Close. Neither buyers nor sellers won. After a sustained trend, a Doji means the trend's energy is dissipating. Context is everything: a Doji in the middle of a range means little; a Doji after 8 green candles at a major resistance = high-probability reversal signal.
Small body near the top, very long lower wick (at least 2× the body). Price sold off hard intraday but buyers stepped in and drove it back up by close. Most reliable when appearing after a downtrend at a clear support level. The longer the lower wick, the stronger the statement from buyers.
Small body near the bottom, very long upper wick. Price rallied strongly intraday but sellers crushed it back down by close. The exact mirror of the Hammer. Most meaningful after an uptrend at a resistance zone — buyers tried to break through but got rejected hard.
A large green candle completely engulfs the previous red candle — higher high, lower low, and closes above its open. Signals decisive shift in momentum. Most reliable at clear support levels after multiple red candles.
A large red candle swallows the prior green candle entirely. Selling pressure has overwhelmed buyers in a single session. Most powerful when occurring at resistance after an extended rally with elevated RSI.
Three consecutive large green candles, each opening within the previous body and closing near its high. Shows sustained, disciplined buying across multiple sessions. Requires volume confirmation to be taken seriously.
Three consecutive large red candles, each closing near its low. Persistent institutional selling across multiple sessions. The bearish counterpart — most significant at market tops with high volume.
Price tests support twice, holds both times, reverses bullish. Confirmation = clean break above the neckline (the high between the two lows) with volume.
Price fails at the same resistance twice. Each rejection confirms sellers are entrenched there. Breakdown below the neckline = strong sell signal.
Left shoulder, higher head, lower right shoulder. Break of the neckline = confirmation. One of the most reliable bearish reversal patterns. Target = neckline minus the head's height.
Three lows, middle deepest. The bullish mirror of H&S. Break above neckline after a downtrend = strong buy signal. Volume surge on the breakout = confirmation.
U-shaped recovery (cup) then a shallow pullback (handle). Breakout above resistance = strong continuation. Handle should retrace no more than 30–50% of the cup's height.
Price rises in a narrowing channel — converging trendlines signal weakening momentum despite higher prices. When the lower line breaks → strong sell-off. The taller the wedge, the bigger the drop.
Consolidation between converging lines — direction unclear until breakout. Volume is the key: a breakout without volume is often a trap. High volume on the break confirms the new direction.
Golden Cross: SMA 50 crosses above SMA 200 → long-term bullish. Death Cross: SMA 50 crosses below → long-term bearish. Lagging signals, but historically among the most reliable for major trend shifts.
Measures momentum by comparing recent gains to losses over 14 periods. Below 30 = oversold, potential buying zone. Above 70 = overbought, potential selling zone. The 40–60 range = neutral, no strong signal. RSI can stay extreme in strong trends — always combine with context.
Two EMAs (12, 26) create the MACD line. When it crosses the signal line (EMA 9) upward = bullish crossover. Downward = bearish. The histogram shows the gap between them — growing histogram = strengthening momentum. Shrinking = momentum fading.
Price above SMA 200 = long-term uptrend. Above SMA 50 = medium-term uptrend. Golden Cross (SMA 50 > SMA 200) = major bullish shift. Death Cross = major bearish warning. EMA reacts faster to recent price changes; SMA is smoother and more stable.
Middle = 20-day SMA. Upper/lower = ±2 standard deviations. Price near the lower band = possibly oversold. Near the upper band = possibly overextended. When bands squeeze tight (Bollinger Squeeze), volatility is compressed and a large move is imminent — direction unknown until the breakout.
A breakout on high volume is legitimate. The same move on low volume is suspicious and often reverses quickly. Think of volume as the market's conviction score — it answers "how many participants actually agree with this move?" Always check volume before trusting a pattern.
Each indicator alone has modest reliability. Combine them: RSI oversold + MACD turning bullish + price on support + volume rising = the probability compounds significantly. Three confirming signals pointing the same direction is dramatically more meaningful than any one alone.
The signal score adds or subtracts points: RSI < 30 (+2), RSI > 70 (−2), MACD bullish crossover (+2), MACD bearish crossover (−2), price at lower Bollinger Band (+2), price at upper band (−2). Total ≥ 3 = BULLISH · ≤ −3 = BEARISH · else = NEUTRAL.
The Fibonacci sequence (1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21…) appears throughout nature — in spiral shells, plant growth, galaxy arms. The key ratios (23.6%, 38.2%, 50%, 61.8%) come from dividing consecutive numbers. Because traders worldwide have adopted these levels for decades, markets actually react at them — a self-fulfilling prophecy backed by real psychology.
Select a significant move (e.g. BTC from $60k to $100k). The tool automatically plots where a correction is likely to pause, find support, or reverse:
Derived from the ratio of consecutive Fibonacci numbers (34 ÷ 55 = 0.618). When price pulls back to the 61.8% level after a strong move, shows a bullish candle there (Hammer, Engulfing), and RSI is below 40 — that's one of the highest-probability setups in all of technical analysis. Traders across every market watch this level simultaneously, which is exactly what creates the reaction.
Move size: $100,000 − $60,000 = $40,000
38.2% level: $100k − ($40k × 0.382) = $84,720
50.0% level: $100k − ($40k × 0.500) = $80,000
61.8% level: $100k − ($40k × 0.618) = $75,280 ← Golden Zone
Thousands of traders are watching these exact numbers. When BTC reaches $75k and shows a bullish signal, many enter simultaneously — the combined buying power creates the bounce. That is the self-fulfilling dynamic made visible.
The strongest trade setups arise when a Fibonacci level coincides with other factors: the 61.8% retracement aligns with a major prior support AND the 200-day SMA AND an RSI below 35 — all at the same price point. Traders call this a confluence zone. Three independent reasons to expect a reaction at the same level is significantly more powerful than any one alone.
Extensions go past 100% and project where the next impulse wave might reach. After a successful retracement bounce, traders use 127.2% and 161.8% as Take-Profit targets. These are the same mathematical ratios working in the forward direction instead of backward. The 161.8% extension (the "Golden Extension") is the most commonly used TP level by professional swing traders.
Ichimoku Kinko Hyo ("equilibrium chart at a glance") was developed by a Japanese journalist over 30 years of research. It shows trend direction, momentum, support, resistance, and entry signals — all simultaneously. Intimidating at first, but once understood it replaces multiple other indicators entirely.
① Price above the cloud
② Cloud is green (Span A above Span B)
③ Tenkan above Kijun
④ Chikou above price from 26 periods ago
All four = confirmed strong uptrend.
① Price below the cloud
② Cloud is red (Span B above Span A)
③ Kijun above Tenkan
④ Chikou below old price
All four = confirmed strong downtrend.
When Tenkan crosses Kijun upward above the cloud = strong buy (TK Bullish Cross). Below the cloud = weak signal. Inside the cloud = unreliable. This positioning filter dramatically reduces false entries compared to standard crossover systems. The best TK crosses happen when the cloud ahead is also green (future support already visible).
Standard volume bars show when activity occurred. Volume Profile reveals at which price level that activity occurred. This distinction is critical: "there was high volume on Tuesday" is far less actionable than "the heaviest trading happened at exactly $42,000" — which tells you where the most participants entered.
Long bar = heavy trading = meaningful zone. Short bar = price flew through with little participation.
The yellow bar = Point of Control (POC) — the most traded price. Acts like a magnet; price often gravitates back to it after a deviation.
The price level with the most volume. The market found "fair value" here — participants from both sides agreed on this price the most. Price tends to return to the POC like a magnet after extended moves away from it.
Value Area = 70% of all transactions. VAH (Value Area High) is the upper boundary, VAL the lower. Price inside = "fair." Price outside = extreme zone that often snaps back inside quickly.
Where little was traded, there is little resistance. Price rushes through Low Volume Nodes — this is why charts sometimes show what look like "teleportation" moves.
Where lots was traded, many participants have open positions they're defending. Price often consolidates or reverses at High Volume Nodes — they act as durable support and resistance.
Retail traders don't move prices — institutional money does: hedge funds, market makers, large funds. They hold so much capital that they can't simply click "buy" — they need liquidity (other people's orders) to fill their positions. And liquidity concentrates exactly where retail traders place their stop-losses.
Retail sets stops just below support. Institutions know this. They briefly push price through that level, triggering all the stop orders (= sell orders they can buy from), then immediately pump. This is a Liquidity Grab — they used your stop to fill their long position.
An Order Block is the last candle (or cluster) before a strong impulsive move away. Institutions built their position there. When price returns to that zone, they often add to their position again → strong bounce. Most reliable when the Order Block coincides with a Fibonacci level.
An uptrend = Higher Highs (HH) and Higher Lows (HL). A downtrend = Lower Lows (LL) and Lower Highs (LH). Nothing more complex than this. When this sequence breaks, the trend is in question — that's a Break of Structure.
New high above the previous high. Buyers remain in control, consistently pushing price further up.
Each pullback ends higher than the last. Buyers step in sooner every time — strong bullish structure.
New low below the previous low. Sellers driving price progressively deeper.
Each recovery ends lower than the last. Nobody is buying at the old levels anymore — bearish.
In an uptrend: if price creates a new Lower Low (breaks below the last Higher Low), the bullish structure has broken. Not necessarily a panic sell — but a serious signal to check higher timeframes and reduce exposure. The first Lower High that follows = Change of Character (CHoCH), confirming the trend has officially reversed.
A divergence occurs when price makes a new extreme (higher high or lower low) but the indicator does not confirm it. This disconnect reveals that the move lacks real momentum — the surface is calm but something is shifting underneath.
Price makes lower low, RSI makes higher low. Buying momentum is secretly building. Strongest when RSI is below 30. One of the most reliable reversal signals in technical analysis.
Price makes higher high, RSI makes lower high. Momentum is secretly fading while price still looks strong. Warning to reduce long exposure. Strongest when RSI is above 70.
Bullish hidden divergence: Price makes Higher Low, RSI makes Lower Low → trend continues upward. Bearish hidden divergence: Price makes Lower High, RSI makes Higher High → trend continues downward. Use these for continuation trades within a trend, not reversals against it. Best used on the 4H and Daily chart.
Professionals define before entering: exactly where to buy, where to exit if wrong (stop-loss), and where to take profit. Without this, you're not trading — you're gambling and telling yourself a story. The plan removes emotion from the equation because all decisions are made in advance, calmly.
Start with the weekly, then daily chart. Bullish or bearish structure? Only trade in the direction of the larger trend — counter-trend positions have lower win rates and require much tighter management to be profitable.
Enter at a logical, technically justified level — a confluence of support, a Fibonacci zone, a clear pattern completion. Never buy simply because price is going up (that's FOMO). The entry should have a clear reason that can be written down in one sentence.
Where is your thesis invalidated? Typically just below the last support or Fibonacci level. If price breaks that level, the setup is wrong — exit without hesitation. No hoping, no adjusting the stop downward. The stop defines the maximum loss you accept on this idea.
Where will you exit with a gain? Next resistance, a Fibonacci extension (127.2%, 161.8%), or a prior swing high. Consider partial exits: close 50% at TP1, let the remainder run with a trailing stop to TP2.
Calculate: potential loss (Entry − SL) vs. potential gain (TP − Entry). Minimum acceptable = 1:2. Target = 1:3. If the ratio is worse than 1:2, don't take the trade — the math doesn't support it even with a good win rate.
Never risk more than 1–2% of total capital per trade. Formula: Position Size = (Capital × 0.01) ÷ (Entry − SL as decimal). This means a string of losses can never wipe you out — you survive to trade another day.
At R:R 1:3, you can lose 3 out of every 4 trades and still break even. At a 50% win rate, you grow your account meaningfully without needing to be "right" most of the time.
Example: Entry $100 · SL $97 (−$3) · TP $109 (+$9) → R:R = 1:3 ✓
Once a trade is running, move the stop-loss upward with price. Example: start at $97 (initial risk), move to $100 when price hits $103 (breakeven). Move to $104 when price hits $107. You can never lose money now, but still have upside remaining. This is how professionals let winners run without giving everything back.
1W (Weekly) → Big picture, long-term trend direction — check this first
1D (Daily) → Medium-term trend, most reliable signals for investors
4H → Swing trading, good for timing precise entries
1H / 15min → Short-term, high noise, many false signals
The rule: always zoom out first, then zoom in. A strong setup on the 15-minute chart is nearly worthless if the daily and weekly are in a downtrend — you'd be fighting the large money flow.
The majority of retail traders lose not because their setups are wrong, but because they don't follow their own rules when it matters. Emotion consistently overrides strategy in live trading. Understanding this — really internalizing it — is the single most important shift toward becoming profitable.
Price pumps hard and you're not in it. You buy at the top because you can't stand watching. This is the single most common and expensive mistake in all of retail trading. Institutions are selling into your FOMO buying — they need your order to exit. Rule: if you feel FOMO, do nothing. There is always another setup, always another trade.
You lose a trade and immediately open another one to recover the loss. Then you lose more. Then another. This is a death spiral that has destroyed more accounts than any market crash. Mandatory rule: 30-minute minimum pause after any losing trade. Let the emotional response metabolize before you touch anything. The market will still be there.
"It'll reverse soon." Sometimes it does — and that one time trains you to repeat it, until a trade goes −60% and you're hoping instead of acting. A stop-loss is a contract with yourself. Do not renegotiate mid-trade. The mathematics of recovery is brutal: recovering from −50% requires a +100% gain just to break even.
Up 10% and you close nervously. The trade continues to +50% without you. Meanwhile you hold losing trades "just a bit longer." This is the exact opposite of optimal — cutting gains and extending losses. The fix: trailing stop-loss. Let profits run mechanically while protecting against catastrophic reversal.
You need action. You find setups in noise. Every trade has fees and every impulsive trade costs real capital. The best traders take very few, very high-quality setups. "I have no position right now" is a completely valid and often optimal state. Boredom is not a valid reason to enter a trade.
Log every trade: entry price, SL, TP, the reason for the trade, your emotional state when entering, and the outcome. After 50 trades you'll see invisible patterns emerge: "I always lose when I trade after 11pm." "My best setups consistently come from this type of level." Without this data, you repeat identical mistakes indefinitely. With it, you compound improvements instead.
The contrarian approach: when everyone is euphoric — reduce positions. When everyone is capitulating and nobody wants to buy — start looking for entries. Warren Buffett: "Be fearful when others are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful." The Fear & Greed Index on the dashboard reflects exactly this sentiment cycle.
Nothing on this page constitutes financial advice. Technical analysis provides probabilistic tools, not certainties. Always do your own research before making any investment decision. Past pattern performance does not guarantee future results.