Crypto Charts: From Beginner to Pro in 7 Steps

Does it seem like cryptocurrency charts are something out of a Wall Street movie? In reality, it's just a story about supply and demand, only in pictures. Let's figure out how to learn to see money on the chart.

Three types of charts: which one to choose?

The first thing a newcomer will encounter is the choice of tool:

Line chart - simply connected closing points. Quickly see the overall trend, but details will be lost.

Candlestick chart is the champion of all time. One candle = four digits (open, close, high, low). Green candle = buyers won, red = sellers took over. This is all the information in one little rectangle.

Bars - the same thing, but visually more boring.

Conclusion: start with candles. They have become the standard for a reason.

Timeframes: Choosing Speed

The time frame is the size of the window you look at the market.

• 1 minute: For day trader maniacs. Too much noise, easy to overplay.
• 1 hour: The golden mean. Real movements are visible, but you can go for coffee.
• Day: For those who invest, not trade. Sleeps soundly.

The secret: most beginners lose money precisely because they look at minute charts. The noise looks like a signal, and you jump into every puddle.

How to read a candle: a small cup of data

Each candle represents one period of time in a compressed form:

Body of the candle (wide part) = the distance from open to close.

Wicks/Shadows (thin lines at the top and bottom) = excursions prices for the period.

Example in the face: long wick at the bottom, short body, long wick at the top = the price jumped back and forth but ended up somewhere in the middle. Buyer uncertainty. Often such candles precede reversals.

Support and Resistance: Price Walls

Imagine a graph as a city:

Support — the level below which the price does not want to fall (people aggressively buy).

Resistance is the ceiling above which the price is afraid to climb (sellers cover).

When the price breaks through one of these levels on high volumes, it often continues further in the same direction. It's like breaking through a wall — inertia works.

Practice: open the BTC chart for the last month and draw horizontal lines where the price often reversed. Be amazed at how accurately this works.

Indicators: Crutches or Helpers?

These are tools that process data for you:

Moving averages (MA) — show the average price. If the price is above MA200, the trend is up. Below — down. Simple and works.

RSI - measures whether the market is overbought (>70) or oversold (<30). When RSI is extreme, a pullback often occurs.

MACD — catches moments when the trend loses strength. Two lines crossing = a change in direction may be close.

Warning: do not mix 10 indicators on one chart. It’s like listening to 10 advisors at once — just noise. Two to a maximum of three is enough.

Volumes: market voice

The volume shows how many assets have passed through the market over a period. Think of it this way:

• The price is rising on high volumes = big money confirms this, the trend is strong.
• The price is rising on low volumes = not many people are interested, a false recovery, often it will collapse soon.

It's like applause: if the whole stadium is clapping, it's loud. If ten people are clapping, you might not believe it.

From Theory to Practice in 5 Minutes

1. Take any chart from the top 20 cryptocurrencies.
2. Switch to the daily timeframe.
3. Find two or three points where the price reversed — draw horizontal lines.
4. Look at the volume below these levels.
5. Add MA50 and MA200 - do you see where they intersect?

This is the foundation. The rest is experience.

The main rule

Charts do not predict the future. They show the psychology of the market. And psychology works because people remember the prices where they lost or made money. This repeats itself, so levels really work.

But remember: the market can do what no one expected. Always leave yourself a safety cushion.

⚠️ Important: this is education, not advice. Make your own conclusions before any transaction. The market is not a lottery, but there are always risks.