Despite feeling the need to look at charts consistently it's incredibly important to learn to step back and not spend too much time on them.
Depending on the type of trader you are, or aim to be, it could be detrimental.
The need to look at charts all the time is caused by a couple of things:
1. Use of high leverage/overexposure of account - basically your size is way too big and you're micro managing your PnL to try and stay alive and ensure you don't suffer a huge loss.
2. Addiction. Yeah, unfortunately you're probably addicted, it's become a mechanical response to any downtime you have in life. Toilet > Charts. Boiling the kettle > Charts. Cooking your pasta > Charts. Wake up > Charts.
You've conditioned yourself to look at charts regularly.
Looking at the charts causes some strong effects, both from an actionable trade perspective and a reactionary perspective.
I'll cover those off now.
1. When we look at the charts, usually on LTF, we can very quickly provide ourselves with confirmation bias, we see a big spike up in price and we say "shit got to get long right now" - we are reacting to one candle on LTF at the moment we look at the charts.
2. You sit and watch the charts on LTF and you will make decisions and change your HTF plays based on the 5m - 15m charts.
"Oh shit big red candle, looks really bad, close my position quickly and bank this profit!"
What typically happens in this scenario is that the next 5m or 15m candle will bring us straight back up, you zoom out to the 1h and there's a big fat wick and you closed out your probably decently positioned entry at the bottom.
Do you ever think: "If only I wasn't actually looking at price during that moment, I wouldn't have reacted and I'd still be sat comfortably in my position."
It happens pretty regularly. Overexposure to charts > increased tendency to make impulsive decisions.
Set your invalidation, manage your risk, step away, there's nothing left for you to do.
You have to let things unfold and play out, the majority of the time people I've had experience with are often correct in their analysis, but their execution and management is poor.
Now, of course you have to spend time on charts to find your entries, learn, get exposure to the market and the way it moves. BUT there comes a point you have to hold your hands up and say "there's nothing else I can do here except wait."
If you're scalping, you'll need to be more active in your management but at the same time you don't want to be reacting on individual candles (rarely anyway) - sometimes even just the animation of a candle chunking down is enough to force us to panic close.
Next time you're in position, try to resist the urge to consistently check price. Remove the temptation to close your position. Manage your risk, don't get overexposed and let the price action do the work for you.
There are very few times you'll look at the chart and make a GOOD decision within the 30 seconds you have TradingView open.
Battling the addiction is harder than you think. But the results of taking action will be noticeable.
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Divergences are the talk of Twitter at the moment, suddenly everyone is using them, so I'm not posting any more content regarding divs.
I'll lay out the thoughts here in this final thread before I close off on this for a while and come back once we've calmed down.
The reason I won't be posting is too many anon-shithead reply guys trash the comments on my otherwise clean feed by saying "not a div" or "is a hidden div instead idiot".
So I'll just cool off from that side until they've found a new indicator they like to use.
For now this is the picture.
$BTC 4h put in a clean bearish divergence into the high last night.
I'd be looking for any impulse to take us down into the support region below.
I want to talk mindset and the recent move on $ETH.
Most people use the phrase "if you do/did X you're not going to make it." I'd like to use that as the premise of this thread but in a less patronising and thoughtful way.
Let me expand.
RTs appreciated.
ETH consolidated under it's ATH for 30 days.
BTC consolidated under it's ATH for 27 days.
But the range for ETH for a lot of people felt a lot longer than this in trying to anticipate the breakout.
This was largely because BTC had melted faces and other alts were popping.
During any period of chop and consolidation, you'll inevitably flip bias multiple times. Things look bullish, things look bearish, you change often.
But the reality of this situation is that for any major break, we need time, people need to position and we need to shake you out.
Why we/you will never be a WSB and will forever be a fractured community.
For those who need an introduction:
WSB = Wall Street Bets.
A subreddit for the stock market full of memes, degeneracy and gains. Think of it like the Reddit equivalent to our CT.
The key difference between WSB and CT is in community.
We try to act like there's a community here, but there's not.
Crypto is just one continual boxing match between different areas.
WSB hates one thing: Bears.
Crypto Twitter hates: Everything.
You'll have seen $GME plastered over your timeline recently.
WSB banded around a simple premise, being bullish in a bull market, on anything and everything. Even the most downtrodden and shit on stocks you could imagine.