A crypto chart is just a visual record of every trade that has happened on a market. Learning to read one will not make you rich, but it will stop you from buying tops and selling bottoms — which is the only goal that matters when you start out.

Candlesticks 101

Each candlestick represents a fixed time interval (1m, 1h, 1d…). A green candle means price closed higher than it opened. A red candle means it closed lower. The thin wicks on top and bottom show the highest and lowest prices reached during that interval.

Support and resistance

Support is a price level where buyers have repeatedly stepped in (the floor). Resistance is a level where sellers have repeatedly stepped in (the ceiling). When price breaks above a strong resistance, that level often flips into new support. This is the single most useful concept in TA — learn to draw clean horizontal lines and you are 80% there.

The 4 indicators that matter

• Volume — Always look at this. A breakout without volume is a fakeout.
• Moving Averages (MA) — The 50-day and 200-day MA are widely watched. When the 50 crosses above the 200, traders call it a "golden cross" and it often precedes a multi-month uptrend.
• RSI — A momentum oscillator from 0-100. Above 70 = overbought, below 30 = oversold. Useful but not gospel; in strong trends RSI can stay overbought for weeks.
• MACD — Shows when short-term momentum diverges from longer-term momentum. Crossovers can signal trend changes.

Common chart patterns

Head-and-shoulders (reversal top), inverse head-and-shoulders (reversal bottom), double top, double bottom, bull flag, bear flag, ascending triangle, descending triangle. You do not need to memorize them — just learn to spot when a chart is making a new higher high or a new lower low.

Recommended timeframes

If you are not a full-time day trader, do all your decision-making on the daily and weekly charts. The 1-minute chart will give you anxiety and bad fills. Ever.