Short Term Update: News which moves the Market

chartBitinstant CEO Charlie Shrem has been arrested today in New York and charged with conspiring to commit money laundering. Well i think that we have just seen a strong shakeout after a bearish news for bitcoin (actually i consider it a positive news, i don’t like to see bitcoin associated to criminal like money laundering) with a sudden move down to the second deviation line of VWAP at 750 dollars.

I don’t think this news is enough to sink this market to much lower price levels, the congestion phase should continue with the short term VWAP moving average acting as resistance, now at ~$830.

I pointed out in the attached chart several occasions where BTC/USD failed to move above my reference moving average confirming the weakness of this market. The Net Volume activity was positive but turned negative after the news came out this morning.

We are in a price congestion and as long as the market stays inside my trading rage of $760-$920 the considerations i’ve made in my previous update are still valid and don’t forget that good resilience against bad news is always a positive sign.

Long Term Update: Congestion

chartCongestion occurs when four consecutive bars open or close within the range of a “measuring bar”. A “measuring bar” becomes such when its price range contains the opens or closes of at least three of four subsequent price bars. As i said in one of my old post sideways price movement may be broken into three distinct and definable areas:

  1. Ledges – less than 10 price bars
  2. Congestions – 11-20 price bars
  3. Trading Ranges – 21 bars or more with a breakout usually occurring before the thirtieth bar

Now 13 days are gone without a breakout above or below the “measuring bar” (i consider the bar of last 7 January the measuring bar) and we are in a congestion; I don’t think the market is still following the triangular descending pattern that I mentioned in the previous update.

I expect to see a breakout in the next 5-10 days, unlikely that this congestion will last more then 20 days in a volatile market like this. Top of the congestion rectangle is the first deviation line of VWAP around $930, while the $765 static support just below the VWAP defines the bottom of the trading range.

I think that without a really bad news investors will not sell their precious bitcoins under $750, I believe that the positive sentiment of the market will slowly push prices higher outside the current congestion, possibly above $900 and toward new highs but this process will require some time.

 

 

Short Term update: H4 chart @bitstamp

chartThis is a four hours chart of this month, it is visibile a descending triangle pattern forming up. Well i’ve read here and there about this pattern with lots of people worried about it, but usually this is a dangerous pattern when there is a clear downtrend and it’s not the case here, we are in an uptrend since last 18 December.
There are instances when descending triangles form as reversal patterns at the end of an uptrend, but they are typically continuation patterns.

Regardless of where they form, descending triangles can be considered bearish patterns that indicate distribution but, at the moment, i don’t see a strong negative lecture of my daily “net volume” indicator, instead it is improving.
Second thing to consider is that this month we have had many positive news, also today the French Senate hearing on bitcoin has been positive, in my opinion.

This triangle is going to complete itself before next 20 January, before this date it will break somewhere below my strong support at $785 (where there is also the daily VWAP) or above the descending trendline that defines the triangle, for the next days around $860.
Both levels are near vwap deviation lines of the short term 4 hours chart here attached.

As usual, I’m open to questions and comments, thank you.

Long Term Update

chartThe market in the last few days has done what I was expecting, it hesitated and dropped down to the support, the VWAP positioned at $ 765, here it slowly climbed back up to $ 900. Now we have two resistances, 920 dollars and 1067. 

I expect a little more resistance to advance this time but if it passes the psychological threshold of $ 1,000 it could also go beyond 1067$ (second deviation line of vwap) and it might try to attack recent all time top at 1163$.
The “net volume” oscillator  has been a bit  weak lately, at the end it can be considered neutral and is not yet seriously a danger to the current rise of prices.
For those who are invested for the long term I suggest to keep your position open for now. Stoploss should be positioned below long term VWAP now at 375$.

Long Term View: again on price divergence

chartA couple of days ago one of my reader asked me about price and volume divergence, i decided to answer to him with this post talking again about it.

All the readers that follow me since 2011 know that i use a “net volume” indicator to understand the activity of buyers and sellers, it is computed taking the difference of a security’s uptick volume minus its downtick volume over a specified period, here i compute it on a daily basis with a 7 bars summation  (an entire week because it’s a daily chart). 

Often traders use such an indicator to judge the momentum or trend of a security in order to make assumptions about its future price movements. Net volume is an indicator that is also very similar to the idea of money flow and its indicator, the money flow index.

Now BTCUSD is hesitating around a price resistance (first positive deviation line of VWAP) but net volume is positive and till it remains positive i do not expect to see stronger down movements in the price, although we might see some consolidation beetwen the VWAP at 765$ and the actual price of $900.

Long Term Update: daily chart @bitstamp

chartWhat we are seeing is a decent rally that it is still emerging from a severe December drop; i expect to see some resistance around the first deviation line at $900, it’s the same deviation line that marked the top at $980 before the crash down to $382.

The RSI oscillator is overbought,  when this occurs, the Market almost never makes a final high. That means the Market will most likely go higher in the medium term so it could be a good idea, for anyone wanting to buy into the currency, to buy at market and place a stoploss below the current VWAP level ($733).

The net volume activity is positive, finally, after more then 30 days of bearish volumes; it’s a first confirmation that the BTC/USD is headed towards further highs.

Outlook for 2014

Bitcoin is exiting a short term correction and it is projected to rise through 2014 as clear potential for growth is still intact despite an earlier warning issued by the Chinese central bank has banned its financial institutions from dealing in the currency. I’m confident that bitcoin can become a solid solution payment for electronic commerce and be a serious competitor to other money transfer providers; bitcoin should also continue to emerge as a viable alternative for investors around the globe interested to invest in a new financial asset where to store wealth.

I think that for this year the $350 price level is an important support, just below recent low of $382, for two reasons:

  1. Using bitcoin historical volatility i’ve $350 as support computing the value with my estimation method based on time and price volatility;
  2. Long Term VWAP computed since January 2013 is at $355

The maximum yearly upside target for 2014 should be around the $3000-$3500 price zone, in accordance with my previous long term forecast of $3600. It is a good opportunity for who is interested to invest in the bitcoin to buy something now and to set an indicative stoploss below $350.
Personally, i’m not going to liquidate my long term reserve of bitcoins as long as the price stays above $350 this year and i want to see the price for weeks below that level before any liquidation takes place, a quick drop below it isn’t enough for obvious reasons.