{"id":501171,"date":"2023-07-22T07:56:58","date_gmt":"2023-07-22T05:56:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=501171"},"modified":"2023-07-22T08:54:09","modified_gmt":"2023-07-22T06:54:09","slug":"bitcoin-stalling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/cryptocurrency\/501171-bitcoin-stalling.html","title":{"rendered":"Bitcoin stalling"},"content":{"rendered":"

After reaching a fresh high for the year earlier this month, Bitcoin has market observers questioning whether the momentum is sustainable with prices again trading in a very narrow range.<\/p>\n

The largest cryptocurrency has been stuck between $29,500 and $31,500 after a nine-day, 27% surge in June.<\/p>\n

The back-and-forth filling that followed saw Bitcoin make a failed attempt to break higher, with the token now finding itself at the low-end of the sideways congestion around the $30,000 price level.<\/p>\n

\u201cStalling at about $30,000 amid hype about potential for an exchange-traded fund launch and the seemingly unstoppable stock market, a Bitcoin pause may signal bigger economic issues,\u201d Mike McGlone, a senior market strategist at Bloomberg Intelligence, wrote this week.<\/p>\n

Here are some charts that can be used to assess the direction for Bitcoin:<\/p>\n

Volatility Squeeze<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Bitcoin\u2019s low in the middle of June kick-started a rally supported by cryptocurrency\u00a0initiatives<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0involving established firms from the traditional financial sector such as Citadel Securities and BlackRock.<\/p>\n

The token\u2019s rally saw volatility ratchet higher, leading to an expansion in the Bollinger Bands.<\/p>\n

The recent sideways churn has seen a so-called \u201cvolatility squeeze\u201d, with the bandwidth dropping to six-month lows.<\/p>\n

Such situations often become a precursor to a breakout move given the cyclical nature of volatility.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Above Support<\/h2>\n

Bitcoin believers will take comfort in the fact that the sideways correction is taking place above a critical area of support.<\/p>\n

This is where two Fibonacci relationships stacking on top of each other are meeting a time-at-price cluster zone around $27,000 to $27,500, whose density is defined by the number of closing prices that were recorded in this area during the rally that began in November.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Significant Barrier<\/h2>\n

A break above the current horizontal regime \u2014 if it comes \u2014 will still have plenty of work to do based on an analysis of a Point-and-Figure chart, which is a method of plotting prices without a time dimension.<\/p>\n

As per the analysis, a daily close of $32,836 will be needed to clear a very significant barrier formed by the coming together of a 45-degree down-trending line (red dashed) and a prior support area (blue horizontal lines), now offering resistance.<\/p>\n

Clearing this will be a further shot-in-the-arm for Bitcoin bulls.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n

Maximum Pain<\/h2>\n

The options chain for August-end expiration further reinforces the importance of the technically significant levels mentioned above.<\/p>\n

Notice that the highest put (blue bars) open interest under $30,000 lies at $27,000.<\/p>\n

On the upside, the concentration of outstanding calls spikes to nearly 3,200 tokens at a strike price of $32,000, not too far away from the Point-and-Figure hurdle of $32,836.<\/p>\n

The point of \u201cmaximum pain,\u201d which represents the price at which most outstanding options will expire worthless remains at $30,000.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Now read: FTX sues Bankman-Fried and top lieutenants over bad deals worth R17.9 billion<\/a><\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After reaching a fresh high for the year earlier this month, Bitcoin has market observers questioning whether the momentum is sustainable with prices again trading in a very narrow range. \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341034,"featured_media":480467,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44696],"tags":[187],"class_list":["post-501171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cryptocurrency","tag-bitcoin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501171"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341034"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=501171"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501171\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/480467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=501171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=501171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=501171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}