Charting basics

Starter draft. Rewrite in the group’s own voice.

Support and resistance

Support is a price area where buying has repeatedly stopped declines. Resistance is one where selling has capped rallies. The more often a level is tested, and the more volume trades there, the more it matters. When a level breaks, it often flips role: old resistance becomes new support.

Trend structure

• Uptrend: higher highs and higher lows.
• Downtrend: lower highs and lower lows.
• Range: neither, with price bouncing between support and resistance.

A trend is intact until its structure breaks. In an uptrend, that’s the first lower low.

Timeframes

Higher timeframes set the context and lower ones time the entry. The posts usually use the daily chart for structure, the 4-hour for the weekly plan, and the 1-hour or 15-minute for daily updates. Every chart caption says which timeframe you’re looking at.

Volume

Volume confirms moves. A breakout on rising volume is more trustworthy than one on fading volume. On index futures, volume profile, the amount traded at each price, shows where the market has accepted value (high-volume nodes) and where it moved through quickly (low-volume nodes).

Moving averages

The 20-, 50- and 200-day moving averages are widely watched, which makes them partly self-fulfilling. The 200-day is the usual line between a long-term uptrend and downtrend.

Reading our charts

• Dashed horizontal lines are levels from the weekly outlook.
• Green is supportive (call wall, support) and red is the risk side (put wall, breakdown).
• The caption under each chart gives the instrument, timeframe, and when it was captured.