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- bitcoin an inverse head-and-shoulders breakout on Monday and rose to $4,000 yesterday, confirming a bullish reversal on the daily chart.
- The trend change is backed by a jump in trading volumes to levels last seen in May 2018. The rally, therefore, looks to have legs and December highs above $4,200 could come into play, albeit after a minor bout of consolidation or pullback, as the indicators on the 4-hour chart and daily charts are reporting overbought conditions.
- A break below Monday’s low of $3,614 would invalidate the bullish setup, although that looks unlikely, as longer duration charts are beginning to align in favor of the bulls.
bitcoin (BTC) could revisit December highs above $4,200 in the near-term as the recent rally is backed by a surge in trading volumes.
The leading cryptocurrency by market value is currently trading at $3,930 on Bitstamp, having clocked a 5.5-week high of $4,000 yesterday.
The 20 percent appreciation witnessed over the last 12 days is accompanied by a 28.4 percent rise in daily trading volumes, according to .
Notably, total trading volumes across all exchanges jumped 40 percent to $9.91 billion on Monday, BTC’s bullish breakout above $3,800. Further, investor interest in the cryptocurrency has increased post-breakout. This is explained by the fact that volumes rose to $9.93 billion yesterday – the highest level since May 3, 2018.
Put simply, the recent rally is backed by strong hands and so, prices could rise further towards $4,236 (Dec. 24 high) in the near-term.
Daily chart
Both the inverse head-and-shoulders breakout and the triangle breakout seen in the above chart indicate a bearish-to-bullish trend change.
The 5- and 10-day MAs are trending north, indicating a short-term bullish setup. The 50-day MA has bottomed out (shed bearish bias) and the 100-day MA hurdle has been scaled.
While the path of least resistance is to the higher side, the rise to the Dec. 24 high of $4,236 may not happen immediately, as the 14-day relative strength index (RSI) has moved into overbought territory above 70.00. The long upper shadow attached to the previous day’s candle is also echoing a similar message.
4-hour chart
On the 4-hour chart, the RSI is reporting overbought conditions and has diverged in favor of the bears (has not confirmed higher highs on price). However, the stacking order of the 50-candle MA, above the 100-candle MA, above the 200-candle MA is a classic bullish indicator.
So, pullbacks, if any, could be short-lived – more so, as longer duration charts are looking increasingly bullish.
3-day chart
BTC’s current 3-day candle looks set to close well above $3,711. That would to the bullish outside reversal candle created in three-days to Feb. 8 and open up upside towards $4,429 (38.2 percent Fibonacci retracement).
Supporting that bullish case is the bullish crossover between the 5- and 10-day MAs, confirmed earlier this month and the RSI of 51.00.
Disclosure: The author holds no cryptocurrency assets at the time of writing.
image via Shutterstock; charts by
Published at Wed, 20 Feb 2019 11:10:31 +0000
