What is technical analysis, and how are crypto charts read?
Technical analysis is the practice of studying price and volume history to describe how a market has been behaving. It uses candlestick charts to show what happened within each period, identifies levels where price has repeatedly turned, and applies indicators that summarise recent movement into a single line or figure. It describes past behaviour and does not predict the future, and no pattern or indicator works reliably enough to be treated as a signal on its own.
The pages below cover the three layers of the subject in order: how to read the chart itself, the named patterns people look for, and the calculated indicators that sit on top. Each page explains what the tool measures and what it does not, because the most common mistake in this subject is treating a description as a prediction.
Technical analysis terms explained
29 definitions, each with a plain-English version, a technical version, a worked example and the mistakes beginners make.
- Ascending Triangle
- Bear Flag
- Bollinger Bands
- Breakout
- Bull Flag
- Candlestick
- Cup and Handle
- Descending Triangle
- Divergence
- Double Bottom
- Double Top
- Falling Wedge
- Fibonacci Retracement
- Head and Shoulders
- Inverse Head and Shoulders
- MACD (Moving Average Convergence Divergence)
- Moving Averages
- Pullback
- Range-Bound Market
- Resistance
- Rising Wedge
- RSI (Relative Strength Index)
- Stochastic Oscillator
- Support
- Technical Analysis
- Timeframe
- Trend
- Volume
- VWAP (Volume-Weighted Average Price)
Where this is taught
This subject sits in the Advanced path of the CryptoBipto curriculum, which runs from complete beginner to expert across four tiers. You can browse the full curriculum or read free sample lessons before signing up.
Common questions
Does technical analysis actually work?
It is a way of describing what a market has done, and it is widely used, which means many participants react to the same levels. That does not make any pattern a prediction, and studies of individual patterns show inconsistent results. Treat it as one input rather than a system.
What is the difference between support and resistance?
Support is a price area where buying has repeatedly appeared and stopped a decline. Resistance is the same idea on the way up, where selling has repeatedly appeared. Neither is a fixed line, and both stop mattering once price moves decisively through them.
Which indicator should a beginner start with?
Start with volume and moving averages, because both describe something concrete: how much trading occurred and what the average price has been. Oscillators such as RSI are easier to misread, since a market can stay at an extreme reading for a long time.
Related subjects
Educational only — not financial advice. CryptoBipto does not custody funds or execute trades.