Reading price action, indicators, and chart patterns.
ATR — the Average True Range — measures volatility as a single number: the average size of a market's recent price range, including gaps. This article explains 'true range' and why it captures more than the high-minus-low, how ATR is averaged over a lookback, what a rising or falling ATR tells you, and how ATR is used to gauge what counts as a 'normal move' and to scale stops and position size to volatility. It stresses that ATR measures size, never direction.
Bollinger Bands wrap a moving average in an envelope set a number of standard deviations above and below it, so the bands widen when volatility rises and contract when it falls. This article explains how the bands are built, what the width tells you (the 'squeeze' and expansion), why touching a band is not overbought or oversold, and how the bands describe volatility and relative price — never predict direction. It is explicit that 'walking the band' is normal in strong trends.
An engulfing pattern is a two-candle pattern in which the second candle's body completely engulfs the first's, marking a decisive one-period shift of control. This article explains the bullish engulfing (after a decline) and bearish engulfing (after a rally), the takeover story each tells, why an engulfing carries more weight than a single candle, the role of context and volume, and why — like every candlestick pattern — it describes a shift rather than predicting one.
An evening star is the mirror of the morning star: a three-candle topping pattern — a large up candle, a small-bodied 'star' of indecision, then a large down candle closing well into the first candle's body. This article explains its three-act story of buying, exhaustion, then selling, what makes one convincing, and — as the closing article of the Technical Analysis domain — reinforces the principle that runs through all of candlestick reading: patterns describe shifts of control, they never predict them.
MACD (Moving Average Convergence Divergence) is a momentum and trend indicator built from two moving averages. This article explains its three parts — the MACD line (the gap between a fast and slow EMA), the signal line, and the histogram — and how they are read: the zero line, signal-line crossovers, and MACD divergence. Because it is built from moving averages, MACD inherits their lag, so it is framed throughout as a descriptive lens on momentum, not a forecasting signal.
A morning star is a three-candle bottoming pattern: a large down candle, then a small-bodied 'star' of indecision, then a large up candle closing well into the first candle's body. This article explains the three-act story it tells — strong selling, exhaustion, strong buying — how it is read, why the middle star and the depth of the third candle matter, and why, like every candlestick pattern, it describes a shift of control across three periods rather than predicting a reversal.
Resistance is the mirror image of support: a price area where rising prices have repeatedly tended to stall and turn back down, because selling interest keeps emerging there. This article explains why resistance forms (profit-taking, trapped buyers wanting to break even, round numbers, prior lows), the polarity principle where broken resistance becomes support, how to gauge a level's strength, and why — like support — resistance describes behaviour rather than predicting it.
A reversal is a genuine change in a market's prevailing direction — an uptrend becoming a downtrend, or vice versa. This article defines a trend structurally (higher highs and higher lows, or lower highs and lower lows), shows how a reversal is the breaking of that sequence, and tackles the hardest problem in all of price action: telling a real reversal from an ordinary pullback. It closes on why reversals are only ever confirmed in hindsight, and why 'catching' them is where so many go wrong.
The Relative Strength Index (RSI) is a momentum oscillator that measures the speed and size of recent price changes on a 0–100 scale. This article explains what RSI actually measures, the meaning (and frequent misuse) of the 70/30 overbought and oversold thresholds, the centreline at 50, and RSI divergence — where momentum and price disagree. It is emphatic that overbought is not a sell instruction and oversold is not a buy one: in strong trends RSI can stay pinned at an extreme for a long time.
A shooting star is the mirror of the hammer: a single candle with a small body near the bottom and a long upper wick, appearing after a rally — a picture of buyers driving price up within the period and sellers rejecting those highs to close back near the open. This article covers its anatomy and story, why its uptrend context matters, how it relates to the inverted hammer and gravestone doji, and why, like every candle, it describes one period and needs confirmation.
VWAP — the Volume-Weighted Average Price — is the average price at which something has traded over a period, weighted by how much volume traded at each price. This article explains what VWAP measures and how it differs from an ordinary moving average, why it resets each session, how it is used as a benchmark of the 'average price paid' and as a reference for whether price is rich or cheap relative to the day, and why — like every indicator — it describes participation rather than predicting direction.
A breakout is the moment price moves decisively beyond a support or resistance area or a trendline, resolving a period of balance. This article explains what counts as a breakout (a close through the zone, not a passing wick), the role of volume and the retest, why broken levels flip role by polarity, and — crucially — the false breakout: why price so often pokes through a level and snaps straight back, and why a breakout is an event to observe rather than an instruction to act.
A doji is a candle whose open and close are almost equal, leaving little or no body — a snapshot of indecision, where buyers and sellers finished a period in balance. This article first explains candlestick anatomy (body, wicks, open/close/high/low), then covers the doji and its variants (long-legged, dragonfly, gravestone), what they mean, why context and confirmation are everything, and why a single candle describes one period's tug-of-war rather than predicting the next.
A hammer is a single candle with a small body near the top and a long lower wick, appearing after a decline — a picture of sellers driving price down within the period and buyers rejecting those lows to close back near the open. This article explains the hammer's anatomy and the tug-of-war it records, the importance of its downtrend context, its relatives (the hanging man and inverted hammer), and why a hammer is a description needing confirmation, not a reversal signal on its own.
The Ichimoku Cloud is a complete trend-following framework that layers five lines onto a chart to show trend, support and resistance, and momentum 'at a glance'. This article breaks down its five components — the conversion and base lines, the two leading spans that form the cloud, and the lagging span — explains how the cloud's position, thickness and colour are read, and weighs its all-in-one strength against its complexity and lag. As always, it is framed as a descriptive system, not a signal generator.
A moving average smooths price by averaging it over a rolling window, turning a jagged chart into a cleaner line that reveals trend direction. This article explains the simple and exponential moving average and how they differ, the common 20/50/200 periods, how moving averages are used (trend direction, dynamic support and resistance, and crossovers like the golden and death cross), the inescapable lag that comes with smoothing, and why a crossover describes the past rather than predicting the future.
Support is a price area where falling prices have repeatedly tended to stop and turn back up, because buying interest keeps emerging there. This article explains why support forms (memory, resting orders, round numbers, prior highs flipping role), why it is a zone rather than a precise line, how to judge its significance, what it means when support gives way — and, crucially, why support describes past behaviour and is never a guarantee.
A trendline is sloping support or resistance: a straight line drawn along a market's rising lows (an uptrend line, acting as dynamic support) or falling highs (a downtrend line, acting as dynamic resistance). This article explains how trendlines are drawn and confirmed, why two points define a line but a third validates it, what slope and steepness signal, how parallel lines form channels, and the discipline needed to avoid drawing the lines you wish were there.
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