How to Read a Crypto Price Chart

Crypto charts can look overwhelming at first, but a few basics will help you understand most of what you see.

Candlesticks

Each candle shows the price movement for one time period, such as an hour or a day.

• The body shows where the price opened and closed.
• The thin lines (wicks) show the highest and lowest prices reached.
• A green candle usually means the price closed higher than it opened, and a red one means it closed lower.

Timeframes

A one-minute chart is mostly noise. Longer timeframes like daily and weekly show the bigger trend. Check a longer timeframe before reacting to a short one.

Volume

Volume shows how much was traded. A big price move on low volume is less convincing than the same move on high volume.

Support and resistance

• Support is a price area where buyers have stepped in before.
• Resistance is an area where sellers have appeared before.

These are not guarantees. They are simply levels many traders watch.

Common mistakes

• Treating one indicator as a crystal ball.
• Trading on a very short timeframe because of a single candle.
• Ignoring fees and slippage.
• Following social media hype instead of your own plan.

Practise with real data

Open any coin on the Markets page to see its price, 7-day trend, high and low. Getting used to these numbers is a good first step.

This article is for information only and is not financial advice.