When They Move, They All Move Together

After long weeks of mostly just going sideways, Bitcoin and its cryptocurrency friends finally made a move and it was upward. Definitely upward. Each one enjoyed a different gain percentage, but it’s clear that when the buying comes in, all of the big name cryptos participate in the fun.

Bitcoin’s daily price chart looks like this now:

After making the move up from the mid-March bottom and rallying significantly into May, the crypto stayed within in a narrowing price range for about 3 months. Lower highs and higher lows shows up as a classic flag pattern.

When the price finally closed above the top of the range, it took off on decent volume. Bitcoin seems to have peaked for now with that red bearish engulfing to kick off the month of August. It might take a while to catch its breath.

Bitcoin’s weekly chart looks like this:

You can see that the rally from March, as bullish as it seems, has thus far failed to take out the April, 2019 high up there as marked with the horizontal red dotted line. It’s likely to find serious resistance at that level — where buyers gave up previously and handed momentum back to the sellers.

The other red dotted line — connecting the March low with the June/July sideways low — shows the dramatically upward quality of the move. A close or 2 below this trend line might be cause for concern.

Ethereum’s daily price chart looks like this:

This crypto broke out of the summertime sideways action with more energy than Bitcoin, as you can see by the strong movement upward into August. There’s the classic flag pattern again.

Among technical analysts this used to be known as “building cause” although it’s been some time since I’ve heard that phrase. The idea is that as price compresses in that narrowing range, when it finally breaks out of it, the move can be substantial. That seems to be the case here.

Ethereum’s weekly looks like this:

If you look closely, there’s lots here. The first thing is: Ethereum is back above the 2019 high. So this is unlike Bitcoin which has yet to take out that level. From this standpoint, it could be said that this is the stronger crypto.

On the other hand, note that it has a long, long way to go before it can even approach the April/May 2018 high. One other item: Ethereum has moved back above its Ichimoku cloud which had been downtrending since the beginning of 2018.

Litecoin’s daily price chart looks like this:

It’s the same basic pattern as the other 2: the range in price from April to July is a little wider but it’s still compression. The flag pattern breaks out upward during the last days of July and — boom — Litecoin is higher than the late April peak and on decent volume. It’s next to impossible to buy at lows, but if you could have and you had picked it up at the March low of 30, you would now be sitting on a double.

Litecoin’s weekly chart looks like this:

It’s moving upward again but it’s not as strong as the other 2 cryptos. You can see that, even with the breakout on the daily chart, Litecoin remains well below the earlier-in-the-year high. Note also it’s inability, so far, to close above a declining Ichimoku cloud.

Of these 3 well-known, big name cryptocurrencies, it’s clear that while all had good moves, Ethereum managed to show a better looking price chart. Who knows if this will continue? Past performance does not guarantee future results, as you may have heard.

I do not hold positions in these investments. No recommendations are made one way or the other.  If you’re an investor, you’d want to look much deeper into each of these situations. You can lose money trading or investing in stocks and other instruments. Always do your own independent research, due diligence and seek professional advice from a licensed investment advisor.