ETHUSD Perspective And Levels: Fear Leads To Price Spike.

ETHUSD Update: Price went sub 200 only to push back up to 250 in a matter of hours, along with all the coin markets. Now you know why I suggested considering a small position as an investment. The bearish momentum is not over yet, and now these markets need time to build up some supportive structures again so I am not anticipating new highs any time soon.

The initial spike back up is an interesting piece of information. BTC went below 3k only to spike back up to 3500. This type of price action often signals the beginning of a change in momentum, but not enough evidence to start opening swing trade longs.

If you read my previous report, I wrote that investing small wasn't a bad idea because there was extreme fear in the market. Sure it got slightly more extreme, but if you believe in the technology (which has not changed), then investing when everyone is hating these coins is the best time. As I wrote, there is no way of pin pointing the bottom. It is a function of understanding your risk and starting small (without leverage). I don't think these markets are out of the clear yet and still have potential to test lows again. Just remember investing is for long term and NOT a swing trade strategy.

At this point I am watching for evidence of stability (for a swing trade) and that would be in the form of a higher low at the new minor support at the 220 to 210 area within the broader 230 to 190 area. A failed low here would offer a short term buying opportunity providing that BTC is also stable. Keep in mind since this market has revisited this broader support area which is the .618 of the previous bullish swing, the broader price action will most likely be range bound and I plan to use very conservative targets for any trades that I enter.

The new resistance area is the 271 to 291 zone which is related to the .618 of the overall bearish swing. This market needs to clear that in order to show that there is any possibility of retesting the mid to high 300s. So this resistance will serve as a profit target (if the market offers that opportunity). If the market retests this resistance sooner (it is almost there) this area will serve as a level for a possible lower high which can lead to new lows if BTC falls apart again. We just have to wait and see. As far as buying now, the risk is too high.

In order to know if a bottom is truly in place, price needs to retest the lows. That is why this price spike, as impressive as it is, is not the time to get long. The retest may lead to new lows, or it may be shallow, there is no way to know until after it unfolds. This is why it is so important to define your scenarios ahead of time so that you have something to measure against instead of being sucked into the herd mentality.

In summary, investing and trading are more about psychology than anything else. Price action analysis helps to uncover clues about the crowd mentality so that probabilities and risk can be better determined before taking a position. The purpose of my analysis is to capitalize on short term price fluctuations and I have to repeat this because I realize many new traders do not understand the difference between what I am writing about and buying to hold for the long term. My plan at the moment is to wait for the next retrace and if the market revisits the 220 area, then I evaluate for buy signals for a swing trade. Otherwise I stay flat. There will be plenty of opportunities to get long.

Comments and questions welcome.