Course: reading levels and managing risk

The “time frame” of a single candle. On 1D each candle describes one day of trading, on 1h — one hour, on 1W — a week, on 1M — a month. The same market looks different across timeframes: 1D shows the forest, 1h the individual trees.

A candle is the chart's basic building block: it shows the open, close, high and low of an interval. Heikin Ashi is an alternative way of drawing candles that averages the data to smooth out noise — trends read more clearly, but exact traded prices are slightly “blurred”.

Price levels where the market has turned in the past. Support acts like a floor under price (buyers defend it), resistance like a ceiling above it (sellers block the rise). It's the foundation of technical analysis and the core of what the dashboard shows.

Levels from different indicators rarely land in exactly the same spot — more often several of them point at a nearby area. The dashboard merges such levels into one zone, because markets react to areas, not to single lines to the cent.

The average price of the last X candles, drawn as a smooth line — e.g. the MA200 on 1D averages 200 days. It shows trend direction without single-candle noise. Popular averages (MA50, MA200) are watched by so many participants that they become support/resistance themselves.

A measure of the market's “swing”: how much price moves on average per interval. High ATR = a nervous market with big moves; low = a quiet one. ATR says nothing about direction — only about the size of moves.

A line that follows price at a distance based on ATR — i.e. adjusted to current volatility. In an uptrend it stays below price, in a downtrend above it. Price crossing the line is a warning the trend may have flipped — and the line itself often acts as moving support/resistance.

Levels computed with a simple formula from the previous period's high, low and close (here: weekly and monthly). H3 is a resistance level above price, L3 support below it. Sounds exotic, but it's a classic: mathematical levels where markets statistically often turn.

A straight line drawn along successive lows (in an uptrend) or highs (in a downtrend). It shows the trend's pace and acts as sloped support/resistance. The dashboard detects them automatically on weekly and daily timeframes.

Indicators measuring trend strength and direction: DMI says who has the edge (buyers or sellers), ADX how strong that edge is. The dashboard uses them for the “trend pressure” part of the breakout-chance formula.

The sum of points of all levels forming a zone. A level from a higher timeframe scores more (monthly beats daily), because markets respect it more. Σ7 = a wall defended by several independent methods; Σ1 = a single suggestion.

A percentage heuristic: trend pressure (ADX/DMI) versus zone strength (Σ). High ≥66, Medium ≥40, Low <40. It measures context — “who's stronger here” — not the future.

BTC and ETH move in strong correlation. A zone confirmed on both markets at once means more than one visible on a single market — the dashboard checks this automatically when you work on either of the pair.

The phenomenon where an indicator computed on a not-yet-closed higher-timeframe candle keeps changing until that candle closes. Not a bug, just math — but you need to know about it to avoid overrating historical readouts. Lesson 1.5 covers it in detail.