It's vital to not let the day-to-day price action drive our execution. It's driven by nothing but emotion, and it does more harm to investors than good.
We all know this. But it can be difficult to step back when necessary.
Objectively speaking, one of the many elements that differentiate great investors from mediocre ones is the ability to sit out of the market when there are no high-conviction opportunities.
One of our simple workarounds to this constant desire to be positioned is to set our invalidations and targets prior to putting money on the line.
Last week, most crypto markets saw moderate selling pressure following retests of critical levels of resistance.
At the same time, momentum is diverging in a bearish fashion, with our indicators putting in lower highs on this most recent high in price action.
Further, equity markets have begun to feel the pressure after selling off on a retest of resistance levels.
We'd previously noted that Bitcoin and equity indices had briefly decoupled on short time frames, pointing to resiliency on the part of crypto markets.
Last week, we saw this correlation return, with Bitcoin being dragged lower by selling pressure in risk markets generally.
Equities had their worst session of the year yesterday, as the S&P 500 retraced 2% during the day.
This comes as rates and the US dollar push higher, with the yield on the 10-year US Treasury note making fresh three-month highs.
Surprisingly, Bitcoin seems to be bucking this recent selling pressure, and the short-term correlations between stocks and Bitcoin have flipped negative for the first time since the FTX fiasco.
During that period, Bitcoin crashed to its cycle lows of 16,000, while equity markets were hammering out their most recent bottom.
And we're not talking about the kind of random pumps-and-dumps that happened throughout last year.
It's quite the opposite, actually.
Many coins have gone absolutely nowhere for quarters and are only now beginning to test the upper bounds of these long-term ranges.
Although this period has been incredibly lackluster in the number of directional trade ideas, the flipside is that many coins have had ample time to carve out long-term bases.
Like we always argue around here, we're better served by keeping it simple.
If this is truly the beginning stage of a new crypto bull market, buying resolutions out of these basing patterns will be a great strategy for the months and quarters ahead.
Last week, we saw bulls step in to defend critical short-term levels of interest.
Bitcoin closed the week up 11.50%, while Ethereum posted an 11% gain. With much of this historically choppy month behind us, these markets are pushing to the upper bounds of their long-term ranges.
Further, the S&P is coiling right beneath resistance near 4,100.