The beauty of trading and analyzing crypto is the level of transparency of the data.
This is put on full display when it comes to the sprouting industry of on-chain analytics, but the same principles apply when evaluating money flow as a collective.
Not only does crypto host its own exclusive metrics that aren't available in traditional markets, but traditional indicators like the topic of today's post often have additional nuances involved.
This enables us to gain even more insight than what is possible in other asset classes.
Today, we wanted to explore how we use open interest in our crypto process to supplement our traditional technical analysis research.
Longtime readers know how much we love new monthly candlesticks. They force us to zoom out from the day-to-day noise and focus on what's really taking place.
In the case of Bitcoin $BTC, it can't get any more defined than 30,000.
Remember this time last summer when we were obnoxious about this level every week?
The magazine cover on the left, describing how Bitcoin was "Storming Wall Street" came just a few weeks before Bitcoin put in a historic top in late 2017. Immediately after this cover story, Bitcoin went on to have one of the most epic crashes of all time.
Investors got wiped out right after the one on the left.
And now here we are after Bitcoin got cut in half, and many of the altcoins are down 70-80% if not more.
Some tools and some strategies work great in certain market environments but terribly in others.
The range can include the following: looking for bearish breadth divergences at the start of bull markets; using a long-term moving average as an entry in a sideways market environment; or even something as fundamental as deciding how to approach tactical trading opportunities.
In the case of today's crypto market, a big mistake would be to directionally trade Bitcoin when no real direction has been ascertained.
As it stands, Bitcoin $BTC continues to hold above 30,000 following its brief false move. There are a number of levels we're monitoring over short time frames.
Correlations with legacy markets remain intact. But we're likely at an inflection point with respect to the co-movement between crypto and legacy.