Things the basic books skip.

Candles beyond the open-close story

Body is open to close. Wicks are the auction that failed. A long upper wick on high volume is rejection, not just "sellers." A series of shrinking bodies into a level is absorption. A single green candle is not a trend. Read the last 8–20 bars for who is trapped.

RSI that actually pays rent

70 and 30 are stretch marks, not reverse buttons. Regular divergence (price higher high, RSI lower high) often shows up after the move is already tired. Hidden divergence in a trend is the one most day traders ignore: price higher low, RSI lower low, in an uptrend, is continuation more often than reversal. Failure swings (RSI breaks its own prior extreme then fails) are cleaner than "overbought."

Bollinger: walk, squeeze, %B

Default 20, 2. A walk along the upper band in a strong trend is not an automatic short. A squeeze (bandwidth at a multi-week low) means the range is compressed; the break can be either way. %B tells you where price sits inside the bands (above 1 = outside upper). Bandwidth tells you if the market is asleep. Use both, not just the lines.

MACD and the histogram

The cross is late. The histogram slope change is earlier. A histogram that is still positive but shrinking while price makes a higher high is the same idea as RSI divergence, just on a different calculation. Do not stack five momentum indicators and call it confirmation. Pick one.

Volume and effort vs result

High volume and a small candle at a level is absorption. High volume and a wide candle is initiative. Low volume breakouts fail more often than the internet admits. On crypto, also watch the funding and the open interest; spot volume alone is incomplete when leverage is the driver.

Funding rates and basis

Positive funding means longs are paying shorts. Extreme positive funding after a long rally is crowded long, not a buy signal. Extreme negative funding after a dump is crowded short. Basis (perp vs spot) widening in the same direction as price is leverage chasing. When basis collapses while price is still elevated, the chase is ending. This is not on most stock-trader checklists.

Liquidation cascades

A cascade is forced closes, not discretionary selling. Price runs through a cluster of stops and liquidations, prints a wick, then often mean-reverts once the forced flow is done. The first bounce after a cascade is not the same as a new trend. Size smaller on the first reaction. Most retail chases the wick.

Session structure

Asia often sets the range. London often breaks it or fakes the break. New York often decides the real direction or reverses the London move. Crypto runs 24h, but the volume still clusters around those handoffs. Trading the middle of a dead Asia session with full size is how accounts bleed. Know which session you are in before you size.

Expectancy, not win rate

A 40% win rate with 2.5R winners beats a 70% win rate with 0.4R winners. Expectancy = (win% × average win) − (loss% × average loss). Track it in R, not dollars. If you cannot state your last 20 trades in R, you do not have a system. You have a feeling.

Size before entry

Decide the dollar loss first. Position size = risk dollars / (entry − stop). If the stop is too wide for the account, skip the trade. Do not move the stop to fit the size. Crypto leverage makes this math optional in the interface and mandatory in reality. Practice on paper until the number is automatic.

Correlation to BTC

Most alts move with BTC on the day timeframe. A long on three alts is often one BTC bet with extra fees. Check the 1h and 4h beta before you stack. True relative strength is an alt that holds or rises while BTC is flat or down. Everything else is the same trade.

Order book and imbalance

A thick bid wall that keeps getting hit and refilled is defense. A wall that disappears the moment price approaches is spoofing or pulled liquidity. Do not treat the book as truth. Treat it as the current advertisement. Combine it with the tape and the candle, not instead of them.

The tape

The homepage tape is the full public book, not four coins. Last price and 24h change. A notice is a read, not an order. Change the chart symbol to anything you want. The desk does not lock you to Apache names.