Market Structure Breakdowns

Not every pattern or indicator is a confirmation that you should enter a trade. Understanding the market structure is key and in these series we will explain how to read a Bullish and Bearish market structure formation with multiple indicators/strategies and what you should look for before entering a trade. The markets are either trending up or down until they experience a reversal in the opposite direction. Do not fight the trend, trade alongside with it's direction until a confirmation of reversal. It is not about being right, it is about trading on the correct side of the trend.

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📈Bullish Market Structure
A bullish market structure is characterized by a series of higher highs and higher lows, indicating that buyers are in control and there is a strong demand in the market with a strong upward momentum. Connecting the swing lows and swing highs will be a clear indicator of bulls pushing the price higher on each level and flipping the previous resistance into a support zone.

A good way to trade a chart pattern such as a falling wedge, is to wait for the price to reach around the zone of support. That will indicate the end of the pattern and will give the best possible entry. To have confirmation of this, make sure that you are looking at the volume. When the end of the the falling wedge approachses the previous resistance turned-into-support, you should see volume coming inside the market to push the price higher.

One key thing you must understand is that when resistance lines are crossed, they become new support and the cycle repeats until the trend break.

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📉Bearish Market Structure
A bearish market structure in the other hand, has a series of lower higher and lower lows, indicating that the sellers are in control and there is a strong downward momentum in the market. In this case, we will be looking for short opportunities. The same confirmation of a short is the selling pressure that can be characterized by negative delta volume. To confirm a trend line as true, it should have at least 3 touches where the price rejected from back into a support zone.

The market structure is not symmetrical, with perfect patterns that completely respect each and every line you draw. Most patterns and indicators look asymmetrical and have a skewness and you should adapt to it. The big players are waiting for you to place your stop loss right above your trend line or pattern then push the price right above it so you close your position and they get their orders filled to push the prices lower.

Stop hunting is one of the most important things you need to understand, until the market makes a Higher High of an important level, the market has not changed structure and it's still trending downwards.