Bounce, wall and spike: three kinds at an obstacle

Break and retest work with a level that has already given up. The three kinds of this lesson are about resistance: price comes to an obstacle and the obstacle still holds. Two of them are about levels and walls; the third stands apart — a volume spike is not about a level at all, but about the moment money entered the coin. All three are shown before the situation resolves.

Bounce and sweep are one kind, not two

On the page it is “Level bounce / sweep”, and merging them was deliberate. A sweep is the same situation, only price first pierces the level with a wick and returns afterwards. They are traded the same way and differ only in the room you leave: whoever puts the stop right behind the line is knocked out by the sweep, whoever allows about one average bar stays in the trade. The kind is born when price comes to an unbroken level with an impulse rather than creeping in: over a couple of bars the move toward the level must be noticeable. Plus a market gate — the direction of bitcoin over the day and the hour is taken into account, because on a falling market long bounces on altcoins work markedly worse.

Order-book wall: four conditions for a real order

A wall is a large limit order in the book. There are many orders and few real walls, so the filters are strict. First: the order is not new, seven minutes minimum — instant walls are usually placed to be pulled. Second: the size is abnormal for its own book, at least three medians for this coin and exchange. Third: it has already survived an approach by price. Fourth, added on 5 September: over the last fifteen minutes price has never been on the other side of the wall, otherwise the order stands behind price rather than in front of it, and no bounce off it is possible. A wall has no timeframe: density lives in the book, not on the chart.

Volume spike: one candle, not a move

This is the only kind that is not about a level. The conditions: a candle body from two percent of price and from three average bars, volume at least eight times the median of the last twenty, range larger than the previous twenty bars, coin turnover from twenty million. The key word is ONE candle: a move smeared over several bars does not count as a spike. The chart of such a card is frozen on the bar of its birth on purpose: the point is to see the moment itself, not what came after.

What separates these three kinds

• Bounce: the obstacle is a line on the chart, looked for on 5m and 15m, takes bitcoin's direction into account.
• Wall: the obstacle is an order in the book, there is no timeframe, it lives for minutes and dies when the order is pulled.
• Spike: there is no obstacle at all, it is a marker of an event; direction is shown as “impulse up” or “impulse down”, not long and short.
• Bounce and wall cards show the distance to the level; a spike does not — it has already happened.
• The spike is the only kind whose chart is frozen from birth.