Patterns, indicators, and volume — and just as important, when each one is lying to you.
Support and resistance are price levels where buying or selling pressure has repeatedly overwhelmed the other side. They aren't exact lines — think of them as zones. The more times a level is tested without breaking, the more significant it becomes when it finally does.
A moving average smooths price into a trend line. The 50-day and 200-day are the most watched; when a shorter average crosses above a longer one ("golden cross") it's read as bullish, and the reverse ("death cross") as bearish — though both lag price significantly.
The Relative Strength Index measures how fast and how far price has moved, on a 0-100 scale. Above 70 is typically read as overbought, below 30 as oversold — but in a strong trend, RSI can stay extreme for a long time. Use it to gauge exhaustion, not to time exact tops or bottoms.
A breakout on thin volume is far more likely to fail than one backed by heavy participation. Volume tells you whether a move has real capital behind it or is just noise from a handful of traders.
No indicator works in isolation, and every pattern has a failure mode. Technicals describe probability, not certainty — treat them as one input alongside fundamentals and risk management, never the whole decision.