Sideways trading within a relatively narrow range

[justdimin]

In this sideways, I prefer to wait and do nothing. Just wait and monitor the market. I don't want to take the risks of analyzing the market and entering the market. If you want to trade, you need to analyze, that is the key. But if you don't want to bother the price fluctuation, you can buy at dips and hodl. That is the thing you can do to accumulate it at various low prices. Investors still accumulate more without thinking about the price. Fluctuations will not disrupt you because you only focus on accumulating more Bitcoin.

But in situations like these, won't it be better to hold investing more money? We might get better opportunities in a couple of weeks if bitcoins continue with the downfall and that will be the moment to start investing again. Yeah, investing a minimum percentage of our total allocated budget can be a good decision but I personally would not invest more than 3% of my total budget and will continue waiting until I see better price range. I will keep monitoring the market actively though because at this point, bitcoins can show sudden movements which I do not want to miss.

Maybe DCA can be a good strategy for here who wants to start their investment journey. For investors, they do have multiple options but when it comes to traders, we have quite a few options to make profits in these kind of markets. The volatility is almost negligible which can also reduce the profits while keeping risk factor the same.

[slaman29]

What do you mean by "next major trend is soon to start"? This statement can be interpreted as referring to both an upward and a downward trend.

As long as the price remains above $83,000 or below $96,000, it will likely remain stable within that price range.

Hehe yup, I find it funny to see people giving this kind of 'doesn't really mean anything' kinda analysis. And what is a major trend for them? 10%? 20%? Cause there has not been for a long time a big 20+ % move of a sudden for a long time now.

83-96 is about 15+% and that is considered super normal for BTC honestly.

[SquallLeonhart]

in situations like these, won't it be better to hold investing more money? We might get better opportunities in a couple of weeks if bitcoins continue with the downfall and that will be the moment to start investing again. Yeah, investing a minimum percentage of our total allocated budget can be a good decision but I personally would not invest more than 3% of my total budget and will continue waiting until I see better price range. I will keep monitoring the market actively though because at this point, bitcoins can show sudden movements which I do not want to miss.

Maybe DCA can be a good strategy for here who wants to start their investment journey. For investors, they do have multiple options but when it comes to traders, we have quite a few options to make profits in these kind of markets. The volatility is almost negligible which can also reduce the profits while keeping risk factor the same.

While it is true, DCA is there for a reason. Nobody should invest all in right now, but nobody should invest all in later neither, you should never put all of your money all at once. What you should do instead is just buy some more each time it goes down 5% and keep doing that until it starts to recover (may even do a bit early stages of recovery).

Do this for the next 18 months and you are going to profit a lot when the bull market returns. Obviously it would be sweet if we know where the bottom is, but we rarely do, so investing at every 5% drop is a far better way of getting a good return. Most people tend to just go all in whenever they see it crash and then they regret when they see it crash even more further down.

[bangjoe]

‎Recent market analysis and price action depicts Bitcoin as being in a stage of sideways trading or consolidation, even though it has slightly shown a downward movement, the truth is that it is trading within a relatively narrow range with a more downtrend bias. The current price action or Bitcoin, is a strong sign that the next major trend is soon to start, if you agree.
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‎* What does the consolidation or sideways trading period within this current narrow margin, mean for you as a trader or investor? What is the best course of action during this narrow range period?

This consolidation period is very natural and not strange where it will take a long time to ascertain whether he will continue to rise or vice versa, and we usually call it the sideway phase, in this phase usually with market uncertainty without direction and without triggers only responding to how supply and demand, if you are a clever trader you will look for market fluctuation habits because it turns out to be quite large fluctuations in this phase too, different news can trigger increases and decreases and you can take advantage of it to get short-term profits.

We know that there will always be a phase where a coin will test its resistance price and support price and that can be your TP and SL location for trading.

[wozzek23]

For this situation, investing might be a risky move but we can still make profits in trading. I always feel trading to be much safer when markets are going sideways as the chances of sudden moves are quite low so I can set the SL much closer to the entry price.

This gives me room to open multiple trades and even if they hit SL, it will not really affect my portfolio. I also avoid holding these positions for longer time. Scalping is something which I would prefer in these kind of markets. We see bitcoins hovering around $90k for a while now and yes as you said, a major move might soon follow. In this situation, opening a trade without a proper stop loss can be a really bad decision but if we have proper risk management in place than these kind of situations can really be a good profit making opportunities.

[suzanne5223]

‎Recent market analysis and price action depicts Bitcoin as being in a stage of sideways trading or consolidation, even though it has slightly shown a downward movement, the truth is that it is trading within a relatively narrow range with a more downtrend bias. The current price action or Bitcoin, is a strong sign that the next major trend is soon to start, if you agree.
‎

I agree with you when you said the next major momentum of the Bitcoin market is yet to start, and when it starts it will be a crazy one just like we have seen in the previous 4 years cycle market.
I just hope people will ignore some naive influencer statement about Bitcoin 4 years cycle to be over.

What does the consolidation or sideways trading period within this current narrow margin, mean for you as a trader or investor? What is the best course of action during this narrow range period?

The best course of action during the range period is just accumulation and touching the grass most of the time instead of trading a consolidation market, which could lead to severe lost but you have the knowledge and risk management to trade it you're good to go.

[suzanne5223]

‎Recent market analysis and price action depicts Bitcoin as being in a stage of sideways trading or consolidation, even though it has slightly shown a downward movement, the truth is that it is trading within a relatively narrow range with a more downtrend bias. The current price action or Bitcoin, is a strong sign that the next major trend is soon to start, if you agree.
‎

I agree with you when you said the next major momentum of the Bitcoin market is yet to start, and when it starts it will be a crazy one just like we have seen in the previous 4 years cycle market.
I just hope people will ignore some naive influencer statement about Bitcoin 4 years cycle to be over.

What does the consolidation or sideways trading period within this current narrow margin, mean for you as a trader or investor? What is the best course of action during this narrow range period?

The best course of action during the range period is just accumulation and touching the grass most of the time instead of trading a consolidation market, which could lead to severe lost but you have the knowledge and risk management to trade it you're good to go.

Totally agree, man. These range periods are brutal for active trading – sideways chop just eats your stack with fees and fakeouts if you're not careful. Accumulation + touching grass is the move for most folks tbh. Stack sats quietly, live your life, let the halving and adoption do the heavy lifting. Only reason I'd trade a consolidation is if I'm super bored and using tiny position sizes with tight stops. Otherwise, nah, rather zoom out and chill

In the consolidation market, going for a tiny ratio even if it is 2:1 can still be a dangerous move, and i am glad you mentioned fakeouts, which is something that is constantly happening in today's market because the market makers are looking for more funds to spend on Christmas. If you ask most experienced traders, they will mostly tell you they are done with daily trading for this year unless they see a certain setup that always gives them the needed answer for a successful trade.

[shinratensei_]

‎Recent market analysis and price action depicts Bitcoin as being in a stage of sideways trading or consolidation, even though it has slightly shown a downward movement, the truth is that it is trading within a relatively narrow range with a more downtrend bias. The current price action or Bitcoin, is a strong sign that the next major trend is soon to start, if you agree.
‎
‎* What does the consolidation or sideways trading period within this current narrow margin, mean for you as a trader or investor? What is the best course of action during this narrow range period?

When price is ranging and the range is narrow, I prefer to not over leverage. I prefer to put my SL below or above the range, actually pretty far from the range to avoid my position getting closed. Maybe a little bit above the resistance or a little bit below the support.
But first you need to be sure, are you early or the market showing sign of breaking support or resistance? that's the real question here.

Usually people figure out bitcoin is ranging when the chart and TA become so obvious, but the problem is there's a big chance it's done ranging and another significant move is about to come.

[Mpamaegbu]

‎* What does the consolidation or sideways trading period within this current narrow margin, mean for you as a trader or investor?

As a Futures trader, it's best to stay out of the market when it's ranging. As a Spot trader, you can DCA if you know your charts and can interpret candle patterns during a ranging market. As an investor, just find an entry that appeals to you and buy; that's if you aren't buying all at once.

‎What is the best course of action during this narrow range period?

The best would be to stay away from the market until there's a confirmed BO (Breakout). As a trader, not trading every day is also a trading strategy. No one should force a trade if they want to remain profitable on a long run.

[EarnOnVictor]

Without mincing words, the answer you seek lies in the weekly chart above. I drew the chart a few weeks ago, and I've been using it to guide myself for the long-term Bitcoin disposition.

If you pay a close look at the circled part, you would see that the Fibonacci is doing a great job at 38.2% ($84,232). The level has held the line for 3 consecutive weeks now, including this week, though the week is still not over. In this situation, if Bitcoin makes any mistake to let it slip lower, it could hit 50.0% ($70,871) in full force. Again, every attempt to rise further has also been dashed by the trendline at different levels, even as OsMA and MACD are fervent with their bearish signal.

Conclusively, a breakout to the downside will be devastating.

[DPHOR]

From what I am watching over the market there seems to be a strong resistance within the price level of $84-91k, there is a strong selling pressure within the range of 91k, which I think could be that hard for the market to cross that range to 95k and whatever that cause the market to cross the price range of 95k the certainly we could see it crossing the range of 100k, but I doubt if this could be possible year or maybe within 31th to 1st January we could likely break out to 100k upwards.

[pawanjain]

‎Recent market analysis and price action depicts Bitcoin as being in a stage of sideways trading or consolidation, even though it has slightly shown a downward movement, the truth is that it is trading within a relatively narrow range with a more downtrend bias. The current price action or Bitcoin, is a strong sign that the next major trend is soon to start, if you agree.
‎
‎* What does the consolidation or sideways trading period within this current narrow margin, mean for you as a trader or investor? What is the best course of action during this narrow range period?

Sideways markets are the trickiest to trade because we never know when the breakthrough happens.
It can go in any direction at any point of time but yeah it also has its own advantages.
Sideways markets often has a support and resistance range within which we can place our trades effectively.
The stop loss can be the support if on bottom of range or the resistance if shorting the trade.
But once the zone is broken we can go either long or short depending on which side it breaks through.

[LogitechMouse]

‎Recent market analysis and price action depicts Bitcoin as being in a stage of sideways trading or consolidation, even though it has slightly shown a downward movement, the truth is that it is trading within a relatively narrow range with a more downtrend bias. The current price action or Bitcoin, is a strong sign that the next major trend is soon to start, if you agree.
‎
‎* What does the consolidation or sideways trading period within this current narrow margin, mean for you as a trader or investor? What is the best course of action during this narrow range period?

As somebody who often wants to "follow the trend", trading something that's moving sideways like Bitcoin or whatever token will it be is kind of hard to trade, but that doesn't mean that you will not make money from it still especially if you're a scalper. Determining the support and resistance could be very helpful if you really want to trade Bitcoin or whatever altcoin it is.

As for me though, if I see that the coin is moving sideways, I immediately look for another coin to trade. For me, it's better to trade coins that have a trend whether it's an uptrend or downtrend. The current price action is a strong sign that there might be a major trend coming soon, but that trend isn't what most are thinking. Yes, we want to see a bullish uptrend, but what if we don't see it and we will be seeing the complete opposite of it. I mean it even has a hard time staying above $90,000 as of this moment.

Anyway, the best course of action is to find another coin that isn't moving sideways.

[crwth]

Having this sideways market is an opportunity to trade long and short positions fast, and it could be multiple trades in a day. It still depends on my indicators whether I would go with the flow or go against the market. I would use my scalping strategy for this. It's hard to predict, so it's just scalping. When a clear trend appears, then I change strategies.

I sometimes do hedging to make sure I'm balanced, whichever way the market decides to go.

[Finebone]

Sideways markets are the trickiest to trade because we never know when the breakthrough happens.
It can go in any direction at any point of time but yeah it also has its own advantages.

Another name for sideways market is consolidating market, and I do not trade them because they have no volume, but most traders fails to understand that knowing when to stay off the market is another skill a trader must master in other to be successful.

Sideways markets often has a support and resistance range within which we can place our trades effectively.
The stop loss can be the support if on bottom of range or the resistance if shorting the trade.
But once the zone is broken we can go either long or short depending on which side it breaks through.

I get a clearer picture on what you are saying, but entering the market when the market has not broken out of consolidation or sideways market is wrong as a trader because that's not trading but you are gambling

[pawanjain]

Sideways markets are the trickiest to trade because we never know when the breakthrough happens.
It can go in any direction at any point of time but yeah it also has its own advantages.

Another name for sideways market is consolidating market, and I do not trade them because they have no volume, but most traders fails to understand that knowing when to stay off the market is another skill a trader must master in other to be successful.

Sideways markets often has a support and resistance range within which we can place our trades effectively.
The stop loss can be the support if on bottom of range or the resistance if shorting the trade.
But once the zone is broken we can go either long or short depending on which side it breaks through.

I get a clearer picture on what you are saying, but entering the market when the market has not broken out of consolidation or sideways market is wrong as a trader because that's not trading but you are gambling

I think otherwise because trading in a range we know that the price will be staying within the range.
Whereas in a breakout, we are expecting the price to rise, thus resembling gambling.
So we can't really call sideways market as a gambling zone but in reality trading is often compared to gambling.
Everyone has their own view in this matter and it becomes harder to differentiate between the both.

[aysha9853]

For me sideways markets are more about patience than action when price is stuck in a tight range, I prefer to reduce trades and just observe where liquidity is building chasing small moves usually ends in fees and bad entries.

[TheUltraElite]

I feel the best course of action at such times is waiting for the next big move. It can go down in which case you should buy and it might also go up in which case you sell you held coins.

The market is recovering from the hype of the huge all time highs that were hit last few months.

This will take time to recover. It is better not to take any risky bets with small movements, you might get caught with pants down in the wrong time.

[Gozie51]

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‎* What does the consolidation or sideways trading period within this current narrow margin, mean for you as a trader or investor? What is the best course of action during this narrow range period?

For a trader to be successful, you must have to target to be in trend and if the price is running side ways that means it is finding direction , it can go any direction afterwards. So the best to do at such sideways movement is to stay outside until direction is located. Direction location is when the price consistently fall or begins to go a particular direction whether buy or for sell. Most times when traders lose money, it is because they rush into an undirected market. If you put your leg in a flowing water body either a river, it will surely take you off direction when you are not prepared for it. Therefore, if a trader sees a side ways movement of price, it is better to stay away for a direction/trend to form.

[barbara44]

The current price action or Bitcoin, is a strong sign that the next major trend is soon to start, if you agree.

Range bounded markets are always known for breaking up into the upper side but 2025 is going to end in few days and people are preparing for bearish market, this is really contradicting with the current state of bitcoin market. Either we are going to break the 4 year cycle this time or rang bound condition will persist for few more weeks, it seems. Usually by Christmas and new year times, all markets are boring and sideways as whales are on vacation.

If you are good at technical analysis then you may try to catch the bottom for quick selling when market recovers. Other than this, I do not have any other experience with sideways market. I like sideways because bitcoin will not differ in value significantly which is good when you do business in USDT.