Market Structure
& Trend

Crypto trades 24/7 and runs heavily on liquidity, liquidations, and momentum flows. Price rarely moves in a straight line—it expands, pauses, retraces, and expands again. These sequences flush out weak positions before the next leg continues.

Seeing this behaviour turns noisy price action into a series of expansions and pullbacks instead of chaos. It also makes it easier to ignore engineered wicks that are designed to trap late buyers and early shorts.

Every market cycles through three broad phases: accumulation, expansion, and distribution. Accumulation builds positions quietly while volatility is low. Expansion drives the strong trending move where most of the distance is covered. Distribution transfers risk from strong hands to late buyers before a new cycle begins.

Knowing which phase price is in reduces the temptation to chase moves that are already extended, and helps avoid treating late-stage distribution as if it were the start of a fresh trend.

Trend comes from the sequence of highs and lows, not from any indicator. In an uptrend, price prints higher highs and higher lows; in a downtrend, it prints lower highs and lower lows. When that sequence breaks, the trend is either weakening or preparing to reverse.

Watching the sequence of HH, HL, LH, and LL makes it easier to hold through normal pullbacks while also spotting the early signs that a trend is no longer healthy.

A break of structure occurs when price closes beyond a prior key high or low. That break shows that the previous balance between buyers and sellers has shifted. A change of character is the first obvious switch in behaviour—for example when a pattern of higher lows is taken out decisively instead of being defended.

Combining structure breaks with changes in character gives much stronger confirmation that a trend is maturing, rather than just experiencing a routine pullback.

Higher-timeframe structure provides the roadmap; lower timeframes define the path. A daily or weekly trend can stay intact even while the intraday chart looks messy. Aligning entries with the higher-timeframe direction reduces random noise and filters out many low-quality setups.

Before acting on a lower-timeframe signal, it pays to ask: “What is the higher timeframe doing?” That question alone prevents a large number of trades that fight the dominant flow of liquidity.

Common traps include chasing candles after a strong move, shorting every spike in an uptrend, and buying every dip in a clear downtrend. These behaviours come from trading emotion instead of structure.

Focusing on phases and structure—rather than on how a candle feels in the moment—reduces FOMO and revenge trades. Entries become aligned with the map of the market instead of with fear and excitement.