Readings in plain English¶
Choose a reading for the question it answers. The useful distinction is often more important than whether a number simply rose or fell.
Price and participation¶
| Reading | What it describes | Why it adds context |
|---|---|---|
| Candle / OHLC | Open, high, low and close within an interval | Shows the movement inside that interval, not just its finishing price |
| Volume | Trading activity recorded during an interval | Helps distinguish a move accompanied by more activity from one with less activity |
| Drawdown | A decline from an earlier peak to a later low, using the stated price basis | Shows how much of an advance was given back even if the full period ended higher |
| Benchmark-relative return | A return compared with a reference such as Bitcoin | Separates doing better than the reference from actually gaining in price |
Derivatives and the order book¶
| Reading | What it describes | Why it adds context |
|---|---|---|
| Open interest (OI) | Outstanding derivatives exposure in the stated units | Adds the size of reported exposure to the price picture; USD exposure also changes with valuation |
| Funding | The periodic carrying-cost rate between perpetual-futures longs and shorts | Positive normally means longs pay shorts; negative reverses that payment direction. It adds the cost of holding exposure, not a count of new positions |
| Long / short liquidations | Reported forced closing of those positions | Helps locate forced-position stress during a move |
| Spread | The gap between the best quoted buying and selling prices | A narrower gap reduces this part of the cost of crossing the book immediately |
| Bid / ask depth | Displayed orders within the sampled book band | Bid depth can meet incoming sells; ask depth can meet incoming buys. It adds a view of quoted liquidity rather than completed trading |
| Depth balance | The relative balance of displayed bids and asks | Shows which side has more displayed depth in that sample; orders can change or be cancelled |
| Long/short accounts or tracked positioning | Positioning reported for the source's particular accounts or cohort | Adds that group's exposure lens, rather than representing all investors |
Read the venue label. Coinbase spot liquidity and a cross-exchange derivatives aggregate are different observations.
Momentum, direction and fluctuation size¶
RSI: has the balance of recent gains and losses changed?¶
RSI compares smoothed recent gains with smoothed recent losses on a 0–100 scale. Above 50, gains outweigh losses in that calculation; below 50, losses outweigh gains.
Illustrative example: a fall from 65 to 55 describes a weakening positive balance. A fall from 55 to 40 moves that balance below 50. That is why “RSI fell” alone is not a complete explanation. A crossing needs observations on both sides; a reading below 50 alone does not establish when the change happened.
RSI can remain high or low during a strong move. Its reading does not promise a reversal. RSI definition and formula.
ADX: how directional was the recent behaviour?¶
ADX measures trend strength, not whether price is going up or down. A rising ADX can accompany either direction. Read it with the price path to distinguish increasing directional strength from a more range-like period. ADX guide.
ATR: how large were the recent fluctuations?¶
Average True Range measures typical price-range size, including gaps. Rising ATR means larger fluctuations on its calculation clock; falling ATR means smaller ones. Price can still be falling while ATR falls: the direction and the size of the swings are separate questions. ATR definition.
Moving averages and Bollinger bands¶
A moving average smooths the recent price baseline; its period tells you how many source observations feed it. Bollinger bands place an envelope around an average based on measured variability. They help put price into its recent context, not determine a guaranteed future destination.
Keep the clock visible. Studies are normally calculated on the selected supported candle interval (1h, 4h or 1d), using earlier history to warm up. An explicitly requested native study is the exception: it keeps its own stored source clock. “RSI 14 · 1m” and a candle-aligned RSI on the same chart are different studies; compare readings only when their calculation clock and period match.
Regime and volatility¶
| Reading | What it describes | Why it adds context |
|---|---|---|
| Observed return variation | The size of hourly return variation across a stated horizon, expressed as a percentage | Describes how large recent fluctuations were, not their direction. It is the square root of summed squared hourly log returns and is not annualised |
| Historical percentile | Where a reading sits among this market's own earlier observations, using up to 90 days of available history | Puts the current size of variation into context for that market. A missing rank can simply mean limited history |
| Measurement horizon | The window a reading summarises: 4 hours, 1 day or 7 days | A short window reacts faster; a longer window describes a broader span. Read the horizon with the number |
| Regime state | A frozen model state for observed hourly variation, shown by the strip colour | Describes the hourly variation state, not market direction, a forecast or calibrated confidence |
The four frozen states are Lower variation, Sparse activity associated, Elevated variation and Rare high variation; thin support. Their released descriptions appear in the regime and volatility guide. An unchanged state while the volatility reading moves is valid: the state is an hourly classification and the magnitudes are separate measurements. The context panel keeps its own hourly clock even when price candles change interval.
Comparing groups¶
- Cohort: the selected group of assets. Overlap means some assets belong to both comparison groups.
- Contribution: a member's part of a group's result under the stated weighting, commonly shown in percentage points.
- Relationship plot: compares different assets' readings on two chosen axes.
- Correlation: summarises how paired return series moved together through time. It is different from a cross-sectional relationship plot and does not establish causation.
- Percentage point (pp): the difference between two percentages. Moving from 2% to 3% is +1 pp, not +1% relative growth. Basis point (bp) is one hundredth of a percentage point.
Use the cohort controls · Inspect sources and timing
These explanations describe observations, not personalised trading advice. Past performance does not guarantee future results.