The Breakout Trading Strategy I Use to Catch Big Moves
I’ve longed resistance and shorted support for 9 years… This is the exact opposite of what every trader tries to do. In this article, I will share my entire strategy so you can skip years of testing and losses. This is something you will want to bookmark, take notes on, and set time aside to think about. Lesson 1: The Only 2 Trading Strategies Before you can identify good momentum setups, you need to understand what momentum trading actually is. Momentum and mean reversion are opposite strategies based on opposite assumptions. The Two Trading Styles Momentum (where you take a trade betting on a continuation of the current trend)Mean Reversion (where you take a trade betting on a reversal of the current trend) One assumes strength continues; the other assumes strength exhausts. Let’s consider this through a visual example. Suppose price is approaching a resistance level (in other words, a level where there was previously selling pressure, preventing the price from moving higher). Momentum assumes the level will break. You’re betting on continuation.Price approaches resistance, you buy, expecting it to push through and keep running.The level becomes support once broken. Mean reversion assumes the level will hold. You’re betting on rejection.Price approaches resistance, you short, expecting it to bounce back down.The level acts as a ceiling. Same chart. Same resistance level. Opposite strategies. There is no right or wrong. The key is to understand when you are in a momentum trade environment, such that momentum strategies are highly aligned. The next section shows you exactly how to identify when the environment favours momentum (my best strategy). Lesson 1 Summary There are 2 trading styles: momentum and mean reversionMean reversion bets levels will hold; momentum bets levels will breakOne is not better than the other; it depends entirely on the trade environment Lesson 2: Optimal Trade Environment Just opening a long every time price hits resistance won't make us any money. Without the right conditions, momentum dies immediately after the breakout. You enter. It reverses. You're stopped out. That's not bad luck, that's a bad trading environment. The Rowing Analogy Imagine you’re rowing a boat. You either row against or with the current. One makes it easier to row while the other takes a lot more effort. Your boat, or rowing technique, didn’t change… Only your environment did. Trading is the same. Your strategy is your boat. Your optimal trade environment is the current. Now use this 3-filter checklist to ensure you only take trades where a breakout is likely (with the current). Filter 1: How Did Price Approach the Level? What you WANT: A slow, grinding staircase pattern approaching resistance.Each candle makes incremental progress.Higher lows are stacking up.Controlled, deliberate movement. What you DON’T want: A fast vertical spike into resistance.Price shoots up in one or two large candles.After a spike, buyers' strength is depleted and price typically consolidates or reverses.This is exhaustion, not momentum. The staircase pattern shows sustained buying pressure building gradually. When this breaks through resistance, buyers are still engaged and ready to push further. Common mistake: Traders see a strong candle break resistance and assume momentum is strong. But these fast moves often reverse quickly. → Do this instead: Take momentum trades when price approaches resistance in a slow, grinding staircase over multiple candles. Real Trade Example: Slow clear grind into resistance showing an optimal ‘price approach to level’ for momentum. Filter 1: slow grindy staircase ✅ Filter 2: What Did Volume Look Like? Volume confirms whether the price movement has conviction behind it. What you WANT: Gradual increase in volume as price approaches resistanceThis pattern shows controlled, sustainable momentum. What you DON’T want: Flat volume (no conviction) or sudden volume spikes (exhaustion).Flat volume means the move lacks participation.Volume spikes often mark climax points where momentum exhausts.Decreasing volume (why would price break out of resistance now, if volume was lower than before?) Volume should mirror the price pattern, steady and building, not erratic. This strategy works because momentum continuation is most likely when participation is sustained, supply is absorbed gradually, and structure remains intact. Real Trade Example: Around the time the grindy staircase begins to emerge, we see a slow, consistent increase in volume. Filter 1: slow grindy staircase ✅Filter 2: clearly increasing volume ✅ Lastly, Filter 3: Moving Average Crossovers This filter distinguishes trending markets (good for momentum) from choppy, indecisive markets (bad for momentum). What you WANT to see: Moving averages with minimal crossovers. This indicates a directional trend. What you DON’T want to see: Frequent crossovers. This signals chop and indecision. Fewer crossovers = cleaner trend or range = better momentum continuation. Use the 30SMMA (Smoothed Moving Average). ✍️Quick Actionable Step: To add the 30SMMA on your charts: Search for the Smoothed Moving Average Indicator in TradingViewAdd it to your chartGo into settings and change the "Length" to "30" Real Trade Example: Filter 1 (Price Action): slow grindy staircase ✅ Filter 2 (Volume): clearly increasing volume ✅ Filter 3 (Crossovers): minimal MA crossovers ✅ 🎓Lesson 2 Summary Slow grinding staircase approaches have better follow-through than fast spikesVolume should be gradual (increasing or decreasing), not flat or spikingFewer MA crossovers indicate cleaner directional conditions for momentum Lesson 3: Identifying Setups Now you know what momentum is. You also know the optimal conditions for it. Next, you need to know where to execute these trades. Step 1: Draw Support and Resistance Levels Momentum trades happen at these key levels. You need to identify them consistently. I've already written an in-depth masterclass on how to set these levels. I'll link it at the end of this article. Common mistake: Traders draw levels randomly or inconsistently, leading to missed setups or false signals. Do this instead: Use my step-by-step approach at the end of this article. Step 2: Await Your Entry Trigger on the 1-Minute Chart Once you’ve identified a resistance level on your primary timeframe, switch to the 1-minute chart for precise entry timing. Why 1-minute chart? You learn faster. More trades, more chart exposure and more oppurtunities to practice psychology. I’ve added a bonus guide on why you should be trading the 1-minute chart at the end of this article. Real Trade Example: Step 3: Three Filters Before entering, check the three filters from Section 2: Is price approaching resistance in a slow staircase pattern?Is volume gradually increasing or decreasing (not flat or spiking)?Are there minimal MA crossovers (not choppy)? If any filter fails, reduce your risk on the trade. Only take full risk on A-grade setups, not forcing trades in poor conditions. 🎓Lesson 3 Summary Draw levels using the ZCT masterclass approach at the end of this articleUse your entry trigger on the 1-minute timeframe: 2 candle closes above for confirmationCheck all three filters before entering, allocate risk and size accordingly Lesson 4: Strategy Logic: Stop Loss, and Take Profit You've drawn your levels. You've confirmed the setup aligns with optimal momentum conditions. Now you need precise execution. Entry timing, stop placement, and profit targets determine whether you capture the momentum move or get stopped out on a good setup. This is where most traders lose, not in analysis, but in execution. Step 4: Entry Trigger We have established to wait for two consecutive 1-minute candles to close fully above the resistance level. This confirms the level broke and momentum is continuing. Critical execution detail: After the second candle closes above resistance, place a limit order AT the resistance level (now acting as support), not above it. Price often pulls back slightly after breaking out. Your limit order gets filled on the pullback without chasing. Common mistake: Traders wait for confirmation, then market-buy above resistance as price runs away. They enter late with a wider stop and worse risk/reward. → Do this instead: Preset your limit order AT resistance after the second candle closes. Let price come back to you. Real Trade Example: Step 5: Stop Loss A swing low is: the lowest wick in a pullback. Your stop loss goes at the most recent swing low before the breakout. Common mistake: Traders place stops at the nearest swing low, even if it’s only 0.3% away, leading to frequent stop-outs from normal volatility Do this instead: Always measure the distance of your stop loss using the ruler tool on TradingView. If it’s less than 1%, use the next swing low down. Step 6: Take Profit 1R (Equal Distance to Stop) Your take profit target is 1R, the same distance as your stop loss, but in the profit direction If your stop loss is 1.982% away from entry, your target is also 1.982% away, but on the upside. This gives you a 1:1 risk/reward ratio. Why 1R? It’s conservative and achievable. Momentum trades often hit 1R quickly because the breakout has follow-through. You’re not trying to catch the entire move, you’re taking a high-probability piece of it. Over time, as you get data in your journal, you can start extending your profit targets when you see how far your average winning trades go beyond 1R. This way, you’re not guessing where to take profits, but following a systematic approach. Real Trade Example: 🎓Lesson 4 summary Enter after two 1-minute candle closes above resistance, using a limit order at prior resistance (now support) to avoid chasing price.Place stop losses at the most recent valid swing low, ensuring enough distance to avoid normal volatility and minor stop hunts.Set initial profit targets at 1R to capture high-probability momentum continuation in a repeatable, systematic way. Immediate Next Steps✍️: Read the Support and Resistance Masterclass to learn how to draw levels (shared at end of article)Look at 3 charts using the 3 filter checklist to identify a momentum trade environmentUse the strategy steps to enter your tradeGather 30 trades using this method, journalled and reviewed against the criteria 🎓 Final Summary Lesson 1: Momentum vs Mean Reversion Momentum trades bet that price will continue through a level, while mean reversion trades bet that a level will hold and reject price.Both strategies are valid, but performance depends entirely on matching the strategy to the correct trade environment. Understanding this distinction prevents applying breakout logic in conditions where it has no edge. Lesson 2: Optimal Trade Environment High-quality breakouts form when price approaches resistance in a slow, grinding staircase rather than fast vertical spikes.Volume should build gradually to confirm sustained participation, not remain flat or spike from exhaustion.Minimal moving average crossovers indicate cleaner directional conditions where momentum continuation is more likely. Lesson 3: Identifying Setups Momentum trades should be executed at consistently drawn support and resistance levels.Entries are triggered on the 1-minute chart using two consecutive candle closes above resistance for confirmation.All three environment filters must align before taking full risk; weaker conditions require reduced sizing or passing the trade. Lesson 4: Stop Loss and Take Profit Enter using a limit order at prior resistance (now support) after two confirmed 1-minute candle closes to avoid chasing price.Stop losses should be placed at the most recent valid swing low with enough distance to avoid normal volatility and minor stop hunts.Initial profit targets are set at 1R to capture high-probability momentum continuation in a repeatable way. 🎓What Changes From Here The next time price approaches resistance, you won’t have to guess if it will break out. You’ll know when a breakout has real momentum, when volume confirms it, and when conditions support follow-through. You’ll also execute with defined entries, stops, and targets. #CryptoZeno #tradingStrategy
Dusk Is Bringing More Of The Regulated Asset Lifecycle Onchain, Not Just The Asset Itself
Tokenization usually gets the attention because it is the easiest part to show. Put a bond or fund onchain and suddenly there is something visible to point at. Dusk native issuance model goes further by targeting parts of the lifecycle that normally remain outside the token itself: issuance, transfer rules, settlement, review and servicing. That makes the blockchain responsible for more than representing an existing security. @Dusk is trying to make the asset’s operating rules part of the infrastructure.
The same idea shows up in Dusk Trade. Its workflow covers onboarding, wallet connection, asset discovery, buying and selling, payment coordination and settlement, with MMFs, ETFs and bonds among the intended products. Underneath that, the $DUSK stack is also designed for regulated privacy, where sensitive information can stay protected while selective disclosure gives authorized parties a way to review it.
There is already a concrete institutional angle behind this architecture. NPEX is an AFM-regulated exchange licensed as an MTF, Broker and ECSP, and its partnership with Dusk targets more than €300M in assets being brought onchain. Chainlink is also part of the infrastructure picture, strengthening the connection between Dusk and external data and interoperability.
What I’d like to see from the Dusk team next is how far this model can go as more regulated assets come onchain. With native issuance, Dusk Trade, selective disclosure and deterministic settlement developing together, the next step could be supporting more complex asset lifecycles without adding extra layers around the investor. That would make the work Dusk is already doing even more relevant to regulated markets. @Dusk #DUSK
NVIDIA EARNINGS TOMORROW COULD DECIDE WHETHER THE AI BULL MARKET CONTINUES OR NOT.
Nvidia reports Q2 results tomorrow, with Wall Street expecting roughly $92 billion in revenue, almost double last year.
That matters because Nvidia is the largest U.S. company and one of the biggest weights in the S&P 500.
It is also one of the clearest indicators of whether the hundreds of billions being spent on AI infrastructure are actually translating into demand.
Last quarter, Nvidia reported $81.6 billion in revenue, while Data Center revenue jumped 92% YoY.
Tomorrow, the market will be watching revenue, margins, Rubin demand, China sales and, most importantly, guidance.
At the same time, the chart shows NVDA approaching the $195–$200 support zone, with the larger bull-market support around $165–$170.
A strong report and a hold of support would keep the AI trade intact, while a major breakdown could hit semiconductors and other AI-heavy stocks with it.
With Nvidia now deeply tied to S&P 500 earnings and performance, this is much bigger than just one company’s earnings report.
$CYS Cold wallet activity on two separate exchanges broke a week of silence on the same day.
3.74M CYS ($2.39M) moved into Gate’s cold wallet today. That wallet had seen zero movement for a full week.
At the same time Bitget’s cold wallet has climbed steadily from 3.8M to 8.5M over the past week, with the pace accelerating in recent days.
Liquidation map
Price sat in the 0.2-0.3 range for a long stretch, then spiked near-vertically to 1.8 around August 4 before dropping to 0.4-0.5. Now at 0.7128, sitting directly on the 0.71 cluster. Another cluster remains at 1.01 from the same spike, with a visible gap between 0.71 and 1.01.
Derivatives
OI 11.3% of mcap, futures 6.3x spot → healthy range. Top traders 1.43 long vs crowd 0.98 → clear split. Taker 1.05, buyers slightly aggressive.
How I read it
Holding above the 0.71 cluster suggests the bottom of the earlier drop has settled for now.
The gap to 1.01, healthy structure, and simultaneous cold wallet activity on two exchanges make this worth watching.
A recent Dusk developer update had a detail I found more interesting than another market announcement: the team is tightening the tooling around Groth16 verification in Solidity. The new zk-tools work adds tooling to generate and validate a Groth16 verifier for Solidity, which makes the privacy stack easier to connect with EVM applications. That may sound like a small developer improvement, but I think these are the pieces that decide whether a technical architecture is actually usable. A privacy primitive can be impressive on paper, but if developers have to build complicated verification infrastructure around it themselves, adoption becomes much harder. The other thing I noticed in the same update was the work on PLONK validation, with stricter checks for malformed proofs and edge cases. That is not the kind of update that creates much noise, but I prefer seeing this kind of engineering progress because regulated applications need predictable failure handling just as much as they need privacy. I hope Dusk keeps pushing this developer tooling further. If Solidity developers can eventually use Dusk’s ZK infrastructure without needing to become cryptography specialists first, that could make the whole stack considerably more practical. Would better tooling end up being just as important as the underlying privacy technology for $DUSK ? #dusk @Dusk
$BTC The new weekly candle just opened after we had a strong 26% impulsive pump last week. Usually, what follows these kinds of impulses is a slow, boring market as liquidity rebalances.
That's exactly what we're seeing inside this Red Box. PA is extremely slow at the moment, but we have liquidity building up on both sides.
Towards the upside, we have the weekend liquidity above the current high around the 79.5k region. A sweep of this high today or tomorrow would likely confirm the local top if it's not already in.
However, if we continue pushing through that weekend liquidity, the next POI is going to be the 82.6k-82.8k region, where we currently have the HTF Liquidity Magnet Zone.
If we do get a move into these upper levels, I will look to trigger into a Short position targeting the 72.9k region, where we have an untapped Daily imbalance zone.
In case we push through that Daily imbalance zone, the next POI for a bounce will be the 71k-69k region. However, a pullback into this zone is somewhat unlikely, as we mostly see flat/shallow retracements after a strong impulsive move.
These are pretty much the areas I'm currently interested in. I don't see many worthy setups forming on the LTF as of now.
For now, It's best to let the market tap into the HTF Key Zones first before triggering into any new positions.
CZ posted about Giggle Academy donations again today, does it move $GIGGLE
Giggle Fund's own treasury wallet sits first on the donation list with 11,326 BNB (roughly $7.9M). The address CZ mentioned sits second with 1,435 BNB (roughly $1M), raised over two weeks.
On the derivatives side there's a strong split. L/S at 0.71, the crowd is short. Top trader position ratio at 3.31, big accounts are clearly long. One of the widest splits we've looked at.
But taker buy/sell is 0.82, the aggressive side is net selling. Even with price up, whoever's hitting the market is selling into it.
Futures at 10.8x spot, spot volume is just $8.75M, not even a quarter of market cap. Leverage is carrying most of this move.
The liquidation map shows two clear levels
There was a near-vertical spike from 25 to 56 on August 2. Above, a strong cluster still sits at the 55-56 range. Below, a base has formed around 35, current price (37.9) sits right above that band.
CZ bringing it back into the spotlight keeps community attention alive, and the split is strong. But spot support is still thin, this isn't yet a structure that can carry itself to the 55-56 range on its own.
A detail in Dusk that I keep finding more interesting is the two different paths developers can take. A team building directly on the native layer can use Rust, WASM, DuskVM and native ZK functionality. Another team can come through DuskEVM with Solidity, Foundry, Hardhat, viem or ethers, while still using DUSK for gas and DuskDS for settlement and data availability. That separation makes sense to me because regulated finance probably does not need every application built in exactly the same way. Some teams may want maximum control over privacy and execution, while others would rather keep the tooling they already know. Dusk seems to be trying to accommodate both instead of forcing developers into one route. The interesting part is that DuskEVM is still on testnet while the native Dusk layer is already live. I actually like seeing that distinction clearly because it makes the roadmap easier to judge. The EVM compatibility story is still something that has to prove itself through real applications, not just documentation. I am curious what the developer ecosystem will look like once both paths mature. Will builders mostly choose the familiar EVM route, or will the native Dusk stack become the more interesting option for applications where privacy and regulated assets really matter? $DUSK @Dusk #dusk
$TUT the wreckage of the August spike, and the liquidation map points down.
Price made a near-vertical spike around August 1, from 0.003 to 0.34. Then it collapsed just as fast. It's sitting at 0.0587 now, a small fraction of that peak.
Structure is still stretched
OI at 42.4% of mcap, high. Futures at 8.6x spot. Spot volume is solid ($114.89M), but futures has grown even faster. Taker at 0.97, the aggressive side leans slightly seller, even with price up 26%.
There's a split: L/S at 0.88, the crowd leans slightly short. Top trader positions at 1.59, big accounts are clearly long.
The liquidation map shows three levels
$1M sitting at 0.16. Just below the August peak, roughly 2.7x above current price. Too far out to be a near-term target.
$723K at 0.03. Below current price, the first point of contact on the way down, roughly 49% away.
$875K at 0.014. Lines up with the long flat base that held for months across June and July, a thick, well-established zone, roughly 76% below current price.
How I read it
The cluster above isn't an attractive target, it would take a 170% move to get there, not a realistic near-term scenario. The side that matters is below: 0.03 first, and if that breaks, the thick base at 0.014 comes into play.
Combined with the stretched derivatives picture (high OI, seller-leaning taker), those are the more relevant reference points in the near term.
What I'm watching
How price reacts on any approach to 0.03.
Whether it holds the 0.05-0.06 range, if it does, a new base is forming on top of this wreckage.
You can follow this data in real time in the private group. Pinned post for details.