Price Predictions for Bitcoin, Ether, 2 Altcoins from Technical Trader

Since the fast and furious market crash of March 2020, volatility has gradually decreased in traditional markets, but trader Boutros always knows that “there are opportunities everywhere, you just have to know where to look.”

“It may not be an investor’s market, but it’s always a trader’s market,” he said, “and that’s how I approach every day.”

With the flexibility and agility to capitalize on short-term price swings, it’s no surprise that traders like Boutros are drawn to the highly volatile crypto market.

Even better, as the bitcoin-dominated asset class matures, traders with technical analysis expertise are particularly suited to gain an edge.

“Technical analysis is just the study of crowd psychology, so the more participants you have in an asset, the clearer the technical aspects are,” Boutros said. “With bitcoin it’s more of a mere sentiment play, and that’s why from a technical point of view, as more investors come into the fold and more volume starts to unfold in this asset, the technical aspects become more and more clear.”

Bitcoin to rise, decline and break out to new highs

After falling below a key support level of $30,000 on July 19, bitcoin (BTC) made a strong advance from multi-month lows. It was trading above $42,000 as of Friday afternoon.

Boutros believes traders should not get too excited for now. He distinguishes a similar price trajectory for bitcoin as the path it embarked on in the summer of 2018.

“If you take a parallel with the price action that we’ve seen from the drop in 2018, there’s actually a lot of similarity, both in price and in time,” he said. “In that particular decline, you saw it around the fourth or fifth month in a bit of a tidy recovery that gave way to another multi-month decline.”

In his view, bitcoin is in that transition period between short-term recovery and prolonged slide again. He adds that the largest cryptocurrency could rise to $45,000 before encountering major downtrend resistance, which could lead to another multi-month decline.

“I don’t think we’ll necessarily see new lows, but on the downside, if we hit $32,000 to $35,000, those would potentially be decent entries for the long side,” he said. “On this advance, with the reversal that we just made, even if it extends to $45,000 from here, you still have to be cautious. It’s still a broad multi-month downtrend.”

By January of next year, Boutros sees bitcoin breaking above the $45,000 level and rising to fresh new highs.

“So if you’re not a short-term guy, you want to sit it out,” he said. “You either want to wait for the pullback to $35,000 to buy or if it’s above $45,000 high it’s going to be the resumable trade, you’re likely to see an accelerated rally.”

For traders looking to exploit short-term price movements, the next few weeks are the best time.

“You’re looking for a high to fade, so you want to look for a stretch near $43,000 to short,” he said. “If it goes even higher, maybe add $45,000. But that’s your threshold and it really shouldn’t be anything higher than that if we’re going to correct lower.”

Trading strategies for ethereum, litecoin and ripple

While much of the crypto market is moving with bitcoin, some tokens have outperformed while others have fallen harder than the dominant crypto, which is up more than 47% as of Friday afternoon.

The native token of ethereum, which triggered a hotly anticipated London upgrade on Thursday, was up 280% this year. For Boutros, $3,300 is the line in the sand for ether (ETH) to mark the resumption of another uptrend.

“You’ll probably see ether stay higher over the next few days, but in $3,300 or $3,350, you want to start early to clean things up,” he said. “You’re hitting a lot of uptrend resistance there, so take out some long positions and raise your protective stops.”

On the other hand, litecoin (LTC), which has risen about 15% this year, is in the process of making a longer-term bottom before resuming a potential strong uptrend, according to Boutros. The altcoin is trading at just over $148 as of Friday afternoon.

“Litecoin has had a pretty sharp decline. It’s come down pretty nicely in the last two months,” he said. “I’m looking for a pivot and a close above $150 to potentially be the repeat move there.”

Boutros thinks ripple (XRP) is in a similar bottoming process, but if it breaks above $0.80, it will likely find meaningful support. The altcoin, which is up about 248% this year, was trading at $0.74 as of Friday afternoon.

In the short term, it’s the same trade for bitcoin, ether, litecoin and ripple in that even if they go higher in the short term, traders should wait for the pullback, according to Boutros.

“It is too clean for this 10-day rally to just pause for two days and then continue,” he said. “There has to be a washout. We have to wash out some of the weak hands first and then all of a sudden that low point is where you want to start building for a bigger rally.”