Trading Foundations

Module 1: How Markets Work

Before you place a single trade, you need to understand what you’re actually participating in. A financial market is simply a place — physical or digital — where buyers and sellers exchange assets. The price of any asset at any moment is the point where buyers and sellers agree on value.

Stock markets let you buy ownership stakes in publicly traded companies. The major US exchanges are the NYSE and NASDAQ. Trading happens Monday–Friday, 9:30am–4:00pm Eastern time.

Crypto markets operate 24/7, 365 days a year with no central exchange. Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) are the largest by market cap, but thousands of tokens exist.

What moves prices? Supply and demand. When more people want to buy than sell, price rises. When more want to sell than buy, price falls. The chart always shows you the result.

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Module 2: Reading Candlestick Charts

Every chart is made of candlesticks. Each candle shows four data points for a given period: Open, High, Low, and Close (OHLC). The body shows the range between open and close. The wicks show the highest and lowest price reached.

Green (bullish) candle: Close is higher than open. Buyers were in control. Red (bearish) candle: Close is lower than open. Sellers were in control.

Key patterns: Doji (indecision), Hammer (bullish reversal at support), Shooting Star (bearish reversal at resistance), Engulfing (momentum shift), Marubozu (pure directional momentum).

Timeframes: Use higher timeframes (daily, weekly) to understand the macro trend. Use lower timeframes (1hr, 15min) to time entries precisely.

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Module 3: Support and Resistance

Support is a price level where buying pressure stops price from falling further — a floor. Resistance is where selling pressure stops price from rising — a ceiling.

These levels form because traders remember prices. If a stock dropped from $150, many people who bought there are sitting on losses. When price returns to $150, they sell to break even — creating resistance.

Role reversal: When support breaks convincingly, it often becomes new resistance. When resistance breaks convincingly, it often becomes new support. Some of the highest-probability trades happen right at these role reversals.

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Module 4: Understanding Volume

Price tells you what is happening. Volume tells you how much conviction is behind it. A price move with high volume is far more meaningful than the same move on low volume.

Volume confirms trends: A healthy uptrend has higher volume on up days and lower volume on down days. A breakout above resistance on massive volume is a high-conviction signal. A low-volume breakout is suspect.

Volume spikes (2–3x average) often mark turning points or the start of strong trending moves. Always note what price does when volume spikes.

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Module 5: Stocks vs Crypto

The same technical tools work on both — but understanding the key differences makes you a better trader in both markets.

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Module 6: Introduction to Moving Averages

Moving averages smooth price data and reveal the underlying trend. When price is above a moving average, the trend is up. When price is below it, the trend is down.

SMA (Simple Moving Average): Equal weight to all periods. The SMA 50 and SMA 200 are the most-watched levels by institutional traders worldwide.

EMA (Exponential Moving Average): More weight to recent prices — reacts faster. The EMA 8 and EMA 34 are the core entry triggers in the Eaglizer system. When EMA 8 crosses above EMA 34, that’s a potential buy signal.

Golden Cross: 50 SMA crosses above 200 SMA — long-term bullish signal. Death Cross: 50 SMA crosses below 200 SMA — long-term bearish signal. Both are watched by institutions globally.

Moving averages also act as dynamic support and resistance. The Eaglizer system requires price to be above the SMA 99 before entering any long — this single filter eliminates the majority of losing trades.