Crypto trader Mac, who says he has spent 10 years and more than ten thousand hours watching charts, argues that traders do not need a stack of indicators to judge an entry. His method starts with a simple step: zoom out. On a weekly chart or an even higher time frame, the first question is whether price is printing higher highs and higher lows, lower highs and lower lows, or just moving sideways. That broad structure, in his view, tells a trader within seconds whether the chart deserves attention.
Highs and lows define the setup
Mac reduces chart reading to a few practical rules. An uptrend is worth buying, a sideways market is usually not worth the time, a downtrend is not worth buying, and a market shifting from a downtrend to an uptrend may offer an opportunity. The turning point is a break in structure. In an uptrend, if price falls through the latest higher low, buyers have failed to defend the area that mattered. In a downtrend, if price pushes above the latest lower high, sellers have lost control of a key level and the trend may be changing.
He presents this as a probability game rather than a promise of certainty. Technical analysis will not be right every time, but reading structure can improve the odds. Mac says the approach works across stocks, commodities, and crypto markets.
What PayPal, Coinbase, and Bitcoin show
Using PayPal’s monthly chart, Mac points to a clean uptrend on the left side of the chart that later breaks down near the 2021 peak. Once price fell below a prior higher low from about six months earlier, the structure stopped supporting the bullish case. From there, the chart shifted into a downtrend and kept making lower lows. His point is blunt: a narrative about valuation does not change what the chart is showing.
Coinbase offers the opposite lesson. On the weekly chart, support gave way and the stock entered a downtrend. After setting a low, price consolidated and later broke above a previous lower high. That move created the first higher high and confirmed a structural shift upward. Mac says traders do not need to buy the exact bottom. Waiting for confirmation, even if it means entering later, can be better than buying too early while the market is still falling.
His Bitcoin example covers both sides of the cycle. In 2023, BTC traded around $15,000 to $20,000 while continuing to form lower highs and lower lows. Then price broke above a prior lower high near $25,000, which he describes as the change that reset the structure. After that, Bitcoin printed higher highs and higher lows and climbed to roughly $125,000. On the right side of the chart, he says BTC topped around $125,000, began making lower highs, and then broke below a higher low near $85,000 to $90,000. At the time referenced in the article, price was around $66,000, which he treats as a bearish structural break.
Three lessons from the charts
Mac closes with three trading lessons. First, do not try to be a hero by buying bottoms in a confirmed downtrend. If the chart keeps making lower lows, the market is still weak no matter how attractive the story sounds. Second, step back to a higher time frame before reacting emotionally. A sharp move on the 4-hour chart can look very different on the weekly view, where the broader structure may still be intact. Third, entering late is acceptable, but entering far too late is not. His rule of thumb is that if a chart on the two-week or monthly time frame has already produced 3 to 4 higher highs and higher lows and price is far above the reversal area, the best part of the move may already be gone. In that case, waiting for a pullback that forms a new higher low may be the cleaner setup.
The article’s message stays narrow and practical: read structure before anything else. Uptrends deserve attention, sideways charts often do not, downtrends should be avoided, and the most interesting setups are the ones where the pattern of highs and lows has just turned.