Bears Beware: Shorting Bitcoin Now is “Pure Gambling” Claims Top Trader
Bitcoin is once again trading within the upper-$ 11,000 region. This is where its price has found immense stability throughout the past couple of weeks.
The cryptocurrency’s sideways trading has led it to oscillate between $ 11,200 and $ 12,000 – with these two levels marking the upper and lower boundaries of a trading range formed over the past two weeks.
Some analysts are pointing to recent events like a sharp decline in exchange’s BTC balances, and Dave Portnoy’s foray into crypto, as factors that could help boost the market in the short-term.
Despite these events certainly boding well for Bitcoin, the cryptocurrency’s technical strength alone may be enough to send it flying past its $ 12,000 resistance.
One top trader who was previously bearish on BTC is now noting that opening directional shorts within its current trading range is “pure gambling.”
He believes that the risk of positions being liquidated in a sharp upside movement is too high to justify being short on Bitcoin.
Bitcoin Rallies Towards $ 12,000 as Ethereum Provides It with a Tailwind
Bitcoin and the aggregated cryptocurrency market have been seeing mixed trading in recent times, with certain altcoins seeing explosive rallies while other drift lower.
Yesterday, Ethereum’s price saw a sharp upswing that led it from $ 390 to highs of $ 435. At this point, the crypto lost its momentum and began consolidating just below these highs.
In previous weeks, ETH has front-run the gains seen by BTC, which means that the benchmark cryptocurrency could soon see a breakout rally as well.
At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading down marginally at its current price of $ 11,700. This is around where it has been trading at for the past couple of weeks.
Although it has yet to mirror ETH’s price action, its fundamental strength, coupled with a potential flood of new investors as its price gains momentum, could help drive it higher.
Top Trader: Shorting BTC Here is “Pure Gambling”
While speaking about the cryptocurrency’s current technical strength, one top trader explained that the risk of shorting Bitcoin’s trading range is “pure gambling” and risky unless it is being done for the purpose of hedging other positions.
“Directional shorts in this range are just pure gambling. I understand hedging especially if you’re up huge on illiquid DeFi stuff but the risk of being short is still too high unless certain market factors change. BTC still in range 12.2k-11.2k.”
Image Courtesy of Flood. Chart via TradingView.
Considering the strength of the uptrends seen by Ethereum and other altcoins, it would take a massive influx of selling pressure to force Bitcoin below the lower boundary of its trading range.
As such, it may only be a matter of time before it sees further upside.
Featured image from Unsplash. Charts and pricing data from TradingView.