TA Technical Analysis · Updated February 2026 · ~5 min · For TradingView desktop 3.2.1

Reading Bitcoin Candles in TradingView: Timeframes, Log Scale & Halving Cycles

Bitcoin has risen tens of thousands of times over a decade; on a linear scale, early volatility is squashed into a flat line. For crypto long-term charts, the first thing to do is switch to log scale.

Switch to log scale

In the scale settings at the bottom-right of the chart, tick Log. On a log scale, equal-percentage moves take equal vertical height — 20k to 40k and 40k to 80k are both "a double" and look the same height, so trend lines are drawn accurately. Crypto especially demands log scale.

Overlay the halving cycle

Bitcoin's supply issuance halves roughly every four years — historically a key cyclical anchor. Switch to the weekly, draw vertical lines on past halving dates (2012, 2016, 2020, 2024) or load a community "Halving" indicator. Aligning price structure to the halvings reveals the historical "12–18 months after the halving" pattern.

Pairing timeframes

• Weekly / monthly: set the bull/bear direction and where you are in the halving cycle;
• Daily: find swing structure and key support/resistance;
• Leave intraday timeframes for execution — don't use them to judge the long-term direction.