BULLISH on Steem?!?

I've been bearish (and hard) on STEEM for ages, but I'm seeing a few early bullish signals I can't ignore.

Some of the coverage of STEEM price I've published in the past few months:

On the first day of the year when you don't feel chilly, when you smell flowers on the breeze, and see a honeybee... you know spring is coming. No calendar needed.

For me, it's like that sometimes with markets I'm watching. Of course, the weather might turn chilly again for a bit, but most years, I know exactly when it's time to germinate my seeds.

Here are a few faint signals I've been picking up on lately, which might indicate STEEM's price recovery is imminent:

The chart

Past history is sometimes an indicator of future performance. The chart may give hints about sentiment (demand) and market factors (supply) we can use to make an educated guess.

The formation over the past few weeks is what I call 'bottomy' (not an official term). It's not a classic bottom signal like an inverted head&shoulders, but it's no longer making lower lows. Essentially, it has turned sideways, and over the past few days has a slightly promising uptrend. It's not much, but it's definitely not as dismal as it has looked over the past 18 months!!

"NewSteem"

HF21 happened a week ago, sending shocks through the Steem economy. Projects, businesses, and individuals alike are frantically changing their strategy on this blockchain. That makes it a wildcard. Sure, it means less money for content-creators, and more money for investors, but the free downvotes also will play a part in how things shake out. This could certainly be a turning point, financially, and if investors like what they see there will be a price recovery. It's an "if", but worth mentioning on this list.

Sentiment

I've been bearish (and horrified) of the STEEM price for a long time. Lately, it feels like sentiment has fallen further. It feels like when Bitcoin fell from 20k to 3200, and EVERYBODY was saying it would keep falling to 2000. That's when I knew we'd hit that bottom! It's starting to feel that way, now. There are eternal bulls in every market, but right now almost everybody else who could possibly be bearish on STEEM, has become so. It's akin to that last winter storm before things start to thaw - it's darkest just before the dawn. The bear bandwagon has become full, and it feels crowded. Experienced market watchers recognize these as potential market bottom signals.

If you're reading this and disagree with it, that actually proves my point about sentiment. This isn't a popular opinion right now, which could very well be why it's correct.

If the Steem blockchain (and currency) is a failed project, which is a very real possibility that many eternal optimists ignore, there's likely no price recovery coming, other than dead cat bounces. But if Steem is going to be one of the survivors of this crypto winter, a strong price recovery is due, and the bottom may already be in.

Shenanigans

This may be a little conspiratorial for some, but I've long wondered if the hard fork would be a price turning point. I believe stock prices (and currency prices) can be manipulated by whales/groups buying and selling at certain times or in certain patterns. Somebody could profit greatly this way. There's means and motive. That doesn't mean it happened, it only means it could have happened. Think about it in terms of corporate takeovers. A company's value may be driven downward through stock selling or negative news (aka "FUD"), sometimes via backdoor deals, to ensure an attractive price for the takeover. There are pros and cons to everything. Low price is for some a nightmare, and for others a blessing. Somebody profits when somebody loses, and vice versa.

Well, the 'takeover' is complete. "NewSteem" is here, with different financial rules, and a shakeup of some of the power players. In this "what if" scenario, whoever was driving down the price over the past several months would likely lay off their efforts now, allowing what could be a healthy price recovery.

Bitcoin

What happens with Bitcoin drives the rest of the market. It's 70% of the entire crypto world, after all. And Bitcoin has been taking a bit of a break since the move up to 14k, bringing the other cryptos down with it.

But when the bull run resumes, and I think it's going to very soon, STEEM will get pulled up with it (at least to some degree). As I mentioned above, the chart looks bottomy here. If we get any upturn now, investors will see the bottom as in.

Conclusion

Sure, it's really dismal at the moment. It's hard to watch something drop consistently for years, losing 99% of its value, and remain optimistic. But you've felt that way before, and it hasn't always been right. We often feel that way when it feels there's no end to the trend in sight, that it will go forever, that we're in a new paradigm. Both tops and bottoms can be that way, emotion-driven. Our emotions aren't the best way to analyze charts, though. If we observe the cues, faint as they may be, we can hear spring coming just around the corner.

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