Bitcoin’s bull flag will determine whether bears push the price to $14K or if bulls finally take the $16K mark.

Bitcoin price (BTC) appears to be taking a short breather after reaching a new 2020 high at $15,960 on Nov. 5.

The 1-hour and 4-hour timeframe show the price compressing within a flag and throughout the majority of the trading day, the $15,500 level has held as support. $15,750 is the level Bitcoin needs to break in order to pursue another stab at $16,000. 

BTC/USDT 4-hr chart. Source: TradingView

Within the last hour, a dragonfly doji candle formed as the price swept low to test the lower support of the bull flag at $15,166, and as the formation approaches its terminus traders will look for a breakout which will push through the $15,500 to $15,600 level where a high volume VPVR node lurks.

Clearly, there is a small tussle taking place between bulls and bears, and flipping the $15,600 level to support with a 4-hour close will increase the possibility that BTC will make a third run at the $16,000 mark.

The RSI also continues to rise above 70, a bullish signal, but daily purchasing volume has tapered off a bit after some traders secured profits as BTC surged to $15,900.

Alternatively, a drop below the flag support at $15,100 opens the door for a touch of the 20-MA at $14,680. The swift, nearly vertical breakout that occurred from Nov 4 - 5 occurred without establishing any ‘new supports’, and as the volume profile, visible range shows there is a gap extending from $13,900 to $15,500.

In the event that the price falls below $15,100 and buyers don’t perceive this as a dip-buying opportunity, there is the possibility of a retest of the $14,000 to $13,800 level as support.

While a 9%, $1,400 drop is un-nerving, lower support retests are perfectly natural and healthy after strong rallies like the one seen this week.

Crypto market daily price chart. Source: Coin360

As Bitcoin price searches for direction, altcoins have regained a smidgen of the vast territory lost over the past two months. Ether (ETH) is the most notable leader of the past few days as the altcoin rallied to $447 and is currently attempting to break through resistance at $450.

Yearn Finance (YFI) also made a strong move as it rallied more than 30% to $11,100. Uniswap’s UNI token also made waves at it added 15.5% and currently trades at $2.53.

According to CoinMarketCap, the overall cryptocurrency market cap now stands at $444.6 billion and Bitcoin’s dominance rate is 64.7%.