If i'm not wrong,there were almost 300k unconfirmed transactions during christmas making it very difficult to even sell bitcoins to enjoy the high price.Such a situation even made steem to get back from accepting bitcoin payments.
But now,today there were only 10,000 unconfirmed transactions.
https://blockchain.info/unconfirmed-transactions
So, that means that if bitcoin get up there are a lot of unconfirmed transactions than today. I think because if bitcoin getting higher there area lot of holders will sel and when in down there are a lot of investor who holds.