Everything you learn about trading is like a tool that is being added to your forex trader’s toolbox. Your tools will give you a better chance of making good trading decisions when you use the right tool at the right time. Bollinger Bands Bollinger bands are used to measure the market’s volatility. They act like mini…
Now on to the good stuff: Just how profitable is each technical indicator on its own? After all, forex traders don’t include these technical indicators just to make their charts look nicer. Traders are in the business of making money! If these indicators generate signals that don’t translate into a profitable bottom line over time, then…
Now that you know how some of the most common chart indicators work, you’re ready to get down and dirty with some examples. Better yet, let’s combine some of these indicators and see how their trade signals pan out. In a perfect world, we could take just one of these indicators and trade strictly by…
Ichimoku Kinko Hyo? Yes, you’re still in the right place. You’re still in the School of Pipsology and not in some Japanese pop or anime site. No, “Ichimoku Kinko Hyo” ain’t Japanese for “May the pips be with you.” but it can help you grab those pips nonetheless. Ichimoku Kinko Hyo (IKH) is an indicator…
When trading, it can be helpful to gauge the strength of a trend, regardless of its direction. And when it comes to evaluating the strength of a trend, the Average Directional Index is a popular technical indicator for this purpose. The Average Directional Index, or ADX for short, is another example of an oscillator. ADX fluctuates from 0 to 100, with readings below…
The Williams Percent Range, also called Williams %R, is a momentum indicator that shows you where the last closing price is relative to the highest and lowest prices of a given time period. As an oscillator, Williams %R tells you when a currency pair might be “overbought” or “oversold.” Think of it as a less popular and more sensitive version of Stochastic. As a momentum…
Relative Strength Index, or RSI, is a popular indicator developed by a technical analyst named J. Welles Wilder, that helps traders evaluate the strength of the current market. RSI is similar to Stochastic in that it identifies overbought and oversold conditions in the market. It is also scaled from 0 to 100. Typically, readings of 30 or lower indicate oversold market…
The Stochastic oscillator is another technical indicator that helps traders determine where a trend might be ending. The oscillator works on the following theory: During an uptrend, prices will remain equal to or above the previous closing price. During a downtrend, prices will likely remain equal to or below the previous closing price. This simple momentum oscillator was created by George Lane in the late 1950s. Stochastics…
Up until now, we’ve looked at technical indicators that mainly focus on catching the beginning of new trends. Although it is important to be able to identify new trends, it is equally important to be able to identify where a trend ends. After all, what good is a well-timed entry without a well-timed exit? One indicator…
What is MACD? MACD is an acronym for Moving Average Convergence Divergence. This technical indicator is a tool that’s used to identify moving averages that are indicating a new trend, whether it’s bullish or bearish. After all, a top priority in trading is being able to find a trend, because that is where the most money is made. With a…