# What combination of Technical Indicators to use...



## borat (1 December 2006)

Hi All...

An newbie here with some questions on indicators and there sense of usefulness. I have been reading up and experiementing on the most common used indicators in technical trading such as SMA, EMA, Stochastics, Volume + MA, Williams %R, ROC, RSI, Parabolics SAR and MACD.

Been looking at support and resistance levels as well. Looking and Double Tops, ottom, Head and Shoulders at t mo but I have to gather some experience to better understand these.

Using some of these together create some contradictions and does cause some confusion.

What do you find the best combinations and most reliable indicators in any particular market condition?

Thanks all...


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## nizar (1 December 2006)

borat said:
			
		

> What do you find the best combinations and most reliable indicators in any particular market condition?




Price and volume.


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## mrWoodo (1 December 2006)

I like the Money Flow Index (based on Chaikin Money Flow). It's a volume weighted indicator - WikiPedia explanation here.

Basically it returns a number from 0 to 100. 0-25 can be considered undervalued, 75-100 overvalued. 

In my BHP example, everytime the blue line (MFI) dips below 25%, check out what happens to sp.


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## CanOz (1 December 2006)

nizar said:
			
		

> Price and volume.




Yip, ditto, price and volume mostly.

I do use a 200ma on daily's, 30 ema on weeklys and i won't buy anything below them if i'm going long.

I also now use a 13 ema on a daily for a sell signal once in a while. If it goes below i sell.

I use a 21 ma on the volume. I also use slow Stochastics.


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## CanOz (1 December 2006)

borat said:
			
		

> Hi All...
> 
> An newbie here with some questions on indicators and there sense of usefulness. I have been reading up and experiementing on the most common used indicators in technical trading such as SMA, EMA, Stochastics, Volume + MA, Williams %R, ROC, RSI, Parabolics SAR and MACD.
> 
> ...




Don't forget "Cup and Handles"...my favorite patter at the moment!

Cheers,


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## borat (1 December 2006)

mrWoodo said:
			
		

> I like the Money Flow Index (based on Chaikin Money Flow). It's a volume weighted indicator - WikiPedia explanation here.
> 
> Basically it returns a number from 0 to 100. 0-25 can be considered undervalued, 75-100 overvalued.
> 
> In my BHP example, everytime the blue line (MFI) dips below 25%, check out what happens to sp.




cheers Woodo, where could I get this indicator or it's formula? Wouldn't mind trying it out...


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## borat (1 December 2006)

borat said:
			
		

> cheers Woodo, where could I get this indicator or it's formula? Wouldn't mind trying it out...



Found it, dumb question...


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## vicb (1 December 2006)

Hi Borat,
Even a dumber question. Where did you find it?
Thanks


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## borat (1 December 2006)

Jagshemash!

Found it in my collection on indicators in AmiBroker...

B.


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## vicb (1 December 2006)

Thanks Mate


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## professor_frink (1 December 2006)

borat said:
			
		

> Hi All...
> 
> An newbie here with some questions on indicators and there sense of usefulness. I have been reading up and experiementing on the most common used indicators in technical trading such as SMA, EMA, Stochastics, Volume + MA, Williams %R, ROC, RSI, Parabolics SAR and MACD.
> 
> ...



1 oscillator is all you need- RSI, Stoch, Williams %R, pick one, whichever you like best. It doesn't really matter, they all do basically the same thing. Most of the time, the main benefit to these is finding divergence. Never, ever have more than one of these on your chart.

Wouldn't touch the SAR with a 10 foot pole- the most useless thing I've ever seen- it's only useful when the market takes off like a rocket, and even then, all it will tell you is that the market took off like a rocket  

Haven't played around with volume indicators much- volume alone does the job.

SMA's can be brilliant tools when you know how to use them properly-and looking for MA crossovers isn't always the best way to use them.

What ever you choose to use, make sure you understand the basics of price action as well. Alot of people new to the game think that an indicator will tell them all they need to know. It won't. When you really get to know certain indicators, and know how they relate to the price action, then you'll be in a good situation to be able to profit from them.


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## borat (1 December 2006)

professor_frink said:
			
		

> 1 oscillator is all you need- RSI, Stoch, Williams %R, pick one, whichever you like best. It doesn't really matter, they all do basically the same thing. Most of the time, the main benefit to these is finding divergence. Never, ever have more than one of these on your chart.
> 
> Wouldn't touch the SAR with a 10 foot pole- the most useless thing I've ever seen- it's only useful when the market takes off like a rocket, and even then, all it will tell you is that the market took off like a rocket
> 
> ...




Cheers Frink, read same comments about SAR so think i'll leave it out to avoid confusing myself... I have put together, SMA ( 15 ,45,100 ) Bollinger, MACD, MFI, RSI and Volume + MA... Going to dable a bit with stochastics later on, once I understand the above mentioned. I think I have a long way to go with understanding price action, probably the greatest indicator of em all...

thanks...

B.


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## professor_frink (1 December 2006)

borat said:
			
		

> Cheers Frink, read same comments about SAR so think i'll leave it out to avoid confusing myself... I have put together, SMA ( 15 ,45,100 ) Bollinger, MACD, MFI, RSI and Volume + MA... Going to dable a bit with stochastics later on, once I understand the above mentioned. I think I have a long way to go with understanding price action, probably the greatest indicator of em all...
> 
> thanks...
> 
> B.



By using MA's and an MACD, you have 2 different indicators- MA's(smoothed out price action) and more MA's(with additional smoothing). Prob don't need both. 
What can the MACD tell you that an MA won't? These are the sorts of questions you should ask yourself before you use any of them.

If you have an RSI, you won't need the stochastics-they measure the same thing(momentum), just in different ways.

Just out of curiousity, why 15,45 and 100 for your moving averages?


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## borat (1 December 2006)

professor_frink said:
			
		

> Just out of curiousity, why 15,45 and 100 for your moving averages?



They were the out of the box parameters... Other suggestions? open to comments....


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## professor_frink (1 December 2006)

borat said:
			
		

> They were the out of the box parameters... Other suggestions? open to comments....



All depends on your timeframe, and what you want to achieve.
Personally, I think an MA over a very short timeframe(anywhere from 4-8 days) can tell you alot about the immediate trend. This combined with others of longer timeframes(such as what you already have) can give you a good overall picture of what the stock has been up to.

The best advice I can give in regards to indicators, is find a couple that you like that don't say the same thing in different ways, then put them up on as many charts as you can find, and then you can find out what kind of timeframes,settings you want to go for. 
Questions you should be asking yourself when doing this-
What is this indicator telling me at turning points in the stock?
How is it relating to price action?
What is the price action telling me that the indicator isn't?
When do these relationships show up in the stock at other times, when the stock doesn't reverse? 
Where is the most appropriate place to put my stop when I get a signal from these types of setups?


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## borat (1 December 2006)

cheers frink, will go through your comments and suggestions on my current and watchlist stocks and drill myself on what I'm doing and what I should be looking for...


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## professor_frink (1 December 2006)

borat said:
			
		

> cheers frink, will go through your comments and suggestions on my current and watchlist stocks and drill myself on what I'm doing and what I should be looking for...



No worries mate. Only just noticed that you have Amibroker- you can do some testing to figure out how well these kinds of things work. It could be worth looking into as well.


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## borat (1 December 2006)

professor_frink said:
			
		

> No worries mate. Only just noticed that you have Amibroker- you can do some testing to figure out how well these kinds of things work. It could be worth looking into as well.



Yeah, I have been exploring the charting formulas that are packageed and setting up a few combinations to work with, still working out how to use the app effectively as well so getting double the education...


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## professor_frink (1 December 2006)

borat said:
			
		

> Yeah, I have been exploring the charting formulas that are packageed and setting up a few combinations to work with, still working out how to use the app effectively as well so getting double the education...



Yeah it's all good fun. I've had Ami for 12 months now, and I'm still learning about it all the time. It's worth the time to learn as much as you can about it though.
And if you run into problems, there are a fair few people on ASF that have it, and can help you out if you ask nicely


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## stevo (1 December 2006)

borat said:
			
		

> Hi All...
> Using some of these together create some contradictions and does cause some confusion.
> 
> What do you find the best combinations and most reliable indicators in any particular market condition?
> ...



Borat
How do you determine usefulness? I can only assume by thorough back-testing of each parameter, although this is difficult to code on H&S etc.

I probably would go for as few as possible. Don't get bogged down in the multitude of indicators - there is a lot of similarities between many indicators. Things like stochastics, williams %R, MACD and RSI can be used but they are nothing special. 

Everything I mention below relates more to long term trading using weekly charts. 

For entry signals I use fairly simple strategies on weekly charts, such as the close > open, the volume is above average, and the price is X% higher than it was X weeks ago (ie ROC or momentum). You might look for a close above recent highs or the Bollinger Band breakout approach mentioned elsewhere on this forum or on my blog. 

For exits just use a trailing stop, such as moving average on the lows or a close below recent lows. Use a ratchet on the lowest lows approach as I have done on ERG chart on my blog so the exit point (stop) doesn't drop before the exit is signalled. An ATR based trailing stop is also quite good. Exit on EOW signals only.

The above basically outlines a simple long term trading system, although I will leave it to you to put it together if you want to go this route. It isn't that hard to build them, it's another thing to believe in them enough to trade them!

Stevo
www.drawdown.blogspot.com


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## MichaelD (1 December 2006)

nizar said:
			
		

> Price and volume.



I second these. It appears, however, that all market neophytes need to make it through the search for the holy grail indicator before they realize this.

Although...one entry indicator which DOES actually make a difference to long term trend trading the ASX is a long term moving average (only enter if the price is above the long term moving average).


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## stevo (1 December 2006)

Michael & nizar
Isn't "price and volume" is a little cryptic?

Your example of price above the long term moving average is much more descriptive. I can see this and test it. But I can't look at a chart of just price and volume and get a buy or sell signal, although I am sure that some can. 

Stevo


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## Raging Bull (1 December 2006)

From my observations over the last couple of weeks I have to say price and volume are the most definate two 'raw' or 'real' indicators.. it's what the market is actually comprised of. 

However, I wonder if momentum (speed of trades?), the number of trades and the average package size or trade size can also give important indications.. such as if more day traders or institutional investors are in the market?

Would day traders be more likely to lead to an inflated price and subsequent drop.. or is there no difference to who trades the markets?

Are there any indicators that measure average package size and the number of trades?


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## Porper (1 December 2006)

MichaelD said:
			
		

> I second these. It appears, however, that all market neophytes need to make it through the search for the holy grail indicator before they realize this.
> 
> Although...one entry indicator which DOES actually make a difference to long term trend trading the ASX is a long term moving average (only enter if the price is above the long term moving average).




I think every trader or even invester needs to go through the process of learning loads of indicators to realise their very limited use.

Then you can get on with trying to make a profit by watching price action associated in tandem with volume.

I must confess to using divergence signals in my trading so maybe I am still in the beginners cycle.


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## wayneL (1 December 2006)

Porper said:
			
		

> I think every trader or even invester needs to go through the process of learning loads of indicators to realise their very limited use.
> 
> Then you can get on with trying to make a profit by watching price action associated in tandem with volume.
> 
> I must confess to using divergence signals in my trading so maybe I am still in the beginners cycle.




There are plenty of experienced high falutin traders out there that are indicator based. I reckon the difference is where the ultimate point of reference lies... which of course is price.

Also lots of "price" based traders will still have trendlines drawn in, perhaps an ATR trailing stop. These are still indicators.

Cheers


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## tech/a (1 December 2006)

Price and volume in isolation are pretty useless.

Add generous portions of Momentum,a sound understanding of Bar analysis,Congestion,how it forms and when its Accumulation or Distribution,Sprinkle with some Elliot Wave Analysis and an understanding of Steidlmayer principals.

*THEN* give it all a complete miss *if you have no idea WHAT * makes you money in the market!

*IT SURE ISNT ANALYSIS.*

Cryptic enough?


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## ice (1 December 2006)

Bugger!

I just buy them if they're going to go up and sell them if they're going to go down. Never ocurred to me I had to know all this other stuff. 
Oh well, you live and learn.


ice


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## Raging Bull (1 December 2006)

tech/a said:
			
		

> Price and volume in isolation are pretty useless.
> 
> Add generous portions of Momentum,a sound understanding of Bar analysis,Congestion,how it forms and when its Accumulation or Distribution,Sprinkle with some Elliot Wave Analysis and an understanding of Steidlmayer principals.
> 
> ...




Tech, are you having a bad day?


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## brisvegas (1 December 2006)

Indicators are severely over rated. naked is the way. keep it simple. lagging oscillators do nothing for me, they will get you 50% of ranges at best. i prefer to anticipate pivots, gets me large chunk of range. trade management keeps risk to a minimum. multi time frames using the "laws" is gold. be a leader not a follower. define trends within trends. trade large in primary trend direction. take partial profits at predetermined levels and allow profits to run using moving stops. be dynamic in thoughts as that what markets are. prophets dont make profits. evolve your trading methods to suit your style. keep it simple as it really is easy once you get the moment of  epiphany. charts with mega indicators are really passe. price action says more than any laggard.  markets move in repetitive moves even though to naked eye it looks like chaos. think outside the square if you really want to become a success. the majority is normally wrong, become the minority.


.................. bris


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## borat (1 December 2006)

Cheers All,

Seems it's finding a combination that I am comfortble with that works for me. Playing around with a combination of SMA's, Bollinger, MFI for one combination, another includes the Volume + MA... The best combination will come through experience, trial and error but I have allot to play with and will try to keep it simple.

I have to learn by looking at them all and then eliminate those that dont do anything for me, part of the path of becoming a trader...

Backtesting is something I know nothing about, dont even know what it means, but will be finding out and will be back with more questions about this later   

Thanks all, you've been great!

B.


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## brisvegas (1 December 2006)

wayneL said:
			
		

> There are plenty of experienced high falutin traders out there that are indicator based. I reckon the difference is where the ultimate point of reference lies... which of course is price.
> 
> Also lots of "price" based traders will still have trendlines drawn in, perhaps an ATR trailing stop. These are still indicators.
> 
> Cheers






been around a while , best traders ive ever known never use indicators . known a couple . dont need an indicator to tell me trend change , went through all that . one day i realised that simple TL break was way more effective than any ind . ind normally tells you way after naked eye can identify . most oscillators will get you stopping out more often than not . less than 50% success rate weighs on the psychology . these people that talk risk reward and winning with less than 50% trade success rate arent shooting high enough , why be happy with mediocrity . not many of the socalled 5% successful traders will be using oscillators come indicators . no doubt this will open a can of worms but most of you guys out there are doomed to fail going the "traditional" route  . thousands of books out there pushing the same barrow yet very few people become successful traders . please ask yourself why . its easy but it aint that easy .


............... bris


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## tech/a (1 December 2006)

Raging Bull said:
			
		

> Tech, are you having a bad day?




*Actually had a prick of a day! * 

(1) 7.30 am 18 tonne drill rig craps a main drive 2 hrs before a 50 cubic meter concrete pour.Parts being flown from Brisbane now but that didnt help today.
(2) 8.00am Rock breaker on site -2 -been vandalised Hydraulics need replacing 3 hr holdup.
(3) 2.30pm 4 Tonne excavator throws Rubber track irrepairable,new one being shipped from Huntervally be here Wednesday/down a hole cant get out.
(4) 4.30pm Crew from site -3- report Clutch slipping in one of the 8 tonne tippers,Off road Tuesday for replacement.
(5) 5.00pm Shane one of my newest supervisors,comes into office and reports that his wife has been stationed in Darwin in 2007 so he will be leaving at Xmas.3 yrs training off to Darwin---bugga.

And Ive got the flu.

Thanks for asking.


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## wayneL (1 December 2006)

brisvegas said:
			
		

> been around a while , best traders ive ever known never use indicators . known a couple . dont need an indicator to tell me trend change , went through all that . one day i realised that simple TL break was way more effective than any ind . ind normally tells you way after naked eye can identify . most oscillators will get you stopping out more often than not . less than 50% success rate weighs on the psychology . these people that talk risk reward and winning with less than 50% trade success rate arent shooting high enough , why be happy with mediocrity . not many of the socalled 5% successful traders will be using oscillators come indicators . no doubt this will open a can of worms but most of you guys out there are doomed to fail going the "traditional" route  . thousands of books out there pushing the same barrow yet very few people become successful traders . please ask yourself why . its easy but it aint that easy .
> 
> 
> ............... bris




Is a trend line an indicator?

My point was not about oscillators per se'. I agree they pretty much suck for trading decisions. (but can be useful in scanning for candidates)

But nearly all traders use some sort of secondary interpretation of raw price... trendlines, support, resistance etc.

Trend traders will have some derivative of price as a trailing stop. eg moving average, or volatility stop and whatnot... or indeed a trendline.

These are not oscillators, but they are indicators.

Otherwise, totally agree with your comments.

Cheers


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## borat (1 December 2006)

brisvegas said:
			
		

> been around a while , best traders ive ever known never use indicators . known a couple . dont need an indicator to tell me trend change , went through all that . one day i realised that simple TL break was way more effective than any ind . ind normally tells you way after naked eye can identify . most oscillators will get you stopping out more often than not . less than 50% success rate weighs on the psychology . these people that talk risk reward and winning with less than 50% trade success rate arent shooting high enough , why be happy with mediocrity . not many of the socalled 5% successful traders will be using oscillators come indicators . no doubt this will open a can of worms but most of you guys out there are doomed to fail going the "traditional" route  . thousands of books out there pushing the same barrow yet very few people become successful traders . please ask yourself why . its easy but it aint that easy .
> 
> 
> ............... bris



 Cheers Bris, appreciate your feedback and advice and I see that you methods come with allot of experience, something I do not yet have.

Did you start with indicators and discard them once you established your psychology, understanding of the market and confidence? 

However, do you feel the use of indicators is a good place to start?


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## Bobby (1 December 2006)

Raging Bull said:
			
		

> Tech, are you having a bad day?




Thought you where the old pest , in my last post.
No hard feelings.

Tech can handle most !


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## wayneL (1 December 2006)

tech/a said:
			
		

> *Actually had a prick of a day! *
> 
> (1) 7.30 am 18 tonne drill rig craps a main drive 2 hrs before a 50 cubic meter concrete pour.Parts being flown from Brisbane now but that didnt help today.
> (2) 8.00am Rock breaker on site -2 -been vandalised Hydraulics need replacing 3 hr holdup.
> ...




It never rains, it pours!

I would recommend a cleansing ale or 3, but not a good idea with a flu.

"This too shall pass"

Cheers


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## brisvegas (1 December 2006)

borat said:
			
		

> Cheers Bris, appreciate your feedback and advice and I see that you methods come with allot of experience, something I do not yet have.
> 
> Did you start with indicators and discard them once you established your psychology, understanding of the market and confidence?
> 
> However, do you feel the use of indicators is a good place to start?




Yes borat it probably is pertinent to start using indicators as i did, eventually, and hopefully quicker than i did you will realise the naked eye can identify trend, price action quicker than any lagging indicators. I tried to fine tune the laggards to get quicker entry but found i stopped more, then you try to smooth them out to get higher trade success and find you miss a high amount of the trend. Now identifying potential pivot points in market is not easy either and will take a lot of experience to develop. Unfortunately there is no shortcut for this but when and or if you do, it will be like a whole new world has opened up to you. Looking at markets in multi time frames will help and applying laws of multi time frames will enhance. I'll post these laws.... print em out and try and apply them till you get a "feel".

Good luck on your journey. Apply critical thinking to your processes and be honest with yourself. Dont take a whole lot of notice of what you see on these forums unless its logical and factual. 

LAWS OF MULTIPLE TIME FRAMES

1. Every time frame has its own structure.

2. The higher time frames overrule the lower time frames.

3. Prices in the lower time frame structure tend to respect the energy points of the higher time frame structure.

4. The energy points of support/resistance created by the higher time frame's vibration (prices) can be validated by the action of lower time periods.

5. The trend created by the next time period enables us to define the tradable trend.

6. What appears to be chaos in one time period can be order in another time period.


Dispositions: Critical thinkers have dispositions that are skeptical and open-minded. They value fair-mindedness, respect evidence and reasoning, respect clarity and precision, look at different points of view, and will change positions when reason leads them to do so.

Criteria: To think critically, you must apply criteria. This means you need to set conditions that must be met for you to judge something as believable.

Argument: Is a statement or proposition with supporting evidence. Critical thinking involves identifying, evaluating, and constructing arguments.

Reasoning: You have the ability to infer a conclusion from one or multiple premises. To do so requires examining logical relationships among statements or data.

Point of View: POV is the way you view the world, which shapes your construction of meaning. In a search for understanding, critical thinkers view phenomena from many different points of view.

Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.
Buddha


cheers bris


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## It's Snake Pliskin (29 December 2006)

nizar said:
			
		

> Price and volume.




How is this done?


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## It's Snake Pliskin (29 December 2006)

wayneL said:
			
		

> Is a trend line an indicator?
> 
> My point was not about oscillators per se'. I agree they pretty much suck for trading decisions. (but can be useful in scanning for candidates)
> 
> Cheers




Wayne,

How about understanding what the fools are doing? Missing the boat


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## It's Snake Pliskin (29 December 2006)

Porper said:
			
		

> I think every trader or even invester needs to go through the process of learning loads of indicators to realise their very limited use.
> 
> Then you can get on with trying to make a profit by watching price action associated in tandem with volume.
> 
> I must confess to using divergence signals in my trading so maybe I am still in the beginners cycle.




Actually a divergence heare and there can be satisfying.


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## wayneL (29 December 2006)

It's Snake Pliskin said:
			
		

> Wayne,
> 
> How about understanding what the fools are doing? Missing the boat




Yeah, but if the setup is good, the smarties will be in before the indicator "indicates".

Price action is quicker.



<edit> which is what you are saying? yes?


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## It's Snake Pliskin (29 December 2006)

wayneL said:
			
		

> Yeah, but if the setup is good, the smarties will be in before the indicator "indicates".
> 
> Price action is quicker.




Exactly what I meant.


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## MichaelD (29 December 2006)

It's Snake Pliskin said:
			
		

> Actually a divergence heare and there can be satisfying.



Yes but do you need an indicator to tell you this? It isn't hard to discern when a stock is continually making higher highs on smaller and smaller volumes that the music is about to stop.


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## stevo (29 December 2006)

Price is an indicator. Bar charts summarise information so we can more easily see what has happened over a period of time.

Try changing timeframes. A bar chart is a means of showing where the price has gone over a period of time, where it started, and where it ended up. A 5 minute bar is going to give a different "feel" to the markets than a weekly bar. I guess you could plot each individual trade - but it is much more convenient (and useful) to summarize the raw data into price bars.

Many feel that the answer to trading the markets is to use shorter time frames on their bar charts to get them closer to the action. 

If you use a line chart of close prices then the price is summarised into just the close price. It would be just as meaningful to plot the average volume weighted price for the day as the close price - probably more meaningful.

What doesn't price tell us? What indicators are totally useless? If an indicator consistently loses then reverse the way you are using it and see if it can consistently win.

I get the feeling that discretionary traders are more likely to use price action of bar charts, combined with volume to trade. Mechanical traders tend towards indicators combined with volume to develop systems. I am not sure how I could write a system based on price and volume bars alone - there needs to be a trigger (indicator?) to initiate action.

Both approaches can work.


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## It's Snake Pliskin (29 December 2006)

MichaelD said:
			
		

> Yes but do you need an indicator to tell you this? It isn't hard to discern when a stock is continually making higher highs on smaller and smaller volumes that the music is about to stop.




Thats only if you trade using momentum Michael or go the trends. Using a simple indicator with a more advanced trading paradigm can produce some accurate signals such as a divergence.

Here is something to think about: using the "indicators" doesn't mean you "use the indicators." WayneL knows what I mean.

Pm me if you want me to spell it out.

All the best for the New Year 
Snake


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## It's Snake Pliskin (29 December 2006)

> What doesn't price tell us? What indicators are totally useless? If an indicator consistently loses then reverse the way you are using it and see if it can consistently win.




Stevo,
Good questions.


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## stevo (29 December 2006)

It's Snake Pliskin said:
			
		

> Using a simple indicator with a more advanced trading paradigm can produce some accurate signals such as a divergence.
> Snake



Snake,
I have not had much luck with coding a divergence system. What indicators do you use for this? I am thinking that I could try divergence with a confirmation signal, maybe use an unbounded indicator like ROC.


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## It's Snake Pliskin (30 December 2006)

stevo said:
			
		

> Snake,
> I have not had much luck with coding a divergence system. What indicators do you use for this? I am thinking that I could try divergence with a confirmation signal, maybe use an unbounded indicator like ROC.




Stevo,

You are far better than me, coding is not my game at all. I am totally deficient with computers etc. 
A simple MACD divergence with a not so simple market viewpoint. Pure discretionary.


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## beachcomber (3 January 2007)

I look at daily and weekly price bars first.  

I then look at the Stochastic and MACD, MACD-H indicators in conjunction with support, resistance and trend lines for confirmation of what the price bars are suggesting.

The stochastic is a momentum type indicator and is more useful in non trending stocks.  The MACD is predominantly a trend following indicator.  Volume is also fairly important because it can give an indication of the sustainability of any price moves.

I also use Fibonnacies and bollinger bands to get a feel for potential price targets.

cheers


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## lesm (3 January 2007)

stevo said:
			
		

> Snake,
> I have not had much luck with coding a divergence system. What indicators do you use for this? I am thinking that I could try divergence with a confirmation signal, maybe use an unbounded indicator like ROC.




Stevo,

You may be interested in having a look through this Emini Divergence Journal, which is based on a divergence style approach:

http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=20761&highlight=keltner+divergence

Cheers


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## It's Snake Pliskin (24 January 2007)

It's Snake Pliskin said:
			
		

> Stevo,
> 
> You are far better than me, coding is not my game at all. I am totally deficient with computers etc.
> A simple MACD divergence with a not so simple market viewpoint. Pure discretionary.




Stevo,

Try to code something for something like in the link.

http://www.forexproject.com/technical_analysis/divergence.html


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## >Apocalypto< (2 February 2007)

Hey Borat,

I used to use a double MA with MACD with histogram. I would trade once both crossed up or down.

MA would cross frist then if MACD did as well i had confrimation it worked quite well.

Now all I use is OBV and volume with a 21 simple MA for looks!


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## theasxgorilla (2 February 2007)

Trade_It said:
			
		

> Now all I use is OBV and volume with a 21 simple MA for looks!




Minimalist...a man after my own heart


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## CanOz (2 February 2007)

200 sma, 13 ema, volume & price and occasionally slow stoc.

Cheers,


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## >Apocalypto< (2 February 2007)

theasxgorilla said:
			
		

> Minimalist...a man after my own heart




thanks,

yeh all i look at is the trend and the real drivers price and volume and OBV is such a great mate to do that.

Also Market depth can shed some good light as well >Follow the heard!<


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