Noob Question regarding indicators and software

I’m working my way through the School, and i have a AlpariUK demo account to work with.

I’m studying the indicators section at the moment, and from what i see in the pictures included for examples, are nice simple to follow indicators.

When i go onto my Alpari software and try and set the same indicators to practice, I end up with all these confusing ‘settings’, and i’m not sure which are the correct ones to use.

Is there any ‘standard’ settings to use with this type of software. Because from what i’ve seen so far, everything looks different to the examples you’ve given.

I.e my bollinger bands have 3 lines instead of 2. :confused:

The standard settings are probably fine to start off with if you’re looking at understanding indicators. Be aware that indicators do lag price though and are just that - indicators.

Your BB has 3 lines as there’s a middle line with is a 20 period simple moving average. The bands are then a certain number of standard deviations away from this moving average. The standard setting for BB is 2 standard deviations.

Try to learn and thoroughly understand one indicator. To some degree, they have similarities so the second and third will be easier to learn. I am not saying use more than one indicator, but it may take several tries before you find the one you are looking for. BB is a good start, Moving Average would also be a good one as it is probably the most common.

You may decide, as I and many others have that indicators aren’t necessary and just trade using Support/Resistance. So don’t spend a lot of time learning multiple indicators - there are no bonus marks for most indicators used.:rolleyes: