Q: Moving average time periods

Newbie question, when we talk about 20 SMA, or simple moving average for the last 20 periods, are these for trading days only? So for example does the 20 SMA on a daily GBP/JPY pair exclude saturday, but include sunday if we are GMT zone?

No, a 20 SMA can be aplied to any time frame your looking at if you think its relevant. As to the daily 20 MA. Professional traders will often pull up a daily chart and plot amongst others (100 & 200 MA for example) a 20 day MA. It gives a quick visual of what PA is doing on the longer term and likely key areas of S/R.

I can’t speak for others but personally I take the 20 day MA as weekday trading days. Most experienced traders will look to the Friday close as a point of reference and not weekend ‘gap’ trading come Monday trading (London open).

Edit: Anyways its a long weekend… bank holiday in the UK (Monday) and the Royal Wedding shortly thereafter… gonna take the kids to the park and feed the ducks… only winner short term is swop on my positions. :stuck_out_tongue: