This Week's Question: What’s the One Indicator or Tool You Can’t Trade Without?

True, this.

Can I nominate Ichimoku Kinko Hyo as the second most misused?

There are people trying to sound like experts on Ichimoku, writing (self-published) books, and talking on Youtube about it, who are teaching people to use it for forex trading with the daily, stock-trading settings from the former 6-day week!! :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:

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I currently use 2 different indicators, in combination with classic PA.

First one, which a BP member turned me on to years ago, is the Ichimoku Cloud. But only the lagging span, everything else is turned off. This mimics price in line form (instead of candles or bars) and lags behind, reducing clutter. I use this as a visual to find S&R levels, or break and retest areas within a trend.

Second one, also learned from a BP member recently (you all probably know who) is the SMA 10 & 50 (okay, maybe that counts as 2 indicators?) which clearly shows the swing high/low points on different TF’s, giving me a better visual of current and longer term trends at a glance. It’s also easier to spot certain patterns such as double tops/bottoms, H&S, etc.

Also, a shout out to the 20 EMA which I use as part of a screener for stock picking each weekend. I’ll only look at stocks which price has crossed this level (among other settings). This gets me in an existing trend and helps keep me from trying to trade reversals, so price has to either cross and close above or below.

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Thanks to all making this thread interesting. I can kill my boredom here. I’m testing my robot in ByBit until it’s rusting my neck. :grin: I’m also very happy to popularize thread by Mrs. @Penelopip.

I just want add my view about how to use indicator. There is no correct or wrong way to use an indicator. Everything relies on the person who is using it. RSI as an example, when you use it on weaker TF, it helps us to show momentum, overbought / oversold.
When we use on stronger TF, it’s more accurate for us to treat it as trend indication. Different instrument will have different configuration. Example, RSI on XAU will react differently compare to EURUSD.

Here is the example of real use of RSI,

  1. Overbough/sold on H1 chart, major pair.
  2. Trend indication when appy on HTF, such as H1 and above.
  3. Reversal by waiting for Convergence / Divergence.
  4. Pullback after trend has been confirmed.
  5. Breakout by looking at top/bottom
  6. Volatility by looking at the difference of last n top/bottom
  7. Forcasting next market range from previous momentum.
  8. … many more.

The articles about RSI mostly cover only 1, 2 and 3. So there are a many more ways to use RSI. I use RSI with more then 20 methods. The more we understand about an indicator, we will know more how to use it.

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When trading forex I don’t particularly use indicators as such.

But my favourite indicator when trading other markets is volume profile.

Knowing the volume traded at each level is absolutely crucial to my day trading strategy.

It’s definitely moving averages for me! :blush: Compared to other tools, I feel like I’m more comfortable with them and I’ve also had the most experience using MAs since I first started with the HLHB system here. :sweat_smile:

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I find that a combination of two displaced moving average channels can be a very helpful way of defining “trend”, just for directional bias purposes, within a specified chart-speed. I can then enter trades from price action parameters only, just according to the direction defined.

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Bit like Keltner Channel

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You are a wizard with the MAs :+1:

But you don’t mind throwing in a bit of witchcraft :rofl:

For me, RSI is the one tool I always come back to. I combine it with support and resistance levels. I don’t use it to guess the exact top or bottom, but it helps me spot when momentum is slowing down or when a reversal might be coming.

EMA9-50-200 for trend direction, MACD my second tool… :wink: Trendline is my friend.

My answer’s moving averages.

I use a couple, just to discern the trend. A weighted MA of the close, and a slower simple MA of the typical price. I don’t use them for trade entries.

I think in general, indicators aren’t much good for trade entries.

Especially not for forex.

And especially not for anything faster than daily charts.

Hardly a surprise, when you think they were nearly all invented for stock trading from daily closes?

If you don’t mind a question, is one (or both?) of them an “Erlanger channel,” by any chance?

u must have gone far