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Moving Averages - How
to Use Them For Bigger Profits
By Sacha
Tarkovsky
Moving averages are useful
in forex trading but you need to know how to use them correctly.
If you do they are useful
for buying into existing trends, but they should never be used
in isolation.
Let's see how to use them
correctly.
There purpose
Moving averages come in
various forms, but they all have the same aim:
To help traders identify
trends smoothing out the day-to-day price fluctuations and show
the average price over a set period time.
The closing price is simply
added up and divided by the period of the moving average.
Popular moving averages
200 Day moving averages
are popular for tracking longer trends
20 to 60 Day moving averages
are useful for intermediate trends
5 to 20 Days are popular
for short cycles.
Which average should you
use and when?
They should never be used
to identify new trends and never use moving averages in short
time periods i.e under two weeks.
A Lagging not a leading
indicator
There a lagging indictor
in terms of price action NOT a leading indicator.
You should NOT use them
to identify new trends does not mean they are not useful.
They are good as a filter
for entering existing trends that are moving strongly.
A simple way to use moving
averages
For example, a set up we
like in a lot of markets is when a trend kicks off the 40 day
moving average we view as a line that if broken the trend could
be in danger.
We then look for pops back
to the 18 day moving average to consider entering trades in
the direction of the existing trend.
Moving averages should
never be used by themselves.
They should be combined
with other indicators i.e. support and resistance or a momentum
indicator such as the stochastic.
They can be a very useful
tool for entering an existing trend in motion and a warning
sign when a trend is ending.
They still have a use
Moving averages are not
as popular as they once were - I can remember the 1970s and
you could simply trade using moving averages.
Trends in currencies and
commodities then, were not subject to the volatility they are
today, so they can't be used in this way.
However, as a backup tool
for identifying and entering strong trends they can still make
a valuable contribution to your trading plan.
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