Anyone using indicators successfully for intraday trading?

Discussion in 'Technical Analysis' started by Laissez Faire, Jun 22, 2015.

  1. Hello all,

    The phrase, "I don't use any indicators, just PURE price action", has been repeated ad nauseum here on ET.

    Admittedly, I have not done any serious study on indicators myself, but I'm planning to do so in the immediate future. The intention is of course not to create a methodology based on indicators, but merely seeing if there are any indicators in addition to price itself that can be helpful to read intraday price movements.

    So, I'm curious...

    Is anyone using indicators at this point or is PURE price action still king? :)

    PS: I'm going to be experimenting quite a bit with this anyway and will be revisiting volume-based charts as well. The 1000 volume chart seemed promising for the ES the last time I played around with it, but that may have changed since then.

    PPS: I'm already aware of all the arguments against indicators, i.e., "they're lagging", "they're a derivative of price anyway", "I'd rather study price directly", and so on, so please save your time with those. Nothing we haven't heard before.

    Thanks in advance. :)
     
  2. moonmist

    moonmist


    http://www.elitetrader.com/et/index.php?threads/macd.9057/page-4#post-4107569

     
  3. Javier

    Javier

    I think that depending on the timeframe. In long term a simple moving average is helpfull.
     
  4. qxr1011

    qxr1011

    I use EMA.
     
    Last edited: Jun 22, 2015
  5. moonmist

    moonmist

    I also prefer EMA, simply because some momentum indicators like TSI and RSI were originally designed to work with EMA. We all have our likes and dislikes. Some people choose SMA, and there is nothing wrong with it.

    Just my two cents.
     
    Last edited: Jun 22, 2015
  6. romik

    romik

    I use indicators alongside price action (double bottoms/tops, wedges), RSI to point to oversold/bought conditions, MACD's histogram to display sentiment. Stop is below current reaction low, target at least x3 the stop. Buyer in predominant uptrends and seller in predominant downtrends.
     
    md2324 likes this.
  7. Trend following, a strategy used in all trading time-frames, assumes that financial instruments which have been rising steadily will continue to rise, and vice versa with falling. The trend follower buys an instrument which has been rising, or short sells a falling one, in the expectation that the trend will continue.
     
  8. qxr1011

    qxr1011

    sure

    any trend following indicator is fine....until we reach support or resistance, at that point we should forget about trend following indicators :)

    that's all there is about trading... :)
     
  9. Autodidact

    Autodidact

    Yes indicator writers.

    They write the useless thing then turn a non profitable piece of crap into a profitable tool, at the expense of the noobs of course :D
     
  10. Handle123

    Handle123

    Perhaps newbs and even those who have been using indicators long time get into tunnel vision. Newbs was something easy as an indicator is end all and will find entry and exits and experienced might get locked into certain way to use them.

    Indicators to me is like an extension of price, for years I used RSI, but my eyes are tad weaker and rather have more chart screen than indicator, so off came RSI to show divergences. Most don't truly know what the indicator can be used, for me I was seeking to show slowing down of price, and this is simple enough, reduction of price difference between pivot highs, price starts to bunch up cause breaking of pivots gets smaller instead of decent breaks of several points. Some indicators if you watch long enough will show odd happenings, instead as in price making higher lows the indicator might make a lower low, and often these abnormalities can be used as means to make good trades as they often trap the uneducated.

    Indicators are to INDICATE possibilities, to make life just a tad easier. I actually like slower indicators for scalping, slower has less losing trades for me, and fast reacts too fast causing false signals.
     
    #10     Jun 22, 2015