I do not want to be anywhere too early to the party for swing trading, so better to use 34sma and wait for bars to be underneath for sells. Using criteria that is too fast gives too many false signals, I perfer to lag behind.
May I ask, did you get that 34sma from backtesting and on which instrument, equities, commodities, currencies or futures? Thanks.
For intraday trend direction, i use SMA 18 on a one minute line chart. If price line (MA 1) is above SMA 18, the long term trend is up. I also run a SMA 7 and usually only buy long when price is above SMA 7 (unless reversal). That's for overall, longer trend definition. I use tick charts to determine entry. If line chart falls under my SMA 18, (for me) up trend has ended (at least temporarily).
34 is just one of the Fibonacci numbers : 1 - 1 - 2 - 3 - 5 - 8 - 13 - 21 - 34 - 55 - etc... Some traders believe that it has some mystical properties...
I'm always looking to farther simplify. Some days i delete my SMA 18 ... and for trend definition only run the one minute line chart with SMA 7. Any time line is above MA 7, we are temporarily in an uptrend. But then all trends are temporary
True dat. It is all but guaranteed there is no consensus of a definition between the participants in this thread. Along with that, more questions are implied within the original question, such as... Is an ending the beginning of something else, or are endings and beginnings separate things? If something ends, a beginning must exist. Between a beginning and an end is a middle. Can a middle be specifically identified? Can a beginning be specifically identified? Is there a middle between an ending and beginning? Carry On!
I feel double/triple tops and bottoms are the best, plus if volume increases on the breakout it strongly signifies a change of trend.
The trend isn’t your friend. Trend followers are your friends. While mean-reverting investors aren’t.