I want to ask the Elite Trader family, what (in your opinion) is the best (if not useful) indicator that you guys trade with. Happy for a Useful Response!
The best indicator is INVISIBLE indicator. Indicators were mostly created by trading coaches, financial writers, mathematicians, newbie traders, charting software service providers, indicator hobbyists.
Right mister. There is demand for indicators. When there is demand, there will be supply and suppliers earn $$$ selling indicators. I attended a particular trading course. This coach even created his own indicator and named it after him so as to make it looked famous, powerful, almighty.
Considering this was posted in economics perhaps OP meant economic indicators? OP, it depends entirely on your market. WASDE is important for grains, FOMC, CPI, etc are important for indexes and currencies, trumps twitter has recently become my favorite...etc.
Best indicator, for what? Indicators seek to indicate different things -- trends, turns, overall vol.... each one has a flavor, which may or may not match with what you're trading. Your job is test, fit, modify, test again, and see what works. What might you invent, were you to *design* an indicator? Think about that, and then look for it -- it's likely out there at this point....... Last note: there's only price and volume to work with. There's no magic. There's NOTHING new. There's lots of sales though, and religion. So be skeptical. Allow nothing on your screen that you do not know to work. And know HOW it works. If the MACD hits +30, what does that mean? Can you explain it to your Mother? A Lane's Stochastic of 19? What does that *mean*??
Moving average lines. I use them as a quick/easy way to see pullbacks into potential entry areas. I don't draw trend lines (or anything else), but the MAs act as a trend line (for me). All I'm using, so I guess that counts as "best" for me.
As anyone would probably acknowledge there is no simple answer but I am using RSI, BB, CCI along with SMA on my EOD swing trading strategies. Here’s a link explaining why RSI might be a decent predictor of the mean returns for a basket of stocks. https://axelarati.github.io/short-term-stock-analysis/2019/09/04/Overcoming-Noise.html
A motor vehicle indicator is a leading indicator, you know what the traffic intend to do. If you turn on your indicator after you've completed the turn others might know where you've been but will fool them where you're next going. TA indicators will trick you when you think you know where price is going, that's because they flash after the move. Studying TA indicators will drive you round the bend.