weld1 Stochastic is no use when a market's strongly trending - the indicator line gets pushed up above 75 and stays there in an uptrend, or stays down below 25 in a downtrend. So its not just at a top its useful, its any time the market is ranging, which is often. When we are in a range, stochastic normally gives a signal simultaneously or earlier then MA/price cross-overs, not usually later.That's assuming both are on comparable time horizons, say both are set for signals useful for the next 3-15 days for swing traders. With experience, MACD is a good confirmation indicator for either stochastics or MA signals.
thanks for the reply tomorton, i looked at a chart with the full stoch indicator,it seemed to give good signals,in fact very good since last spring! i see what u mean about coming off over bought or oversold levels. what do u think are good settings for intraday, 1 to 5 day and 1 to 30 day for stoch and macd. i ask this question alot. i really like OBV! please tell me what u think, thanks so much weld1
weld1 For my swing trading (2-15 days holding periods usually) I prefer a 20 (2) 9 setting for stochastic oscillator indicator. Will get back later re MACD as am in office now and my stuff's at home. Actually I always intend to use MACD as a confimatory signal but somehow find I rely more on 14DMA (Simple) to time entries and exits on these trades. 50DMA (Exponential) confirms trending price behaviour.
Hi again weld1 Now home again I find my MACD settings are 12, 26 (9). You could infer that because I couldn't remember what the settings are, I don't use them a lot - and you'd be right. Cheers
I must say today's set-up for a gap-n-crap was the easiest money making opportunity I've seen in a while....lot's of easy money been made in e-minis this year!<g> ~j