Ditto. Understanding the proper application of the 50 and 200MA tests/breaks is one of the market's "biggies". Why? Because "everybody watches them". So should us all.
1. Use Weekly data if you are swing trading. Daily and intraday data is worthless for legitimate swing trading. 2. TA works brilliantly, but the vast majority of the traders I come across don't truly understand what the indicator package is sampling and the genesis behind the indicator. I've taken on a couple hundred experienced traders as clients - and quite frankly a great many of them didn't know as much as they thought they knew. John Bollinger once told me at a CME mixer in Chicago that maybe ten percent of traders were using Bollinger Bands correctly and as he intended. 3. I would shy away from oscillators, cycles, and "overbought" / "oversold" indicators. 4. Moving Averages are better than most indicators. But study the methodology behind them. Understand the sampling period concept. Understand the various data smoothing varieties. Endeavor to study the price action behavior as it approaches and makes contact with the MA of interest. This is just my own humble but hard won experience - YMMV. I wish you good fortune !
Many of us swing traders are failed day traders. And many investors are failed swing traders: Failing to exit a losing trade, we then became an investor in that stock. That aside, I think there is less noise in the signals with longer duration positions. I say this because I couldn't make it as a day trader.
Swing trading is really a great form of trading. I would recommend the new traders to take a deep look on this style of trading as it is profitable for both new and experienced trader. My strategy is totally dependent on the swing trading.
I don't know, if every swing traders, new or professional are profitable, then who provides them with their profits? Money don't grow on trees?