Most of the few qnd great , (not the countless ET great Traders) I know,simply use them as a line in the sand...But they definetly use them,especially Momo/Growth guys... If you are looking for the stand alone magic bullet,it's not MA's...
%% Good line in sand; i've used bullets + brass all of my life, no such thing as magic bullet+ as you imply\ ammo is important. some ammo is more accurate + reliable than others. Paper, waxed shotshells never were good with extreme moisture\LOL General Haggerty [Head, the Fidelity Capital Markets] noted funds dont like to admit they use 200 dma but they do. Some patterns repeat; no wonder Paul tudor Jones bought a farm + shoots ducks for food. Thanks for you ma comment.
Did some backtesting EMA vs SMA EMA is slightly better but it’s not worth the talk. By slightly I mean … almost no difference. Found 20 and 100 or 100 and 200 works best.
%% YOU dont like the WSJ 65dma ?? i dont use it, even if it works somewhat on DOW/DIA, in thier hindsight paper. Its[65dma]= too little + to late for me to clutter up my charts.
Paul Tudor Jones talks about the 200 Moving Average. Guess it helps stay with the trend on your prefered timeframe. I like the 10, 50 and 200 10D, 10W, 10M Thought the slope would be a big thing but it doesn’t perform as much as Close vs MA Adding the slope into the equation is a waste of resources.
CANSLIM people sometimes use the 65 because they sell about anything below the 50 but sometimes it just chop below there then comeback. Just moving the problem around because sometimes it just chops below the 65 then comeback …
Prefer EMAs as well, especially medium-term (~ 30 - 80 period) EMAs. My preference is to color-code them as blue when slope is up and red when slope is down. Then only take entry signals determined using other methods when the new trade would be consistent with the EMA, i.e., only accept long signals when the slope is up & short signals when slope is down. I have often speculated that if traders who are not consistently profitable would continue to use their current method for identifying entries, whatever it is (price action methods, price patterns, candlestick patterns, Elliot/Gann/harmonics/cycles or whatever) but only enter trades when they are consistent with the slope of e.g., a 50 period EMA, most of them would get better results...
EMA makes no sense. You applying an exponential factor on a linear scale. Why? WHy is the 200th close more important than 50th or 70th close? Why not use volume weighted moving average. See, it never ends lol
%% I tried a lot of ma+ then a lot more moving averages; i liked a 55 more than 65. 50 week can work well; IBD some times uses a 40 week moving average; but i'm not now using a 65 or 55, or 40 ma. I remember when the WSJ had no moving averages, but IBD took so much of thier market share + things changed @ WSJ,LOL. I like WSJ old red + green candle charts; WSJ current black + grey charts are clear as mud+ i noted them on that.