the best MA to trade forex are: NONE. Don't be a knucklehead. Oscillators & Indicators do not work. IF they did, all these knuckleheads on ET Would already be million dollar traders. Learn to find S/R on the chart. Trade these levels.
MA's are just a part of the evolution of the trader. That's all. Eventually many (successful) traders move past them, but not all. A few of the guys who post extremely high numbers in the PnL Threads have stated that trade using the higher moving averages that short&naked mentioned, and mainly focus on what price is doing around them (price action) and managing their risk and money well to achieve their goals. Oscillators & Indicators do work, particuarly because good trading is all about using a consistent approach to manage money and risk.
Thanks. Indeed, it's all about risk management. Unfortuantely, by the time most beginners realize this its already too late. If your win/lose ratio falls below 50% (more losing trades then winning trades) and you are still returning positive gains, then your on your way to longevity in this game. In fact, the real edge (IMHO) is in how you design your risk management system. The money will come. Btw, that's not to say that you shouldn't set aside a small gambling account for yourself.
thanks dudes..totally understand that it is not the grail...just wanted a friendly discussion on it...thanks...
Actually they do/can. The reason there are not more traders earning 1m a year has nothing to do with the failure of mas to keep doing what mas do.
depends on how you use them. are you using MAs to determine trend? Are you using them as crossovers? Are you using them as bands or channels for reversals or exist? There are some adaptive MAs out there that are pretty crafty, but they may be useless for you depending on your style.
but...MA's are all pretty useless for scalping or really short term FX trading...like trades that are 3 to 5 minutes...agree?
Well, take a highly liquid fx pair like EUR/USD that is harder for a single player to move during peak time. This is the kind of pair that would probably more readily respect short term MAs as R&S. However, I think that cross-over systems are more popular over the short term. Like with any short term trading, you'll get more false signals regardless of what indicator you use. In fact, you shouldn't be scalping anything but the E/U the spread will kill you with the other pairs. JPY cross should be used for carries only (IMO). Also, tight spreads make money and risk management so much easier and exact (something not ofter mentioned)!