Education

What are the most used indicators?

Updated

For someone that wishes to get an edge using technical indicators, which ones would be some of the best ones to have into your arsenal?
To answer that question I will look at which ones are the most popular, I am only looking at oscillators here, overlays are not used that much (not talking about moving averages).

First of all I tried looking at what hedge funds were using but that info is quite hard to get, but from what little I have seen I will guess it is going to be close to what you would expect.
I check several sites and youtubes to see what THEY used.

But most importantly, I looked at trading view ideas, luckilly I was tired and lazy so I just checked hundreds of ideas manually and noted what they used.
Also, remember alot of people do not used oscillators (or overlays) at all. I myself have strategies based on naked chart. Actually I will probably make a script that hunts for daily inside bars (maybe fakey patterns) and I will publish that on TV.

What I found on other sites is quite similar to my results on trading view. Here they are:

I checked the top 180 FOREX ideas this friday and I found:
17 Stoch (%D)
40 RSI
22 MACD
14 Other (1 to 3 each)

==> Stoch = 18%, RSI = 43%, MACD = 24%

Top 11 pages for Futures (18*11 = 198 ideas):
10 Stoch
35 RSI
23 MACD
18 Other

==> Stoch = 12%, RSI = 41%, MACD = 27%

Top 6 pages for stocks
15 Stoch
36 RSI
30 MACD
40 Other

==> Stoch = 12%, RSI = 30%, MACD = 25%

I do not really like stoch that much, but I can vouch for MACD and RSI. I got a strategy based on RSI (+ other factors of course) and another one with macd. They are both pretty decent.
You can use any oscillators you want, but any strategy that uses oscilators I believe should have RSI or MACD included. There is a reason they are popular, and if you trade a divergence or whatever and every one sees it too, you really have the odds on your side.

Stoch is quite popular, but I do not know what to make of it. The way it works... idk. You could make a condition "I will only enter long when stoch is below 20" but I looked at this, you give up winners and still pick up losers, does not look amazing.

My recommendation would be:
- Do not use 500 indicators. What is wrong with you? XD This is not how trading works.
- Use MACD or RSI.
- You can throw in a second one of your liking.

I also found out the oscillator I use had a 0.6% occurence. Feelsbadman.

Note

"Do not use more than 2 indicators"
Full disclosure I personally use 4, not counting MA & EMA I might add XD

I get more signals that way. I do not use conditions on all 4, that would filter out everything.

Only problem is my 27 inch screen feels small with all this stuff on it :(

I do also have strategies on naked charts (not using at the moment).

Just whatever, do what works. And one thing that works is looking for clear obvious things that every one sees, and figuring how to filter false signals.

Note

I do not know if hedge funds look at oscillators much or what they look at.
From videos filming inside their place I do not see any, it's quite rare, so I will assume "no".
I also believe they look at the Daily Weekly and Monthly time frames.
They use MA and EMA's but I do not know any details.

And very importantly, they appear not to look at candles. They just don't care.
This helps to find supports and resistance.

They are just so much easier to see. And they can bee seen "equally" on daily and weekly timeframes.

Can you easilly tell what the levels are without looking at the lines?

I bet you can now

And Bitcoin...

Oscillators are not very important EXCEPT when you got something like this:

You got some clear, big divergence like this on a clear major support... you know...
4 hour too.

Note

4 hour correction... Sometimes copy paste no worki

I guess this can be scripted... got to try.

Note

I came to realise hunting for the "perfect" indicator, the "perfect" oscillator, was a waste of time.
Nothing is as good as you would want it to be and filter 90% of losers. Trading is very hard, you will take alot of losers, trying to filter more and more is a waste of time and will make you lose your mind.
Nothing will help you find hidden gems. A perfect indicator does not exi-

I was tired of looking for an indicator to complement RSI, so I made my own :D

I wish crypto wasn't ded so I could use the experience and advanced skillz and also indicators I developped these past few months... Still works ok with other assets... Hope crypto moves so I can take good trades again... Even better than ever before.

I still use RSI as it is the most popular and works even without being popular (without the self fulfilling prophecy part), I always wanted a way to judged momentum easilly/quick that fits me, and now I got one.

Before you ask me for this indicator, know that it is very lagging, and fits the (advanced & specific) way I trade. It is really only for me unless someone happens to do exactly the same I do and also knows how to use this.
There are plenty "better" ways to judge a trend strength and that aren't VERY lagging.
Here is 1 example:

MrRenev

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