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.