Bollinger Bands Indicator Measure The trend Forex

Bollinger bands include the development of courses within an envelope used to both support and resistance, an indicator of trend and volatility.
The standard deviation Bollinger bands is calculated based on market volatility. More courses vary, faster bands differ.

According to John Bollinger, the only use of this system does not generate strong position and should be used with other technical indicators.

Defaults

- A simple moving average 20 days

- High Band = moving average 20 days + 2 standard deviations to 20 days of average

- Low Band = moving average 20 days - 2 standard deviations to 20 days of average
Use of Bollinger Bands

- Identify a change in trend

The price changes tend to occur after a narrowing of the bands.


Bollinger Bands

- Measure the Force of a trend

The greater the gap between the lower band and upper band, the greater the tendency is strong. Lessons emerging bands give a strong signal of continued trend.


Bollinger Bands

- Playing round trips between bands

Tapes can be used as support and resistance. After touching a band, classes tend to want to go touch the opposite band. This technique may be useful in a market without trend and when the bands are parallel.

Trend Indicator

Catch Trend If You Can With These Forex Indicators
Recognizing positive trends in any market is difficult and in the forex market, getting in or out too late could mean your entire bankroll. You do not have to be the best of the best in order to make a profit, but you do need to get in at a low enough point and get out at a high enough point to make a profit. If you do not recognize the right forex trading signals, you will wind up getting buried and be out of the game before you ever even got your feet wet.

In this forex training on trend following forex indicators, we will start with using crossover techniques that are specifically aimed and recognizing new trends that are developing. Some of the more popular are using the MACD and moving averages.

If you are looking for an example, when the EMA (5) crosses with the EMA (20), you have the crossing of a long term trend with a short term trend that is showing a direction of profitability. You can use the same principles when looking at the MACD crossover and over time, you will learn to pick up these trends earlier and earlier leading to more opportunities for profit.

At this writing, a perfect example of this occurred. During the market today, the 4 hours chart of the GPB/USD pairing had the TRIX (15,9) moving dramatically upwards. At one point, it had actually gone up 100 points. This is a prime example of a great money making opportunity in a forex market.

Two other popular trend following free forex indicators are the ADX and Supertrend.

The Supertrend model was developed specifically for spotting trends in the forex market and is extremely effective. That should be apparent by the name! The ADX is also very popular and has led to spotting very profitable situations over the years. Noticing a crossing at the 17-23 level (we use 20) is a great indication of situation that you will want to look at. Noticing where it is crossing on the DI- and DI+ line will allow you to figure out if you should purchase or get out if you are already involved in an investment.

Learning at least one trend indicator is a necessity, but learning multiple ones can only lead to good things. Like anything else, if you have more than one successful way to read a situation, you can look for a time when all of these forex signals that the time is right to get in or out of your forex investment. If you have conflicting information, you know you should stay away and wait for a better opportunity to risk your money.

---- by; Daniel S ---------

Speed Resistance Lines Indicator

Interpretation
Speed Resistance Lines are used to define price support levels. For example, if a security is in a rising trend, its price will usually stay above the 2/3 Speed Line. If prices do penetrate the 2/3 line, they will generally fall all the way to the 1/3 line before regaining support.
Speed Resistance Lines or SRL, also known as Speedlines, are tools to find possible support and resistance levels for an existing trend. SRL were developed by Edson Gould and is similar to Fibonacci Fans indicator. Speed resistance lines combine trend lines and percentage retracements to predict support/resistance levels and also measures the speed of a developing trend.

A set of Speedlines consists of three lines originated from same point at left and are extended to the right side. The first line is created by connecting a recent low to a recent high (in an uptrend) and a recent high to a recent low (in a downtrend). Now a vertical line is plotted covering the vertical difference between the low and high. The second and third lines are plotted in a way that they originate from the same point of first line origin and intersect 1/3 and 2/3 levels of the vertical line. Traders can plot more than one set of SRLs on same chart as the trend develops and new highs/lows are formed. Also many traders use 1/2 or 50% lines to find trend changes.

When the price is in somewhere between two of these lines, the upper line is considered as resistance and lower line is considered resistance. If mid line is crossed (from above/below), the new upper and lower lines become support and resistance levels. Generally if prices cross a line, they fall speedily to the next line. Sell signals are generated in an uptrend when the price cross third (lower) line from above; and buy signals are generated in an downtrend when the price cross third (upper) line from below.

ZigZag Indicator ; Improve ZigZag on Parabolic

ZigZagOnParabolic MetaTrader indicator — has been designed based on the 2 standard and popular MT4 indicators — The ZigZag and the Parabolic SAR[PSAR], it tries to show a better version of the ZigZag indicator by marking the Extreme Point of the price with a little delay as compared to the original ZigZag. Standard ZigZag looks for new extreme points by searching the percentage deviation of the price from the previous extreme point[highest or lowest]. The new ZigZag does so by using a different technique and based on the PSAR indicator. It looks at the Parabolic SAR indicator. Both ZigZag and the Parabolic SAR are drawn on top of the chart. The little delay in this new ZigZag is for the better and not for the worst. For all those who used the standard zigzag, they will know how unreliable it is on that chart.

Input parameters of the indicator:

Step (default = 0.02) — standard Parabolic SAR indicator setting.
Maximum (default = 0.2) — another standard Parabolic SAR indicator setting.
ExtremumsShift (default = true) — if true then the extremes are shown at their actual places; if false then the extremes are shown at the points in time when they were detected. Useful to see the delay between the actual extremum appearance and its detection point.
History (default = 0) — the amount of bars to use for calculation of the indicator. Change only if your PC is really slow. 0 — all bars are used in the calculation.

Although the standard ZigZag indicator cannot be used to for trade entries as it is very unreliable, this new improved zigzag indicator can be used as entry or exits. Can be used to detect support and resistance levels as well.

Here is one of the simplest way we could use this indicator to identify support and resistance levels and trade them as they break. Now adding some pivots and fibos together to it could produce some great results I believe. This will be almost a pure price action based system.

Most of the bad trades will have the opportunity to close at breakeven. Now, with the added fibos etc.. or maybe overbought and oversold indicators... they may allow us to avoid some of the bad breaks, therefore avoiding to trade them.

--- by ; bossxero's FxWarrior -----

Schaff Trend Cycle Indicator

Schaff Trend: A Faster And More Accurate Indicator
The Schaff Trend Cycle Indicator is the product of combining Slow Stochastics and the Moving Average Convergence/Divergence (MACD). The MACD has a reputation to be a trend indicator, yet it has an equal reputation to be lagging due to its slow responsive signal line. The improved signal line gives the STC its relevance as an early warning sign to detect currency trends.

How the STC Works
The STC detects up and down trends long before the MACD. It does this by using the same exponential moving averages (EMAs), but adds a cycle component to factor currency cycle trends. Since currency cycle trends move based on a certain amount of days, this is factored into the equation of the STC Indicator to give more accuracy and reliability than the MACD.

Since the MACD is nothing more than a series of EMAs with a signal line, the STC has improved on the MACD. MACD has a 12- and 26-period EMA with a nine-period signal line. STC Indicator improved on this by incorporating a 23- and 50-period EMA with a cycle component used as the 10-period signal line. Since we can factor cycle trends based on X amount of days, we can then know how far and how long a trend lasts in terms of potential pips to earn.

In terms of indicators both old and new, the STC Indicator is quite original in its conception. Never before has an indicator been developed using a cycle component. Most use some form of moving average, particularly EMAs, as a base because it's easier to calculate and it focuses on recent prices rather than a simple moving average's long data set of closing prices. (Learn more about stochastics )

STC Development
The STC Indicator was developed primarily for fast markets, particularly currency markets, yet it can be employed in any market.The trend in the modern day is to develop more accurate, reliable and early warning signal detectors to follow prices more accurately using the old models. The invention of the computer made it able to capture speed, accuracy and reliability of prices more uniformly, because the computer eliminated the need to calculate long equations using pen and paper. So, any new modern indicator will always have a higher reliability factor when a signal is generated.

However, as reliable as the STC Indicator may be, never will an indicator be perfect. The reliability factor may be higher but slight problems exist because of the STC's ability to stay in overbought and oversold markets for extended periods. For this reason, the STC Indicator should be used for its intended purpose: to follow the signal line up and down and take profits when the signal line hits bottom or top. Eventually another signal will generate.

An Example
The technical code for the STC works like this. Inputs: TCLen (10), MA 1 (23), MA 2 (50). Plot 1 (_SchaffTC(TCLen.MA1, MA2), Schaff_TLC. Plot 2 (25). Plot 3 (75).


Source: Standard Pro Charts
Take a look at the hourly chart of the GBP/JPY, the granddaddy of currency pairs. The MACD generates its signal when the MACD line crosses with the signal line. The STC Indicator generates its buy signal when the signal line turns up from 25 to indicate a long or turns down from 75 to indicate a short. Notice how many more signals the STC generated compared to MACD. It served as an early warning of trend change on the far left with the long red candle. A sell signal was generated at 142.50 and stopped at 139.50, a 300 pip move. While the MACD lines hovered around 140, the STC line generated a buy signal at about 140.00 and stopped at 142.45, a 245 pip move. The next sell signal was generated at about 144.00 and lasted until 141.50, a 250 pip move. These moves occurred ahead of the buy and sell signals generated by MACD.

Indicator Issues
Notice how many times the STC line resulted in a straight line to signal an overbought or oversold market. One certain aspect is that oversold markets will eventually become overbought and overbought markets will become oversold, especially when it comes to the currency cycle aspects of this indicator. Yet that is not a signal generator. Overbought or oversold markets represented by a straight line can in many instances still represent 200 points on the upside, as it did at the overbought mark at 14:00 in the middle of the chart. This is the small problem with the STC Indicator. The recommendation is to wait for the signal before jumping in.

One can increase the cycle count signal line from 10 and adjust upwards to fit the exact market. This would represent smaller market turns and a more accurate reading. Caution is advised not to increase the cycle count higher than 40, since that is the maximum currency count. One can also adjust downward to generate many market turns, but they may not be accurate signals. For longer time framed charts such as the weekly, it is recommended to adjust the EMAs to 12 and 26 or 7 and 13, and allow the same amount of cycle counts at 20 as the signal line. For shorter time frames, such as the 10-minute chart, increase the EMAs to 115 and 240, and allow the same cycle count. A personal recommendation is to allow the indicator to work as intended with the recommended settings, especially when it comes to cycle counts. Better to adjust the EMAs rather than the cycle count trigger line if one has to adjust at all.

Conclusion
The inventor of the STC Indicator allowed the full knowledge of formulas and codes to be released in 2008, so the trading public is now becoming aware of its use as an early warning trend signal. I have personally used and profited from its use on many occasions, and I have personally used the recommended settings. The interesting aspect is that this indicator is forward-looking, and is considered a leading indicator. This means false signals are very rare if ever generated. Plus, signals are generated much faster than the old indicators, such as MACD. For another recommended indicator that works as intended, this is a good one.

---- by Brian Twomey ------

Walter Bressert System ; Double Smoothed Stochastics

DSS Bressert - Double Smoothed Stochastic Indicator by Walter Bressert

Description
One after the other, William Blau and Walter Bressert each presented a version of the Double Smoothed Stochastics. Two exponentially smoothed MAs are used to even out the input values (H, L and C), in a similar way to the well-known stochastic formula.

Calculation of the DSS indicator according to Bressert is similar to stochastics.

1.) The numerator: first the difference between the current close and the period low is formed. The denominator: here the difference between the period high minus the period low is calculated. Now the quotient of numerator and denominator is calculated, exponentially smoothed and then multiplied by 100.
2.) The method is analogous to 1.) with the distinction that now the prices of the newly calculated price series of 1.) is used.

Parameters
The adjustable period length can be chosen from 2 to 500. The most common settings will have a period length ranging from 5 to 30. In addition, the indicator can be smoothed in the interval from 1 to 50. Meaningful smoothing values lie in the short-term range.

Interpretation
The application of the DSS is comparable with that of the stochastic method. Accordingly, values above 70 or 80 must be regarded as overbought and values below 20 or 30 as oversold. A rise of the DSS above its center line should be viewed as bullish, and a fall of the DSS below its center line as bearish.


---- by; Trading Online / tradesignal GmbH -------

" FRACTALs " Technical Indicator

Many people believe that the markets are random. In fact, one of the most prominent investing books out there is "A Random Walk Down Wall Street" (1973) by Burton G. Malkiel, who argues that throwing darts at a dartboard is likely to yield results similar to those achieved by a fund manager (and Malkiel does have many valid points).

However, many others argue that although prices may appear to be random, they do in fact follow a pattern in the form of trends. One of the most basic ways in which traders can determine such trends is through the use of fractals. Fractals essentially break down larger trends into extremely simple and predictable reversal patterns. This article will explain what fractals are and how you might apply them to your trading to enhance your profits.

What Are Fractals?
When many people think of fractals in the mathematical sense, they think of chaos theory and abstract mathematics. While these concepts do apply to the market (it being a nonlinear, dynamic system), most traders refer to fractals in a more literal sense. That is, as recurring patterns that can predict reversals among larger, more chaotic price movements.

These basic fractals are composed of five or more bars. The rules for identifying fractals are as follows:

* A bearish turning point occurs when there is a pattern with the highest high in the middle and two lower highs on each side.
* A bullish turning point occurs when there is a pattern with the lowest low in the middle and two higher lows on each side.

The fractals shown in Figure 1 are two examples of perfect patterns. Note that many other less perfect patterns can occur, but the basic pattern should remain intact for the fractal to be valid.

The obvious drawback here is that fractals are lagging indicators - that is, a fractal can't be drawn until we are two days into the reversal. While this may be true, most significant reversals last many more bars, so most of the trend will remain intact (as we will see in the example below).

Applying Fractals to Trading
Like many trading indicators, fractals are best used in conjunction with other indicators or forms of analysis. Perhaps the most common confirmation indicator used with fractals is the "Alligator indicator", a tool that is created by using moving averages that factor in the use of fractal geometry. The standard rule states that all buy rules are only valid if below the "alligator's teeth" (the center average), and all sell rules are only valid if above the alligator's teeth.

Figure 2 is an example of such a setup:

Figure2
As you can see, the primary drawback to this system is the large swings that take place. Notice, for example, that the latest fractal had a drawdown of over 100 pips and still has not hit an exit point. However, there are countless other techniques that can be applied in conjunction with fractals to produce profitable trading systems.

Figure 3 shows a forex trading setup that uses a combination of fractals (multiple time frames), Fibonacci-based moving averages (placed at 89, 144, 233, 377 and their inverses) and a momentum indicator. Let's look at a recent trade setup for the GBP/USD currency pair to see how fractals can help:

Figure 3
Here is a basic rule setup that is used when using a chart with a four-hour time frame:

* Initiate a position when the price has hit the farthest Fibonacci band, but only after a daily (D1) fractal takes place.
* Exit a position after a daily (D1) fractal reversal takes place.

Notice how the fractals pinpoint meaningful tops and bottoms? This helps to take the guesswork out of deciding at which Fibonacci level to trade - all we have to do is check to see if the daily fractal occurred. We should also note that the trend strength began increasing at the sell fractal, and topped at the buy fractal. Although we lose some pips with the confirmation, it saves us from losing out on mere market noise - 139 pips certainly isn't bad for three days! (For further reading, see Trading Without Noise.)

Things to Consider
Here are a few things to remember when using fractals:

* They are lagging indicators. They are best used as confirmation indicators to help confirm that a reversal did take place. Real-time tops and bottoms can be surmised with other techniques.
* The longer the time period (i.e. the number of bars required for a fractal), the more reliable the reversal. However, you should also remember that the longer the time period, the lower the number of signals generated.
* It is best to plot fractals in multiple time frames and use them in conjunction with one another. For example, only trade short-term fractals in the direction of the long-term ones. Along these same lines, long-term fractals are more reliable than short-term fractals.
* Always use fractals in conjunction with other indicators or systems. They work best as decision support tools, not as indicators on their own.

Conclusion
As you can see, fractals can be extremely powerful tools when used in conjunction with other indicators and techniques, especially when used to confirm reversals. The most common usage is with the "Alligator indicator"; however, there are other uses too, as we've seen here. Overall, fractals make excellent decision support tools for any trading method.


--- by Justin Kuepper / investopdia ------

Forex Software Review : LMT Forex Formula

Recently I was invited to beta test the new LMT Forex Formula system by Dean Saunders, the creator of the immensly popular 10 Minute Forex Wealth Builder. I am a great fan of the 10 Minute Forex system, so I was very excited to see what this new product was all about. Is this system worth buying? I believe it is..see my full review below.
The LMT Forex Formula promises to be the perfect solution for the part time Forex trader - a trading system that is 100% mechanical, 82% accurate and only requires 15 minutes of work every day. What exactly is the LMT Forex Formula? Let’s start by looking at what this system is NOT. The LMT Forex Formula is not a Forex Robot that trades automatically. It is Not a robot that trades for you. They have a software which shows you the trades but they do NOT place trades for you. You will
manually make the trades which keeps you informed on your trades.

This system is designed to earn 100’s of pips per trade.
It is good for real traders who want to have control over the
trades that you want to make.

This system comes with special indicators that alert you when trading opportunities occur, but you still place and manage the trades yourself. This means that you are not tied to a specific broker and always remain 100% in control of your own trading.
The second thing that the LMT Forex Formula is not is a scalping or intraday trading system that requires you to place many small trades every day. This system is all about large movements in the currencies and is designed to earn hundreds of pips per trade. You will get around 2-3 trades per week and sometimes stay in these trades for days before taking large profits.

What I like about the LMT Forex Formula
I have only tested the LMT Forex Formula for a short while, but the beta testing results I have seen so far has been very impressive. Those who trade actively with this system frequently report large winning trades of more than 300 pips and conservative results show that it is possible to easily make around 500 pips per month by only trading the one or two best setups every week.

Another great thing about this system is that you can use it with ANY broker, you are not forced to use a Metatrader broker like you are with all the Forex robots. The custom indicator requires Metatrader, but you can easily use a free Metatrader demo account for your trade signals and charting while doing your actual trading at a different broker.

The launch price is very affordable. Just the money management techniques that Dean teaches in this system alone is worth this price and if you consider that the product comes with a 60 day money back guarantee, then this is really a low-risk purchase.

Conclusions and Recommendations
Any Forex product by Dean Saunders is always worth investigating and the LMT Forex Formula is definitely one of the the easiest, most accurate Forex trading systems I have ever come across. If you are looking for a system that is almost 100% mechanical, but still under your full control, then I definitely recommend that you check this one out. Once you feel what it is like to take 500 pips profit in one trade off the daily charts you will never be interested in short term scalping methods again.

---- by:fxtradingreviews ------

SEE...FapTurbo Forex Robot Review and Free Download...Forex Trader Reveals : What you must know before you buy Forex Robot.

Forex Trading System

a Simple One That’s Proven and Made Millions
Enclosed you will find a free Forex trading system with one rule which is simple and has made savvy traders huge gains for over 25 years. Let’s take a look at how you can use it for bigger Forex gains…

Of course you can buy a forex trading system but most sold are junk and only have simulated back tested results - this one on the other hand has made gains for over 25 years and will continue to do so.

The system was devised by one of the trading greats - Richard Donchian who is considered the grandfather of modern trend following and his insight on channels and the 4 Week Rule (the trading system below) are two methods all traders should know about.

Let’s take a look at how it works and it’s based on one simple rule, here it is.

Buy a new 4 week high and hold the position, until a 4 week low is hit then liquidate the long position and go short. Keep doing the following - buy new 4 week highs and sell new 4 week lows thereafter and always keep a position in the market.

You can’t get a much simpler system than the above and you don’t even have to think about what to do, the rule is clear and objective, you can simply follow it and it works; here’s why.

Forex markets tend to trend for long periods and these trends can be for many weeks or months. These trends tend to start and continue from new market highs or lows, so this system will put you in on every major trend and help you get a good chunk of the profits.

Don’t worry about its simplicity - forex markets are best suited to simple, robust systems. The trader who complicates his trading strategy normally will see it fail, as it has too many elements to break.

While the system is simple and works, most traders can’t follow it.

It takes tremendous discipline to follow long term trends and they prefer to use shorter term systems which make them feel better or safer - but of course don’t work. They also follow for the myths perpetrated by vendors, that you don’t get drawdowns in Forex - but you do, even the best systems have them. You have to trade through them, learn to take short term losses and look at the big picture which is longer term gains.

This system will never go out of date and is simple to understand, it also doesn’t take long to operate about 15 - 30 minutes a day and the rule tells you exactly what to do.

If you are looking for a long term Forex trading system that’s proven, rather than a simulated one which has never been traded and won’t work, then check out the free Forex trading system which is the 4 Week Rule and you maybe glad you did.

Forex Indicator - Accumulative Swing Index

Trading with ASI indicator involves the following details:
ASI has positive value — uptrend.
ASI has negative value — downtrend.
ASI trend line breakout — validates a breakout on the price chart.
Details
What is Accumulative Swing Index
Welles Wilder, the creator of ASI indicator said, "Somewhere amidst the maze of Open, High, Low and Close prices is a phantom line that is the real market." The Accumulation Swing Index shows this phantom line - the line of the real market.
The Accumulative Swing Index uses a scale from 0 to 100 for an up trend and 0 to -100 for a down trend.

How to interpret ASI indicator
If a long-term trend is up, the ASI has a positive value; and if long-term trend is down indicator appears in a negative value. During sideways moving market, the ASI moves between + and - values.
Accumulative Swing Index is widely used to confirm or deny trend lines breakouts on Forex charts.
Trend lines are drawn on both: a chart and indicator’s graph and then compared against each other to confirm/dismiss trend line breakout signals.

How to trade with Accumulative Swing Index
Welles Wilder, developer of Accumulative Swing Index indicator, describes in his book "New Concepts in Technical Trading Systems" why ASI can be used for trend line breakout confirmations. He said, that ASI is able to show the real strength and direction of the market and since Accumulative Swing Index is heavily weighted in favor of the close price, daily upward and downward spikes do not adversely affect ASI.
Here is a quote from his book:
"When the Index is plotted on the same chart as the daily bar chart, trend lines drawn on the ASI can be compared to trend lines drawn on the bar chart. For those who know how to draw meaningful trend lines, the ASI can be a good tool to confirm trend-line breakouts. Often erroneous breaking of trend lines drawn on bar charts will not be confirmed by the trend lines drawn on the ASI. Since the ASI is heavily weighted in favor of the close price, a quick run up or down during a day's trading does not adversely affect the index."
Signal Buy with ASI occurs when indicator exceeds its previous Swing High.
Signal Sell occurs when ASI dips below its previous Swing Low.

Accumulative Swing Index chart example

Since ASI line represents real market price, Forex traders may effectively use classic technical analysis methods on the indicator itself:
- identify support/resistance levels,
- trend lines and true market direction,
- swings high/low,
- breakout setups
- and divergence between indicator and regular price charts.
Accumulative Swing Index indicator formula
ASI = ASI formula

Where:
C = Today's closing price
Cy = Yesterday's closing price
Hy = Yesterday's highest price
K = The greatest of: Hy - C and Ly - C
L = Today's lowest price
Ly = Yesterday's lowest price
O = Today's opening price
Oy = Yesterday's opening price
R = This varies based on relationship between today's closing price and yesterday's high and low prices
T = the maximum price changing during trade session

---- by; Forex Indicators / ASI -------

Forex; Trend line Strategy

Forex Tips & Strategy : How To Draw Proper Trend Line
Drawing trend line is sometime that is very subjective for most traders. From those trading books that are in the market, trend line is drawn by joining 2 or more swing lows or 2 or more swing highs. However the problem lies with there are a lot of swing highs and lows in most chart and which one should you use and which one should you ignore?

This is a topic that is suggested by one of our active newsletter subscriber who is a fellow trader. Therefore I am going to spend some time on this post to go through how you can draw proper trend line.

Basically there are 2 main types of trend line you can draw and they are

1) Common Sense Trend Line: This type of trend line is the most commonly used by traders and it basically makes use of 2 or more swing highs or lows to connect to form the line. Swing lows are formed when there is a candle that has 2 higher candles on its left and right and swing highs are formed when there is a candle that has 2 lower candles on its left and right.

Since there are quite a number of swing highs and lows in a particular chart, you need to be able to prioritise which are the more important ones.

Swing low usually forms a V-shaped pattern while swing high forms an N-shaped pattern. For swing low, the one with more higher candles on its left and right will be more significant than the one with lesser higher candles on its left and right and it works the same for the swing highs except that you should be looking for more lower candles.


When drawing common sense trend line, you will try to connect a few points and the line that has the most points connected will be the line you should be using to trade. The more swing highs or lows you manage to connect to form a trend line, the more powerful it is because there is more time the market is trying to break the line but failed and it will serve as a strong support or resistance.

One more thing to take note, if the trend line is breached by a candle, it will be no longer useful and you need to redraw another new trend line.


Personally I use a mix of these 2 ways of drawing trend line. The common sense trend line sometime serves as a long term trend line for me while the Tom Demark trend line serves as a short term trend line for me and both of them works rather well so far.
Hope that this post on how to draw trend line is useful for you.

--- by ; Kelvin / forex tips

Forex ; Trading Double Tops and Double Bottoms

Trading Double Tops and Double Bottoms
No chart pattern is more common in trading than the double bottom or double top. In fact this pattern appears so often that it alone may serve as proof positive that price action is not as wildly random as many academics claim. Price charts simply express trader sentiment and double tops and double bottoms represent a re-testing of temporary extremes. If prices were truly random, why do they pause so frequently at just those points? To traders the answer is that many participants are making their stand at those clearly demarcated levels.

If these levels undergo and repel attacks, they instill even more confidence in the traders who've defended the barrier and, as such, are likely to generate strong profitable countermoves. Here we look at the difficult task of spotting the important double bottom and double tops, and we demonstrate how Bollinger Bands can help you set appropriate stops when you're trading these patterns.


React or Anticipate?
One great criticism of technical pattern trading is that setups always look obvious in hindsight but that executing them in real time is actually very difficult. Double tops and double bottoms are no exception. Though these patterns appear almost daily, successfully identifying and trading them is no easy task.

There are two approaches to this problem and both have their merits and drawbacks. In short, traders can either anticipate these formations or wait for confirmation and react to them. Which approach you chose is more a function of your personality than relative merit. Those who have a fader mentality - who love to fight the tape, sell into strength and buy weakness - will try to anticipate the pattern by stepping in front of the price move.



Reactive traders, who want to see confirmation of the pattern before entering, have the advantage of knowing that the pattern exists but there's a tradeoff: they must pay worse prices and suffer greater losses should the pattern fail.


What's Obvious Is Not Often Right
Most traders are inclined to place a stop right at the bottom of a double bottom or top of the double top. The conventional wisdom says that once the pattern is broken, the trader should get out. But conventional wisdom is often wrong.

Leaving the trade early may seem prudent and logical, but markets are rarely that straightforward. Many retail traders play double tops/bottoms, and, knowing this, dealers and institutional traders love to exploit the retail traders' behavior of exiting early, forcing the weak hands out of the trade before price changes direction. The net effect is a series of frustrating stops out of positions that often would have turned out to be successful trades.



What Are Stops For?
Most traders make the mistake of using stops for risk control. But risk control in trading should be achieved through proper position size, not stops. The general rule of thumb is never to risk more than 2% of capital per trade. For smaller traders, that can sometimes mean ridiculously small trades.

Fortunately in FX where many dealers allow flexible lot sizes, down to one unit per lot - the 2% rule of thumb is easily possible. Nevertheless, many traders insist on using tight stops on highly leveraged positions. In fact, it is quite common for a trader to generate 10 consecutive losing trades under such tight stop methods. So, we could say that in FX, instead of controlling risk, ineffective stops might even increase it. Their function, then, is to determine the highest probability for a point of failure. An effective stop poses little doubt to the trader over whether he or she is wrong.

Implementing the True Function of Stops
A technique using Bollinger Bands can help traders set those proper stops. Because Bollinger Bands incorporate volatility by using standard deviations in their calculations, they can accurately project price levels at which traders should abandon their trades.
The method for using Bollinger-Bands stops for double tops and double bottoms is quite simple:

1. Isolate the point of the first top or bottom, and overlay Bollinger Bands with four standard-deviation parameters.
2. Draw a line from the first top or bottom to the Bollinger Band. The point of intersection becomes your stop.

At first glance four standard deviations may seem like an extreme choice. After all, two standard deviations cover 95% of possible scenarios in a normal distribution of a dataset. However, all those who have traded financial markets know that price action is anything but normal - if it were, the type of crashes that happen in financial markets every five or 10 years would occur only once every 6,000 years. Classic statistical assumptions are not very useful for traders. Therefore setting a wider standard-deviation parameter is a must.
The four standard deviations cover more than 99% of all probabilities and therefore seem to offer a reasonable cut-off point. More importantly they work well in actual testing, providing stops that are not too tight, yet not so wide as to become prohibitively costly. Note how well they work on the following GBP/USD example.


More importantly, take a look at the next example. A true sign of a proper stop is a capacity to protect the trader from runaway losses. In the following chart, the trade is clearly wrong but is stopped out well before the one-way move causes major damage to the trader's account.

Conclusion
The genius of Bollinger Bands is their adaptability. By constantly incorporating volatility, they adjust quickly to the rhythm of the market. Using them to set proper stops when trading double bottoms and double tops - the most frequent price patterns in forex - makes those common trades much more effective.

--- by; Boris Schlossberg / director of currency research at GFT Forex. ----

Forex Trading System

Profitable Trading System
Open any chart for any currency pair, any time frame. I will use EUR/USD 1H as an example.
Next, attach Bollinger bands and OsMA indicators. Default settings for both.
What we are going to use here is a classic trading method called Divergence trading. divergence simply happens when the indicator and price are going in opposite directions.

The indicator we are going to use for Divergence is the OsMA indiactor.

To avoid false Divergence signals, we are going to use Bollinger bands. Valid signals are only the ones that happens when price hits overbought – oversold levels of Bollinger bands.
Images1


When that happens we should know that price will reverse. In the above example, price was going up. So we are waiting for a sell signal. If price was going down, that means we are waiting for a buy signal.


Entry Rules –
Buy signal :

1 – Divergence
2 – Price hits Bollinger band’s oversold levels

Entry signal:
1 – when price starts to reverse up from the oversold level
2 – OsMA forms a new bar above 0 level.

Images2

Entry Rules –
Sell signal :
1 – Divergence
2 – Price hits Bollinger band’s overbought levels

Entry signal:
1 – when price starts to reverse down from the overbought level
2 – OsMA forms a new bar below 0 level.

Images3

Stop Loss :Last support/ resistance level.
Target :You have the choice to exist your trades when ..
1 – price hits the opposite Bollinger band’s level Or
2 – an opposite signals is generated

This system works great on 15M time frames and higher. Not recommended for smaller time frames.
The system is not to be used with major news releases.

It’s not the holy grail, but it’s a very good start. Try it and remember that practice makes perfect.

----- by ; Forex Warlord -------

Forex Trading Strategies : DMI and Psar

Directional Movement Index and Parabolic SAR
DMI and Parabolic SAR are very efficient trend indicators and are used often by traders for developing of their strategies. These indicators could be used separately and in combination with other technical studies. The DMI system is plotted by three lines: ADX, +DI and -DI, and could be used for generating of signals or trend filter:

Rising ADX shows that the market has a clear direction and is in a trending mode;

Declining ADX shows that the trend is losing steam or the market is in consolidation phase;
When ADX is above 20-25, the market is in a clear trend.

DMI system generates the following signals:
Rules for long position

1. ADX is above 25 and rising;

2. The Parabolic SAR goes form below to above the chart of the price. The bar when this happens is marked as Signal bar.

3. Long position is initiated when the price breaks 2-3 pips above the high of the Signal bar.

4. After the position is open an initial stop loss order is placed 2-3 pips below the low of the signal bar.

5. A limit order is placed according our Money management rules.
Rules for short position

1. ADX is above 25 and rising;

2. The Parabolic SAR goes form above to below the chart of the price. The bar when this happens is marked as Signal bar..

3. Short position is initiated when the price breaks 2-3 pips below the low of the Signal bar.

4. After the position is open an initial stop loss order is placed 2-3 pips above the high signal bar.

5. A limit order is placed according to our Money management rules.

Indicator chart



----- by ; Svetlin Minev / M.Popov ------

Forex Trading Indicator

Fx Indicator's ; Elliott Wave Oscillator, Juice and MA” -
the currency pair EURUSD (but you can choose any other, the selection of suitable values of stop-loss, profit and trailing stop),
a time-frame - M30 - MetaTrader4

Indicators Forex:
1) Exponential Moving Average EMA (200), applied to a close, the color blue.
2) Exponential Moving Average EMA (50), applied to a close, the color red.
3) Oscillator Elliott Wave Oscillator.
4) indicator of the level of Juice 0,0004.


Open a deal to BUY conclude with the following conditions:

1) Price is above the 2 moving averages EMA (200) and EMA (50), and the trend is upward, as indicated by the intersection of bullish Moving Averages (red above blue)

2) Oscillator Elliott Wave Oscillator crossed its zero line and closed above it.

3) Juice indicator is above its level of 0.0004.

Take-profit set to a value of 100 points from the entrance to the market.

Stop-loss - 20 points, trailing stop just 20 points.


Open a deal to SELL is when the following conditions:

1) Price is below the 2 moving average EMA (200) and EMA (50), while the trend is downward, as indicated by the intersection Moving Averages bearish (red below blue)

2) Oscillator Elliott Wave Oscillator crossed its zero line and closed below it.

3) Juice indicator is above its level of 0.0004.

Take-profit as set on the value of 100 points from the entrance to the market.

Stop-loss, respectively - 20 points, trailing stop - 20 points.

----- by ; ForexStrategies ----

Forex - Polarized Fractal Efficiency

Polarized Fractal Efficiency - PFE indicator - draws on Mandelbrot and fractal geometry to depict how pricing moves between 2 points during a definite time period. The more linear and efficient the price fluctuation, the shorter the distance the prices must move. the Polarized Fractal Efficiency indicator was created by Hans Hanula.

The PFE indicator is used for calculation of how trendy or overloaded the price action is. PFE <> 0 - indicate that the trend is up. The higher the reading the "trendier" and more efficient the upward movement. Readings around zero show jerky, less efficient shift and a balance between demand and supply



A hooking pattern often happens right before an efficient period finishes when the PFE appears to have maxed out, turns in the contrary direction towards zero, and then makes one last attempt at max. efficiency.

Stay with the trade all the way to the other extreme, unless it slows around the zero line. If it slows around zero, exit the trade and wait for a new max. efficiency entry.Trades can be entered in the opposite direction, with a stop just beyond the extreme of the hook.

Forex Schaff Scalping Strategy

here is just another new Scalping method which I've tested for quite a long time and now I feel confident to share it with everyone around.

However, please note that although the Logic is same but this particular Indicator behaves bit differently when I use it on MT4 or AlTrade Platform compared to the ProRealTime platform that I use with my CFD Broker. IMHO, I've found the ProRealTime much more reliable than the way it works on MT4.

Here goes my Scalping method:

Timeframe: 5, 10, 15 Minutes
Pairs: Any pair will do however Cable (GBPUDS, GBPJPY) is my favorite for Scalping

Go Long When:
1. Schaff Trend Cycle has been rising
2. Schaff Trend >= 25
3. MACD is in uptrend
4. Parabolic is in Uptrend

Go Short When:
1. Schaff Trend Cycle has been declining
2. Schaff Trend <= 75 3. MACD is in downtrend 4. Parabolic is in downtrend Exit When:
Really depends on the MACD Pattern, sometimes you may want to Exit when the MACD line separates itself from the Histogram while sometimes you need to Exit when the Schaff has reached to 75 level (if you're on Long Trade). Based on my experience, it also depends on how quickly the Schaff Trend has moved from one extreme to another.

Advantage:
Basically, it filters out the False MACD signals, such as the one shown in Chart. The key is to avoid the MACD signals which are not confirmed by the Schaff Trend Cycle.

Tips:
1. Also try to use it on larger timeframes, you'll find it quite useful especially on 4H timeframe
2. Try it in combination with ADX
3. If you're not using this system for Scalping but for the longer term Entries than you might want to keep yourself in trade until the Schaff Trend hasn't changed its color (sorry only available in ProRealTime) or moved to the other side (25 to 75 or from 75 to 25)

Caution:
1. Only use this system during the active trading hours (European Session is my favorite)
2. Its not necessary that the Schaff Trend will always move between 25 and 75 levels, sometimes this might change its direction well before reaching its destination. If that happens, you must exit your trade immediately.

Once again, good luck with your trades and keep making pips
Here is another example of Scalping with Schaff Trend ...

Note that I've used 10 and 90 as the Trend Changing readings for Schaff. Also note that DMI (along with ADX) can also be used as an additional confirmation.


---- SBJ -- Asherewt -- FxstrategyRvld ---

Forex “Detrended Price Oscillator”

What is DPO indicator about
Detrended Price Oscillator (DPO) is an indicator for eliminating trends in prices.
DPO allows to more easily identify cycles and, based on that, overbought/oversold levels.
Detrended Price Oscillator (DPO) indicator is used to isolate short-term cycles, from long-term cycles.
By eliminating long term trends, DPO helps to focus on shorter price moves/cycles, thus again making it easier to spot an overbought/oversold level.
How DPO indicator does it?
Detrended Price Oscillator compares closing price to a prior moving average, eliminating all cycles that are longer than the moving average.
Standard DPO indicator setting is 20-period.
The indicator oscillates around zero level, and, if to take 20-day DPO, it'll remove cycles longer than 20 days.
How to trade with DPO indicator

DPO trading During Trending Markets
Identify a trend and trade in the direction of the main trend.
Buy when DPO hits zero from above or dips below zero for a while and then goes up above zero.
Sell when DPO hits zero level from below or even crosses above zero for a while and then turns back below zero.
DPO trading During Ranging Markets
Identify overbought and oversold levels individual for every currency pair based on the past price behavior.
Buy after DPO dips below an oversold zone and then exits from it closing above the oversold zone.
Sell rafte Detrended Price Oscillator enters an overbought zone and then exits from it and closes below the overbought zone.

------ Fx Indicator -----

Forex Chaikin Money Flow

The Chaikin Money Flow (CMF) indicator was developed by Marc Chaikin to create an oscillating indicator for his earlier, cumulative indicator Accumulation/Distribution. Both indicators measure the degree to which money is flowing into or out of a security or currency. Chaikin created these indicators to expand and improve on an earlier volume indicator, On Balance Volume.
On Balance Volume (OBV) compares a currency pair's closing price with its previous day's close and either adds or subtracts the volume to a cumulative total, if the pair is up or down respectively. Accumulation/Distribution (A/D) altered the parameters of OBV by using the mean price, the midpoint between the periods high and low, to decide whether volume for that period was being accumulated (bought) or distributed (sold). After categorizing the period either as accumulation or distribution A/D then adds or subtracts volume based on the degree to which the pair closed above or below its open. The main difference between Chaikin’s two volume indicators is that Accumulation/Distribution is a cumulative running total while Chaikin Money Flow oscillates around a zero line.



Function
Chaikin Money Flow says:
• If a currency pair closes in the upper half of its trading range on a particular day and volume is strong, the pair is being accumulated.
• If thepair closes in the lower half of its range on strong volume, the pair is being distributed.
The values of CMF can also be used to indicate buying and selling pressure:
• Values that bounce between 0.1 and -0.1 and otherwise hang around the zero line are not strong enough to offer a bullish or bearish signal.
• Values above 0.1 and below -0.1 are indicative of buying and selling pressure respectively.
• Values above 0.25 and below -0.25 are indicative of strong buying and selling.
As with other indicators, Chaikin suggested looking for a divergence between the pricing action and the oscillator.
• If a currency pair trends up while the CMF rolls over and heads down, the currency pair will very likely top out soon after.
• On the other hand, if a currency pair trends down while the CMF bottoms out and begins to move up, the pair will very likely follow.

----- SBJ ----- by: cmsFX --------

Forex H4 Bollinger Band

Open the 4 hour chart and choose whatever currency you want.
Insert the Bollinger Band (20) indicator and be sure that its center line is appearing.
Identify 2 valid lower points OR 2 valid higher points in the Bollinger Band and drop a line from the first to the second line; it will be our break line.
Now when a candle closes above the break line issued from the higher points and in case the center line of the Bollinger band in the 1 hour chart crosses the break line then we have a LONG Trade.
If the candle in the 4 hours chart closes under the break line issued from the 2 lows points and in same time the center line of the Bollinger band crosses the break line in the 1 hour chart, then we are in a SHORT trade.
If the candle in the 4 hours chart closes under the break line issued from the 2 lows points and in same time the center line of the Bollinger band crosses the break line in the 1 hour chart, then we are in a SHORT trade.
I will give an example:
Open the 4 hours chart, open NZD/USD currency and locate the date 2008/1/16 2:00 AM EST



You can see the breakLine I dropped; it is a 2 lows points Bollinger Band which I mention it above


Now wait till a 4 hours candle break the BreakLine, you can see the candle (A) first breaked the Breakline, but is it a valid Sell Entry ? we must confirm it. So we open the 1 hour chart and locate the same Point (A) in the 1 hour chart.



We look at Point (A) in H1 and we locate its center Line (The Center Line of The Bollinger Band), as you remark that the center line didn't cross the Break Line as the candle A did; so it is not a valid sell entry, and as you can see the price go up again. So we wait another opportunity.
We reopen the H4 (4 hours chart) and wait till point (B) is formed, we see the H4 candle crossed the BreakLine, is it a valid sell entry ? we open the H1 chart and locate the Candle (B) , we look at the center\ line we see the center line crossed the breakLine so we do a short because we confirm the sell entry.

----- SBJ ---- by; RpcHost – E. Revy ----