Indicators

Bobcat45

With so many indicators out there, which ones are the most accurate and reliable across Stocks and ETF’s? Usually in a trade 20 -40 days

markd

I'm not sure if popular = accurate, but if it does, MACD, RSI and Slow Stochastics seem to show up on a lot of published charts.

That said, indicators seem to be optimized for the most common cycles in the market - that's why you have default parameters for each. The parameters define a look back period. But market legs vary widely in length and steepness, so any indicator will fail in markets that don't reverse in the look back period, or where markets reverse several time inside it.

In general, indicators wouldn't become known at all if they didn't work sometimes, so all of them do at one time or another. So, basically, there are two choices - choose two, maybe three and get to know them, or, make up your own versions. But, there's no easy way.

Bobcat45

Thanks. Just makes me wonder what the big boys are using with their super computers and the auto- bots ..

markd

They are mostly playing for pennies and they are not using standard indicators. They are using algorithms developed by physicists.