Moving Average

victor

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Can the Moving Average really give an accurate indication of the trend on a particular timescale ?
 
victor said:
Can the Moving Average really give an accurate indication of the trend on a particular timescale ?

Hi Victor.
I am not sure if this answers your question, but here is my idea about M/As. Yes, they do indicate the direction of a trend in whatever timescale you are observing, but so do many other tools. Best of which is "PRICE". A M/A dilutes the information contained in PRICE and maybe makes it easier for the human eye / mind to intrepret.
Of course no moving average of any type will give an indication on whether a trend will continue.
Maybe used with other tools it could be a useful component of an approach or method, but this is going to be more of a function of the trader utilising the approach as opposed to any benefits that M/As may offer.
 
victor said:
Can the Moving Average really give an accurate indication of the trend on a particular timescale ?

It can indeed, provided of course that the time period concerned is in the past and not the future. Moving averages in combination with other moving averages and/or in combination with other technical parameters and other interpretation based on understanding the price-movement tendencies of the particular security concerned can give varying degrees of probability of trend continuation in the future too, but certainly not an "accurate indication". IMHO.
 
The treastie of MA has to be kaufman "Trading Systems and Methods." & "Smarter Trading" - like most things they just give an indicator (i.e. read the chart in front of you )
 
Roberto said:
It can indeed, provided of course that the time period concerned is in the past and not the future. .
:LOL:
Roberto, you HAVE to tell me who you get your datafeed from.....
 
TheBramble said:
:LOL:
Roberto, you HAVE to tell me who you get your datafeed from.....

What do you mean, Brambly one?
I seem to be the one without brains tonight ...
 
I think he's referring (and DO stop me if I'm mistaken Tony, but I think I'm on safe ground here <g>) that a non-past time based MA must be based in the future, and for you to consider that it might exist in such a matter of fact manner suggests we could all benefit hugely from subscribing to whichever data supplier you are getting this future price feed from.....
 
Sorry, I'm being very thick, Tony. But either I've misunderstood you or you've misunderstood me. I think you are making the same point that I was trying to make in my reply to Victor. :)
 
Roberto said:
Sorry, I'm being very thick, Tony. But either I've misunderstood you or you've misunderstood me. I think you are making the same point that I was trying to make in my reply to Victor. :)
Well it's come full circle then, as I knew it would. :cool:
 
I'm beginning to think that - in the words of a certain Professor of Classics who, secretly, was sadly unable to translate substantial proportions of the original Greek - "the passage loses more than it gains from an excessively detailed analysis". :)
 
I had a bottle of that once, but I couldn't finish it.
(Sorry, I like to obscure moments like this with an inappropriate observation that adds little but extra confusion - it's a hobby of mine.)
Dave
 
victor said:
Can the Moving Average really give an accurate indication of the trend on a particular timescale ?

It can give you a pretty good idea, but is unfortunately still a lagging indicator, so whipsaws are a painful reality here. It works nice however as a tool in you Technical Analysis but not a great on shorter term trading signals.
 
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For those of you that do use MA's...

What periods do you use?
Do you use EMA or SMA or a combination of both?
What do you get from these lines? (Bounce off / cross over etc)

I like to keep things simple and have stripped out all TA except price and MA's and I would be very interested to hear how others use them.
 
sharriss said:
For those of you that do use MA's...

What periods do you use?
Do you use EMA or SMA or a combination of both?
What do you get from these lines? (Bounce off / cross over etc)

I like to keep things simple and have stripped out all TA except price and MA's and I would be very interested to hear how others use them.

SMA: 3 and 8; crossovers. ( stop and reverse; always in the market )
SMA: 21 and 11: when prices breach both averages. ( plus other rules )
am moving towards just using price channels.
also look at pivots ( swing ) trading. ( as and when required )
also fibs. ( only trade in direction of major trend - trading about 50% of time )

have started to add Narrow-Range-7 day triggers to trading.

I prefer to use more than 1 system. That way, I have a "consensus" trading.

Even if one method becomes unprofitable, the others will "cover" the cost of the loss.
Very rarely have I been in a situation when ALL the trades have been losing.
for example, if the 11:21 SMA is losing me money short-term, the tighter 8:3 is making me money. overall, I can be profitable.

think of it as hedge-trading.

keep it simple.
have more than one tool in your box.
think about trading in different time-frames.
 
Just to point out that the answer to the original question is "of course", and that you're now getting into MA(s) as buy/sell signals, which is something else entirely.

If one is going to get into multiple MAs, Fibs, "pivots" and so on, he'll be pretty much back where he started.

Simplicity is not for sissies. :)
 
dbphoenix said:
Just to point out that the answer to the original question is "of course", and that you're now getting into MA(s) as buy/sell signals, which is something else entirely.

Absolutely right; and that can't be said often enough: something else ENTIRELY !! :)
 
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