How to read what the market is doing — and which two tools to do it with.
An indicator does not predict the market. It re-describes what price has already done in a way your eye can read faster than the raw candles. Every one of these falls into one of five families, and the family matters more than the name: three momentum oscillators tell you the same thing three times, while one trend read and one volume read tell you two different things. Pick a family — each card gives you the reading, the failure and the setting to type in.
Pick a familyTrend8
Which way this market is going, and whether it is still going there. Every one of them lags — they describe a move that has already started, which is the price of being reasonably sure it is real.
MA / EMA
Averages price over a set number of candles and draws it as a single line, smoothing out the noise so the underlying direction becomes visible.
Default50 and 200 period
Ichimoku
A complete system in one overlay: five lines that map trend, momentum and support and resistance simultaneously, with a shaded cloud projected ahead of price.
Default9, 26, 52
ADX
Rates the strength of a trend from 0 to 100 without saying which way it is going, usually plotted with the +DI and −DI direction lines beneath it.
Default14 period
SAR
Places a trailing dot above or below each candle that accelerates toward price as a trend extends, flipping to the other side when the trend breaks.
Default0.02 step, 0.2 max
Supertrend
Draws a single ATR-based line that sits under price in an uptrend and above it in a downtrend, flipping sides when the market changes hands.
Default10 period, 3 × ATR
HA
Not an overlay but a different candle calculation, averaging each bar with the one before it so noise collapses and the trend becomes obvious.
DefaultChart type
HMA
A weighted average built to take the lag out of a moving average, turning with price within a few candles instead of trailing half a period behind it.
Default21 period
VI
Two lines comparing how far the market travels upward against how far it travels downward, drawn so whichever side is winning sits on top.
Default14 period
Nothing in the library above is a strategy on its own, and adding more of it does not make one. Two indicators from two different families tell you two things. Six from the same family tell you one thing six times, loudly enough that you stop checking whether it is right. Every question below is worth an answer before a position is opened, and each one is answered by a different family — which is the whole of the advice.
| What you need to know | Family | Start with |
|---|---|---|
| Is there a trend, and which way? | Trend | ADX above 25 for whether, the 50 and 200 moving averages for which way. Below 20, neither. |
| Is the move still being pushed? | Momentum | RSI holding above 50 through the pullbacks, rather than RSI above 70. |
| Is anyone actually behind it? | Volume | OBV making new highs alongside price. When it stops, the move is thinning out. |
| How much room does the trade need? | Volatility | One and a half times ATR behind the entry, so the stop is set by the market, not by you. |
| Where does it end? | Levels | The next pivot or the 161.8% extension — decided before the position is open. |
Note what the table does not contain: an entry. An indicator confirms a decision you have already made for a reason you could write down — it is not the reason. If the only answer to “why this trade” is that two lines crossed, the setting that made them cross is doing the deciding, and you can make any setting cross by changing the number.
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