Trading Indicators — Complete Reference
Reference pages for 12 of the most-used trading indicators. Each page covers how the indicator works, standard settings, signals to look for, where the indicator shines, and where it fails.
All indicators
- RSI (Relative Strength Index) — Momentum oscillator measuring the speed of recent price changes on a 0-100 scale.
- MACD (Moving Average Convergence Divergence) — Momentum + trend indicator built from the difference of two EMAs with a signal line.
- Moving Averages (SMA and EMA) — Smoothed average of recent prices — the foundational tool for trend identification.
- Bollinger Bands — Volatility bands plotted at standard deviations above and below a moving average.
- Stochastic Oscillator — Momentum oscillator comparing current close to recent high-low range.
- VWAP (Volume Weighted Average Price) — Average price weighted by volume — the institutional benchmark for intraday execution.
- ADX (Average Directional Index) — Trend strength indicator measuring the strength of a trend without indicating direction.
- Ichimoku Cloud — Multi-component indicator providing trend, support, resistance, and momentum in one chart.
- Fibonacci Retracement — Horizontal support/resistance levels at key Fibonacci ratios of a prior price move.
- ATR (Average True Range) — Volatility indicator measuring the average price range per period.
- OBV (On-Balance Volume) — Cumulative volume indicator tracking buying vs selling pressure over time.
- Parabolic SAR — Trailing-stop indicator that flips sides when trend reverses.