Best Forex Trading Indicators - 2 Types of Tools That Can Explode Your Trading

By Nigel Banks

Trading in the foreign exchange market was once a privilege only for large banks and major currency dealers. However, through the advancements of technology more and more "normal folks" are now able to buy and sell on the market from the comfort of their home.

But without the normal education that the pros get, new traders can feel left out in the cold. This is why many traders wisely turn to Forex Trading indicators to help get a handle on profitable trading.

The fact is that these are powerful tools that can help you to organize and measure movements on currency pairs.

The Myth About Forex Trading Indicators

A lot of traders, especially beginners, are led to believe that Forex trading indicators are some sort of secret that will take them down the path to riches.

However most seasoned Forex traders will tell you that this business involves hard work, risk, discipline and the ability to follow rules and trade through tough periods during and draw downs. In other words, if you are looking for a guarantee, trading is probably not for you.

The Facts About Forex Trading Indicators

That said trading the global foreign exchange market can be a highly profitable business, especially with the high amount of leverage that most brokers will give you.

However it is critically important to learn the basics of how to uncover profitable trading opportunities with simple Forex trading indicators.

The Two Types Of Indicators

Forex indicators can be placed into two basic categories - the continuation indicators that follow trends such as moving averages, and those that analyze the velocity or momentum of price movement.

These types of indicators work simply because they define and organize the patterns into an understandable set of tools. Once you learn how to recognize and interpret these indicators, they will tell you which market force, if any, is strongest and where or when there may be a significant imbalance between the two opposing forces that will move the markets.

Moving Average Indicators

Moving averages are one of the most popular and easy to use tools available to the Forex traders looking at timing up or down trends. They help show underlying market movements and can provide additional supporting information on buy and sell decisions.

Moving averages work best when a market is trending, and are less effective when a currency pair chart moves sideways (in a trading range).

This means that you need to first identify markets that display some trending characteristics before attempting to use moving averages.

Moving averages may seem boring compared to other technical indicators, but there is more than meets the eye when it comes to this simple tool.

Moving averages can be applied to any price or data series to generate buy and sell signals for both long and short positions. And they can be used to establish support and resistance points in the markets.

Momentum Indicators

Momentum or Rate of Change oscillators involve the analysis of the rate of price change ,rather than the price level that Moving averages use. The speed of price movement and the rate at which prices are moving up or down provide clues to the amount of strength or weakness of a currency pair at a given point in time.

Momentum oscillators, such as RSI, stochastics, or MACD, are a favorite indicator of many traders and they are best applied to non-trending or sideways markets. So they are the best tool to use when a Moving Average indicator is practically useless.

This is because momentum indicators are generally a leading indicator, and will often move before price action does.

These Forex indicators are set up as an oscillator type of indicator. They help to reveal turning points and extremes when a market has been flat for some time. In physics, momentum is the tendency for an object in motion to stay in motion, and this is the principle behind the momentum indicator.

Combine For Best Results

Between these two indicators you should be able to build a solid trading tool box. Moving averages for currency pairs that are moving up or down with regular consistency, and Momentum indicators for the times when the markets move lazily sideways.

One More Consideration For Forex Trading Success

If you are still new to the Currency markets consider investigating today's Expert Adviser software as a tool to help you trade and learn. These are some of the same tools that institutional traders (banks and currency dealers) use to make profits for their employers. There are many products on the market now, but frankly only a few are worth the time. Click to http://www.forexproductsconsumerreports.com to find out which ones have worked well for other people based. This is a popular independent forex software review site based on actual customer feedback.