
A breakout trader would use this as an opportunity to jump on the train and place their stop below the low of the consolidation. Recently, SGOC had a breakout around midday and continued to push higher. In the example, we will cover staying on the right side of the trend after placing a long trade. Strategy #1 – Example of going long with the primary trendīelow is a play-by-play for using a moving average on an intraday chart. Wait for the price to close below both moving averages in the counter direction of the primary trend on the same bar.Make sure the price has not touched the 10 SMA or 20 SMA excessively in the last 10 bars.Select two simple moving averages to apply to the chart (ex.Locate stocks that are breaking down strongly.Then look for price confirmation that the stock is resuming the direction of the primary trend. Once you have identified the correct SMA, wait for the price to test the SMA successfully.Apply the following SMAs: 5,10,20,40,200 to see which time period is “minding” price the best.Look for stocks that are breaking out strongly.Let’s look at some of these rules in depth and the accompanying examples. The best way to use a 5-SMA is as a trade trigger in conjunction with a longer SMA period. The shorter the SMA, the more signals you will receive when trading.
Nonetheless, it is essential to know what other traders are looking at for clues.Īccording to Toni Turner, author of the A Beginner’s Guide to Day Trading Online, the major popular moving averages used by most traders are the 10, 20, 50, 100 and 200. However, generally speaking, the more popular indicators will work better for you. It is critical to use the most common SMAs as these are the ones many other traders will be using daily.Īlong those lines, we do not advocate you following the crowd. In fact, some traders like to throw a myriad of these averages onto the charts in an SMA “cloud.” Theoretically there is an infinite number of simple moving averages. It is simple addition and division, for the entire world to share. However, the SMA is not a proprietary calculation with trademark requirements. In fact, every indicator is based on math. Quite simply to calculate the simple moving average formula, you divide the total of the closing prices by the number of periods.Īs you can see, the SMA is just simple math. The last five closing prices for XYZ stock are: Let’s look at a simple moving average formula example. To that end, this detailed article from Wikipedia delves into formulas for the simple moving average, cumulative moving average, weighted moving average, and exponential moving average. This formula is also a key tenet to engineering and mathematical studies. Calculating the SMA is not something limited to technical analysis of securities. The simple moving average formula is the average closing price of a security over the last “x” periods. In addition, we’ll cover the simple moving average formula, popular moving averages (5, 10, 200), real-life examples, crossover strategies, and personal experience with the indicator.īy then end, you should be able to identify the system that will work best for your trading style. We’ll cover various trade examples, charts, and videos. That is our goal in this post - to show you everything you need to know about simple moving averages. After all, just a quick Google search will turn up dozens of day trading strategies. If you’re familiar with the indicator, it isn’t so difficult to see why it can be challenging to trade with simple moving averages. But like most indicators, it isn’t a cure-all for trading.
Perhaps the most popular indicator in all of trading. Not surprisingly, the simple moving average is a popular technical indicator. Why the simple moving average? Once you begin to peel back the onion, the SMA might be simple to calculate, but isn’t as simple to trade.
