Forex signals or indicators are those series of data points that are used in predicting currency movements. These signals are used by forex investors to evaluate how a certain currency will most likely perform in the future. Using forex signals in forex trading can certainly be to your advantage. They give hints on which currencies are most likely to become profitable and which ones are most likely not to perform as well in the short term.
One of the most popular forex signals is the relative strength index or RSI. It measures the ratios of upward and downward movements of currencies with use of normalized calculations so that indices can be expressed in a range of 1-100. An RSI of 70 and more means that a certain currency is overbought, while an RSI of 30 and less shows that a currency is oversold. A currency is overbought when its price has risen more than what the market has expected and it is oversold when its price has fallen more than what the market has foreseen.
The stochastic oscillator is a forex signal used in showing the overbought and oversold conditions on a scale of 0% to 100%. It is based on observations of currency buying movements. When currency buying moves in an upward trend, the closing prices of currencies would tend to concentrate in the higher part of the range for that period, and when currency buying moves in a downward trend, closing prices of currencies would most likely fall near the extreme low of the range for that certain period.
Another signal used in forex trading is the average true range or ATR. The ATR was developed to give forex traders a feel of the historical volatility of a currency in preparation for actual forex trading. Forex currency pairs that have lower ATR readings suggest lower volatility, while those currency pairs that have higher ATR readings suggest higher volatility and would often necessitate appropriate trading adjustments.
The moving average convergence divergence or MACD indicator is another forex signal that is worth mentioning. This forex signal involves the plotting of the MACD line and the trigger line. The MACD line shows the difference between two exponential moving averages like the buying and selling prices while the trigger line shows the exponential moving averages of their differences. Once the MACD and trigger lines cross, one can say that a change in the movement trend is to be expected.
