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Forex Basic Strategies

Learning The ‘Intraday Strategy’ To Trade The Forex Market

Introduction

In today’s article, we present to you a fairly simple but reliable trading strategy that can be used by all types of traders, irrespective of their style. It is believed that when markets are strongly trending in one direction, it gets impossible to catch the stalling point. It is only difficult to catch the ‘top’ or ‘bottom’ of the market, but it also carries a huge amount of risk. We are going to discuss a trading strategy that is contrary to this common belief. We shall try to catch the highest or the lowest point in the market by using some of the most powerful technical indicators and techniques.

Time Frame

The strategy can be used on the 5 minutes, 15 minutes, and 1-hour time frame chart. An intraday trader would apply the strategy on the 5 or 15 minutes chart, whereas a positional trader would open the 1-hour chart.

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Indicators

We use the following indicators in the strategy:

  • 5-period Exponential Moving Average (EMA)
  • 10-period Exponential Moving Average (EMA)
  • 14-period Relative Strength Index (RSI)
  • Slow Stochastic Oscillator
  • K and D period – 3

Currency Pairs

This strategy can only be applied on major currency pairs of the forex market. Some of the preferred pairs include EUR/USD, GBP/JPY, GBP/USD, USD/CAD, USD/JPY, EUR/GBP, etc.

Strategy Concept

The rules of the strategy are quite simple and straightforward. We enter the market for a ‘long’ when the 5-period EMA crosses above the 10-period EMA after a prolonged downtrend. But this isn’t enough. Along with this, the RSI should be above the level of 50, and Stochastic slow and fast lines should move in the same direction (upward). Here we need to make sure that the Stochastic does not enter the overbought zone. Similarly, if the 5-period EMA crosses below the 10-period EMA after a prolonged uptrend, we prepare to enter ‘short.’ In this case, the RSI should be below the level of 50, and Stochastic lines should be moving downwards.

We exit the trade when 5-period EMA crosses beyond the 10-period EMA, where this is confirmed by the close of a candle beyond the latter. Another way to exit the trade is when the RSI drops below the 50 level. The several conditions which must be fulfilled in order to execute a trade make the strategy a good filter for trade entries. However, the two EMAs have a drawback as they can get choppy and generate false signals. We can avoid this by carefully monitoring the movement of EMA lines along with the other indicators. When the strategy is executed by following every rule of the strategy, wrong ‘trades’ can be eliminated to a great extent.

Trade Setup

In order to explain the strategy, we have considered the 5 minutes chart of EUR/USD, where we will be illustrating a ‘long’ trade. Here are the steps to execute the strategy.

Step 1: The first step is to identify the trend of the market and plot all the indicators on the chart, as mentioned in the above section. An easier way to identify the trend is by looking at the price concerning 5 and 10 period EMA. If the 5-period EMA is above the 10-period EMA, we say that the market is an uptrend. Whereas, if the 5-period EMA is below the 10-period EMA, the market is said to be in a downtrend.

In the example considered, it clear from the below image that the market is in an uptrend, and at the end, the trend seems to be weakening.

Step 2: This is the most critical step where we combine all the rules of the strategy. Once the trend has been identified, we should wait for a crossover of the 5-period EMA below the 10-period EMA, during the reversal of an uptrend. We say that the market has made a ‘top’ when both RSI and Stochastic lines start moving lower after the crossover. We should make sure that RSI does not move into the oversold zone. In order to catch the reversal of a downtrend, we should see a crossover of the 5-period above the 10-period EMA. At the crossover, the RSI and Stochastic lines should head upwards but so much that they move into the overbought zone.

The below image shows the crossover of both the EMAs that is accompanied by a ‘moving down’ RSI and Stochastic.

Step 3: Let us discuss the ‘entry’ of the strategy. We enter the market after a confirmation candle in the direction of the reversal. That means we enter ‘short’ after the close a bearish candle below both the EMAs. Similarly, we go ‘long’ after the appearance of a bullish candle, where the price closes above both the EMAs.

We can see in the below image that we are entering the market for a ‘sell’ right after at the close of the price below the 10-period EMA.

Step 4: In this step, we determine the stop-loss and take-profit for the strategy. The stop-loss is pretty straight forward where we place it just above the ‘highest’ or ‘lowest’ point. We take our profit and exit the position based on the signal provided by RSI. There two ways to exit the strategy. The first signal provided by the market to exit is when the crossover of the EMAs takes place. The second way to exit is when the RSI starts moving higher and crosses above the level of 50.

In the case of EUR/USD, as shown below, we take our profits when both the indicators indicated a reversal of the trend.

Final Words

The strategy actually generates various entry signals, and each of them can at least result in a profit for scalpers, by running very tight stops and keeping risk low. Thus, the strategy makes a reliable reversal trading system which relatively accurately pinpoints reversal points at the end of a trend and, more importantly, the ability to provide high risk-to-reward (RR) trades.

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By Reddy Shyam Shankar

I am a professional Price Action retail trader and Speculator with expertise in Risk Management, Trade Management, and Hedging.

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