Double Moving Average – Forex Academy

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.

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.

Introduction

Every trader loves the idea of winning on each trade they take. After all, winning is the sole purpose of trading. Various strategies in the market promise to offer profits every day, but none of them are good enough to make you win every single trade you take. In the end, almost all of the traders wish for a method that could reap them good profit every day. But as we all know, trading is less about making money and more about saving your capital. For this same purpose, we have created the 10 Pip Loss Strategy.

The strategy suggests that we must take two to three trades a day by placing only ten pips stop-loss and go for bigger targets. For instance, let’s consider that we took three trades in a single day. If we lose two trades and end up winning one, we will be losing only 20 pips, but the gains that are earned on the third trade can be more. By following this strategy, our primary focus should be on taking three potential trades in a day.

The Strategy – Pairing Double Moving Average & Stochastic Indicator

It is highly advisable to use this strategy in a strong trending market.

To Go Long (Buy Trades)

Firstly, identify an uptrend in any currency pair.
Apply the double moving average indicator to the price chart. Go with 9 and 14 periods.
Wait for the pullback to happen, and the price action must hold below the double moving average.
Look if the Stochastic is reversing at the oversold area.
Go long if all the above rules are met.
Place the stop-loss just ten pips below the entry. Take profit placement depends on the market state. If the buyer movement is strong, expect a brand new higher high; if the momentum is a slow, exit at the most recent higher high.

The image below represents our losing trade in the AUD/CHF forex pair. As you can see, both the indicators gave us a trading signal at around 08:45 AM. We activated our trade when the price of the asset is 0.6129. It went a bit up and suddenly dropped down to hit our stop loss. As a result, we ended up losing the trade.

The best thing is that we lost only ten pips. Hence, these smaller losses won’t influence our decision-making abilities.

The image below represents our winning trade in the AUD/NZD Forex pair. We took this trade on 22^nd April at around 08:45 AM. When the moving average went below the price, the Stochastic gave a reversal at the oversold area, indicating us to go long in this pair. Right after we went long, the price action blasted to the north and printed a brand new higher high. We end up making 90 pips in this trade.

Overall, we lost ten pips till now, and hence we stand at 80 pips profit.

The below price chart represents our third trade on 22^nd April. We took this trade at around 6:45 PM. Following our strategy, we made entry, and the price action has printed a brand new higher high. This trade gave us a profit of 80 pips.

To sum it up, we took three trades out of which we made 170+ pips profit and a loss of only ten pips. By following this strategy, we can make profits on every single trading day. Note: Use this strategy only when you see the potential of having at least three trades in a single day. Otherwise, there is no point in using this strategy.

To Go Short (Sell Trades)

Firstly, identify a downtrend in any currency pair.
Apply the double moving average indicator to the price chart. Go with 9 and 14 periods.
Wait for the pullback to happen, and the price action must hold above the double moving average.
Look if the Stochastic is reversing at the overbought area.
Go short if all the above rules are met.
Place the stop-loss just ten pips above the entry. Take profit placement depends on the market state. If the seller movement is strong, expect a brand new lower low; if the momentum is a slow, exit at the most recent lower low.

The image below represents a sell signal in the CHF/JPY Forex pair. This is the first trade we activated on 13^th April at around 08:45 AM. Overall, the market was in a strong downtrend, and when it pulled back, both the indicators gave us a sell signal. After we went short, the price sharply goes down and prints a brand new lower low. This trade gave us 60+ pip profit.

We took the second trade relatively at the same time in the USD/JPY Forex pair. Overall, this pair was also in a strong downtrend, and we activated the trade when both the indicators gave us a sell signal. In this pair, the seller momentum was strong enough, and we ended up making 82+ pips.

This is the third trade we took in the EUR/JPY Forex pair. When price action pulled back to the moving average, the Stochastic also gave us a reversal at the overbought area, indicating us to go short. By the time we have exited, we booked 64+ pips of profit.

In total, we took three trades, and all of them hit our take-profit. If you observe, even if we would have lost two trades and won only one, we would still have ended up on the winning side. In a strong trending market, it is easy to win all the trades we take. All you need to do is to follow the rules of the strategy very well. To sum it up, with minimum risk, we gained a profit of 206 pips from the market.

We hope you understood the strategy well. Please try and trade this strategy in a demo account before applying it to the live market. Cheers!