A Free Lesson on How to Combine Technical Indicators with Elliott Wave Analysis
By Elliott Wave International
Trading using technical indicators — such as the MACD, for example, Moving Average Convergence-Divergence — can do one of two things: help you or hinder you.
Using them as a forecasting method alone can be about as predictable as flipping a coin. But when you combine them with other forms of technical analysis (i.e. the Wave Principle), the same MACD can be your new best friend.
Technical indicators are meant to do exactly what the name implies: “indicate” that a buy or sell signal may be in place. (Don’t confuse “indicate” with “guarantee”: They are not called “technical guarantors” for a reason.)
Elliott Wave International’s Futures Junctures editor Jeffrey Kennedy shows you how he uses technical indicators to his advantage in his FREE eBook, The Commodity Trader’s Classroom:
“Rather than using technical indicators as a means to gauge momentum or pick tops and bottoms, I use them to identify potential trade setups.”
Jeffrey goes on to describe his favorite indicator, the MACD:
“Out of the hundreds of technical indicators I have worked with over the years, my favorite study is the MACD [which] uses two exponential moving averages (12-period and 26-period). The difference between these two moving averages is the MACD line. The trigger or Signal line is a 9-period exponential moving average of the MACD line.”
Figure 10-1 gives you an example of the MACD indicator in Coffee futures.
