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MACD Divergence Explained

by forexauthor on July 2, 2009 · Filed Under: Forex Trading
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Understand the forex market. Understanding how to interpret a MACD divergence can be very helpful for you in trading. Do you know what does a MACD Divergence means? Just that the current price trend is running out of steam. It soon may reverse direction. However, price reversal may not happen right away. But a MACD Divergence is a powerful hint. The market is changing direction. It is easy to spot MACD crossovers and dramatic rises. Not so a MACD divergence. Spotting a MACD divergence will only come after practice.Get good forex training.

For example, if the price is making a series of higher highs and MACD is making a series of lower lows, something is wrong between the two. What you are looking for is when the price action and MACD do not agree. Free forex signals for you.

Most probably the traders are getting nervous. They are slowly fading out of their trades. No one is trading against the trend and yet fewer and fewer traders are in the trend. MACD divergence is seen as a sign that fewer and fewer traders are in the trend.

The only traders in the trend are nervous and jittery. They want to exit. Most of them are likely to exit their trade at the first sign of trouble. As soon as the bears muster up enough guts to short. MACD is diverging from the bullish trend. The bulls will exit and the bears will take over.

There are two powerful keys in locating times when MACD divergence is likely to represent a reversal in price. This is exactly why MACD is so powerful. It takes time to setup but when it works, it often works well.

When the price is at the double tops or double bottoms, MACD divergence can be powerful. At this point you spot MACD divergence. You are making your trading plan based on the reversal or breakout of the support and resistance (S&R). This is known as Exhaustion Pullback.

You should trade based on rejection reversal. What does this means? This means that the price action is running out of steam. This indicates that there are not enough committed traders to break the support and resistance (S&R). The price will reverse direction.

MACD is also used as an overbought/ oversold indicator or oscillator. Suppose you see that it has reached its overbought/ oversold range. The price action is turning normal. This is a signal that you should avoid trading at this time.

Don’t get confused and think that the currency pair is overbought and everyone is buying. When the price action reaches its extreme, you will see price exhaust and the MACD line drop back into normal zone. Don’t confuse the overbought/ oversold MACD zones as trade opportunities. Avoid trading at this time.

It is also important to note that divergence can not only be found on the MACD line and the signal line, it can also be found on the histogram. These two situations along with your other technical indicators can provide excellent trading opportunities.