MACD Divergence Explained


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.

What Is Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD)?


Understand the forex market.Moving Average Convergence Divergence, acronym MACD and pronounced Mac Dee is one of the simple and most reliable technical tools in your trading arsenal as a currency trader. MACD is a trend following momentum oscillator or indicator and is used often by most of the traders.

MACD is a lagging indicators and it shows the relationship between two moving averages of recent prices. Most technical indicators used in technical analysis are lagging. This means they are slow and they just tell you after the fact what just happened. Learn forex news trading.

Technical analysis is based on the belief that past prices can be used to predict the future prices in the currency markets. Learning technical analysis is essential for you as a currency trader.Discover trend forex system.

There are many chart types used in the technical analysis. Technical analysis helps you to read your charts and analyze them with a number of technical indicators. Using technical indicators is the key to understanding the market behavior.

MACD is calculated by subtracting a slow exponential moving average (EMA) like 55 from a fast exponential moving average like 21. Signal line is calculated by the taking the EMA of MACD for a number of bars like 8. The Histogram is the difference between the MACD and its signal line. 55 and 21 are the number of periods that you use.

MACD is one of the most popular indicators used in currency trading. However, beware that MACD is often misunderstood and misused. Like any other technical indicator you should use it in conjunction with other technical indicators.

Crossovers: When MACD falls below the signal line from above, it is a bearish signal. It indicates the time to sell. Conversely, when MACD rises above the signal line from below, it is a bullish signal. It indicates that you should buy.

Divergence: When the price diverges from MACD, it indicates the end of the current trend. Negative Divergence is when the price action is rising and MACD is falling. Both the price action line and the MACD line are diverging. It is an indication of the change in the currency trend. That’s right! The lagging indicator that is supposed to follow the price is predicting future behavior of the prices in the market.

Dramatic Expansion: Dramatic expansion occurs when the shorter moving exponential average pulls away from the longer moving exponential average. Suppose MACD expands dramatically. It is an indication that the currency is overbought/ oversold and may return to normal soon.

You should make one thing very clear when you use a MACD. All the above three cases are important. They should not be overlooked by you as a currency trader. However, none of them alone are signals for entering or exiting a trade. MACD Divergence is tradable when confirmed by other indicators. If you simply start trading on MACD Divergence, it may not yield a profitable trade.

However, when confirmed by other technical indicators, success is more likely. This is because of the fact that several things are happening at the same time. Each is attracting the same bulls and bears into the trade that you are planning to make. So you have to confirm your finding with other technical indicators.

When you use MACD, crossovers and dramatic rises are usually easy to spot. Even novices can do that. However, spotting MACD divergence correctly comes after a little practice.