Parabolic SAR

I trade with OANDA FXGame, and i read on some tutorials that the parabolic SAR can be a nice trend tool, but i figured out it has a problem...it shows the beginning of a trend when the most of the movement up or down has alredy occured, meaning the movement where you can profit. eventually the graph and the SAR collide together at a certain point, and usally if there is an upwards trend the price goes down or stays in the range of +/- 2 pips so entering at that point is useless, because it's usally a loss. I actually have to figure out where the middle of the trend is to buy a position and try to ctch the upmovement if a downtrend is ending or a down movement if the uptrend is ending. Any1 can expain if you use the SAR, ad how you use it to make you decisions? I use The MACD and RSI, but since i'm relatively new to this i always search for some more "signals" since there's never ebnough to make the right decision
And is there a more reliable method to track trends?
THX

personally i only use parabolic sar as a confirmation for entry as i find it is somewhat lagging.

i have found Muddbuddas 3 ema cross is a good system which i keep coming back to, its simple and pretty reliable, as a matter of fact i am trading with a variation of it as we speak and i am +93 pips in 3 days trading. i know thats a very short time frame but it was intended only as an example.

Simple is best

Lyndon

I use parabolic SAR to confirm a trend is ocuring... eg I use stochastic slow to obatin my overbrought/sold signal in the 1 hr chart then go back to 30min or 15mins and watch the expected trend forming then I place my buy/sell.

Moultan,

Parabolic SAR indicator was developed primarily for setting trailing stops on long and short positions. It is more popular for this use rather than establishing a trend or direction. Wilder the developer of this indicator recommended that you should establish the a direction or trend first. If you are using this indicator I would recommend you use it as an indicator as a signal for when to exit trades rather than enter.

PS. As a recommendation I would suggest that if you use an indicator as a strong part of your trading system that you spend some time understading the logic behind the indicator. This will give you a much better understanding and confidence in the indicator.