The art of Trading MAs

I have always loved MAs for their simplicity, I started using them when I first started trading with a good deal of succes but then migrated to other approaches over time because I had a hard time filtering out the bad crosses - that would be those crosses where you are only going to make a few pips or loose a few. If people want an approach that is easy to use and not a lot of smoke and mirrors here it is, if you don't like it don't trade it, if you have snide comments I don't want to hear them, if you want to contribute please do so. I would also expect that everyone be respectful of one another at least on this thread.

The focus of this thread is to teach a pretty simple method of trading MA's. The setups are pretty simple I use a 5 and 13 EMA and the COG indicator. I use the COG indicator to filter out the bad EMA crosses.

I am primarily a technical intraday trader and trade hourly charts, but it the trade looks promissing I may hang around for a few days. I actively trade 9 pairs so there are always at least 3-4 good setups a day which can result in a few hundred pips each day. I do not trade around major news events and I tend to pay attention to my trades. I typically do not set stop losses unless I am going to be away for a while, if I do I only set them at 20 - 50 pips depending on the pair I am trading, gbp/jpy gets 50 the rest 20. I don't want to hear all the crap about setting stops etc etc etc, I think stops are a good thing but if you are picking your entries well and paying some attention to your trades you save yourself a lot of money. This approach works on any timeframe from 5 min to daily. To answer the inevitable question of why don't I trade this daily or weekly the hourly charts best fits my personality, you have to remember trading is more about the person than the system in my opinion.

My money management system is as follows I only trade what I am willing to loose, I purposely keep my account balance low so that I am not tempted to do stupid things and I have fun with it. Trading is something I truely enjoy, for those of you that are just in this to make a quick buck no system will help you, you have to treat this like a business and it helps if you love what you do. If I loose a few hundred bucks on a trade big deal, you loose a few and win a lot.

The Setups are as follows:

Buy:
Bar closes below the bottom Green line on the COG followed by the 5/13 EMA cross. You can close the trade at the next EMA cross or use just wait for price to move to the opposite side of the COG indicator

Sell:
Bar closes Above the Top Green line on the COG followed by the 5/13 EMA cross. You can close the trade at the next EMA cross or use just wait for price to move to the opposite side of the COG indicator.

I have attached a gbpjpy trade I am currently in as well as the COG indicator.

Very simple and interesting. Thanks for sharing....

thanks for sharing you trading method. I trade on the daily charts for the time being and I will have a look to see how this will play out. I've seen the COG around but have never used it. Happy pipping to all of is!

thanks again
dave

What settings do you use for COG?


I have these settings. Got this indicator some where else. Also, can someone explain exactly what this indicator does. need clarification, tks.

Mike

BARS BACK - 125
M - 2
I - 0
KSTD - 2.0
SNAME - 1102

Thanks for sharing your system with us. I am a scalper and I am going to use this with my system.

Did you take the long on the 22nd?

the Indy you posted does't look like indy on your picture.

You have to add your own EMAs.

BARS BACK - 240
M - 4
I - 0
KSTD - 1.0
SNAME - 500

I occasionally will trade this approach on the 5 min charts if nothing looks promising on the longer tfs. Using the green line does not produce such good results on the on the shorter tfs but if you start looking for the MA crosses once price either falls below the orange line or crosses above the top orange line you will have a good deal of success. DO NOT just trade the the COG, while most of the time you will be successful you can get screwed because of breakouts so USE the EMA crosses to confirm.

I understand that off course)
But on you picture i see COG looks like BB.
In COG that you post i can set bars_back param, and it draws only that number of bars, whith very different results.
please chek the file

Hi Endroute, thanks for posting your system. Which pairs do you trade (apart from GBP/JPY) on the COG settings you posted?

Thanks.

I should have posted the COG settings I use:

bars back = 240
m=4
i=0
ktsd=1
sname=500

i believe the approach will work with any pair I look for setups on the following pairs, of which you can reliably get 3 good setups each day, today there were 5 that I took and 3 more that I did not. The great thing about this approach is it works in ranging and trending markets.

eurjpy, usdjpy, eurusd, gbpusd, audusd, nzdusd,eurgbp, audjpy,nzdjpy

Hi endroute,

Thanks for the system. Looks very simple and effective.

Could you please look at the chart and confirm if I'm right with my comments ?

They assume that we wait for EMA cross for exit.

Regards

MS

Thanks for sharing your method. I am interested in learning more about the use of COG. I have a few questions about COG and your method.

You stated that a candle must close below the green line for a long position and above the green line for a short position. Are you concerned where your ENTRY actually takes place?

Are you concerned about the slope of the COG lines?

Do you take partial profits along the way (possibly using COG lines for that) and move stop loss as trade progresses?

Are the COG parameters you shared for all time frames or just H1?

Thanks again

Charlie

The cog repaints. . -- so you need a confirmation signal.
Its work okay in ea's. but a big move in the wrong direction will leave you poor.

Sure,I guess thats why The Ma's Cross are secondary,the cog is only a filter(a primary indicator).

Thanks for the system endroute.I personaly like its simplistic structure.

You are right on. For the exits I will typically wait for the next ema cross, except when the price has gone from the bottom of the COG to the top, at this point 9 times out of 10 price will fall back towards the blue line of the COG.

COG is a filer for the EMAs