As a newbie, what was your first trading indicator or system?

Hello TRaders,


As a newbie I started with Stochastic and then moved to several other indicators and systems such as Alligator, Ichimoku, MACD, Parabolic SAR, etc.. But nothing worked out well until I got to know about price action trading. If we can understand the price action well, we can easily use indicators with price action in order to get clear entries.

All I want to know is what was your first indicator or forex tool as a newbie? Are you still using it ? Why you decided to remove it ?


Open for discussion

My 1st indicator would be trend indicator (MA, heikin ashi, SARS, supertrend....) ,it won't work in the beginning. Sometimes do better, sometimes do not.
Now i am still using trend indicator. And i use oscillator as well.

In my experience, i can tell you that please don't put too much effort on indicator, indicator has it limit, that why it work best sometimes, and price action would be the leading indicator. Remember that support and resistance is your friend, because price will eventually move out this SR area, where you can time your entry logically.

when I started Forex 3-4yrs ago I read lot lot of books, one book had a system using MA and Bollinger_Bands (was that book Trading in the Zone?)

The journey goes like this:

1. So I started out with that on live account, worked somtimes on some pairs but mostly not working.
2. Then moved to Stoch, still not the right one
3. Then moved to ichimoku, still not fully understand of how to apply it.
4. Then I joined an IRC chat (which is now completely dead channel), on there I met mostly newbies who kept asking if their positions were correct or not but nothing else i.e. just like me back then. However lucky I met 2 real professional full time traders with their private channels:
   1. One used Pivot Points, was so very successful then he opened his investment firm with 5mil or so then never come back to his own private channel. So I lost the lead & never got his system nor how to apply Pivot Points correctly.
   2. Then met another full time trader, used Elliot Wave and S/R to trade. So I tried to study Elliot Wave but it was so complicated to apply. He kept getting lot of profits, even give me signals on his entry/target, and it worked. I learned something about trend and S/R, but I didn't get Elliot Wave at all so I dropped out.

5. Then I invented a simple scalping system for when market is ranging, by no indicator but only 2 horizontal lines. Worked quite well, 20% or so in first month, then lost all profits.
6. Then I studied back Ichimoku and got very limited success.
7. Then I found 2 indicators: TDI and Average Price Bar (Heiken Ashi). And now I trade using these 2.

Certainly it's just the "tool-and-indicator" journal. You still need to finish the "psychology & money management journal" to finally make some profits. There are alot of challenges.

After all, same like you, I realise what importance is not the tool, but how you feel the market and its price action, which can only be built up after these years sitting behind charts. I'd recommend new starters learn the hell out of Trend, Price Action, Average Price Bar, TDI and Stoch. Then visit Trading Made Simple by BigE which a system/strategy built on these tools. Then can start trading.

This system is so good that made not only a long thread on here but also on babypips forum. Sadly the author BigE passed away last Nov dues to his age, but there are lot of experienced traders on the thread to help new people to start off. Remember we shouldn't be so depend on the tools or this system but must be flexible and have common sense in the market (which is called 6th sense with Price Action) otherwise even with the right tool and a nice system/strategy, we still cannot make profits.

Hi brendad,

1) I can not remember but I think the indicator were the MAs in lower TF.
2) I don´t use anymore.
3) And the system was something like the crossing of MAs.
4) Because now I do not use a system but a method and higher TF.

How can we understand price action well? Do you have any idea?

My first tool was RSI relative strength indicator and i dont have a reason yet to stop using it
i use it with different settings 14 and 21 .
using it with 14 is the stander method
when applying 21 i apply a line at 50 value above this line i will buy
below this line i will sell it the first strategy i used in trading
i have learned it some where from a forum before 12 years i still use it to confirm my trading
i use divergence with it also but i have noticed that MACD divergence is more
reliable than RSI one
I have used also ADX average directional index .
i am still using it with RSI as well both are very strong in predicting price move and change that may appear
when they are both in same direction the present move will hold until one of them change direction
you better use bigger time frame with it but it does-not exclude small time frame .
if AdX is pointing to up side and RSI to down(price will be pointing down) side we should have a change of direction at some point
you can use trend lines support and resistance then to decide where it would occur and take advantage of it .
if the ADX is pointing down and RSI up((price will pointing up side )) it means that liquidity in present price direction is lowering so you look for a reversal of price direction and confirm it with RSI.you use it with support and resistance too .
you also can confirm a trend with them .using a time zone fib o. will help you in determining the extend of this trend .
understanding the equation of this both indicators is so important you should read about there logic and equation and what they depend on .
they both use time as a mirror for movement .
i know many that only use them both with support and resistance to trade any market and any instrument .
all have a nice day

Nice story and I have a similar one to share. Started with stochs then moved to ichimoku, then MACD, then MAs and finally naked trading with fibos, pivots and S & R levels.

Hello Red Herring,


To do that you need to study the price action well. It will take some time. I would like to mention a few good places to begin with price action trading

Babypips school, James 16 thread, Sam Seiden Supply & Demand theory ( Different theory but works well ), 2ndskiesforex.

funny when you think of days as newbie when no system would last fro more than an month.
My first system did not have any indicators, my teacher was a firm believer in PA and you
can imagine telling a newbie that all there is are candle in trading and all the indicator are never to be used.

Nowadays, years later, i still use PA and the Ichimoku cloud and that's all.

Ok, I will check

you can also learn from Nial Fuller and Walter Peters Go check webinars archive at fxstreet.com ... very inspirational Or googling .. 'naked trading' you will find loads of sources about it

Mine was simple moving averages

Mine was Hector 3 SMA system, looked amazing but ultimately done nothing!

I started with MACD and still using it for technical analysis.

1. I traded head and shoulder,double bottom /top patterns on 1h...did reasonably well but erratic results so I wanted more stable results .

2. Traded channels after seeing Peter Serbias journal - got erratic results and quit.

3. raghees horner/ sonic's 34 ema- pathetic results.

4. Tried Ross hooks higher high/lower low method after seeing vantage s system ....pathetic results.

5. Trading made simple by eelfranz TDI- couldn't get anywhere as good results as he 'said' he was getting. Got totally frustrated and cynical about 'FF gurus' by this point.

6. 123 CCI method by a dude( can't remember his name) that said he got over 98% win rate and makes 3% per day lol! saw him for the rat that he is.

7. cubbybgoods profit all day system....it was my first introduction into MTF analysis and higher timeframe rules the lower timeframe concept....I still use concepts of this in my real trading.

8.Greg Wilson bollinger bands breakouts - couldn't get the hang of it.

9. Tradestar1's journal of one year of deatailed good results from a ridiculously simple MA crossover method.I was convinced trendfollowing works.

10.combined aspects of profit all day system and MA crossover with substantial tweaks to create my own system of buying declines and selling rallies...and the rest is history.

I can say money management saved me during my learning curve of 2 yrs...I never got close to depleting my account and stayed around B.E.

I started with one of martingale with random entries