RSI (Relative Strength Index)
February 5, 2008
RSI stands for Relative Strength Index. The RSI measures the markets activity as to whether it is over bought or over sold. It gives a trader an indication as to which way the Market is moving. It is important to note, that this is a leading indicator and thus allows one to see what the market is about to do and then act accordingly. The higher the RSI number, the more over bought it is and conversely the lower the RSI number, the more over sold it is. It is a great leading indicator for the micro and macro reversals in the forex market. In the example avove, RSI is in the middle window and I have made two red lines to indicate when the pair has been overbought or oversold, respcetively, I put my lower line at 20 even though most exeprts say put it at 25. Here I’ve used RSI on a longer time frame, but for swing trading, you might want to drill down to 5 or 1 minute charts (or 50 to 100 tick charts).
Got this advice elsewhere, please someone verify if this helps in Forex, I can see it does but have little indication why these settings are the best.
By using an RSI on the 1 minute chart set at a period of 18 and overlaid on the bottom of your charts tend to give the best entry signals. This can also be applied to the 5-minute chart as well. The two significant entry numbers are 25 and 75.
RSI does not (and I believe CAN not) be an accurate way to find the top and bottom of a move in Forex. Sometimes an overbought market in Forex (after a move upward) will be followed by retracement (or a correction downward) in order to gather momentum so it will continue its trend upward. Conveersely, an oversold market in Forex will be followed up by a retracement upward and gains momentum and goes down further, continuing the downtrend.
Drawing Fibonacci levels will help the most at this stage to determine possible retracement levels. In the example above, I’ve used the trend lind approach to find entries and exits in addition to reading the RSI indicator.
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