Price action forex indicator

Price Action Indicator (PAIN)

The Price Action Indicator ( PAIN ) provides a lot of helpful information using only today's open, high, low, and close. This pays a single value that is rather efficient, building ideal limit-up, and limit-down scenarios in bond futures. The output has also demonstrated to be firm with the interpretation of "Japanese candlestick pattern." Using the formula:

(C-L) defines Late Selling Pressure (LSP) and.

(C-H) defines Late Buying Pressure (LBP)

This yields a single value that has proven itself by constructing ideal limit-up and limit-down scenarios in bond futures. The output has also shown to be consistent with the interpretation of Japanese candlestick patterns.

The stock's price is under selling pressure if the Close is near the Low. The stock's price is under purchasing pressure, or as they say the "Bulls are driving up the price" if the Close is near the High. In the end, a high PAIN value with the Close near the High will be an excellent potential long if the overall market conditions stay fortunate.

Price Action Indicators and Tools.

Price action trading made easy.

Forex Simulator.

Forex Simulator is surely one of the best and most advanced trading simulators created for Metatrader 4. It is the successor of MT4 Trading Simulator Pro, so it offers all its features, but also brings several new ones. Since I have already written about the idea of simulated trading and about features of MT4 Trading Simulator Pro in other post here, I will […]

Analyzer is a great MT4 indicator which shows strength and weakness of all eight major Forex currencies. It can quickly tell you which currency combination is best to trade at the moment. Analyzer is based on real-time price action and updated with every tick. You can also choose to use any preselected timeframe and range of data instead of real-time […]

Lighthouse.

Lighthouse is an MT4 indicator for displaying support and resistance lines. It shows you the most important trading levels and draws them according to their relevance. Support levels are drawn as green lines and resistance levels are drawn as red lines. If a level is clearly broken, it changes its role and color. Broken support becomes resistance and vice versa. […]

PZ Support Resistance.

PZ Support Resistance is a Metatrader 4 indicator which automatically detects and displays important price levels. Each level is drawn as a horizontal line. It also analyzes the importance of each level and marks it with a different color and width. It lets you save a lot of time, which is normally needed to find and draw these levels manually. […]

PZ Day Trading.

PZ Day Trading is a great MT4 indicator which quickly detects reversals on any market. Based on breakouts of variable lengths, the indicator uses only price action to pick trades. It reacts very fast to any changes in price movement. It has very high accuracy (> 80%) on most Forex symbols. The indicator is non-repainting and it can work on […]

MT4 Trading Simulator Pro.

MT4 Trading Simulator Pro is a Metatrader 4 plugin aimed for training Forex trading skills. It lets you learn the market, practice and gain trading experience very quickly. This tool will be very useful for everyone who is familiar with MT4 and wants to make his or her trading more profitable. Since certain market behaviour often repeats many times, it […]

Point and Figure Charts.

PnF Charts is a Metatrader 4 indicator for creating famous Point and Figure charts. Point and Figure chart consists of columns of X’s and O’s. Each X column indicates an uptrend and each O column indicates a downtrend. In order to form a new X or O in a column price action has to extend its current move by a […]

Tick Charts.

This indicator is an easy and powerful tool for displaying price action in Metatrader 4. Tick charts focus mainly on price action and allow traders to see the market in a way much different from standard time-based charts. With standard time-based charts every bar (candle) shows a fixed amount of time, for example 1 minute, 15 minutes, 4 hours or […]

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8 Price Action Secrets Every Trader Should Know About.

Contents in this article.

Price action is among the most popular trading concepts. A trader who knows how to use price action the right way can often improve his performance and his way of looking at charts significantly. However, there are still a lot of misunderstandings and half-truths circulating that confuse traders and set them up for failure. In this article we explore the 8 most important price action secrets and share the best price action tips.

#1 Support and resistance zones are better than levels.

Support and resistance is probably the most popular price action concept, but only very few traders can actually make money with it. The reason is often very simple, although it’s not as obvious at first glance.

Most traders just use single, horizontal levels when it comes to trading support and resistance which look great in hindsight but fail during live trading. The reason is that singles lines are no effective way of looking at price movements. Creating support and resistance zones is much more effective when it comes to understanding price.

The screenshot below shows that the trader who just uses a single line either misses trading opportunities when price does not reach his lines. Or he gets thrown out during volatility spikes; the trader who uses zones instead can filter out the noise that exists in the zones.

I hope that this concept doesn’t have to stay one of the price action secrets much longer and more traders will start using this technique.

Bonus: Get our free price action ebook below.

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#2 Highs and lows – one of my favorite price action secrets.

This point describes a very basic concept, but it’s SO important to understand and not used widely enough. I strongly believe that once a trader knows how to analyze highs and lows correctly, he has a much better chance of trading profitably.

The analysis of highs and lows offers so much information about trend strength, trend direction and can even foreshadow the end of trends and trade price reversals in advance.

Here are a few things that will help you understand highs and lows beyond the general trading knowledge:

Do you see long trend waves with small pullbacks only? (this signals a strong trend) Is price barely making higher highs/lower lows? (this could indicate fading momentum) Do you see increasing volatility – larger candle wicks – while price makes new highs/lows? (you’ve probably heard the quote that volatility is greatest at turning points ) An uptrend where price fails to make a higher high should get your attention.

I challenge you: take a look at any “textbook” chart pattern out there and you’ll see that the only thing that really matters is how highs and lows form within that pattern. For example, the powerful Head and Shoulders is defined through a sequence of highs and lows.

In our premium trading course, we take this to the next level. You will learn everything about this method of trading, together with other powerful principles that will allow you to find the best trades.

#3 Location – improve your trading instantly.

Even if you see the best price action signal, you can still greatly increase your odds by only taking trades at important and meaningful price levels. Most amateur traders make the mistake of taking price action signals regardless of where they occur and then wonder why their winrate is so low.

In my own trading, I pay a lot of attention to the location. A good signal at a very important support/resistance or supply/demand area can often foreshadow a great trade.

On the other hand, even a great price action signal at a bad location is nothing that I would trade.

#4 Stop looking for textbook patterns.

One big problem I often see is that traders keep looking for textbook patterns and they then apply their textbook knowledge to the charts.

Just ask yourself: why do so many traders lose money? Does it maybe have to do with the fact that they all read the same books, trade the same patterns in the same way and look at charts identically? I think so! As a trader, you need to think differently.

Trading doesn’t work this way and the price is a very dynamic concept. Price and patterns change all the time and if everyone is trying to trade the same way on the same patterns, the big players will use that to their advantage.

This is maybe one of the most misunderstood price action secrets. Stop looking for shortcuts and do not wait for texbook patterns – learn to think and trade like a pro.

#5 The 4 clues of candlesticks and price action.

This further highlights the importance of putting together the pieces when you trade price action and avoid blueprint-thinking. The 4 following points will help you avoid many of the common trading mistakes people make who just look for blueprint patterns.

The 4 following points will help you avoid many of the common trading mistakes people make who just look for blueprint patterns.

If you see a lot of long wicks, it means that volatility and uncertainty is increasing.

2) Bullish vs. bearish wicks.

Do you see more/longer wicks to the upside or to the downside? Wicks that stick out to the downside typically signal rejection and failed bearish attempts.

Is the body of a candle positioned closer to the top or the bottom of the candle? Bodies that close near the top often signal bullish pressure.

Candles with a large body and small wicks usually indicate a lot of strength whereas candles with a small body and large wicks signal indecision.

#6 Broker time doesn’t matter.

We get the question how broker time and candle closing time influence price action a lot. It does not make any difference to your overall trading although time frames such as the 4H or daily will look different on different brokers.

The graphic below illustrates what we mean. The charts show the same market and the same period and both are 4H time frames. They used different closing times for their candles and, thus, the charts look slightly different. Some of the important clues that the left market shows are not visible on the right chart and vice versa.

So there is no broker time that is “better” than the other – just the signals you get slightly vary. The most important point is that you make consistent decisions and don’t confuse yourself by changing between different broker feeds.

Don’t stress out about your broker time; over the long-term, everything averages out as long as you stay consistent.

#7 The amateur squeeze and stop hunting.

Conventional price action patterns are very obvious and many traders believe that their broker hunts their stops because they always seem to get stopped out – even though the setup was so clear.

It is very easy for the professional trader to estimate where the amateur traders enter trades and place stops when a price action pattern forms. The “stop hunting” you’ll see is not done by your broker, but by profitable traders who simply squeeze amateurs to generate more liquidity.

This is one of those price action secrets that can make a huge difference and we have seen that many of our students have turned their trading completely around with it. Below you see an equity graph from one of our premium students. The transformation after taking our trading course surprised us all.

#8 Correct market selection.

Building a watchlist prior to your trading is important and market selection is a very misunderstood concept in trading. Let me give you an example from my trading: every Sunday I sit down and go through all of the 30+ forex pairs that I consider trading.

However, usually only 6-8 make it on my actual trading watchlist for the week ahead. And the main reason why the others get cut is because of low probability price action which usually means tight congestions, squeeze consolidations and narrow ranges with a lot of volatility.

An effective market selection is important and you should only look for markets that offer clear price action and stay away from markets that are too erratic and noisy. Don’t make this mistake of being too fixated on the pairs you trade – rotate them and only focus on markets with good price action.

Most of those tips are probably not considered price action secrets by advanced traders, but amateurs can usually improve the quality of their trading and how they view the markets by just picking a few of them. If you have any other tips or know about some mistakes traders do in price action trading, leave a comment below.

In our premium trading course, we take this to the next level and you will learn everything about this method of trading, together with other powerful principles that will allow you to find the best trades.

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The testimonials presented on Tradeciety are applicable to the individuals writing them, and may not be indicative of future performance or success of any other individuals. Tradeciety cannot and does not guarantee results.

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57 comments.

Very good article, thx. I agree with creating S/R zones vs just lines, but none of the articles I’ve read describe “how” to create a zone; how do you determine the high/low of the zone? If you could go one step further in what to look for when deciding that area, that would be a huge help.

glad that you liked the article.

Hope this helps.

I really appreciate on your hardwork writing all of the articles here in Tradeciety. They have helped me ALOT in my trading, cant really express my gratitude and honestly speaking Im always looking forward to your post every week. Keep it up! Cheers mate!

that’s great to hear. Really happy to see that you are enjoying my work and benefit from it. That was the original reason why I started this site 🙂

Thanks for taking the time and leaving a comment.

I think that is very interesting. This i consider all kind of knowledge witha great step in direction of successfull.

Great article! Thanks for the reminders and tips. I have learned and been reminded of so many little things in trading thanks to articles likes this. Please keep up the great work, it is very much appreciated, Rolf!

Thank you, Cheri.

That’s great to hear 🙂

But How do we know that ameture are squeeze out and now for us to get in trade?

that comes with practice and it’s a way of looking at price movements. The amateur squeeze happens frequently around tops and bottoms and you’ll often see spikes around highs/lows. Just go through my recent trade recaps and you’ll see what I mean.

Very useful and clear article, thanks a lot.

Thank you very much for this tips, it is always a pleasure to read your articles !

I am glad to hear that you enjoyed the article. Thanks your leaving a comment.

this is one of the best trading guide article/website I have ever come across keep it up you are doing a great job.

Thanks, Adeyinka. I am glad to hear that.

Thank you , this article is very good , I’m glad to hear that . best regards.

Interesting and most likely valid techniques, read with interest. But there is lack of detail in how these concepts are practically applied. Likely great review for those who are experts but the beginner would like to know how to apply and use.

Thanks, Gary for your feedback. I’ll take your feedback and turn it into a new, separate article since I see your points.

Thanks for taking the time and leaving a comment.

which is the best time frame for PA trading ?

there is no best timeframe. I prefer the H4 but it’s a personal matter.

These are awesome tips! I especially love #3, only trade the price actions where it is formed at a meaningful areas. These will certainly filter out tons of trade and improve the quality of the trades.

I am still developing my pre-trading routine such as to review different pairs each week and to do a trading plan and update daily. Setting alerts on Trading View is definitely a great choice 🙂

Thanks Rolf for your wonderful writeup and sharing 😀

May i know when you mentioned about the size of the pinbar not meaningful compared to previous price action, what does it meant? Do you meant that the pinbar size comparing to the size of its wick? Or you are referring to the size of the pinbar main body comparing to the previous candle? thanks.

yes, I meant the general pinbar size compared to the previous candles.

Do you have any specific advice for the 5mn binary on Nadex. Such as the best time frame or any indicators that are useful?

I am a pure Forex swing trader.

what do you mean by “When a pattern looks too good to be true, it usually is.”? Means when it signals reversal signal but actually its not? just for instance.

it means that when a trade is too obvious and too many traders are ready to take it, it usually does not move as smoothly or shows a fakeout to shake out all the traders.

Hi guys, you are great! You have great teaching skills and I love your videos a lot.

I have been trying to swing-trade for 2 years now. But I am not getting anywhere in terms of profit. Last year I made 25-30% and this year I am down 15-20%. I think it is because I only trade stocks, which are cheap to trade at my broker. My account size is just about 10.000USD.

I would like to try trading currency, but I am scared of getting started, as I do not understand the basic principles of position sizing. My broker charges med 10USD if I make a trade under 50.000EUR in the EURUSD, and 2 pips if my trade is above that. And as my account size seems very low in that regard, I don’t want to jump straight into it.

So my question basicly is if You could make an example, if You have time, explaining in actual numbers how a trade of like 50.000EUR vs USD would play out in terms of profit or loss. That would be a big help.

Also if you could advice me on whether my accountsize is too small to begin with.

Again, thank you so much for you fantastic teaching, it helps me a lot, even though the stock market doesn’t play along with me right now.

except trading in n scrips, select only 1 scrip & trade in that whose options are also listed so that u will get its sideways price action advantage too.. because the most important is this will help you to get hold on its price action. that doesnt mean u should be overconfident after that but u will get good grip on it & like this it will get converted into good returns. Rest all Rolf & moritz will guide u.

Rolf, you guys are great. Love your site. Very genuine and can see the effort and sincere work that goes into it. Very different from the other sites. Great job. I am a big fan of you guys now. Helping me to learn a lot as well.

Thanks so much! I appreciate you and thanks for taking the time to leave a comment 🙂

Have you posted any previous articles on how to set up Stop Loss limits? This is something i have been struggling with and would like your advise on. Thanks.

i just like to clarify – i understand if the body of the candle is around the resistance zone and with long wick is a sign of failed attempt to go higher so it must be an action to sell the next day. this is called inverted hammer? what if the body with long wick is in the support zone, then it is to buy. correct me if i am wrong. thank you.

yes, long wicks at either support or resistance show rejection. It’s not necessarily a signal by itself, but it’s a good first indication that price does not have enough power to break that area.

Just want to tell you that your site is one of the best educational ones I have come across. Thank you for being so genuine in helping others become better in this business. I’ve learnt a great deal from reading your articles. You’re amazing! 🙂

Thanks Michelle. That made my day 🙂

All the best on your journey.

I was googling nd I happened to land on this site. I wish I found this site before I blew my account 3 time, but I won’t give up. I will read all the articles on this site. Thank you for your work.

I hope you find what you are looking for.

Thanks Rolf. Can you me links to your youtube channel for strategies and other stuff?

My first day on the site and I am enjoying all the articles here. Highly educative and straight to the point. Bless you.

Welcome to Tradeciety, Omusa 🙂

I saw your website yesterday and since then I have made it as part of my Technical Analysis learning everyday because of the excellent quality of your articles. please keep posting.

Thanks. Welcome to Tradeciety, Rajeev 🙂

Great and good job. Wonderful to have guys like you all.

This is the article i have been looking for. very useful information.

if i trade for long term, i will look in monthly trend, the S&R. next zoom in 1h for entry and exit using PA ?

and if i trade swing in 1 to 5 mins, can i use PA ? possible ?

if you trade long-term, you probably don’t have to go to the 1H. It’s too low. I’d recommend using the combination of weekly/daily or weekly/4H timeframe.

On the 1min and 5min timeframe, I have no experience. Sorry.

just curious, is it for PA, there is a needs for at least one indicator ?

else i saw many analysis do have indicator/s.

I do user indicators – MAs, Bollinger Bands and RSI. They add more objectivity to a trader’s process. If you know how to really read price and waves, you can often pretty accurately guess from price action alone what the indicator will tell you.

Hello, Under #4, what about the pin bar at 14:00, it has a large body with sizable wicks, what made it not reverse the trend?

Thanks in advance.

price never broke the pinbar. The signal on a pinabr is usually given once the next bar breaks the low.

This is great tips on how to improve one’s trading skills. Good information right there.

Thanks Rolf ! Very useful one.

Long description but sounds good.

This is a must-read for all traders alike.

Like Ming Jong Tey above, I am still developing my weekly pre-trading routine such as to review different pairs each week and to do a trading plan and update daily. Setting alerts on Trading View is definitely an area I will need your guide.

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Four Simple Ways to Become a Better Price Action Trader.

Price action and Macro.

Price Action is a form of technical analysis that focuses solely on past prices that have traded in the market This article contains a simple, and complex method for new traders to begin learning price action This study can be furthered in the live sessions on DailyFX in which Analysts and Instructors explain price action in real market conditions.

One of my favorite phrases to use in webinars is as follows:

‘Price Action is my favorite indicator, because it’s the only one that will never tell me a lie.’

And this is true; albeit maybe a little ‘opaque’ for new traders, or even experienced traders that haven’t yet found the study of price action. The study of price action entails reading past prices, to build an approach or plan for the future.

Surely, most traders that end up ‘making it’ as a trader will find this specific study of technical analysis eventually; but it’s usually only after multiple disappointments and failed attempts at building indicator-based strategies that zig when the market actually ‘zags.’ So, please allow me to elaborate on my earlier statement.

Price action will never lie to us, as traders, because it never purports to tell us what WILL happen; but rather it only tells us what HAS happened.

There is a chasm of disconnect between these two premises.

As a trader, you will NEVER truly know what will happen in the future. Any indicator or indication of what MAY happen in the future is just a possibility. And even then, it could be a remote possibility at best because that indicator you’re using - well, it’s really just a fancy way of looking at previous price action.

So, regardless of the strategy - those same boring concepts of risk, trade, and money management are of the upmost importance to the trader.

But after that - traders can focus on getting the probabilities on their side as much as possible through analysis, and this is where price action can really shine.

Because, once again - this is a ‘clean’ way of looking at past prices, without the obfuscation of a mathematical formula that may be obscuring what’s happened in the recent past.

Below are four simple ways that traders can become better at reading, reacting, and analyzing price action.

Met hod 1 - The Price Action Primer.

If you’ve been to DailyFX over the past couple of years, you may have encountered a previous article on price action . We talk about this A LOT because of all the aforementioned reasons, and quite simply - it works. Not that it works in telling us the future, but it works in allowing us to see the past as efficiently and honestly as possible.

Method 2: Gra de Trends by Focusing on Swings.

One of the first pillars of technical analysis centers on that age-old saying of ‘the trend is your friend.’

And the reason for this goes right back to one of those very first things we touched on at the beginning of this article: The future really is unpredictable.

But trends take place for reasons, right? Maybe it was a QE announcement, or a Debt Crisis - whatever the reason, trends exist much like the tide of the ocean exists.

And just like swimmers in the ocean, traders are often best served by going with the flow.

Because, if we look at trading as pessimistically as we can, and we assume that any individual trade is akin to flipping a coin, then we have a 50/50 chance of price moving up or down, right?

Well, if that bias continues, and further - if we are trading in the direction of that bias, it stands to reason that we can begin moving our chances or probabilities of success slightly better than a 50/50 split.

Perhaps it’s small, perhaps as small as 51/49 in our favor, or 52/48 - but the logic is the same.

If what has happened continues happening, I may stand a better-than-fair chance at success.

If we add in strong money management, well - now we have an entire strategy!

Traders can read and gauge trends using solely price action. We expand on this topic in our Introduction to Price Action ; but we can simply look to the chart to point out the trend.

Up-trends will often be highlighted wit h higher-highs, and lower-lows.

Meanwhile, down-trends will se e lower-lows, and lower-highs.

And this, in-and-of-itself, is very powerful. but the big question you need to ask yourself is whether it is enough to just simply ‘buy’ when prices have been moving higher, or to ‘sell’ when prices have been moving lower?

The answer is a definitive ‘no.’ And the reason is because, once again, we want to try to get the best possible chances of success in the market given the information available to us, and for that we can move on to the next method.

Method 3: Use Price Action to Highlight Valuable Support and Resistance.

The second primary aspect of technical analysis is Support and Resistance , and this is another message that the study of prices can bring to us.

Price Swings can identify support and resistance in the market.

Reading ‘swings’ in the market is an easy way to begin doing this. A swing can, quite simply, be classified as an inflection point in the market. We discussed this topic in the article Price Action Swings, and have added an illustration below to highlight this point.

The swing in the market is the point at which demand outstripped supply (in the case of a swing low setting support), or supply ran over demand (creating a swing high of resistance before prices moved lower).

Traders can use these progressively higher swing-highs, and higher swing-lows to define an up-trend. Each of these swing-highs offering a point of support with which traders may be able to look to buy into the up-trend ‘cheaply.’

Higher swing-lows define support in an up-trend.

They can also use progressively lower-lows, and lower-highs to denominate a down-trend. And, of course, each of these lower ‘swing-highs’ become levels of resistance that traders can use.

Lower swing-highs define resistance in a down-trend.

We can even rope in some additional Support and Resistance studies in an attempt to find really important levels. Psychological levels , for instance, can be a great way of pointing out swings that might have a little more importance in the market place. Fibonacci can be another fantastic addition to Price Action to point out levels that other traders may be watching for.

After traders can identify swings with support and resistance inflections, traders can then begin looking to buy up-trends cheaply, at or near support; while traders can look to sell expensively when prices are at or near resistance. Which brings us to the exact entry of the trade…

Method 4: Use Price Action Formations to Trig ger into Positions.

After the trend has been identified, and after traders have found support and resistance via swings displayed in the marketplace, traders can begin looking for formations to decide when, and how to enter into positions.

There are quite a few of these out there, and we’ve talked about numerous such formations over the past few years. Most recently, we highlighted five of the most common bearish reversal patterns in the article, Trading Bearish Reversals .

A Bearish Engulfing Pattern before a massive move lower.

And, a favorite of price action traders, the pin bar can offer some excellent entry opportunities.

I know that when I was learning price action, much of it, at least initially, felt very esoteric. So, in our constant effort to provide the best possible education for our traders, we offer numerous price-action based webinars every single week.

I do a webinar on DailyFX e ach week. During this webinar, I’ll look at various markets to show how traders can integrate this type of knowledge in a dynamic environment, and further - how to strategize with and around it.

-- Written by James Stanley.

James is available on Twitter JStanleyFX.

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