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Terms for Technical Indicators

A must know for when using Technical Indicators.

Josh avatar
Written by Josh
Updated yesterday

When working with indicators, it’s important to ensure their properties align with your strategy’s requirements.

Once you select an indicator within your strategy definition, a pop-up will appear showing the default values for its properties. You can modify these values to suit your needs by editing or replacing them directly in the input fields.

Note: All indicators operate based on closed bars - that is, candlesticks that have completed their time period. This means an indicator's value (and any resulting strategy trigger) may only change when a bar has officially closed.

Indicator Reference Guide

Volume

Measures the trading volume (in units) for the current bar.
Can be compared against a specific value.

Properties:

  • No.OfBars – Number of bars to include in the calculation

  • BarPeriod – Time interval (e.g., 1 hour, 1 day)

Moving Average (MA)

Calculates the average price over a set number of bars, based on your selected price type (Open, High, Low, Close, or Mid).
Can be compared to assets or other indicators.

Properties:

  • No.OfBars

  • BarPeriod

  • BarPrice – Choose from Open, Close, High, Low, or Mid

Exponential Moving Average (EMA)

A weighted version of the moving average, giving more importance to recent data.
Also based on the selected bar price and time period.

Properties:

  • No.OfBars

  • BarPeriod

  • BarPrice – Open, Close, High, Low, or Mid

Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD)

Uses three parameters (Fast, Slow, Signal) to show trend direction and momentum.
It can be compared to the Signal Line or Zero Line.

Properties:

  • Fast – Short-term period

  • Slow – Long-term period

  • Signal – Signal line period

  • BarPeriod

  • BarPrice – Open, Close, High, Low, or Mid

Relative Strength Index (RSI)

A momentum oscillator that measures the speed and change of price movements.
Returns a value between 0 and 100, which can be compared against thresholds (e.g., 30 or 70).

Properties:

  • No.OfBars

  • BarPeriod

  • BarPrice – Open, Close, High, Low, or Mid

Bollinger Bands (BB)

A volatility-based indicator consisting of three lines: Upper Band, Middle Band (Moving Average), and Lower Band.

You can reference:

  • Bollinger Band (overall)

  • Upper, Middle, or Lower Bands specifically

Properties:

  • No.OfBars

  • BarPeriod

  • StdDev – Standard deviation for the calculation

  • BarPrice – Open, Close, High, Low, or Mid

Pivot Points (PP)

Widely used to determine potential support and resistance levels.

References:

  • R1, R2, R3 (Resistance levels)

  • S1, S2, S3 (Support levels)

Property:

  • BarPeriod

Average True Range (ATR)

Measures market volatility by calculating the average of true ranges over a specified number of bars.

Properties:

  • No.OfBars

  • BarPeriod

News Events

Provided by Trading Economics, news events can be used to enhance your strategies.

  • Actual – Most recent published value
    ​Synonyms: result, release, figures, data, news, prints

  • Forecast – Analysts’ average expectation
    ​Synonyms: expected, consensus

  • Previous – Value published at the previous event

Use these values in conditions to trigger strategies based on real-time economic updates.

📽 Check out the video below to learn how to use technical indicators in your strategies.

Note: All screenshots and examples are for technical demonstration purposes only. They should not be considered as recommendations for any specific trading strategy, nor do they constitute any form of advice. Please click here for further explanation

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