Can you trade without indicators?
There is absolutely NOTHING wrong with trading with indicators. I trade with indicators, people on Wall Street trade with indicators, people at home (retail traders) trade with indicators, prop traders use indicators. ALMOST EVERY TRADER USES INDICATORS!
The reason why I’m writing this blog post is because some people say and think that:
- Using technical indicators is cheating. Real traders should be able to trade a naked chart.
- Not learning how to trade all by yourself is inauthentic. If you have a trading mentor you’re cheating or you’re not smart, YOU have to learn how to do it by yourself.
- Watching someone trade or taking signals makes you less of a trader.
Now it’s not a good idea to be dependent on anyone for your trading, but when you’re starting out it’s usually a great idea to learn from someone else. And trading with indicators is a great idea – in our opinion.
So to start off, what are trading indicators?
Trading indicators are tools created by developers designed to give traders and investors signs as to when to enter or exit a trade. Trading indicators are NOT meant to be followed blindly. In other words, the indicators only give you a sign as to when an opportunity might be coming up. Placing the trade requires more than looking at an indicator. It requires safe risk management and the right trading psychology. Sometimes traders use more than one indicator on a chart for double confirmation. Maybe even three indicators on a chart for triple confirmation.
With that being said trading indicators are not bad at all, and they should be used.
However, traders should understand and know market structure. Traders should know and understand the following if they want to trade or invest:
- Support Lines
- Resistance Lines
- Trend Lines
- Trend Breaks / Breakouts
All of these factors come into play when trading the markets. It might be difficult to understand at first, but it’s like driving a car, once you know how to do it you’re fine.
So what are support & resistance levels?
What are trend lines?
What are trend breaks / breakouts?
If you have any questions, send us a message and we can go into this in depth. We’ll teach you everything we know and do several exercises so you fully understand how to find these lines, levels and breaks.