MACD Divergence Explained
Understanding and interpreting a MACD divergence can be very helpful in your trading. You may ask what does a MACD Divergence means. Just that the current price trend is running out of steam and soon may reverse direction. Price reversal may not happen right away. But a MACD Divergence is a powerful hint that the market is changing direction. It is easy to spot MACD crossovers and dramatic rises but not so a MACD divergence. Spotting a MACD divergence correctly will only come after practice.
For example, if the price is making a series of higher highs and MACD is making a series of lower lows, something is wrong between the two. What you are looking for is when the price action and MACD do not agree.
MACD is seen as a sign that fewer and fewer traders are in the trend. No one is trading against the trend. Yet fewer and fewer traders are in the trend. Most probably the traders are getting nervous and slowly fading out of their trades.
The only traders in the trend are nervous and jittery. They want to exit. Most of them are likely to exit their trade at the first sign of trouble. As soon as the bears muster up enough guts to short. MACD is diverging from the bullish trend. The bulls will exit and the bears will take over.
This is exactly why MACD is so powerful. It takes time to setup but when it works, it often works well. There are two powerful keys in locating times when MACD divergence is likely to represent a reversal in price.
When the price is at the double tops or double bottoms, MACD divergence can be powerful. At this point you spot MACD divergence. You are making your trading plan based on the reversal or breakout of the support and resistance (S&R). This is known as Exhaustion Pullback.
You should trade now based on rejection reversal. This is a sign that the price action is running out of steam. This indicates that there are not enough committed traders to break the support and resistance (S&R).
When MACD is used as an overbought/ oversold indicator, you see that it has reached its overbought/ oversold range and the price action is turning normal. This is a signal that you should avoid trading at this time.
Dont get confused and think that the currency pair is overbought and everyone is buying. When the price action reaches its extreme, you will see price exhaust and the MACD line drop back into normal zone. Dont confuse the overbought/ oversold MACD zones as trade opportunities. Avoid trading at this time.
These two situations along with your other tools can provide excellent trading opportunities. It is also important to note that divergence can not only be found on the MACD line and the signal line, it can also be found on the histogram.
For example, if the price is making a series of higher highs and MACD is making a series of lower lows, something is wrong between the two. What you are looking for is when the price action and MACD do not agree.
MACD is seen as a sign that fewer and fewer traders are in the trend. No one is trading against the trend. Yet fewer and fewer traders are in the trend. Most probably the traders are getting nervous and slowly fading out of their trades.
The only traders in the trend are nervous and jittery. They want to exit. Most of them are likely to exit their trade at the first sign of trouble. As soon as the bears muster up enough guts to short. MACD is diverging from the bullish trend. The bulls will exit and the bears will take over.
This is exactly why MACD is so powerful. It takes time to setup but when it works, it often works well. There are two powerful keys in locating times when MACD divergence is likely to represent a reversal in price.
When the price is at the double tops or double bottoms, MACD divergence can be powerful. At this point you spot MACD divergence. You are making your trading plan based on the reversal or breakout of the support and resistance (S&R). This is known as Exhaustion Pullback.
You should trade now based on rejection reversal. This is a sign that the price action is running out of steam. This indicates that there are not enough committed traders to break the support and resistance (S&R).
When MACD is used as an overbought/ oversold indicator, you see that it has reached its overbought/ oversold range and the price action is turning normal. This is a signal that you should avoid trading at this time.
Dont get confused and think that the currency pair is overbought and everyone is buying. When the price action reaches its extreme, you will see price exhaust and the MACD line drop back into normal zone. Dont confuse the overbought/ oversold MACD zones as trade opportunities. Avoid trading at this time.
These two situations along with your other tools can provide excellent trading opportunities. It is also important to note that divergence can not only be found on the MACD line and the signal line, it can also be found on the histogram.
About the Author:
Mr. Ahmad Hassam is a Harvard University Graduate. He is interested in day trading and swing trading stocks and currencies. Discover A Revolutionary New Forex Robot. Develop your own Forex Trading System.