My take on the "holy grail" of indicators vs. raw price action
Been trading CFDs across a few markets for a while now, and something that always comes up is this perennial debate: are you an indicator junkie or a price action purist? Personally, I find myself more and more in the latter camp these days. I've spent countless hours backtesting moving averages, stochastic oscillators, RSI divergences, you name it. And don't get me wrong, they can offer insights, especially for confirmation, but leaning on them as primary decision-making tools has often led me down the garden path.
There's just something about the raw charts, the levels of support and resistance, the candlesticks themselves that feels more organic, more connected to the actual market sentiment. For example, looking at $USDZAR today, you see it pulling back slightly to 16.47338 after hitting highs of 16.5725. You could layer on an indicator to tell you it's 'overbought' or 'reversing', but the price action itself, seeing that wick rejection or a strong close below a previous daily high, often tells you everything you need to know about where the market is willing to go. Indicators are always lagging, by definition. They're a derivative of price. So why not just focus on the source material? I'm sure many of you will disagree, so I'd love to hear your pushback on this.
That's an interesting point. I've heard a lot about focusing on raw price action, but it always feels a bit overwhelming to interpret without some kind of guide. Do you ever feel like you're missing out on confirmation that indicators might provide, or is it more about learning to read the market's "language" itself?