What's a good moving average crossover for swing trading stocks?

[ValeryN]

Hi guys, I'm new at swing trading stocks. Can you please share with me what pair of moving average crossovers you recommend for swing trading? I'm looking to make 5-7% gains per trade (when I'm right).

eg 23 and 30 day EMA crossover?

Thanks

Don't trust anyone, learn how to test and then test yourself.
Even if someone looks like they know what they are talking about - still test it yourself.
Then test over multiple market cycles.

Just to show it's possible I coded a quick version.
It uses 10/100 fast/slow MAs and looks not too bad for last decade over NASDAQ100 stocks.

Val

 

[HobbyTrading]

Hi guys, I'm new at swing trading stocks. Can you please share with me what pair of moving average crossovers you recommend for swing trading? I'm looking to make 5-7% gains per trade (when I'm right).

eg 23 and 30 day EMA crossover?

Thanks

I have seen people specify that they use a factor four between the fast moving and slow moving average. Thus e.g. 50/200. Or 20/80. Etc. You would then need to experiment to see which combination works best for you.

 

[Overnight]

You might also have to experiment for a few years on the MA calculation. Like, which type of MA are you using?

I was partial to the hull and linear regression types meself.

More testing!

 

[HolyGrailSeeker]

Hi guys, I'm new at swing trading stocks. Can you please share with me what pair of moving average crossovers you recommend for swing trading? I'm looking to make 5-7% gains per trade (when I'm right).

eg 23 and 30 day EMA crossover?

Thanks

They aren't any magic moving averages. It depends on the character of the stock.

But if I were to choose ...Generally, I like using Fibonacci MAs, 3 5 8 14 21 and so on...Important ones are 25, 50 and 200 as many ppl use them.

 

[Tall Mike]

Hi guys, I'm new at swing trading stocks. Can you please share with me what pair of moving average crossovers you recommend for swing trading? I'm looking to make 5-7% gains per trade (when I'm right).

eg 23 and 30 day EMA crossover?

Thanks

I would recommend you do the backtesting and see what you are looking for. Only you know the answer to your own question.

 

[murray t turtle]

So a crossover strategy should be able to be easily back-tested. Can anyone show a consistent edge with one?

%%
OK;
if a 200 dma is part of 200/+ things to watch. Yes. Maybe not with a 5 minute chart but thats OK also....................................................................

 

[murray t turtle]

Beta slippage.... Why use 200 week moving average on 3x leveraged ETFs

%%
Mainly because it stays on my charts; the fact it seldom gets used/ so much the better / less slippage/less mistakes/less noise generaly.....................................................

 

[nwoptions]

There aren't any, in general.

Thanks for the reply Scataphagos. So it's wise not to use moving average cross overs in general? Or just for swing trading?

 

[nwoptions]

So a crossover strategy should be able to be easily back-tested. Can anyone show a consistent edge with one?

Can you recommend any backtesting software that's free or paid?

 

[Scataphagos]

Thanks for the reply Scataphagos. So it's wise not to use moving average cross overs in general? Or just for swing trading?

No, it's that they don't work very well. However there is some merit in them as support/resistance from the 50-day and 200-day (not crosses). Also... the market takes on a rhythm at times where a different MA acts well as support/resistance, but you have to search for it by trial-and-error. (I've seen where the 150-day and the 400-day have worked well. Not many indications from them being so long term, of course.)

I don't recommend "moving average crossovers" or MACD. Those are 2nd derivatives of price... you should be getting your signals sooner.