Table of Contents

Forex - Indicators - Stochastic

Stochastic is designating a process having an infinite progression of jointly distributed random variables.

The Stochastic Oscillator Technical Indicator compares where a security’s price closed relative to its price range over a given time period.

The Stochastic Oscillator is displayed as two lines.

  1. The main line is called “%K.”
  2. The second line, called “%D,” is a moving average of %K.

The %K line is usually displayed as a solid line and the %D line is usually displayed as a dotted line.

There are several ways to interpret a Stochastic Oscillator. Three popular methods include:


How to use

This is confirmation indicator and acts as a filter, or confirmation for some other signal, and filter to filter false signals.

NOTE: The main signals (from some other indicators) may not come in simultaneously with the Stochastic.

  • For this reason, it is important to check different possible signals from the Stochastic indicator to use it for trading, such as
    • Fast Stochastic: 34/5/5
    • Medium Stochastic: 55/8/8
    • Slow Stochastic: 100/8/8
  • and potentially use rules such as this for a buy:
    • Slow Stochastic (main line) on bar #1 is below 20.
    • Fast Stochastic on bar #1 is below 50.
    • Medium Stochastic on bar #2 is below 20.
    • Medium Stochastic on bar #1 is above 20.
    • Medium Stochastic main line on bar #1 is above Medium Stochastic signal line on same bar #1.
    • Medium Stochastic main line on bar 2 < Medium Stochastic main line bar #1.
  • and the opposite for a sell.

Thus, the most usual rules/signals (most usually used) for this indicator are the following:

  • main line of indicator is above or below some level indicating overbought/oversold.

or

  • main and signal lines are started to move to our direction.

or

  • main line of indicator is above or below 50.

The main line is above some level (50%, 70% or 80%):

The main line is below some level (50%, 30% or 20%):


References

https://www.metatrader5.com/en/terminal/help/indicators/oscillators/so

https://www.mql5.com/en/docs/standardlibrary/expertclasses/csignal/signal_stochastic