Securities Trading Based on a Triple Moving Average Crossover

The triple moving average crossover is one of the most basic and often used technical indicators available to traders who want to determine whether to go long or short on a particular security. Can this indicator give such a signal? Absolutely. Depending on the direction of the crossover, either a buy or sell signal will be generated.

What is a Moving Average A moving average draws out the average price of a specific security over a period of time. For example, a 4-day moving average will take the average security price over the past four days and draw it on the chart. Over time, this creates a trend-line. Since moving averages are based on historical data, they lag behind current stock prices. The nice thing about moving averages, however, is that short, medium and long terms can be used at the discretion of the investor or analyst, which makes them great indicators in clear-trending markets, although not so reliable in choppy, sideways markets.

Triple Moving Average Crossovers Defined As a technical indicator, the triple moving average crossover gives the trader an indication of the future direction of that security. It uses a short, medium, and long moving average and the signal is triggered when the short moving average crosses the medium, and the medium moving average crosses the long moving average. For most applications, analysts rely on 4-day, 9-day and 18-day moving averages for this indicator.

Consequently the triple moving average crossover will see the 4-day crossover the 9-day and the 9-day crossover the 18-day. Now that all three moving averages have crossed one another, the analyst makes a recommendation on a trade.

Trade Signals From the Triple Moving Average Crossover Quite simply, a bullish signal is triggered when the three moving averages cross an upward sloping trendline, and a bearish signal is triggered when the averages cross a downward sloping trendline. When the crossover occurs, or is about to occur, the analyst will make a firm recommendation or a conditional recommendation to buy or sell.

When it comes to making trade decisions based on technical indicators, the triple moving average crossover should rarely be used in isolation. Other indicators that can support or refute a signal given by the triple moving average crossover are the Moving Average Convergence-Divergence (MACD) and Momentum.

Reviewing multiple technical data for multiple securities can become difficult at best without the mathematical expertise and manpower needed. As such many traders rely on software that will perform such calculations for them and simply advise as to whether they should buy or sell a particular security.

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