CYCLEPEDIAThe trading encyclopedia
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Indicators

The trading measurement-tool catalogue: 17 entries with real mathematics, interactive figures and honest operational readings — from moving averages to order flow, in order of difficulty.

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Every indicator in this catalogue — the RSI, the MACD, moving averages, bands — is made from the same raw material: price that has already happened (and the volume that came with it). None of these tools knows the future; each one reorganises the chart's information so the eye can grasp it in a second. They are measuring instruments: whoever treats them as oracles eventually pays the bill; whoever treats them as instruments measures better than everyone else. This module exists to put you in the second group.

In plain terms — An indicator is to the market what a barometer is to the sky: it does not decide tomorrow's weather, but it measures today's pressure better than your eyes can. Reading the instruments will not tell you what the market will do — it tells you what it is doing, and that alone is more than most participants know.

CATALOGUE · INDICATORS The measuring instruments of trading Four families, four questions — 17 entries in order of difficulty CYCLEPEDIA DIAGRAM — EMICICLO TREND Where is it going? MOMENTUM With how much force? VOLATILITY How agitated is it? VOLUME Who is moving it? Each tool answers one question well: the regime decides which
Four families, four questions: direction, strength, agitation, participation.
Hover or tap the highlighted points

The four questions

Hundreds of indicators exist, but almost all of them answer one of four questions. Each tool answers one question well: ask it the wrong one and it will still give you an answer — and that is where the disasters begin.

Question Family Tools in the catalogue
Where is it going? Trend SMA, ADX, Parabolic SAR, Supertrend
With how much force? Momentum RSI, MACD, Stochastic, CCI
How agitated is it? Volatility ATR, Bollinger Bands
Who is moving it? Volume and levels VWAP, OBV, Volume Profile, CVD, Pivots, Fibonacci, Ichimoku

Indicators are distinct from concepts (what a trend or a stop is: concetti) and from the glossary (short terms and slang: glossario). Here you find how the tool is calculated and how it is read.

How each entry is built

Every entry in the catalogue follows the same scheme: what the tool measures (and what it does not), how it is calculated without suffering, the honest operational reading and — the part you will not find elsewhere — limits and traps, that is, when the tool betrays you. Each entry's figure is computed with the indicator's real mathematics on the data shown: the highlighted points respond to touch, and the counters under the chart report measured numbers, not claimed ones.

The order is designed for progressive difficulty: first the forefather and the first oscillator, then the toolbox family by family, with levels and complete systems at the end. The Next button in each entry follows this sequence.

# Entry The question it answers
1 EMA / SMA — Moving averages The noise filter: the building block of everything
2 RSI How much force is in the push?
3 MACD Is the move accelerating or slowing?
4 Stochastic Where does price close within the recent range?
5 ATR How much does the market actually move?
6 Bollinger Bands What is normal and what is excess?
7 ADX Is there a trend, or not?
8 Parabolic SAR Where do I keep the stop while the trend runs?
9 Supertrend The stop that breathes with volatility
10 CCI How anomalous is the deviation from the mean?
11 VWAP At what price has the session really traded?
12 OBV Does volume confirm the move?
13 Volume Profile Where has the market traded, level by level?
14 CVD Who is aggressing, and who is absorbing?
15 Pivot Points The day's mechanical grid
16 Fibonacci How much of a pullback is normal?
17 Ichimoku Equilibrium at a single glance
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