Technical indicators are mathematical calculations based on a trading instrument's past and current price and/or volume activity. Many investors and active traders use technical trading indicators to help identify high probability trade entry and exit points. Hundreds of indicators are available on most trading platforms but that doesn’t mean that you should use all of them or as many as you can.

By using too many indicators, your messy chart won’t be useful. Over analysis can hide obvious opportunities that you could spot if there weren’t so many lines on the chart. The eagerness to see opportunities might make you believe that you see some opportunities when there is nothing. There is no quick solution and no magic trick. It is up to every trader to develop a trading system, test it, apply it and stick to it.

As traders progress through the years, they often come to the revelation that the system with the highest level of simplicity is often the best. Trading with a simple strategy allows for quick reactions and less stress. If you’re just getting started you should seek the most effective and simple strategies for identifying trades and stick with that. One way to simplify your trading is through a trading plan that includes chart indicators and a few rules as how you should use those indicators.

People are spending hours experimenting with numerous different technical indicators in order to find that Holy Grail combination that will help them become rich from trading in the forex market. However no combination will prove to be 100% successful. The key is to find a combination of indicators that suits your trading style and enables you to make high probability trades that will give you a positive equity curve in the long run.

This is why so many top traders recommend using just a few tried and tested indicators. You don't need to have a really complex set-up to be successful. You can make a decent living from forex by just sticking to a few basic indicators like RSI, Stochastic and MACD, or just using support and resistance levels to make trading decisions. So, if you're striving to become a profitable trader than do not overcomplicate things.