This is a Tier List. Strategies I’m going to put near the top of the list are good, and near the bottom of the list are bad.
Let’s start with the Fibonacci Strategy. This is when someone takes trades just because the price bounces slightly from Fibonacci price levels. This strategy is pretty much garbage. When I tested it, the data showed that the Fibonacci levels don’t provide any noticeable edge. It never reliably worked for me in the live market, either. Many times, when it worked, the price was actually reacting to normal support resistance areas or just reversing from a random spot. I will put the Fibonacci strategy in the F Tier. On the other hand, it is a good tool to see if the pullback entry is good or late. For example, in an uptrend, if you place the Fibonacci like this, and the long entry point is below the 50 Fibonacci, I see it as a decent entry.
The next one is Ichimoku Cloud. This is one of the best indicators I have used. It looks like a mess, but it solves a lot of problems beginner traders might have. For example, for a trend trader it filters slow or bad markets. It shows where the price is trending. It even gives an entry point. Other than the confusing aspect of the indicator, the Ichimoku Cloud is pretty good. I would put it in the C Tier.
Next is the Stochastic. To be honest, I found that Stochastic and Stochastic RSI indicators give more false entry points. In my trading journey, I haven’t found them that reliable. When I tested the Stochastic strategy 100 times in one of the previous videos, it only got around a break-even win rate. So, I would place it in the E Tier. Also, remember that by clicking on the card that appears at the top right corner, you can watch the detailed video on the strategies I’m mentioning here.
The next one is SuperTrend. This is one of the best indicators I have seen. It shows where the market is trending in one of the clearest ways possible. Its strategy of taking trades when it switches the trend also had a profitable win rate in my testing. Overall, it’s a very good indicator, especially for day trading. I would put it in the C category with Ichimoku Cloud.
The next one is the Fractal Indicator. This just sucks. This indicator basically spams arrows for every small price reversal. You can adjust its setting to identify bigger reversals. But in my experience, it’s not that reliable at that, either. One of the Fractal strategies is taking long trades when the Fractal arrow appears below the candle. But this just doesn’t work. It got one of the worst win rates in my testing series. On the other hand, when we take long trades after the price breaks above the fractal candle like this, the strategy gets a better win rate. But overall, it still sucks. I would put it in the F Tier. There are better indicators than this.
The next on the list is the Alligator. This is one of the most useful indicators I have used. Beginner traders will benefit most from this. It shows not only the trend direction but also the strength of the trend. It even shows when to not do trend trading. I would rate it in the C Tier.
The next one is the Parabolic Sar. This indicator is mainly used for setting good stop-losses. And to be honest, it does its job very well. I would put it in the C Tier.
Money Flow Index is the next one, and let’s just say it doesn’t flow money in the pocket that well. I would place it in E Tier next to Stochastic.
Next is the Golden Cross Strategy. This is one of those ancient strategies that survived different market conditions and for a good reason. It just works, but mostly on the higher timeframes, such as 1 Day. I would say I have found this strategy more reliable on the stock market higher timeframe. Still, it’s not something I would use as the main strategy. So, it goes in the D Tier.
Next is the Breakout Strategy. This has never reliably worked for me. When I tested it, the data said the same thing. It doesn’t work most of the time. Maybe it did many years ago, and maybe it does work in some specific situations, but based on what I saw, I would rate it in the E category.
On the other hand, I found the pullback of the breakout more reliable. The testing data from previous videos also says the same thing. I would put the breakout pullback entry in the C Category.
The next one is Bollinger Bands. This is one of those indicators that are very good, but it is difficult to use. Basically, the Bollinger Bands strategy that worked for me required me to take opposite trades when the price went outside the Bollinger Bands. This doesn’t sound that difficult, but when we actually try in the live market, we quickly realize that the price goes outside the bands a lot. You have to filter a lot of false setups to make this strategy work. So, even if this strategy worked for me, I would not recommend anyone using this as their first strategy. There are better indicators than this. I would put this in the E category.
But many years after I was done with Bollinger Bands, I realized that there is a new Bollinger Bands indicator called Percent B. Instead of appearing with the candles, this indicator shows up separately on the chart. It also has these upper and lower bands. When the price moves outside the normal Bollinger Bands, it can be confusing. On the other hand, Percent B shows the same thing by moving inside its upper and lower bands. I found this way better! I would rate this Bollinger Band indicator in the D category, just above the normal Bollinger Band.
The next one is the CCI indicator strategy. This just sucks. It got one of the worst win rates in my testing. I will put it in the F category next to Fractal.
Let’s see some Moving Average Strategies. The first one is the 9 EMA. I used this when I was trading on smaller timeframes, especially with momentum strategies. I used this to see where the very short-term trend was heading. For example, if the price moved up strongly and stayed above the 9 EMA for a while, I would wait for the price to move below the 9 EMA and stay there for a while. The price above the moving average would confirm a strong buying pressure, and the price below the moving average would confirm a pullback. When the price breaks above the 9 EMA again, I would look for a long entry. This strategy worked for me, especially when combined with candlestick entry patterns. I would put it in the C Tier.
Similar to 9 EMA, I used 21 EMA to see the medium-term trend or momentum. This was also a reliable indicator. I would put it next to the 9 EMA in the C Tier.
On the other hand, 200 EMA was just better than other moving averages. It not only showed the long-term trend, but I also found that it would act as a weak support resistance many times. I also used it to filter range and slow markets. When the price crossed the 200 EMA multiple times, I would see it as a potential range market because that’s how the price behaves in a range. I even made my own 200 EMA called TR EMA, which disappears in the range market. This moving average is one of my most used indicators. I would put it in the B Tier above all the indicators we have ranked so far. It’s that useful!
But what about Simple Moving Averages? I only talked about Exponential Moving Averages because I like how they react to the latest price movements more quickly. I mostly use EMA instead of SMA. If I had to rank SMA, I would put it just below EMA.
The next one is the ATR indicator. I highly recommend this indicator to beginner traders. This is one of those indicators that can be used with any strategy. I use it to see how far I have to set my stop-loss. For example, if I was taking a long trade near a support area. Normally, I would set the stop-loss just below the support. But this stop-loss could easily get triggered because of the market noise. So, to solve this problem, I can add the ATR value to my stop-loss distance. It’s like adding a market noise distance to the stop-loss. Now my stop-loss is far away, and the trade has a higher probability of winning. I would put ATR in the C Tier. I would have rated it higher, but once you gain enough experience, you can tell how far the stop-loss should be on your own.
The next one is the Keltner Channels Strategy. This indicator is similar to Bollinger Bands. But instead of taking reversal trades when the price goes outside the bands, you take trades in the direction of the breakout. Basically, this indicator says the price movement is slow when the price is inside the indicator. When the price breaks out of the indicator, the momentum in that breakout direction is higher. One can take trades when the breakout happens. I tested this strategy 100 times in the previous videos, and it did give a profitable win rate. Overall, this is as good as the indicators of the C Tier. So that’s where I would put it.
Now, let’s look at some price action pattern strategies. The first one is the Double Top and Double Bottom Strategy. This was a reliable strategy in my trading journey. I would put it in the C Tier.
The Head and Shoulders Pattern, is also similarly good. So goes in the C Tier as well!
But Flag Pattern, especially when the Flag looks like an Ascending or Descending Triangle, is one of the best price action pattern strategies I have used. I mainly used them on smaller timeframes to trade momentum. I would put it in the B Tier.
I would rank other Triangle and Price Action Patterns in the D Category.
Also, when it comes to the Trend Lines, I have only found them reliable when they are drawn on a pullback of a trend. Otherwise, they are pretty average. I would put the Pullback trend line in the C tier and other trend lines in the E tier.
Let’s see some Candlestick Pattern Strategies. The first one is the Engulfing Pattern. I would happily put it in the B Tier. It’s one of the best candlestick patterns I have found. If you remember the Trading Rush Free Price Action Series, you will know that hammer and shooting star patterns also show the same story. In other words, they are just like the Engulfing Pattern. I would put them in the B Tier as well.
As for the Doji candle, I would put it in the C Tier. It shows that there is equal buying and selling pressure.
I would put other Candlestick Patterns in the D category.
The next strategy on the list is the Awesome Oscillator. Unfortunately, it’s not that awesome. Its win rate in my testing series was slightly higher than break even. I would put it in the E category.
The next one is the Gap Strategy. This is when you look for a big gap-up or gap-down in the stock market. After that, one can take trades in the gap-open direction or in the gap-fill direction depending on where the price is showing signs of heading. I would add it to the B Category.
The next one is the V-WAP indicator. This is when you wait for the price to bounce from the V-WAP line in the Stock Market. This is one of my favorite indicators, and I would put it in the B Tier.
The next is the RSI indicator. I have found this to be an average indicator with an average win rate. The popular strategy of taking long and short trades when the RSI becomes oversold and overbought, respectively, did work in my testing. I would put RSI in the C Tier.
When it comes to Chart Types, I have found Renko Charts to be the best for drawing support resistance areas. They reduce the market noise and show the reversal points clearly. I would put them in the C Tier.
As for the Heikin Ashi Chart, they are also good at filtering out the market noise. Furthermore, one can even use them to trail the stop-loss. I would put them in the C Category.
As for the Candlestick Charts, these are simply the best. I would put them in the B Tier. They give a lot of information, which can be used to see the interest of other market participants! It is difficult to do that with Heikin Ashi or Renko Charts.
When it comes to Bar chart, I have never found it useful over other charts. I would put it in the E Tier.
Since Trend strategies are where I made the most money, and since trend trading is easier than range trading, I would put Trend Trading in B Tier and Range Trading in C Tier.
The next one on the list is Market Types. I would put Forex Market in the C Tier. This is where I started my trading journey. But this market has a lot of market noise in my experience. Support resistance areas work very well here. But only a few forex pairs are worth trading. The rest have a bad price movement.
I would put the Stock Market in the B Tier because I can trade a wide range of products very easily. The market noise in the Stock Market is less compared to the Forex market. So I can more reliably trade smaller timeframes.
On the other hand, I would put Crypto in the E Tier. Most of the time, it’s movement is trash. I can’t take technical trades when the price movement looks like this. It randomly starts making random moves and then suddenly starts making good, strong moves in one direction. Basically, crypto is volatile. But that’s also its advantage when it comes to long-term investing. For example, I have around two long positions in Crypto. Since Crypto makes big moves, the profit was made much faster than if I had invested that same amount into the stock market. Still, I only have a small portion of my capital in crypto as the risk of losing almost everything is also high. When it comes to normal trading, I don’t see an advantage in trading crypto over the stock market. So, I would still put Crypto in the E Tier.
The next one is the Donchian Channels Strategy. It’s one of the highest win-rate trend strategies I have found. You can learn more about it by clicking on this card. I would put it in the B category.
Similarly, the MACD crossover strategy is one of the best strategies I have found when it comes to identifying the end of pullbacks in a trend. Its Histogram part is also one of the best things out there! You can use it with any other strategy to see the momentum change. I go into much more detail in this video. I would put MACD and its Histogram in the B category.
Okay, so everything I’m going to say next will be very important.
If you noticed, I haven’t added anything in the A and S tiers yet. That’s for 2 reasons:
Number 1. The best trading strategy that I have found the most reliable in taking entries, booking profits, and setting stop-losses is the Horizontal Support Resistance strategy. I have data that says the way I draw support resistance works around 60% of the time. But that’s not the only reason I’m ranking it higher than anything else. You see, most of the strategies and tools I have mentioned so far are automatically calculated on the chart. In other words, MACD, Ichimoku Cloud, Bollinger Bands, Moving Averages, etc, all appear on the chart based on their predetermined formulas. Most of the time, there is less human psychology part in them.
On the other hand, when it comes to strong support resistance areas, the whole reason they work is because most people think in a similar way at the same time. Most people simply believe that if the price has strongly reversed from a price level before, the price has a good potential to do it again.
Horizontal Support Resistance Strategy is the only strategy I have found in my seven eight years of trading journey that is directly based on the psychology of market participants. On top of that, it is even supported by data! So, it’s the only strategy I would put in the A Tier.
Number 2. S Tier trading strategies don’t exist. But you can get to S Tier by gaining enough live market experience.
For example, when I was new to trading, I thought all trading indicators suck. If I had made this tier list before gaining 10 thousand hours of live trading experience, I would have rated every one of them in the F tier. I hated them all because they just didn’t work. But indicators were never the problem. It was beginner me.
At that time, I only had a few hundred hours of live trading experience. I was not experienced enough to filter good vs bad markets. I didn’t know when to use a trend trading strategy, such as MACD, and when to not use it.
Only when I gained enough live market experience I stopped trading like a bot. By that, I mean most trading strategies don’t work in all markets. We have to use trend strategies only in the trending market. Otherwise, we are trading mindlessly like a bot.
The only way to stop trading like a bot is by learning when to not trade. And I learned when to not trade after I gained more live trading experience.
Basically, what I’m trying to say is. Your trading strategy’s outcome in the live market kind of reflects how much experience you have in trading. If you are new and lack experience, your strategies will lack a high win rate as well.
Think of your experience as a multiplier of these strategies. The better you are, the better these strategies are.
If I was to start trading again, I would mainly focus on the S, A, and B Tier Strategies, Tools, etc. Because that’s what I have found to be the best after trading for seven-eight years straight!
That’s all! Now watch this video where I explain the best part of the MACD indicator with a cat!
