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Chart clutter

Loading a chart with so many indicators and drawings that the price itself becomes hard to read and contradictory signals are always available.

Most indicators are transformations of the same four numbers. Adding rsi, stochastic-oscillator and williams-percent-r gives three views of one calculation, not three independent opinions, so their agreement means much less than it appears.

The real cost is decision quality. With enough tools on screen, something always supports whatever you already want to do, which turns analysis into a search for permission. A cluttered chart also hides simple structural facts such as where the last swing-low sits.

A reasonable discipline is to require each tool to answer a question nothing else on the chart answers, and to be able to state what reading would stop you taking a trade. If no reading would, the tool is decoration.

Related: confluence, oscillator, technical-analysis, confirmation-bias, price-action

See it drawn

Original diagrams for the ideas on this page. Illustrative, not real market data.

A stochastic oscillator under a price chartA price line above a lower panel with a fast and a slow curve swinging between a line at 80 and a line at 20, and the point where the fast curve turns up through the slow one circled.PRICESTOCHASTIC (14, 3)80overbought20oversold%K%D%K crosses above %D
The stochastic oscillator. The stochastic shows where each close sits inside the recent high-to-low range, on a scale of 0 to 100. Readings above 80 mean closes are hugging the top of that range and below 20 the bottom; the circle marks the fast line turning up through the slow one.

Educational only, not advice. Spotted an error? Post in Site Feedback.