MACD Divergence Explained
Written by Ahmad Hassam on July 1st, 2009
Understanding how to interpret a MACD divergence can be very helpful for you in trading. Do you know what does a MACD Divergence means? Just that the current price trend is running out of steam. It soon may reverse direction. However, price reversal may not happen right away. But a MACD Divergence is a powerful hint. The market is changing direction. It is easy to spot MACD crossovers and dramatic rises. Not so a MACD divergence. Spotting a MACD divergence will only come after practice.
Suppose the price is making a series of higher highs. MACD is making a series of lower lows. What you are looking for is when the price action and MACD do not agree. Something is wrong between the two.
MACD is seen as a sign that fewer and fewer traders are in the trend. No one is trading against the trend. Yet fewer and fewer traders are in the trend. Most probably the traders are getting nervous and slowly fading out of their trades.
The only traders in the trend are nervous. They are likely to exit their trade at the first sign of trouble. So if MACD is diverging from the bullish trend. As soon as the bears muster up enough guts to short, the bulls will exit and the bears will take over.
There are two powerful keys in locating times when MACD divergence is likely to represent a reversal in the price action. This is exactly why MACD divergence is so powerful. It takes time to setup. However, when it works, it often works well.
When the price is at the double tops or double bottoms, MACD divergence can be powerful. At this point you spot MACD divergence. You are making your trading plan based on the reversal or breakout of the support and resistance (S&R). This is known as Exhaustion Pullback.
You should trade now based on rejection reversal. This is a sign that the price action is running out of steam. This indicates that there are not enough committed traders to break the support and resistance (S&R).
MACD is also used as an overbought/ oversold indicator. When you see that it has reached its overbought/ oversold range and the price action is turning normal, this is a signal that you should avoid trading at this time.
Dont think that the currency pair is overbought and everyone is buying. However, when the price reaches its extreme, you will see price exhaust and the MACD line drop back into normal zone. Dont confuse the overbought/ oversold MACD zones as trade opportunities.
Divergence can not only be found on the MACD line and the signal line, it can also be found on the histogram. You should note this important point. The two situations described above along with your other technical indicators can provide excellent trading opportunities to you. Master MACD divergence!
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