How to Use RSI for Day Trading?

Among different useful oscillators which traders can identify, RSI or Relative Strength Indicator is the most reliable and renowned momentum indicator. Day traders use it to gain profits during intraday but some find it hard to read due to its infrequent trading signals. It’s well-known that most intraday traders utilize RSI for getting optimal results and in a high reward-to-risk ratio.  

Since it was first introduced in the book of “New Concepts of Technical Trading System” back in 1978, it has become quite popular to generate technical trader signals for bullish or bearish price momentum. RSI mainly suggests the primary trend of a stock or an asset which further aid in comprehending whether the same financial instrument is “oversold” or “overbought”.

Role of RSI in Day Trading 

Relative Strength Index is underappreciated by beginners who fail to grasp how its parameters work. You need to be able to read RSI indicators through the charts for it to help you gain profits during intraday. RSI is a reliable tool for all but especially day traders. Getting infrequent trades generated by RSI is not an issue if they are high-quality trades. It’s all about finding the quality trades to make up for infrequent intraday trades. Some intraday traders solve this issue by lowering the time-frame or opting for a sensitive oscillator with a lower period which has risks of its own.

Going by the books does bring profits but as you start trading different stocks and assets every day, trading the obvious won’t bring much income. This is why day traders need to rely on dynamic RSI indicators to acquire beneficial trading set-ups. With correct RSI indicators, day traders can find good entry/exit signals in both trending as well as consolidating markets.

Helpful RSI Strategies for Day Traders to Use

As mentioned before, the normal default settings for RSI is 14 on technical charts. But experts believe that the best timeframe for RSI actually lies between 2 to 6. Intermediate and expert day traders prefer the latter timeframe as they can decrease or increase the values according to their position. The secret to making profits by using RSI indicators is to figure out how to use RSI for day trading by setting a correct timeframe that corresponds to one’s trading strategy. Thus, keeping RSI timeframe in check is a must. In up-trending markets, short period turns out to be more reliable while looking for short-term trading. Following are some useful tips to create the RSI based strategy for day trading;

• Get familiarized with reading RSI indicators and comprehending market trends from the information provided by RSI indicators and technical trading charts.
• Pair RSI indicator with moving average indicator in order to filter out the best stocks and assets in the up-trending market and eliminate the weak ones.
• Monitor the stocks as closely as possible with the help of scanner software that enhances traders focus on worthwhile assets. Doing that will ensure that you do not lose an opportunity to enter/exit the market.
• By determining the high/low bidding condition of a stock with the help of RSI, traders can easily determine which ones to buy and which ones to sell. Do not rely on higher or lower period settings but find out the one that works best for you.
• Knowing whether to follow a market trend or not depends on RSI if you’re trading stock or forex. Following the market is beneficial when it comes to stock trading but in case of forex, you need to remain on guard to protect your account from losses.

The best RSI Settings for Intraday

Swing traders who cut losses quickly by aiming at smaller gains fix their RSI timeframe to 14 periods but that isn’t guaranteed to work for each and every day trader. After researching the impact of altering timeframes on RSI, traders can achieve the best RSI settings for intraday which is suitable to them. It may differ according to the trader’s aimed profit but integrating knowledge of RSI for day trading definitely comes in handy. At the end of the day “data” helps day traders get proper RSI signals and indicate when to get out from a market position to get profits.