There are countless indicators available to assist your trading — and the noise can be overwhelming. The articles below break down the ones that actually matter: how different bar types change what you see on the chart, why moving averages are the most widely used indicator in the world, and how to read volume and delta like a professional.
Bar Types
Understand the countless bar types available in NinjaTrader — from classic time-based bars to range, tick, volume, and renko bars. Each tells a different story about price action.
Read Article →Moving Averages
Moving averages are one of the most widely used trading tools in the world. Learn how MAs work, the difference between simple and exponential, and how to use them to identify trends.
Read Article →Other Common Indicators
From RSI and MACD to Bollinger Bands and stochastics — explore the other indicators futures traders rely on for momentum, volatility, and trend confirmation.
Read Article →Chart Types
Get to know the different chart types — candlesticks, bars, line, area, and point-and-figure. Choosing the right chart type for your trading style makes a real difference.
Read Article →Volume and Delta
Volume and delta reveal what's really happening beneath the surface of price. Learn how to read buyer vs. seller aggression and use delta to spot exhaustion and absorption.
Read Article →NinjaTrader Bar Types: Renko, Range, Reversal and Heiken-Ashi
Every derived bar type throws something away. Most of them do not tell you what.
Read Article →How to Choose Your Indicators
Most indicators fall into four groups: trend (moving averages, VWAP), momentum (RSI, MACD), volatility (ATR, Bollinger Bands) and volume (volume, delta and other order flow tools). A clean chart usually needs one tool from two or three of these groups, not several from the same one.
Keep in mind that most indicators are built from past prices, so they confirm a move rather than predict it. Before trading a new indicator with real money, practice with it in NinjaTrader Desktop's simulation account and learn how it behaves on your bar type and session. You can browse our trend and classic indicators for NinjaTrader.
Leading or lagging? Lagging indicators, such as moving averages and the MACD, confirm a trend after it has started. Oscillators such as the RSI are sometimes called leading because they can show momentum fading before price turns, but they also give more early and false signals. Price action and order flow, such as volume and delta at a key level, show what is happening right now. Many traders combine one lagging trend tool with one of these faster reads.
Keep your chart readable. If you cannot tell what the market is doing at a glance, there are probably too many lines on the chart. Remove any indicator you never act on, and keep the ones you do use in the same place on every chart.