strategy-dev

Market Trends — the 8-indicator consensus on any symbol

How to read the fused trend score, confidence, and the 8 underlying indicators

5 min · beginner

What you'll have when finished

  • Read the Trend Direction Bar correctly (direction + strength + confidence)
  • Understand what each of the 8 indicators is voting on
  • Use the verdict to pick the right strategy type for current conditions
  • Avoid the most common trend-misreading mistakes

Before you start

  • No indicator predicts the future. The fused score describes what is, not what will be.
  • Trend data is for the symbol you select on the timeframe Market Trends uses. Different timeframes can give opposite signals — that's normal, not a bug.

Walkthrough

  1. Pick a symbol

    Quick-pick covers the 12 most-traded majors. For anything else, type the symbol in the custom field (format: BASE/QUOTE, e.g., ARB/USDT). Must be a symbol Binance lists OHLCV for. If Binance doesn't list it, the page returns "data unavailable" rather than fabricating indicators. That's by design — see [[no-honest-language]] in the codebase.

    Success criteria: Loaded a symbol successfully

  2. The Trend Direction Bar — three things at once

    The big card at the top combines three signals: **Direction** — Bullish / Bearish / Neutral. The plain verdict. **Strength (0-100%)** — how decisively price is moving. <40 = weak signal, 40-70 = moderate, 70+ = decisive. **Confidence (%)** — how unanimous the 8 indicators are. High confidence means most agree; low confidence means they're split. Strong + High confidence = trade with the trend. Strong + Low confidence = strong move but mixed signals (often near reversals). Weak + High confidence = boring but stable trend. Weak + Low confidence = no edge — sit out.

    Success criteria: Read direction + strength + confidence together

  3. The 8 indicator cards — what each one votes

    **RSI (Relative Strength Index)** — 0-100 momentum. >70 = overbought, <30 = oversold. **MACD** — momentum crossover. MACD above signal line = bullish. **Bollinger Bands** — volatility envelope. Price at upper band = potentially overbought; lower band = potentially oversold. **EMA crossovers (9/20/50)** — trend direction. Short-period above long = bullish. **SMA position** — price vs simple moving average. Above = uptrend bias. **Volume regime** — current volume vs recent average. High volume confirms moves; low volume doubts them. **VWAP relationship** — price vs volume-weighted average price. Above VWAP = institutions bidding above average. **ATR (Average True Range)** — volatility level. High ATR = wide swings expected (widen stops); low ATR = quiet range. When 6+ of 8 agree, the fused score has high confidence.

    Success criteria: Read every indicator · Counted how many agree with the headline verdict

  4. Confidence vs strength — the most-confused pair

    Two different things people often conflate: **Confidence** = "do the indicators agree?" (consensus among the 8) **Strength** = "is the move decisive?" (magnitude of trend) You can have: - **High strength + High confidence** — strong unanimous move. Trade with the trend with normal sizing. - **High strength + Low confidence** — strong move but indicators split. Often a reversal setup. Reduce size or wait. - **Low strength + High confidence** — quiet but unanimous. Range trading. Tight stops OK. - **Low strength + Low confidence** — no signal. Sit in cash.

    Success criteria: Internalized the difference

  5. Use the verdict to pick the right strategy

    **Bullish + high confidence** — Smart Trade with TPs and trailing stops. Conditional Bot with breakout rules. **Bearish + high confidence** — pause long-only bots. Smart Trade with SHORT side (where available). Or just sit. **Neutral with high confidence** — Grid Bot (purpose-built for range), DCA Safety on assets you'd hold anyway. **Any direction + low confidence (<60%)** — the engine is honest that there's no edge. Sitting in cash is a real position. Consider waiting one timeframe and re-checking. This is how the Conditional Bot regime-classifier works under the hood — same logic, applied automatically.

    Success criteria: Picked a strategy that matches the current verdict

What's next

Once you've identified the regime: - Bullish → [Smart Trade](/smart-trade) or [Conditional Bot](/conditional-bots) - Neutral → [Grid Bot](/grid-bot) or [DCA Safety](/dca-safety) - Bearish → pause long-only bots, consider [Futures](/futures) for shorts For automated regime-switching (so you don't have to do this check manually), use the [Conditional Bot](/conditional-bots) which runs this exact logic on a timer and activates the right inner bot for current conditions.