Moving Averages - traditional general approach

Moving Average (MA for short) is a technical tool that averages a currency pair’s price over a period of time. The smoothing effect this has on the chart helps give a clearer indication on what direction the pair is moving either up, down, or sideways. There are a variety of moving averages to choose from. Simple Moving Averages and Exponential Moving Averages are by far the most popular. The traders are usually using SMA indicators with the period of 100 and 200 to estimate the market condition, and with the periods of 55 and 11 for intra-day trading for example.