Commonly used moving averages and settings

Learn how to set up often-used moving averages, their settings, and color coding.

Adding EMAs 

Each member of our team has their own preferences for which and how many moving averages they like to have applied to certain charts. While everyone has different setups they like to use, this will cover the basics of adding and configuring these moving averages on your platform. In this example, we will be using TOS.  

Adjusting the period (length) and color coding
Below are commonly used EMA periods and colors at Simpler Trading.

• 8 period – Yellow
• 21 period – White 
• 34 period – Magenta 
• 55 period – Cyan
• 89 period – Red
• 144 period – Grey
• 200 period – Green

 Manually adding moving averages in Thinkorswim (TOS) 

 Open the Edit Studies and Strategies window.
Add the Exponential Moving average multiple times to your chart. 

Change the settings for each by selecting the gear icon to the right of the name.

 Change each instance to a length and a color.   

Once you have done this for each moving average, click OK. 

If you follow Raghee, she uses the following periods and colors for her EMAs:

• 8 period – Red
• 13 period – Yellow
• 21 period – Green
• 55 period – Cyan
• 89 period – Maroon or magenta
• 200 period – white