SuperCharts is ZEME's charting workspace: open it here. It carries 102 indicators. This lesson is about why that number is a warning rather than a boast.
What is in there
Everything you would expect, moving averages, RSI, MACD, Bollinger Bands, stochastics, volume profiles, Fibonacci tools, plus PSX-specific overlays that matter here and nowhere else, most importantly the upper and lower circuit levels.
That last one deserves attention. PSX caps daily moves at roughly prev close + max(10%, Rs 1). A chart that does not show you the cap will make a stock look like it stopped rising because sellers arrived, when it actually stopped because it was not allowed to rise further. Those are completely different situations and they look identical without the line drawn.
Why 102 is a warning
You met the reason in Reading a PSX Chart. Of the classic indicators we tested on 67,098 observations:
- Moving-average position measured 1.00× and 0.98× in the held-out years, nothing
- The Bollinger squeeze measured 0.88× and 0.90×, worse than random
- Buying at support measured 0.86× and 0.87×, worse than random
Three of the most popular tools in any chart package, adding nothing or less than nothing. Loading all 102 does not give you 102 edges. It gives you 102 ways to find a reason for a decision you had already made.
The measured position: more indicators on a chart has never once, in our testing, produced a better base rate. What produced better base rates was a smaller number of rules applied consistently.
A defensible 6-indicator layout
Built only from things that survived both periods, plus what you need to manage a position:
- Price with 20-day and 200-day averages. The 200 as a qualifier, never a trigger
- Volume, the difference between a 1.63× breakout and a 1.13× one
- Bollinger Bands, watching the upper band, not the squeeze
- RSI, reading high values as persistence, not as a warning
- Circuit levels, so you can see the cap
- 52-week high line. The strongest single classic signal we found (1.91× / 1.29×)
That is it. Everything else in the 102 is available when you have a specific question, which is the correct reason to add an indicator.
Do this now, practical activity
- Open SuperCharts and load a stock you follow.
- Remove every indicator. Start from bare price.
- Add the six above, one at a time. After each, say out loud what question it answers.
- If you cannot state the question, remove it again.
The test you just applied: an indicator earns its place by answering a question you actually have. Any indicator that is on the chart "because it is standard" is decoration you are paying attention for.
Measured: SuperCharts carries 102 indicators. Of the most popular classics, moving-average position measured 1.00×, the Bollinger squeeze 0.88×/0.90×, and support-buying 0.86×/0.87% against base, across 67,098 point-in-time observations.