Divergence Stock Trading Setups

Divergence is one of the trade setups used by Stock traders. It involves looking at a stock trading chart and one more indicator. For our example we shall use the MACD indicator.

To spot this trading setup find two chart points at which stock price makes a new swing high or a new swing low but the MACD indicator does not, indicating a divergence between stock price and momentum.

To look for divergence we look for two chart points, two highs that form an M-shape on the Stock chart or two lows that form a W-Shape on the Stock chart. Then look for the same M-shape or W-Shape on the Stock indicator you use to trade.

Example of a Stock Divergence Trade Setup:

In the stock trading chart below we identify two chart points, point A and point B (swing highs). These two points form an M-shape on the stock price chart.

Then using MACD indicator we check the highs made by the MACD, these are the highs that are directly below Chart points A and B.

We then draw one line on the Stock chart and another line on the MACD indicator.

Drawing Divergence Stock Trading Lines

The chart above shows an example of one of the four types of divergences, the one above is known as hidden bearish divergence, one of the best type to trade. Types of divergences are covered in the next lesson.

How to spot divergence

In order to spot Stock diverging signal we look for the following:

• HH=Higher High- two highs but the last one is higher
• LH= Lower High- two highs but the last one is lower
• HL=Higher Low- two lows but the last one is higher
• LL= Lower Low- two lows but the last one is lower

First let us look at the illustrations of these trading terms:

M-shapes dealing with stock price Highs