Leading & lagging indicators

What you’ll learn

• What are leading & lagging indicators?
• Common examples of each
• Indicators within crypto transactional data
• Data Indicators from the wider crypto economy

As you start to decipher the world of cryptocurrency trading it might seem that you are overloaded with information and acronyms.

At the basic level Learn Crypto’s section on how to trade cryptocurrency has made a distinction between Trading and Investing, based on short or long term focus, the different types of analysis generally used for each – Technical or Fundamental – and the level of commitment required.

Technical Analysis is far more labour intensive simply because your focus is on short term patterns, and the constant flux of prices. As yet we haven’t even scratched the surface of the indicators and tools that you might employ.

Rather than provide an overwhelming A-Z of every possible technical indicator, it is more helpful to understand how indicators can be grouped which can then help you find an affinity with a specific aspect of Technical or Fundamental Analysis.

Technical indicators within trading of traditional financial assets – like shares or foreign exchange – are generally grouped as being Leading, Lagging or Macro.

• A Leading Indicator points at where the price might be going.
• A Lagging Indicator confirms patterns in prices once they have formed

You might think that given a choice you’d rather spend your time looking at where price is going rather than where it’s been, but both Leading and Lagging are equally useful.