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Indicators

How to Use ADX to Measure Trend Strength

ADX measures trend strength as how hard the days have been pushing one way, and it is read by its height and its slope, apart from direction: a high and rising line says the push is growing, a falling line says it is fading, whichever way the price is going. This paper shows you the euro's ADX through the autumn fall and the spring rise of 2025 drawn from real closes — 51 in both — the idea as a sail that fills with any steady wind, the push peaking two months before the price on the daily chart, the three readings from one line, and how to smooth the line on your platform.

Difficulty
Intermediate
Reading time
5 min
Pages
8
Reviewed by
Saman Rahbar

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The same number for opposite trends

ADX measures trend strength as how hard the days have been pushing one way, and it does not care which way. The euro's ADX read 51 on 26 November 2024, near the bottom of the autumn fall, and 51 again on 29 April 2025, in the spring rise: the same number for opposite trends. Between the two, at the turn in early March, it read 15. By September, in the drift, it read 8. To use it for strength, read its height and its slope, and leave direction to the price or to the two DI lines.

A sail

The picture is a sail. In a steady wind it fills hard and stays full; when the wind dies, or keeps shifting from one side to the other, it slackens and flaps. The sail does not care where the wind comes from. It fills with a north wind or a south one. ADX is the sail. A high and rising reading says the days have been pushing one way and the push is growing; a falling reading says the push is going out of them, whichever way they had been going.

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