What each indicator measures
Both read the same price, but ask different questions. RSI asks: how strong were the up moves against the down moves over the last fourteen candles? MACD asks: is the fast average pulling away from the slow one, or closing in on it? The first gives a reading bounded between nought and a hundred, the second a difference oscillating around zero.
RSI
- Setting in the workspace
- 14 candles
- Answers
- Strength of the recent move
- Quick read
- Above 70 an extended up move, below 30 an extended down move
MACD
- Setting in the workspace
- 12 / 26 / 9
- Answers
- Momentum speeding up or fading
- Quick read
- Bars widen as momentum builds, shrink before it stalls
Reading RSI without misusing it
The most common mistake is treating 70 as a sell and 30 as a buy. In a strong uptrend RSI can stay above 70 for days, and whoever sells the first touch exits at the start of the move. The more useful read compares the level with trend context: in an uptrend, judge pullbacks by how RSI bounces from the 40–50 area; in a downtrend, by how it fails at 50–60.
RSI 14 — context over thresholds
100 ┤
70 ┤····· overbought band ·············
50 ┤───── trend divider ──────────────
30 ┤····· oversold band ··············
0 ┤
uptrend : dips hold 40-50, pushes tag 70+
downtrend: rallies die 50-60, dips tag 30-- ▸One reading means nothing; what means something is where RSI was ten candles ago and where it is now.
- ▸Divergence beats the level: price making a higher high while RSI makes a lower high means momentum fading under the surface.
- ▸On one- and five-minute charts the bands get tagged constantly, so use them to time an existing idea, not to build one.
Reading MACD
MACD has three parts: the MACD line (the gap between the 12- and 26-period averages), the signal line (a nine-period average of MACD), and the histogram bars showing the difference between them. A bullish cross happens when MACD moves above the signal line, a bearish cross on the reverse. The bars move first: a steady shrink usually precedes the cross, which is what makes them an early warning that the move is slowing.
MACD 12 / 26 / 9 macd ─╲ ╱───╲ ╱── line signal ─╲╲__╱╱ ╲╲__╱╱ smoothed line hist ▁▂▃▅▇▇▅▃▂▁▁▂▃▅▇▅▃▁ bars = macd - signal widening bars : move accelerating shrinking bars: move losing fuel, cross often next
Switching them on in the ChartXpert AI workspace
- 1Open the chart workspace and pick the symbol and timeframe you follow.
- 2From the toolbar press RSI or MACD — the study opens in its own pane below the candles without squeezing the price area.
- 3Read the current value in the info row directly above the chart, next to price and percent change.
- 4Pan back through history: the study moves with the visible window, so you can compare today's reading with earlier ones on the same setup.
- 5Your choice of studies is kept on the device, and when you are signed in it is kept with your account too — along with the timeframe, the visible range, and the last instrument — so the phone opens on the setup the desktop was left on. A line at the bottom of the studies menu says where the preset is stored.
A practical stack: RSI + MACD + a level
The most useful way to run both is confirmation, not repetition: a clear price level says where, RSI says whether momentum is with the move or against it, and MACD says whether that momentum is building or dying. When the three disagree, the setup is not ready — which is itself information that saves you a rushed entry.