Further evidence on the returns to technical trading rules: Insights from fourteen currencies

Abstract

This work studies the returns to technical trading rules utilising a sample of 14 currency pairs by applying five trading rules: Filter rules, Trading Range Breakout, Moving Average, and Bollinger bands over varying market conditions. The mixed results indicate that technical analysis based on the applied trading rules is appropriate for the trading strategies examined. The one per cent filter, 150-day MA rule and the Bollinger bands trading rule surpassed the other applied techniques in general performance. What is also clear is that these trading rules are rewarding over varying market conditions. Results from various subperiods, representing normal and stressful market conditions, generally confirm our main findings and show the added value of the trading range breakout rule, which delivers performance in strongly trending markets. Evidence from bootstrap analysis demonstrates the predictive ability of the Moving Average and Bollinger band trading rules.